Shady Grove Campground - Cumming, Georgia (May 2023)

We had reservations in one of Duckett Mill COE (Corps of Engineers) campground's 108 campsites. Then we received an email from Recreation.gov saying that campground was closed for the season. 

Out first thought was that the campground was about to be renovated, but that didn’t explain why they confirmed our reservations only to cancel them later. Then we started seeing people comment on several online forums that their reservations at other COE campgrounds in Georgia were also canceled. Our questions were answered when we saw a news story saying multiple COE campgrounds were closed because there were not enough volunteers to keep them open. How sad!

Only a handful of sites were available when we made our reservations at Duckett Mill. When it closed, we knew that more than 100 displaced campers would be hunting for sites in any open campgrounds in the area. We also knew we were fortunate when we succeeded in getting a site in Shady Grove Campground for Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 

We called some friends who live in the area and told them about our change in plans. Our friends said they loved Shady Grove, but some sites would be tight for a travel trailer. We were happy to hear back from them saying they drove out to the park and confirmed our assigned site was level. 

Stopped on the road to the park because a tree fell and pulled down power lines

We almost made it to the campground when we saw the road was blocked by a utilities truck and a truck from the park. A tree had fallen over blocking the road. It also brought down several power lines that served the campground. We waited about an hour for the crew to remove the tree and reconnect the power lines. 

One of the first things we noticed once the road was cleared was that Shady Grove has the look and feel of a COE park. We found out that this campground was built by the Engineers and leased to the county. 

Sign at the entrance to the campground

We understood what our friends said about some sites as we drove to our site. Some sites had steep access angles that would have been difficult for Rosie. Our site was a pull-through. By the way, we enjoyed meeting and catching up with our friends at a nearby restaurant. 

Shady Grove was an accurate name for that campground. There were tall shade trees throughout.

Our site

Rosie parked in our site

The campground could have been named Deer Grove. It seemed that we frequently saw three or four deer near Rosie while in the park. We saw deer in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. This park may hold the record for the most deer seen while camping. 

Deer were everywhere in this park

Deer were very close to Rosie's site

We were also amazed at the number of song birds in this park. We constantly heard birds as we walked around the campground. That was a welcome sound. 

Speaking of birds, we had a surprise while camping there. We locked our bikes to the picnic table then placed a tarp over them to help protect them from the weather. We didn’t ride our bikes in that park because it was too hilly. I was surprised when I removed the tarp while loading up to leave the campground to discover that a bird had flown up under the tarp and was building a nest on Becky’s bike. We carefully moved the nest to another location before we loaded the bikes on their carrier. 

A bird nest built in a day on Becky's bike

For a campground picked as a last minute replacement for a closed park, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice this campground turned out to be. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a pull-through 
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had plenty of 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
• There was a dump station in this park 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground and near the boat launch 
• There were multiple bathhouses in the campground. The bathhouse nearest Rosie was clean and maintained
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• Rosie’s TV sets found more than 80 digital stations. 
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

One of the camping loop roads

The lake

Selfie in the campground

Becky and Suzy in the campground

Points West Army Resort (U.S. Military FamCamp) - Appling, Georgia (April 2023)

I knew the camping loop we wanted when I called to make reservations in this military FamCamp. There was only one site available for more than a week, so I quickly booked it. When I asked if the site had a view of the lake, the response was “I don’t know” followed by “it’s the only site available.”

Sign at the entrance to the campground

Sign just before the security building where military credentials were checked

Our expectations were low and we decided to drive straight to our site after we passed the ID check at the gate instead of driving to the office and checking in. We were both surprised and happy to see we had a good view of the lake. We quickly set up Rosie, our Airstream trailer, in our site then rushed to the office to complete the paperwork. 

The road to the multiple camping loops in this park

Our campsite on the lake

We think of this campground as a great place to ride our bikes. We were in the minority as we saw more people fishing than riding bikes. In fact, we only saw one other person riding a bike while there and he was on an e-bike and we are not sure that counts. Maybe the number of hills had something to do with the lack of others riding their bikes. 

Out on a bike ride

Getting ready for another bike ride

We brought our inflatable kayak to this park and looked forward to using it in the lake. Then the weather turned ugly. It rained, the temperature dropped into the very chilly range and it was very windy. We decided to forgo using our kayak. 

The pollen was a problem while there. We both discovered that we reacted to the high amounts of pollen in the park. 

We noticed that people in FamCamps frequently talk about the branch of military they served in and the places they served. What isn’t discussed is rank and specific jobs in the military. Something said by a camping neighbor caught my attention and I broke the standard protocol and asked him about his military occupation. I was right in that he had the same military job I had years earlier. This was a unique job and only a small group of people served in that area. It was interesting talking to him to learn how that job has changed over the past 50 years. 

A cookout with our camping neighbor

We were surprised to see that the campground was only about half full during our visit. Maybe it was the weather keeping people away because this was supposed to be a full park. We were glad that we were able to get our reservations and we enjoyed our time in this FamCamp. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground. A surprising number of sites in those loops have water views
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites in our loop could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Some loops in this campground had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with gravel 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 were trashcans at each site in our loop
• There was a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park did not provide WiFi service in the camping loops. WiFi was available at the office 
• AT&T provided 1bar of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channel seen was ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping about 10 miles from the campground 
• This was a pet friendly park 

Selfie in the campground

View of the cabins across the lake

View of the lake

It has been a few years since I was required to accomplish the "confidence course."

Leaving the campground

All About Relaxing RV Park - Theodore, Alabama (April 2023)

We were exposed to COVID and decided to leave the Cajun Caravan one day earlier than planned. We called All About Relaxing RV Park to see if we could arrive a day earlier than our reservations. The park was full, but we could stay in their overflow area with 50 amp power and water connections. We quickly agreed and hitched up for an early morning departure. 

We left Louisiana before sunrise. Our tire monitor system hadn’t registered with all of Rosie’s tires when we pulled out of the campground. (Rosie is what we call our Airstream trailer.) When it did, the alarm told us we had low pressure in one tire. It was dark, but we pulled into what we thought was an old gas station and got out the air pump. That was when we noticed a growing number of school aged children gathering next to Rosie. Yes, we were at a school bus stop and the number of students indicated that the bus was on the way. We were thankful that we were able to pump up the tire and pulled away before the bus arrived. 

The remainder of our trip was uneventful and we arrived at the campground early in the afternoon. 

We stayed at several campgrounds during the WBCCI Cajun Caravan that included the word “resort” in their names and I wondered what amenities they had that came up to to the level of a resort. This campground did not have “resort” in its name and we both recognized that it clearly qualified as a resort. It was more than the great swimming pool, which was open. It was more than the meeting areas around the park. It was more than the restrooms and showers, which may qualify as the nicest we have seen in any campground before. It was more than the manicured lawns and shrubs there. It was more than the friendly and helpful staff in the campground. The park's name didn’t include the word “resort,” but it clearly deserved that name.

Rosie in the overflow site

A nice meeting area in this campground

One of several spots in this campground to "relax"

Since we were exposed to COVID, we kept our distance from other people. That was perfect because the overflow site was away from the main camping loop. We walked around the park while avoiding crossing paths with other people. Isolation  was also hard on us since our son, his wife and our grandson were only a few miles away and we could not risk potentially exposing them to COVID. 

Walking Suzy in around the main camping loop

We pulled out early the next morning. We needed gas so we pulled off the Interstate Highway at a truck stop. Imagine my surprise when we merged back on the Interstate and saw our son’s car beside us in the other lane. He was headed to work and was as surprised as us to be sharing the road with his parents and Rosie for a few miles. 

Rosie in our son's mirror

Becky waving to our son as he exited the Interstate

All About Relaxing’s overflow spot didn’t have a sewer connection so we needed to stop at a rest stop with a dump station to drain and rinse our waste water tanks. Fortunately, most Alabama rest stops have dump stations. 

Dump station at an Alabama Rest Stop

Our return to the Interstate was memorable, but not as enjoyable as being on the road next to our son. I never returned to our cruising speed because traffic was at a standstill. We found out that a semi truck carrying hazardous materials turned over ahead of us about four hours earlier. It took more than two hours to travel a mere 10 miles. Then the bottleneck cleared and we were again headed home at our normal towing speed. 

By the way, we talked with our daughter-in-law as we headed home. She is a clinical pharmacist at a major hospital and she gave us the timeline of how long we should isolate ourselves if we continued showing no symptoms of COVID. We followed her instructions and ended up not getting COVID. Whew!

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• We found one loop in this campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites had some shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with gravel and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie 
• Our site had a 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• As the overflow site, it did not have a sewer connection 
• 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, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Bounce, Charge, Comet, Court-TV, Grit, ION, LAFF, ME-TV and Stadium
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Bayou Wilderness RV Resort - Carencro, Louisiana (March 2023)

Nearly everyone on a WBCCI Caravan has an opportunity to help the group through an assigned task and our duty was to serve as parkers at this campground. That meant we left our last campground two hours earlier than the other members and traveled to this park with the caravan leaders. We quickly unhitched and set up Rosie, our Airstream trailer, because we knew there were about 20 more Airstream trailers headed to this park. 

Following the leaders to Bayou Wilderness RV Resort

Sign at the entrance to the campground

Our jobs were simple. I stood at the entrance to the campground with a red flag and waved in approaching trucks pulling Airstream trailers. I used our radios to relay the number of the arrivals to Becky, who gave them their site numbers and other park information. 

It was interesting to me that you could turn into this campground from three directions. We had fellow caravaners who arrived from all three directions while following the same directions. How does that happen? Of course the answer is that Apple Maps, Google, Garmin and the many other GPS systems in use all came up with their own shortcuts to the park. 

There were more than 100 sites in this campground. The roads inside this park were paved with gravel. 

Walking Suzy in the campground

Some of our activities from this campground included a swamp tour and a visit to an alligator skin studio where they made purses, wallets and boots. We also visited a large Catholic Church that had an amazing tree on the side of the building. 

Dinner for the gator?

Becky putting that gator in his place

Part of our group leaving for the swamp tour

The local Catholic church

A huge tree on the side of the church

One of the exciting things while in the campground happened in the middle of the night. We had a severe thunderstorm and ended up turning on the air conditioner's fan to help drown out the sound of heavy rain and constant thunder. Our Yorkie dog wanted to be under the covers and right next to us. 

It took more than a day for the standing water to drain off some sites. We were fortunate in that Rosie was dry and the puddles on our site were away from Rosie. 

We learned that several people on our caravan tested positive for COVID. We would learn about another testing positive the next day. We decided to be cautious and isolate ourselves from the group. We ended up leaving this campground and our caravan one day early. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a pull-through 
• 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 gravel 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. The site next to us had only 50 amp service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• There were several small trash dumpsters scattered around the campground. It was easy to walk to one with your trash
• The bathhouse was under renovation while we were in the campground and was unusable
• The park provided 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, Buzzr, Grit, H&I, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, MY-TV and Stadium
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Abbeville RV Park - Abbeville, Louisiana (March 2023)

For the third time on this trip, our assigned site in a campground wasn’t meant for Rosie, our Airstream trailer. As we were trying to park Rosie, several members of our WBCCI Cajun Caravan came over to help and the consensus was that Rosie was too big to fit that site. That was confirmed by the camp host. 

Sign at the entrance to the campground

Rosie was too big?  How can a 26 foot trailer be too big? Easy! You cannot fit a 26 foot trailer in a site that a 20 footer would struggle to fit into. 

Rosie was quickly reassigned to an appropriate site. What we lost at our new site was 50 amp power. More about that later. 

Rosie in this campground

We camped in this park seven years ago in our first Airstream trailer, a 30 amp unit. People with 30 amp trailers quickly learn how to track their power usage. For example, we could not run the air conditioner and the microwave at the same time without blowing a fuse. 

Things are different with our current 50 amp Airstream trailer. Fifty ampers normally don’t have to keep track of how many electrical devices are on. Our new site with only 30 amps meant we had to get back into the mindset of keeping track of our amperage usage. 

The first thing turned off was the electric element in the hot water heater. If hot water was needed, we had to use the propane gas side of that heater. 

We also had to make sure the air conditioner was off before using the microwave oven. We were amazed at how much planning we needed to keep our electrical usage below 30 amps and thankful that most RV parks we visit have 50 amp utilities. 

Some of the things we did in Abbeville were crawfish harvesting, eating a crawfish boil and listening to live Cajun music on the city square. 

On the Crawfish boat

The crawfish boil came with instructions on how to eat them

Becky makes friends with a baby alligator 

Back to our 30 amp power dilemma. I was working outside Rosie the day before we left this campground and noticed a small box next to the utilities pole. This is typically a connection for cable TV or a telephone jack in older parks and this qualified as a campground that has been around a while. I was surprised to see a 50 amp power connector when I looked inside that box. I plugged in our surge protector and it found no problems with that power connector. A few minutes later, I switched Rosie over to the 50 amp feed and we stopped keeping track of our amperage usage. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Our site had some space on both sides. A few sites in this campground were very close to each other 
• Our site was paved with dirt and gravel. 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 dumpster was at the back of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There wasn’t a bathhouse in the campground 
• The park provided minimal 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-Bounce, Buzzr, Court-TV, Cozy, Grit, H&I and ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Outside city hall and yes, it includes a mural of an accordion 

Suzy meets a caterpillar 

Inside a local church

Enjoying lunch

Live music on the town square

Dancing to the live music on the square

Isle of Iberia RV Resort - New Iberia, Louisiana (March 2023)

Neither Apple nor Google Maps had any idea where this campground was located. Needless to say, Ford’s navigation system was also clueless. All of our GPS systems wanted to take us to the center of town. We had to set our GPS systems to the fairgrounds to find this campground. 

The frustrating thing wasn’t the GPS systems confusion about the park’s location, it was the rain and cold as we were setting up. It was miserable as we unhitched Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 

Sign at entrance of this campground

This was a large campground with more than 180 sites. All of the sites were angled the same way and equally spaced. This gave the appearance of a large parking lot. 

Rosie in the campground among friends

We had a first at this park. The power connections were positioned in a way on our site that prevented using our surge protector. I was very uncomfortable directly plugging Rosie into their power connection without a protector. 

Fortunately, the rain stopped after the first day. Temperatures remained cold and dipped below freezing one night. 

There was a horse exhibition over the weekend at the fairgrounds. It was interesting to catch a few glimpses of that competition and hear the sounds of the horses. 

Some of the places we visited while at this campground were the Rip van Winkle gardens, the Tabasco factory and Martin Cajun Accordions. The gardens and accordion factories were interesting. The Tabasco factory tour did not live up to its hype. 

Rip Van Winkles Gardens on Johnson Island

A Catholic Church near our campground

Enjoying a Cajun music performance at the Martin Accordion Factory  

Avery Island Jungle Experience

Bamboo near the Tabasco factory

We had another first while camping in this park. I used our Garmin GPS to find a gas station near the park selling gas at a cheaper price than the overpriced station across from this campground. Gas Buddy found a strong contender less than four miles away. I loaded the station in the GPS as our destination and started following its directions. I was surprised when it turned me onto a street with about 30 cars in front of me and everyone was stopped. I was in an elementary school car pickup lane inside a school zone and there was no passing or getting out of that lane. The lane moved quicker than I feared and soon I was at the point where a teacher came up to my truck and asked what child I was there to pick up. I told her my GPS made a bad decision routing me to a gas station and I was gullible enough to follow it. She told me to stop at child loading area two and explain my story to the teacher there. I did and was told to follow the car in loading area one away from the school. It seemed as though the shortcut Garmin came up with added about 30 minutes to that trip. 

The big question unanswered remains. Is this a resort as the name boldly stated? There are no published standards for the title "resort" campgrounds. This campground had a lazy river and a swimming pool. Of course, these were not open because of the weather. I’m sure the place had many exciting amenities during fair season, but it was a stretch for me to call this place a resort during the campground's off season. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a pull-thru
• Our site had no shade
• Our site could be described as a parking lot as the sites were close together 
• Our site was paved with concrete and was level 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
• There was an obstruction near the power connection that prevented us from using our surge protector 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The rules sheet said that trash left in bags along the road would be picked up by 9 a.m.  That didn’t happen over the weekend 
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. It wasn’t heated and was very cold
• The park provided very slow WiFi service. It would work for a few minutes then report that it no longer was connected to the Internet. It goes without saying that it was frustrating and unusable 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Circle, Court-TV, ION, LAFF, ME-TV and MY-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Enjoying lunch in a restaurant with Cajun food and live music