White Oak Creek COE Campground - Alabama

Sometimes you just need to spend a little time in the woods. We reached that point during the last week of November, a very hard month for our family. There were two deaths in our family that month.

First, my 94 year old mother passed away. While her death was expected, it is always hard to lose your mother. Very hard.

Second, we lost Annie, our little Yorkie dog. She was a member of our family for 16.5 years and she loved camping in Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. While recovering from these events, we decided that we needed to hitch-up Rosie and head to the woods.

White Oak Creek Park

We didn't want to travel too far from home, so we selected White Oak Creek Campground. This is an Army Corps of Engineers park located along the banks of Lake George a few miles south of Eufaula, Alabama. People with the National Parks Senior Pass may camp here for half price. That makes camping in a Corps of Engineers park a great value.

We camped at White Oak Creek COE park during the first week of December. There were only a few other campers in the park at that time and we were able to park Rosie in a great location on the lake. That was just what we needed.

Our site at White Oak Creek COE Campground

The view from Rosie's rear window

It was very peaceful watching the ducks and other water fowl around the lake and riding our bicycles through the park. This is a large park with multiple camping loops and it is very busy during the summer months. Only one loop is open during the winter months, but all of the loops have great sites on the water.

Getting the bikes ready for exploring the park

Evenings along the lake

The park itself was well maintained by the park volunteers. The restrooms were clean and heated, something we appreciated when we camped here during December. Many of the sites were spacious and offered great views of the water.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• A large number of the camp sites in this park are located on the lake with great views.
• Our site had only 30 amp electrical service and a water hook-up. We are not sure if any of the other loops offer 50 and/or 20 amp electrical service.
• The sites do not have sewer connections, but there are several dump stations in the park.
• There are bath houses in every loop. The bath house serving our loop was clean and heated, something you appreciate when winter camping.
• AT&T served the park with a decent 4G signal for both data and voice.
• There is no Wi-Fi service in this park. You will need to hotspot your smartphone.
• We remembered from the last time we visited this park that TV service from the Columbus, Georgia market was poor. That continued to be true this time. We pointed the antenna toward Dothan, Alabama, and were surprised that we were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. We also were able to see the ME-TV digital channel.
• If you need to buy something, shopping is available close to the park's entrance. There are also some good restaurants within 20 minutes of the park.

Our trip to White Oak Creek COE Campground turned out to be exactly what we needed to lift our spirits. We enjoyed our time in this park and know we will return again.

Sunset at White Oak Creek COE Campground

Enjoying the park

Rosie in the White Creek COE Campground

Sure, it was a "Major Prize"

Selfie in the park

Hitched and ready to leave

Grayton Beach State Park - Fall 2015

It was a little after sunrise when I first heard it. There was a definite "thud" sound on Rosie's roof then the sound of a critter running along Rosie's roof. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) The mystery was solved a few moments later when I saw a squirrel leap from Rosie's awning to a tree. It appears that Grayton's animals join us in loving Rosie.

Rosie at Grayton Beach State Park

It is somewhat of an irony that we heard squirrels running on Rosie's roof because this is a park we rarely see wildlife. Besides an occasional rabbit or armadillo and the ominous signs warning us about bears and alligators, the only wildlife we hear about are the college students celebrating Spring Break about 60 miles down the road in Panama City Beach. OK, squirrels may not be the most exciting animals ever seen while camping in Rosie, but it is a start for this park.

Sign at entrance to the park

Grayton Beach State Park is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to camp. It is also a park you need to bring things to when you camp there. For example, we bring our bicycles and enjoy riding them to the beach communities near the park. We always see other campers using their canoes and kayaks in the lake behind the campground. These toys make a great park better.

Bring your bikes to Grayton Beach State Park

The communities near the campground are bike friendly plus they have some interesting parks and shopping areas. We found two "farmers" markets while out on our bikes. I guess the local farmers are different from home because these markets featured crafts and baked goods instead of vegetables and fruits. It was fun seeing the creativity of the local artistic community at these farmers markets.

Grayton Beach community bridge

Grayton community park

Most of our postings in this blog talk about the park itself. Grayton Beach is different in that we find ourselves enjoying the community as much, if not more, than the park. This is not to imply that Grayton Beach is a second-rate park because it isn't. We always enjoy being on Florida's Gulf Coast and the park's wonderful beach. We are simply saying that we enjoy riding our bikes in the communities surrounding Grayton Beach State Park.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• There are two loops in this park. The first has concrete pads and full hook-ups. The second is more rustic, has gravel sites and has only electric and water hook-ups.
• Our site had 20 and 30 amp electrical service.
• AT&T placed a strong 4G signal over the park for both voice and data.
• The park does not provide WiFi service. You will have to create a hotspot with your iPhone or Android to use your computer or tablet online.
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS TV stations using Rosie's antenna. We also saw ME-TV and CW on the digital channels serving the park.
• There is one dump station in the park and it is found in an awkward location. It is at the start of the rustic loop. That means you will probably circle around to use it then circle around again as you leave the park.
• There are multiple places to shop near Grayton Beach State Park. That means you can drive over to Publix if you need some groceries. There is a factory outlet mall about 10 miles down the road from the park.
• Both the park and the community are bike-friendly. You will want to explore the beach communities around the park while camping at Grayton Beach State Park.

We find ourselves talking about the differences between the "old" Florida and today's Florida. We think it is sad that many of Florida's beaches were lost to huge developments along the shoreline. If you want to see some remnants of an "old" Florida beach, you have to go to a state or federal park on the coast and Grayton Beach State Park is an excellent place to see what a natural beach looks like.

Shopping, sort of

Shopping in Grayton

Ham antenna behind Rosie

Camping at Grayton Beach State Park

The beach

The dunes

More dunes

Sunset

Becky's watercolor painting during this trip

Gunter Hill COE Campground

(NOTE: This posting was published four months after
our visit to Gunter Hill COE Park.)

Rosie's final stop on our way home from the Wally Byam Caravan Club's (WBCCI) International Rally was Gunter Hill COE Campground, which is located near Montgomery, Alabama. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) We pulled into the park about an hour before sunset after traveling more than 500 miles in one day. Traveling that far in one day is hard. It's even harder if you are pulling a trailer.

The plan was simple. Instead of trying to unload and clean Rosie in the dark, we would get a good night's rest in Gunter Hill, which is about 10 miles from our home, then take care of Rosie the next morning.

Gunter Hill is a nice COE park that we visited several times before I retired. Being close to home, I could go to work then return to the park for the evenings. Now that retirement has given us freedom to travel, we stopped camping at Gunter Hill. It was nice to return to this park for an evening.

There was an issue with Rosie. We noticed the air conditioner was vibrating. Our first thought was that some of the anchor screws were loose after our long trip. One of the things we learned on this extended trip to the WBCCI International Rally was that some problems are Airstream specific and others are RV issues. We figured that this air conditioning problem was something a local RV repair facility could fix for us.

There are two camping loops at Gunter Hill. One is more rustic, has gravel sites and lacks sewer connections. The other loop was renovated several years ago and has concrete camping pads and full connections including sewers. In addition, the grounds are well maintained and this helps make the park very pleasant.

There isn't too much to talk about from this stop. We were exhausted and simply wanted a place to sleep before taking Rosie home and cleaning her up after our long trip. We didn't unhitch Rosie nor did we drop the stabilizers. We were too tired. Fortunately, we had stayed in this park and reviewed it several times. I'll quickly mention that Gunter Hill is a nice and relaxing park and one we hope to visit again.

After unloading Rosie, we took her to Alabama Motor Coach RV Service in Montgomery. This is the center we trust with our non-Airstream specific repairs. They found that one of the pulleys in the air conditioner was warped and replaced that part. Now Rosie is ready for a new adventure.

 

Maumelle Park (Army Corps of Engineers) Park - Little Rock, Arkansas

There were several U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (COE) parks near Conway, Arkansas. Since we had a late start because of the tire purchase incident mentioned in an earlier blog posting, we called the reservation phone number listed for the Recreation.Gov Web site, which administers most, if not all, of the federal camping areas.

The person trying to help us on the phone was very nice, but said all of the COE parks in the region were full for the next three days, something we didn't want to hear after spending the day waiting for tires in Arkansas.

As a last second desperate move, we found a local phone number for one of the COE parks and called it. The park volunteer said they had plenty of spaces and they would be there waiting for us.

We asked while checking in why their reservation service thought the park was full. The response was that "recreation.gov" can only see openings more than three days out. More than 40 campers checked out that day and the reservation service will not see those opening for another 72 hours.

We asked if we could have the site for one night with an option for a second day. The volunteer said our site didn't have another reservation for three days and we could come up to the gatehouse and pay for another day if we decided to stay.

We were pleasantly surprised when we drove up to our campsite. First, the park is well maintained. There is a comfortable amount of space between individual campsites. Our site had a great view of the Arkansas River and it had shade, something we had not seen for a long time because we were camping in the west for the past three weeks.

Rosie at Maumelle COE Park

The view from Rosie's site

The Arkansas River behind Rosie

Connecting Rosie to the electrical service

After a day of high anxiety dealing with Rosie's wounds and tires, it was very calming to be back in the woods. One of the many benefits of owning a travel trailer is that you get to explore some wonderful and natural places around you. This park was just what we needed to get us back to having more happy Rosie adventures.

We made a mistake our first night in the park. We placed our trash bag outside Rosie's door. We were going on a walk in about 30 minutes and would take our trash to the dumpster while on our walk. When we finally stepped outside Rosie, every ant in the county was either attacking or rushing our trash.

These ants were not your typical little ones found in ant farms. These were huge ones that were on a mission.

We had some ant spray in the back of the truck, but we could have used a couple more gallons to combat these pests. We mentioned the ants to the park volunteer the next morning and he said they were not aggressive and they don't try to invade the trailers. His advise was to not do anything to attract them in the first place.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• Our site was large, level and paved with asphalt.
  
• Our site had electrical and water connections.
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
• Our site did not have a sewer connection.
• We found two dump stations in the park.
• AT&T placed a stong 4G signal over the park for both voice and data.
• The park did not provide a Wi-Fi signal.
• There were a couple of bathhouses in the park. The one closest to Rosie appeared to be well maintained. We didn't check on the other one. We did notice a bumper crop of bugs in the showers early in the mornings. The bugs were gone after the bathhouse was cleaned.
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS from Rosie's TV antenna. We also saw GRIT, THiS, Antenna and ME-TV.

We decided to stay two days in this park. There were several geocaches there and we enjoyed finding and logging them. We also had fun riding our bicycles through the park.

Finding a geocache in the park

Finding another geocache in the park

This is a great park. It is very quiet and peaceful and we enjoyed watching the Arkansas River through Rosie's rear window.

The Arkansas River behind Rosie

Rosie's site

Peaceful view from behind Rosie

Maumell COE Park

Rosie

Maumelle COE Park has nice and large sites

Cracker Barrel - Conway, Arkansas

Boom! Our tire pressure monitoring system started beeping a split second later removing any doubt as to what happened. We suffered a blowout on Rosie.

We had just passed a beautiful vintage Airstream trailer on I-40 and we were in the middle of a pack of trucks. It didn't take long for us to pull over to the side of the road and turn on the truck's emergency flasher.

Rosie suffers a blowout

We had paid for a roadside emergency service for Rosie for the past three years. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) We were about to find out how good their service was. 

We were driving in and out of AT&T's cell coverage all morning. Thankfully, the spot we stopped at was in their "working" area and our cell phones worked.

Good Sam's Roadside Assistance promised a tow truck would be at our location in 60 minutes or less. About 40 minutes later, we saw the truck pull up behind Rosie. It was from the correct company and the driver started to change the tire. In a short time, our spare was on Rosie and we were back on the road.

Rosie's tire about to be changed

Technician from Good Sam's Roadside Assistance changing the tire

We limped into Conway, Arkansas using Rosie's nine year old spare tire. In tire years, that's ancient and not trustworthy.

It was Sunday evening and there was an Airstream dealer 20 minutes down the road in Little Rock. Our plan was to call them Monday morning to see if we could schedule a "work in" appointment since there was minor damage from the blowout to Rosie's wheel well.

We stopped to eat that evening at a Cracker Barrel with six RV parking spots and ended up asking the manager if would could camp that night in his parking lot. We had heard that people sometimes camp in Cracker Barrel parking lots and, on a whim, decided to give it a try.

The manager said we were welcome to stay there that night as long as the only thing touching the asphalt was the rubber from our tires. He said that some campers in the past had damaged his parking lot using their jacks and stabilizers. We agreed and were all set to boondock in their parking lot.

Rosie in Cracker Barrel's parking lot

Boondocking at Cracker Barrel

There was a strong slope to the parking lot, probably to help with water drainage. That made staying in Rosie that night a little more challenging.

Maybe July is the wrong month to boondock in Arkansas. It was hot, but it did cool down a little after midnight.

The Cracker Barrel closed at 10 p.m. We noticed that people seemed to prefer parking in the RV spaces with their compact cars even when there were plenty of spaces closer to the restuarant's door. I'm not sure what that says about human nature.

We noticed something else about human nature that night. Pairs of cars would suddenly appear in the parking lot, one driver would get in the other car then after a while, the two would depart in their original vehicles. After noticing this pattern a couple of times, we figured that the "couple" was married, but not to each other. We had no idea that Cracker Barrel's parking lot was, as they say, the place to watch submarine races.

Another thing we discovered was that Cracker Barrel plays the music you hear both inside the store and on the porch all night and all day. The "all day" part is OK, but we grew a little tired of the "all night" serenade while trying to sleep between the visits by mystery couples in the parking lot.

We treated ourselves to a great Cracker Barrel breakfast that morning. Our plan was to call the Airstream dealer 15 minutes down the road at 8 a.m., the moment they opened. When we called, the dealer said that none of its Airstream technicians were working that Monday. Besides, their service technicians were booked solid for the next month. In other words, no dice!

Plan two was to call the Airstream dealer in Knoxville to see if they could work us in. I could not get past their service writer's questions about our insurance coverage on Rosie. It didn't matter because I got the impression they were booked until Arbor Day.

Our fall-back strategy was to call Airstream Factory service in Jackson Center, Ohio. There must be a plague going around in Airstream circles right now because they were booked solid until August. It was starting to appear to us that there is a severe shortage of Airstream service technicians.

We described the damage to the Airstream factory service manager in Ohio and he said that it sounded as if the damage was not "Airstream specific" and that any RV Repair shop could fix it.

Our waitress overheard us talking about buying tires during breakfast and suggested we call the dealer she used. After eating, we pulled Rosie to that shop.

The store did not have the specific tires we needed, but said they could order them and have them delivered no later than 3 o'clock that afternoon. We showed the service manager the damage to Rosie's wheel well and he suggested we call a collision repair shop located about a mile down the road.

The repair shop operator froze when we told him that we were talking about an Airstream trailer, but he said the shop next door worked on RVs and he would have them call us. Our phone rang in a few minutes and the shop's manager quickly drove over to the tire store to look at Rosie.

It didn't take long, but we found ourselves pulling Rosie to his shop and they quickly repaired the damaged wheel well and they charged us their minimum service fee.

Repairing Rosie's wheel well

The RV Service shop that worked on Rosie

Around 3:30 that afternoon, the tire store's administrative assistant came out to where we were parked and it was clear she was upset. It seemed that when she ordered our tires that morning, she forgot to click on the "submit" button. Our tires were not going to be delivered that day and it appeared we were about to learn more about camping out in the local Cracker Barrel's parking lot.

That was when the store owner came into our conversation. He quickly realized what happened and said he would drive to Little Rock himself to get our tires. He also said he would get two installers willing to work overtime that evening to mount our tires.

Rosie's new tires being installed after hours

The owner did return with the tires a few minutes before 5 p.m. The installers were able to get the tires mounted and balanced a little before 6 p.m. and we were on our way looking for a new place to camp for the night.

It didn't take long for us to find our next campground and we were off on another adventure with Rosie, our Airstream trailer.

Rockwell RV Park - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

It didn't take long for us to drive out of the rain storm over El Reno, Oklahoma. The next city with several camping possibilities was Oklahoma City. Several campgrounds were rejected after seeing them from the road or after reading their scathing reviews online. We ended up stopping at the Rockwell RV Park in Oklahoma City.

Rockwell RV Park in Oklahoma City

Buffalo exhibit at the RV Park

Rosie at the Rockwell RV Park

This appeared to us to be a nice "mom and pop" type campground. Our site was a pull-through and there was more room between sites than we saw at the previous two private campgrounds we stopped at on this trip.

We arrived late and left early, so we really didn't get a good chance to review this park. Instead of our normal narative about each campground Rosie spends the night in, we will mostly talk about this park using bullet points.

Some specifics about this park:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
  
• Our site had water, electric and sewer connections.
• The park provided muffins and coffee every morning for breakfast.
• The park provided free copies of the local newspaper for its guests.
• The park had an indoor swimming pool and a hot tub.
• There were a couple of weight lifting gadgets near the pool.
• There were a couple of clean bathhouses in the park. The showers had the look of the ones in junior high school and we decided to use Rosie's shower that night.
• As a reminder of where we were, there was a large storm shelter in the park.

We were surprised by the cost of this park. After applying every discount known to the camping universe, our nightly rate was $35. The park attendant said that was the local going rate. I am glad we prefer camping along the Florida Gulf Coast in state and federal parks where the "going rate" is much easier on the wallet.

El Reno West KOA Campground - El Reno, Oklahoma

The 2015 KOA Campground Directory claims that KOA campgrounds exceed your expectations at every KOA. It also states, "Each KOA campground provides a unique camping experience. Yet there's always large tent and RV sties."

Somewhere in KOA's corporate headquarters are the minimum standards for franchise campgrounds operated under the KOA banner. We have camped in three KOA campgrounds and were disappointed twice. I am starting to wonder how stringent those standards are and how well they are enforced.

We were heading home from the Wally Byam Caravan Club International's rally in Farmington, New Mexico. After a fun stop at the Cadallac Ranch near Amarillo, we were getting tired of being on the road in the late afternoon and we found the El Reno West KOA Campground using the AllStays app on our iPhones. A quick call confirmed that they had room for Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, that night.

At the Cadillac Ranch RV Park

Entrance to the Cadillac Ranch

The Cadillacs

Another view of the Cadillacs

Rosie parked at the Cadillac Ranch

Rosie at the Cadillac Ranch

Finding this campground isn't easy. You end up driving through a couple of retail parking lots to access the road leading to the park. As we finally turned on the road to the park, the skys opened up with one of the biggest storms we have ever been in with Rosie. The rain was pouring down and our iPhones were alerting us that heavy storms were in the area and to expect flash floods. We pulled up to the registration building and talked to the person on duty using our phones. It was simply raining too hard to open the door on our truck and to walk into the office.

Rain as we headed to the KOA campground

The person on duty said we could drive over to a specific site then return to register once the storm passed. We found the site and sat in the truck watching the storm.

There was a retaining wall immediately behind our site and water was gushing between the rocks all along this wall. We noticed that the water level in our site was inching up on Rosie's wheels.

As we sat in the truck and watched the rain fall and the water level rise in the park, we talked about how close together the camping sites were in that park. I doubt that we would be able to extend Rosie's awning because our site was right up next to our neighbor's. We commented that we have seen trailer storage lots where there was more room between campers.

It didn't take long for us to start looking at our weather apps and AllStays to find another campground about 30 minutes down the road. Just that quick, we decided that we would not be staying at a disappointing KOA that night and pulled out.

The road leading to the campground was starting to flood. Having traveled that road 20 minutes earlier, I was familar with some reference points on the road and determined that the water, while rising, was passable. It probably would not be so in another 10 minutes.

We are not sure what this park had to offer because we left before it flooded. Our decision to leave was based on the rising water in our site, the water pouring through the retaining wall and the campers were jammed so close together in that park. Also, the camping fee was out of proportion of what the park really offered. There would have been a huge bout with "buyer's remorse" had we spent the night in this park.

The person who wrote the line about large tent and RV sites in the current KOA directory may need to get out of the office and camp in a few of their campgrounds. Either that or we define "large" vastly different.