Cajun Heritage RV Park - Breaux Bridge, Louisiana (March 2023)

Our journey to this campground included an unplanned stop. We noticed a problem with Rosie, our Airstream trailer, and Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi’s service department said they could fix it. We arrived at Foley RV early on a Monday and unhitched knowing that we were a “work in.”

We were very grateful when John, their service manager, told us around noon that the repairs were done and we could continue on to our first campground on the WBCCI Cajun Caravan. 

Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi

The office was closed when we arrived at the Cajun Heritage RV Park. One of the camp hosts came to our rescue and guided us to our assigned site. That was our first experience taking with someone with a strong Cajun accent. I'm not sure what we talked about as I rode to our site in his golf cart, but it was enjoyable.

There was a problem with our site. It had a tree too close to the site’s entrance. The camp host moved us to another site and we were thankful for that. 

Sign at this campground

It was interesting when the camp store opened. Sure, it had the normal snack and camping supplies found in camp stores. It also had an amazing selection of liquors. 

Rosie in the campground

It was interesting to watch the other Airstream trailers arrive for the caravan.  It didn't take long for the park to fill with beautiful aluminum trailers.

This campground was interesting in that there was a huge area of grass in the middle of the campground. That made us feel as if we were camping in a large park. 

All the roads in this park were dusty gravel. We were amazed at how quickly our truck, Rosie and our dog were covered with dust. 

Our group traveled to Baton Rouge from this campground. Our youngest son earned a degree from LSU in Baton Rouge, so we were warned by him about the traffic there. It appeared that traffic problems were worse this time. 

Inside the "old" Governor's Mansion

At the "old" State Capital

Inside the "old" State Capital

Both Apple and Google Maps warned us of a 45 minute delay on our route to Baton Rouge then suggested an alternative route. We found ourselves on dirt roads and using a one-lane bridge to get to our destination. We were glad we were not pulling Rosie on that trip!

One of our “must do’s” in Baton Rouge was to visit LSU. There is a plaque near the Manship School of Mass Communication honoring our son. We were proud parents and glad we had an opportunity to see his plaque. 

Proud parents at LSU

We also saw Mike the Tiger, LSU’s mascot. Mike was enjoying a nap while we were there. 

Suzy meets LSU's statue of Mike the Tiger

There was a big change in weather our last day in this park. It turned cold and rainy. We were glad we hitched up the night before we had to leave for our next adventure. 

It rained while in this campground

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had a little shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with gravel and dirt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• Our sewer connection was about a foot off the ground. That meant gravity would never be able empty Rosie’s tanks
• The trash dumpster was in the middle of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. It was hopelessly outdated and frequently out of necessary supplies 
• The park advertised that it provided WiFi service. According to the office, it has been broken since the last storm 
• Speaking about the office and the camp store, this was the first campground store that could double as a liquor store
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, Fox, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Court-TV, CW, H&I,  LAFF, ME-TV and My-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Selfie at the campground

Keesler Air Force Base FamCamp (U.S. Military FamCamp) - Biloxi, Mississippi (March 2023)

This was our second time camping in Keesler Air Force Base's FamCamp. The first time we selected this campground because it was close to Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi and we had a service appointment early the next morning. 

Office at Keesler AFB FamCamp

We reserved here once again because it was convenient. Our original plan was to spend the night in Keesler then head to our destination, which was the rendezvous campground in Louisiana for the Airstream Club's Cajun Caravan. Sure, we could have pushed it and made it to Louisiana in a day, but there were advantages to stopping for a night at Keesler's FamCamp. 

When we made this reservation, the first and best reason was that stopping in Biloxi allowed us to spend a few hour in Mobile to watch our grandson play baseball. 

The second reason is well known among RV'ers. Highways I-10 and I-12 are horrible in Louisiana. Several rivets popped and the leg on our main table broke the last time we drove on those roads. We could not come up with an alternative route, so we decided to take our time and to keep our speed to no more than 55 mph. Stopping for the night in Biloxi meant we could take it easy the next day heading to join the Cajun Caravan. We didn’t need any additional reasons to stop at Keesler for the night. 

Of course, our priorities changed when we discovered we had a problem with Rosie’s hot water heater. (Rosie is what we call our Airstream trailer.) We were able to add an additional day to our Keesler reservation so that we could arrive at Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi early Monday morning. Once again, our reason for stopping at this campground was to arrive early Monday morning for a service appointment at Foley RV. 

We arrived at Keesler after the office closed for the day. That meant the camp host checked us in and guided us to our site. We appreciated his professionalism and willingness to help extend our reservation for an additional day. 

Rosie in Keesler AFB FamCamp

Our site was intimidating in that there were two trees on either side of the site’s access. To make things more difficult, the rig across the street was too big for that site and spilled over onto the road. 

After several failed attempts to back into our site, a fellow camper walked over and suggested that we go around the campground and enter the site by driving over the grass behind our site. Then he added that most people assigned our site give up trying to back in and park by driving over the grass. We did and it was easy to park Rosie. 

As we we’re setting up Rosie, we noticed an Airstream trailer parked several sites away. It appeared suspiciously as if the people in that trailer were also heading to an Airstream caravan. 

It turns out that we were correct. They were heading to a caravan in Louisiana, but not the one we were heading to. 

We noticed the sounds of several trains that passed near the campground. The train was far enough away that the soft sounds in the distance were pleasant to hear. 

It turned out that Keesler was a good choice for our stop near Foley RV. We were able to arrive at Foley RV a little after 8 a.m. on Monday and they were able to fix our problem. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Circle, Court-TV, ION, LAFF and ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Boon-Docking in Mobile, Alabama - Visiting Family (March 2023)

We were starting a new “camping season” and discovered a problem with Rosie, our Airstream trailer, while in our first campground. The water heater wasn’t working. 

We called the technical support teams at the Airstream factory and our dealer. They quickly diagnosed the issue. We were relieved when our dealer, Foley RV/Airstream of Mississippi, told us to be there around 8:00 Monday morning and they would take care of us. 

RV'ers know that you always need to plan for unplanned things. Our original plan was to travel from Destin to Keesler Air Force Base for a night then to the first campground on the Airstream Club's Cajun Caravan arriving on Monday. Plan B meant we needed to be in Gulfport, Mississippi on Monday. We needed to stay an extra day at Keesler. 

I-10 Tunnel near Mobile, Ala.

Instead of being a problem, we saw this as an opportunity to driveway camp at our son's house, watch our grandson's team play baseball and celebrate our daughter-in-law’s birthday a little early. 

Driveway camping in Mobile, Ala

This was the second time we ended up camping in their driveway after an unplanned change in our carefully planned camping trips. 

Our daughter-in-law’s birthday celebration came up first. There is an amazing seafood restaurant in Bayou La Batre that we enjoy. The food was amazing and we enjoyed her birthday celebration. 

Enjoying ice cream in Bayou La Batre

We went to our grandson’s T-Ball game the next day. We were impressed by his progress from his first year playing the sport. 

Slugger at bat!

We didn’t unhitch Rosie because we knew we would need to quickly leave after the game to get to Keesler AFB during daylight. We were glad that our Plan B allowed us to driveway camp in Mobile and visit our son’s family while there. 

Destin Army Infantry Recreation Campground (U.S. Military FamCamp) - Destin, Florida (March 2023)

If we didn’t know that it was Spring Break, we had a big reminder as we headed to the campground. Traffic crawled on the roads around the beach areas. While Destin is not a primary destination for Spring Breakers, enough people were there to create traffic problems. 

We arrived at the Destin Army Infantry Recreation Campground a little after noon. The person at the check-in desk told us that their arrival time was 2 p.m. and we would have to exit the park if our site was not open yet. This was because the campground did not have an overflow area.

Sign at the campground at night

Our anxieties were relieved as we drove around the campground and saw that our site was empty and waiting for us. 

Rosie in the campground

We knew from camping here last year that camping sites are narrow and it takes a higher level of parking skills to successfully park in our site. Becky expertly maneuvered Rosie, our Airstream trailer, into our site.  

It didn’t take long to set up Rosie and we were off on our first of many bicycle rides around the area. The campground was not on a busy highway and was surrounded by private homes which helped make bike riding enjoyable. 

There were two sections in this recreational area. The area closest to the Bay was cottages and something similar to motel rooms. The campground was located behind these rooms. There was a swimming pool and a children's splash pad next to the bay. There was a marina in the park where you could rent jet skis and boats to explore the Bay. 

Swimming pool area

The only reminders of Spring Break were when we went to the Gulf beach area. It was very crowded over the weekend, but tolerable during the week. We also noticed that the people at the beach tended to be families and not the college age crowd. 

One of the more popular events in the campground was watching sunsets along the bay. The adirondack chairs along the Bay were full of people enjoying the spectacular views. 

Sunset in the park

The pier at sunset

A tradition we noticed last year in this park was the 3 p.m. gatherings. A group of men gathered outside one R.V. for what they called the Commander’s Call. That is military jargon for a meeting called for the top leaders on a base with the purpose of solving problems. 

The women met at another RV.  They said their job was to identify the problems the men needed to solve. 

The problem the men haven’t solved yet is getting reservations in this campground. As with most popular campgrounds, it takes persistence and patience to successfully reserve a site. 

We had a first while camping here. The park held a fire drill! That was mostly for the cottages and motel rooms on this property. Still, it was interesting to see all the signs about the drill posted throughout the area. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There was only one loop in this campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Sites were best described as “tight.” We found it a challenge to squeeze our truck next to Rosie at our site
• Our site was paved with concrete.  We needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. It was clean and maintained while we were there 
• The park provided WiFi service.  We measured download speeds of 4 mb. 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch CBS, CW, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Circle, Comet, Get, Grit, ME-TV and Stadium
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Selfie at night along the Bay

Meaher State Park - Mobile, Alabama (November 2022)

We mentioned to several people that we planned to camp in Meaher State Park near Mobile, Alabama. The response was always similar to, “That’s a nice little park.” What stood out to us was that people who knew the park consistently included the word “little” when describing it. 

How little was “little” when we arrived? Meaher may be the smallest state park we have camped in up to now, but it was surprisingly nice. It was more of a campground than a state park, but had some great trails through the bayou and marsh. 

The sign was near the boat launch, not at the park's entrance 

We selected this park because it was close to our son's home. We were able to visit him, his wife and our grandson during Thanksgiving week. 

Grandson practicing baseball in his backyard

Sunset' reflection on Rosie

It appeared to us that several families were camping together in the park during Thanksgiving week. Our questions about how to cook a turkey in a camper was answered when we saw one person lowering a turkey into a fryer. Fried turkey sounded good to me. 

We were surprised by the number of RVs that left the park on Thanksgiving morning. I guess those people didn’t want to risk being stuck in traffic while heading to their next stop. Sites didn’t stay empty long. By evening, empty sites were filled with new campers and families. 

There were only a few sites in this park that didn’t have a view of the Bay. Our site wasn’t on the water, but we enjoyed watching the incredible sunsets across the Bay and watching the traffic on the I-10 bridges near the Alabama Battleship park. 

I-10 in the background

We walked over to the boat launch our first day in the park. Two men were launching their boat and told us they were scouting the area because duck hunting season started Friday after Thanksgiving. We started hearing the hunters around 6:15 Friday morning. We were glad we knew about duck season, but I doubt our dog understood and was anxious about the sounds from the rifles. 

The boat launch area in this park

As expected, hunting was not allowed in the park, but some hunters and fishermen were in the water near it. Thankfully, most hunters stopped by noon but not before an incident. We were walking on a boardwalk over the marsh area when we heard a hunter take a shot. A few seconds later, we heard bird pellets rain down around us and then Becky said "Ouch" as she clutched her chest. She was hit by a stray bird pellet, but it did not break the skin and only left a red mark on her. 

We immediately called the park's office and reported the incident. Almost immediately, we saw two park rangers running towards us. A few minutes later, the Game Warden arrived and talked with us before he walked out on the boardwalk to watch the hunters. About an hour later, we talked to an Alabama State Park Law Enforcement officer. We were not aware that state parks had their own police force. That officer was in a state park about 50 miles away when he was called in.

The bottom line was that everyone from the park rangers and game warden to the state park law officer was professional in their dealings with us and all agreed that the hunter outside the park was careless and additional officers would patrol the area keeping an eye on the hunters. One careless person will not keep us from returning to this park.

We were having a minor problem with our trailer hitch. The ball was loose. I called several RV centers near this park and most didn't want to see us or they quoted hundreds of dollars to tighten the ball. I ended up calling Foley RV, the dealer we purchased Rosie from in Gulfport, Mississippi. John, the service manager said to drop by and he would take care of us at no charge. That reinforced again that we made a good decision to buy from them. 

Foley RV in Gulfport, Miss. 

Our son and grandson came to the park one day. According to Becky's Apple Watch, she and our six year-old grandson rode more than five miles around the park on their bikes.

On a bike ride with our grandson

Taking a break while on a bike ride

We agree that this is a nice little park and we look forward to returning there in the future. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The camp literature said there was a dump station in this park. We could not find it
• The trash dumpster was in the middle of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, Dabl, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Retro, Stadium and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Gulf State Park - Gulf Shores, Alabama (November 2022)

Some places make you happy by just being there. Several Florida state parks we frequent fall into that category and so does this Alabama state park. Having said that, we were again confused about paying for our reservation when we arrived because we added on a military discount as we checked in and ended up owing more than the amount quoted on our reservation paperwork. I guess I’m glad that we only asked for one discount or we could have ended up owing more for our fees. 

Sign over the road at Gulf State Park

It was a snap backing into our site, which was paved with asphalt. That was welcomed after having trouble at our previous campground backing into a site with too much loose sand.

Walking our dog on a cold day in the South

We quickly set up Rosie so that we could enjoy riding our bicycles on the many trails in this park. As the weather turned colder, we were glad we had an opportunity to ride a few times on our bikes. 

Selfie while out riding our bikes

We noticed some campers in this campground looked different this time. They had what appeared to be storage sheds behind their RVs. We found out that the park started accepting longer term reservations for the winter on November 1st. It was easy to pick out the winter residents by their sheds, bird feeders and site decorations. 

It looked like an Airstream rally was taking place in the park. It was a coincidence that so many Airstream campers were there at the same time. Oddly two Streamline trailers, an Airstream competitor from the 1960s, were also in the park. 

A vintage StreamLine trailer in the campground

A classic Silver Streak in the same camping loop

It was too cold and windy to walk on the beach. Instead, we walked on the fishing pier. The surf was probably the highest we had seen in years. That combined with the cold wind was probably the reason we saw only a few people fishing during our visits to the pier. 

Entrance to the pier

On the pier

View from the start of the pier

The cold weather was probably the reason we didn’t see alligators in the park this time. There are two places we enjoy riding our bikes to that we typically see a gator or two. Since it was cold, the gators were probably hibernating in deep water. 

We could not find any wildlife this time

There were signs around the park inviting everyone to the activity center one Saturday for a free cup of soup. Our expectations were as low as the temperature as we headed over to the soup line. It turned out that the soup was good and welcomed on a cold day. 

Speaking of cold days, we noticed that a camper in a site near us was refilling his propane tanks on his new trailer. He asked how fast we burn through a tank in our trailer. We told him that we were using Rosie’s heat pump and hadn’t turned on the furnace yet. We saw the lightbulb moment as he said his trailer also had a heat pump and he could save a lot of money by turning it on. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was near the dumpsters and was unmarked 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. We had to drive there with our trash
• There were multiple bathhouses in the campground 
• The park provided WiFi service. Our download speed was 40 mbs
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, Dabl, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, Retro, Stadium and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Christmas decorations at Gulf State Park

A favorite place to ride our bikes to look for alligators 

The water tower at Gulf State Park

Big Lagoon State Park - Pensacola, Florida (November 2022)

Our last Rosie adventure camping in the Pensacola area was memorable. (Rosie is the name of our Airstream trailer.) Our trip was cut short when that campground closed because of a hurricane in the Gulf. As Yogi Berra said, “It seemed like deja vu all over again” as we packed to go to a different park along the Gulf and we saw news stories about a new hurricane coming up the coast. We could not help but wonder if this was going to be another abbreviated trip. 

Before we left home, we called the Ranger Station at Big Lagoon State Park to talk about the possibility of that park closing. Yes, the Ranger would close the park if a hurricane was approaching it, but his information suggested the storm was going to miss Pensacola.  That was good enough for us and we continued to load Rosie and headed to Big Lagoon. 

Sign at the entrance to the park

Check in at Big Lagoon State Park was a breeze. We gave our name and our site number to the ranger on duty at the entrance station and he gave us our registration papers and vehicle pass. Things quickly went downhill from there. 

Our site (55) was mostly loose sand. We could see the deep ruts made by the previous camper as we started to back in. We finally parked and the iPhone app we use to level Rosie said we had to raise the right side five inches to even approach level. That wasn’t going to happen because the tires on our truck spun in the soft sand as we backed in. We knew that going up on the leveler blocks would be impossible.

As we were about to accept the obvious fact that our reserved site was a sand pit and we would spend our time there with a pronounced side-to-side lean, a camp host came over to help us. He called in a Ranger and after a short conference, we were moved to an open campground volunteer’s site. Instead of parking in what could have been a golf course sand trap, our new site was paved with grass and a few sandy areas. Things were looking up!

Rosie in the Volunteers Loop

Speaking about looking up, we learned that the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels team was scheduled to perform their “Homecoming” show during our stay. The Pensacola newspaper predicted that 150,000 people would attend that air show. That helped us decide to avoid the crowd and watch the show from the campground. 

We heard the jets more than we saw them, but were impressed with their performance. 

The sign that kept us from walking to the "point" to see the Blue Angels

Big Lagoon State Park was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sally two years before this visit. We were not surprised by the damage because we camped there several times after the storm. We were amazed that most of the park was still closed from the storm damage. This park had some great trails and places to ride bikes, but those had been closed for more than two years and that limited the activities you could do there. 

The boardwalk remains impassible

Do we want to go back to this campground? Yes, but we will probably wait until they start reopening the areas damaged by Hurricane Sally before making our next reservations there. 

Along the shore in Big Lagoon State Park

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground. We were placed into a campground volunteer's site and were amazed at how many other campers in the park asked us how long we were going to serve as volunteers in the campground 
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides. Our site was huge because it was a volunteer's site. We know that we will have to serve as campground hosts if we ever want that site again
• Our original site could qualify as a golf course sand trap. It had an abundance of soft sand and our truck’s tires were spinning and digging ruts as we tried to park there. Our second site was paved with grass and gravel with a few patches of soft sand. We needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was a long way from our site
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground and in the middle of the second camping loop. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were several bathhouses in the campground 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Bounce, Charge, Circle, Court-TV, Dabl, Get, ION, ME-TV, Stadium and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Boats returning after watching the Blue Angels show

Path to the shore at Johnson Beach

Johnson Beach