Tickfaw State Park - Louisiana

We didn't know what to expect as we headed to Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana. We selected the park because it was close to Baton Rouge, where our son is currently working on his Ph.D. degree at LSU. If the park turned out to be a dud, we would spend most of our time in Baton Rouge. If the park turned out to be a gem, we would invite our son and his fiancee out to the park.

One of the swamps at Tickfaw State Park

 The main draw for this park is the ecosystem. The park is home to several swampy areas and there are several boardwalks allowing visitors to hike through the swamps without disturbing them.

Hiking on one of the boardwalks at Tickfaw State Park

 In case you are wondering, there are alligators in these swamps.

A "green" swamp at Tickfaw State Park

We had strong 3G coverage from AT&T for our iPhones. That was good because the park did not offer WiFi service. We were able to watch off-air digital TV signals from Baton Rouge plus a couple stations from New Orleans. In other words, we had good coverage for both our Internet and TV needs.

The actual camping area of Tickfaw State park is level and many sites have a wooden deck to the side. The park had electrical and water connections. There was a dump station located near the entrance to the camping area.

Camping area at Tickfaw State Park

 It appeared that many of the campers in the park were locals. There were several family groups and camping friends all around us. That added to the our camping experience. Groups were cooking some great smelling Cajun foods and they always extended an invitation to us to join them. I guess that is one of the fringe benefits of camping in Louisiana.

Jeremy and Elizabeth join us for lunch inside Rosie.

Becky in Rosie's kitchen area

There is an interesting visitors center at this park. You will want to plan on spending an hour or two going through their exhibits.

This is a park worth visiting and exploring.

Buccaneer State Park - Mississippi

Visiting Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi brings your face-to-face with the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. While New Orleans grabbed the headlines, you quickly realize that you are at ground-zero when approaching this park. This is where Katrina's eye came ashore.

Only the foundation remains after Katrina struck this church.

The park's staff will tell you that this park was destroyed during Katrina and there are enough reminders scarring the community to let you know that this park is being completely rebuilt.

You have to put the emphasis on the fact that this park is being rebuilt. They were in Phase Two of their rebuilding campaign during our visit. Phase Three should start next year.

Buccaneer State Park - Mississippi

You have a couple of choices to make when you enter the park. You can either camp directly on the Gulf of Mexico or in a camping area that appears to be more in the woods.

There are a few factors that enter into this decision. The spaces directly on the Gulf are a little more expensive and only include water and electricity. Plus, there isn't a lot of shade on the beach side of this park. Sites in the more traditional campground areas are $11 less per night and feature water, electricity and sewage connections.

While it appeared that most campers in the park elected to have the sewage connection, we felt we needed to be close to the Gulf. After all, how often will you have a view similar to this.

Camping of the Gulf of Mexico at Buccaneer State Park, Miss.

What a view! We were able to sit at the table in Rosie (our Airstream's name) sipping coffee in the mornings while watching the Gulf. This is a campground that should not be skipped over because of the rebuilding process.

Camping less than 50 feet from the Gulf at Buccaneer State Park

The parts of the park rebuilt during phases one or two of the reconstruction programs are first class. The showers and restrooms are new, clean, well-maintained and built up so that you have to climb stairs to access them. (They also feature ramp access to comply with federal laws.) I guess this is an attempt to place these facilities above the floodplain, in case another devastating hurricane strikes the park. Of course, the best plan is to enjoy this park then hitch-up and move if a hurricane is in the Gulf.

We found lots of TV stations from Mississippi and New Orleans using only the small antenna on our trailer. AT&T's coverage for our iPhones was 3G and solid. I don't think the park offered WiFi access so the strong 3G coverage was welcomed.

By the way, we found a good cajun coffee shop in Waveland, Mississippi.  Da Little Cafe served good beignets and hot chocolate.

Enjoying Beignets and hot chocolate at Da Little Cafe in Waveland, Miss.

Blue Springs State Park - Alabama

Blue Springs State Park is approximately 40 miles southeast of Troy, Ala. This is a park that some say was very popular in the 1960s because of its natural springs and "beach" features.

We camped at this park in November 2011, and I am sure this park is very crowded during the summer. We found only a few brave campers in the park at that time of year.

Cozy Rosie at Blue Springs State Park in Alabama

Most of the camp sites appeared to be level and we were able to watch TV from the Dothan market using our TV antenna.  The park materials said that WiFi was available, but it may have been turned off because the park was mostly empty. We were not very successful in finding a reliable location to receive service on our iPhones from AT&T.

This did appear to be a friendly state park in the middle of the woods. There were some good bike paths, a small playground for the children and--the main attraction--the spring.

The natural spring at Blue Spring State Park in Alabama

Part of my family's heritage is that my father owned a water company in the 1940s. During WWII, Dad provided distilled water to the US Navy for submarine batteries. I bring that up to let you know that natural springs hold a place of importance in our family.

The natural spring at Blue Springs State Park pumps 3,600 gallons per minute of 68 degree crystal clear water around the clock. I can see why people enjoy going to this park during the hot summers to cool off. 

While this may not be one of the top tier state parks in Alabama, the grounds are well kept and the staff is helpful and friendly.

Cozy Rosie is named

Our Airstream needed a name. Somehow, referring to “it” as "it" didn’t seem to describe “it.”

Cozy Rosie

I need to back up for a moment and talk about our desire to name objects.

One of my responsibilities at work is serving as an administrator for several UNIX (Linux) Web servers. All of these servers have names that they go by on the Internet.

I was having hardware issues with a new server, which was under warranty. I called the service department and started explaining the issue. In the conversation, I started calling the machine by its name and explained how it was the backup server to another named machine.

That was when the service technician asked if these machines were running Linux and not Windows. When I said yes, he chimed in that he knew it because UNIX people always name their computers then start talking about its personality.

Since I work with UNIX/Linux computers, naming inanimate objects seems normal to me.

Some of the first names we considered were TravelStar Galactica or the Aluminum Falcon. While these were great names, they didn’t seem to fit our camper.

We settled on Rosie since this was a play on the World War II Rosie the Riveter campaign. That was shortened to Riveting Rosie, which lasted about a week. That was when my wife remarked how cozy it was in Rosie. At that point, our Airstream had a name and it was Cozy Rosie.

I think the service technician was correct in suggesting that UNIX/Linux people not only name things, but they also assign personalities to them. Cozy Rosie definitely has a growing personality—something we continue to learn about as we continue our adventures in Rosie.

Wind Creek State Park, Alabama

Our first adventure in our new (to us) camper was a one night stay at Wind Creek State Park in Alabama. This would be our first opportunity to practice the steps we were shown at our orientation when we took possession of our new trailer.

Wind Creek State Park

For some reason, the set-up seemed much easier at the dealership. Fortunately, several seasoned campers were quick to identify us as "rookies" and came to our rescue.

The first problem was our assigned site. There was a ditch on both sides of the little bridge we would have to back our Airstream across. With less than 15 minutes of trailer backing-up experience among us, this was too big of a challenge. The park rangers agreed and moved us to a less challenging site.

After backing in to our site, we had to connect the power, water and sewage to the park. We discovered that is is easier to connect than disconnect.

Next, we moved inside to discover we didn't know where anything was nor did we have a handle of where things should be located. And that was how we spent our first day in the camper--trying to figure out where we should logically store stuff.

ABOUT WIND CREEK STATE PARK

It would be unfair for us to attempt to evaluate this specific park because we were overwhelmed with making our peace with trailer camping. We did note the following:

Park Focus: a large lake
TV Reception: campers on a hill could see Birmingham stations. We could not receive any stations.
WiFi: Yes, and it worked reasonably well.
Camping sites were paved and had water, electricity and sewage hookups.

We plan to return to this park and to take some time to enjoy it.

Answering the Lingering Questions

Any questions we may have had about towing were answered during our first outing with the Airstream.

Question One: Can a V-6 actually pull three tons of trailer?

Absolutely! Our first trip was through some of the biggest hills in Alabama. The Ecoboost V-6 had no problems with the hills and pulled the trailer without hesitation. If we had any doubts, they were quickly dispelled once we hit the road.

Some of the classic ads for Airstreams show the RV being pulled by a bicycle. While there was lots of “artistic license” in creating that impossible graphic, a Ford F-150 with the Ecoboost V-6 has plenty of power and can pull our Airstream.

Hitched and ready to go

Question Two: Can we back the trailer into a camping site?

Yes! What may not be as surprising is that Becca is the tow master when it comes to backing up the Airstream. She can thread the needle and place the trailer exactly where it needs to be located. On the other hand, I normally can get it in the right county.

Question Three: Can we survive living in a 25 x 8 foot space?

No problem. Keep in mind that we are used to camping in a tent. Even our dog recognizes the extra space and convenience found in the Airstream.

During my early teen years, my parents had a 16-foot travel trailer and I vividly remember being battered by the wind when a big truck passed us coming from the opposite direction. Our first trip was over some two-lane country roads in Alabama and we braced ourselves for the blast when we first noticed that a large-box semi was heading our way.

We quickly learned why people say Airstreams are great on the road because we did not feel the drag when passed by a big-rig truck. The Airstream’s aerodynamic shape really helps you when traveling.

We picked up the trailer on Saturday and we both had to be at work on Monday so our first camping adventure would be only one night long.

We will talk about our first camping adventure in the next posting.

Taking Charge: The surprise on the way to pick-up our Airstream

The trip from Montgomery to Oxford seemed like a great time to read the owner’s manual for our new tow vehicle, a Ford F-150 Ecoboost V-6. There were several questions that we wanted answers to and we hoped the owner’s manual would clear up our anxiety surrounding pulling three and a half tons of house behind us with a V-6.

That was when we read something we probably needed to know about before now. Ford said you cannot pull a trailer until you have logged 1,000 miles. A quick check of the odometer told us that we had only 250 miles. This could be a new problem to solve.

About the time we discovered this little fact, we passed a Ford dealership and pulled in to ask the service manager how important it was to refrain from towing until we had 1,000 miles on the truck. The response was that the seals hadn’t seated and the truck needed that 1,000 miles to make sure everything would work right in the future. He also added that the truck’s computer would log a trailer and void our warrantee if we elected to ignore Ford’s rules and pull the trailer before putting 1,000 miles on the truck.

Suddenly, the game changed from picking up the Airstream to simply having our orientation. We would pick up the trailer the next day after a 750 mile trip to nowhere.

While orientations are important, they are also overwhelming. There is a lot to learn about camping in an Airstream and it became apparent that it would take a few weekends to start feeling comfortable with our new trailer.

There was another problem in that the Airstream’s monitor panel was giving a false reading and leaving it there overnight would give the technicians an extra day to correct this issue.

We arrived the next day with 1,000 miles behind us and ready to pick-up the trailer. That was when we found out that the dealer needed a part from Airstream to correct the monitor problem and we would be heading home without our new camper. That was disappointing.

Before heading back a week later, we called to verify that everything was fixed and the trailer was ready to hit the road.

We used our third trip to Oxford for a brief remedial orientation. We were also given instructions on hitching the trailer to our truck and some guidelines on how to back-up when towing.

With this whirlwind of information swirling around in our heads, we hitched up and headed out for our first camping adventure.