We are into our second week at Destin Florida out of the month long stay. This is great to stay parked for awhile. The tradeoff is fewer destinations that we can visit over our RV career. Oh well. They call the people snowbirds who live in the north and travel to Florida for the winter. So, I guess we are officially snowbirds now. For the next four months anyway. Continue reading “Destin FL; Blue Angels Airshow, Veteran’s Day & Other Stuff”
Sunsets at Miramar Beach & Daytrip to Seaside FL
We have been at our Destin/Miramar beach location for five days and starting to get into some sort of a pattern. Usually a morning walk on the beach, out exploring somewhere in the middle of the day and then back to the beach for the sunset. Oh, there are the usual jobs around the RV and small maintenance projects as well, so it is not all a walk on the beach. 🙂 Continue reading “Sunsets at Miramar Beach & Daytrip to Seaside FL”
Destin Florida
We have arrived in the Sunshine State to spend the winter months!! I have thought of escaping the cold northern winter climate for years and now it is actually happening! After many years of planning and living through the challenging and stressful work life, the retirement life in an RV has been more than we could have wished for. Continue reading “Destin Florida”
Davis Bayou MS Campground and Ocean Springs MS
This is a very nice campground located in a little gem of town, Ocean Springs MS. It is located within the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The campground is nestled among live oaks and pine trees and is adjacent to a saltwater marsh. Most campsites offer some shade throughout the day and all offer a tranquil setting for migratory bird watching and picnicking.
Since it is a part of the National Park system, our America the Beautiful passes give us a 50% off the $22 daily cap rate. At $11 per night, it is well below our target budget. I like that.
There are also several hiking trails and bike paths, although some trails were closed during our stay due to Hurricane Nate damage. The campsites had lots of green space between them and that is nice after being in some other parks without.
The only real negatives about the park were the lack of full hook ups (electric and water only), which was not an issue for us with our 5 day visit. Our RV has 135 gallons of wastewater capacity. The other downside was many trees overhanging the roads and close to campsites. I had to be very strategic while driving through the campground.
Also, the back in only sites did not have a good angle to easily enter from the road. The blacktop sites were also built up a few layers higher than the grass so it made “cutting the corner” not an option when backing in.
Our first selected site was just not accessible with the big rig so the nice camp host lady let us use another unoccupied site. Very nice.
We were able to walk down to the boat launch area nightly to watch the sunset at just before 6 pm. I dislike the short days this time of year and especially after the time change this weekend. Dark outside by 5pm.
The boat launch area was very quiet and peaceful with glass like water in the bayou as we watched the setting sun reflect off the water.
We did see two alligators during our hikes through the park. One was a 4-footer and another was about 8-10 feet long. The park ranger told us that the largest one that he had seen in the park was about 15 feet. Some other gator facts learned from the ranger are:
- Alligators like fresh water but can tolerate salt/brackish for a while while hunting. Crocodiles are just the opposite.
- Gaters can run up to 20 mph. Some people think they can outrun them by using a zigzag pattern – not true.
- They have been found as far north as Illinois.
- The sex of the offspring depends on the temperature in the nest. 86 degrees or lower produces females.
- The mother will provide protection for about a year, then they are on their own.
Biloxi MS
We took a short drive over the bridge to investigate Biloxi Mississippi. Maybe we were not looking in the right places, but we were disappointed. The only real draw is the casinos and very nice white beaches. There were maybe four of five casinos. We stopped in the Hard Rock Cafe to look around and have a drink. We did not contribute to the electronic bandits.
Ocean Springs MS
I asked the bartender at the casino where the locals eat in Ocean Springs. It was Mikey’s on the Bayou. Another good broiled oyster dinner on the deck overlooking the bayou. That was a good meal. Sorry, no pictures as we quickly dug in.
My next update will be about our Florida location, our new home for the winter! Also coming up will be a photo tour of the RV plus an update on our budget and how we are doing compared to the budget. Please make sure to sign up for the email notifications of blog updates and leave a comment if you wish.
Take care and God Bless.
Ocean Springs Mississippi
The five days here have really gone by fast! We have had a mixture of relaxing and exploring the Ocean Springs Mississippi area. Some hikes in the park and most evenings we walk down to the bayou to watch the sunset.
It has been an enjoyable stay at Davis Bayou National Seashore Park. We continue to feel blessed at our opportunity to see this beautiful country together in our RV.
Continue reading “Ocean Springs Mississippi”
Abbeville LA: Days 6-9 and Travel Day to Ocean Springs MS
What an incredible area of the country! The people, the history, the scenery, and the food. We actually extended our stay at Betty’s for 2 more days to be able to attend another Abbeville park concert and to hang out with our new friends a little while longer. I’ve heard extending the stay is a common occurrence at Betty’s RV Park. And we did not have to move spaces either. Sweet! I would highly recommend this RV park to others passing through the area.
New Friends
The nightly happy hour and pitch in dinner became a must do ritual for us every afternoon. Many good stories from a very cool group of people. There were some local Cajun folks, two couples from California, Illinois, Key West, New york, and other locations.
They were all retired or semi-retired with occupations as varied as commercial boat captains, sheriff deputy, librarian, farmer, rancher, etc. People from all walks of life. That is what is great about this RV life style. Meeting people from varied backgrounds and from all over the country. We hope to meet up with them again at some future point in time.
Thanks to Jim & Betty, Mike & BJ, Tony and Dee Dee, Dan & Merlene, Bob & Lois, David & Priscilla, Monica & Cordell, Jeff & Jan, and the group from Bradenton Florida. Apologies for anyone missed. The people and of course Betty herself made the time in Abbeville something special. And thanks to Dan for the guitar lesson. It helped to move me along!
Swamp Boat Tour
We had been wanting to take one of the local swamp tours and Betty recommended that we use Champagne’s Swamp Tours. They are located in Breaux Bridge Louisiana, about a 45 minute drive away. While not a thrill boat ride, the captain took the flat bottom boat back into the bayous and cedar swamps to see many forms of wildlife. The long boats held about 25 people and had to be navigated around, over and through the cypress trees and stumps. We saw 6-7 alligators and several types of birds: blue heron, egrets, ibis, and others.
Travel Day to Ocean Springs MS
It was time to get back on the road again after our 9 days in Abbeville. Since we have booked all campsites out a few months in advance, it does decrease our flexibility a bit, but ensures that we have a spot once we get there. The drive was about 240 miles and took us 6.5 hours after the normal rest stops. The roads were better this time as the I-10 east of Baton Rouge and I-12 were in decent shape.
The only real challenges were the stops that we made at truck stops. This one truck stops was so large that the truck parking was all over the place and in the middle in a fish bone pattern. It was difficult to navigate the place and find a parking spot to eat lunch.
We safely arrived at 3:30 pm after leaving Abbeville at 9 am. It looked like a storm was approaching as we tried to fit the rig into a campsite. The site that we had selected online was plenty long enough, but was situated so that backing in was not easily done. So, a quick chat with the camp host and she set us up in a nice spot right up front.
We are here at Davis Bayou for 5 days and then eastbound again to Destin Florida for November. This park has some great bayou views and the campground is heavily wooded with live oak trees. Good shade but requires some dodging around the limbs while driving the big rig.
Take care and God Bless. Be sure to sign up for the email notifications of blog updates and leave a comment if you wish.
Abbeville LA: Day 1 to Day 5
We are most of the way through our week long stay in Abbeville, LA at Betty’s RV Park. It has been a delightful stay to learn of the culture, taste the cuisine, listen to the music, have a nightly happy hour fellowship with other RV’ers and tour the home of that famous hot sauce. The food here is awesome if you like fresh seafood and some spicy cajun seasoning.
Migrating Into The Deep South: Abbeville, Louisiana
Another long relocation day from Vicksburg, MS straight south along the Blues Highway – Hwy 61, to the small town of Abbeville, Louisiana. The drive was about 240 miles and took 6.5 hours. This was quite a lot longer than we like to travel at one time, but we safely arrived at about 3 pm and were all hooked up before the happy hour started at 4:30. We are staying at the quaint and charming Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville. Continue reading “Migrating Into The Deep South: Abbeville, Louisiana”
Vicksburg MS Part 2
As our week in Vicksburg Mississippi was nearing the end, we still had a few more things on our list. So much to do and so little time! We stayed at the Ameristar RV park that is owned by one of the casinos. A very well kept park. We would stay there again. Still on our list were the National Military Park, which is a National Park honoring the soldiers from the Civil War. Also, we want to tour a couple of the old antebellum mansions. Continue reading “Vicksburg MS Part 2”
Vicksburg Mississippi
The drive south was mostly US highway 65 that provided a very scenic view of a combination of rural Arkansas and Louisiana that we had not seen before. Veering off the interstates does have some advantages to better see the country. We saw many cotton fields being picked by huge machines, miles of pancake flat farm land, and some very poor small towns. Continue reading “Vicksburg Mississippi”