Travel Day to Gulf Islands National Seashore, Davis Bayou Campground

February 25, 2010 travel day.  The day started out sunny but cold with temps in the mid 30’s.  However, it was dry and the wind had died down, making it a much better day for traveling than the previous day.

We got busy packing up to get on the road.  I wanted to be out of the gate by 10:00.  I knew the campground we were headed to at the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Davis Bayou would fill up quickly if it wasn’t already full.

We walked the dogs and said our final goodbyes to our neighbors and the managers of Avalon Landings RV Park, Jim and Wendy.  They are a terrific couple, and I enjoyed having long discussions with them in the office during inclement weather.  They offered to have us back as workampers in the future.  Something we might consider over the winter months in a year or so. 

Preparing to pull out of our site, 10 at Avalon Landings Rv Park.

Rico and Maggie in the back seat of the truck were ready to hit the road!

We got on the road about 10:30 a.m.  Joyce in her car and I pulling the rig with the truck. We traveled west on I-10 through Pensacola, Mobile and the George C. Wallace Tunnel.  We passed through Mobile around 11:30 a.m. so traffic wasn’t bad.  However, I could certainly see the potential for gridlock during rush hours.  Much of this area and the local bridges suffered damage from hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

We crossed into Mississippi and finally, we were more that one state away from Florida.  Our furthest trip out of Florida to date in our rig had been an incursion into Moultrie, Georgia last October for the Southeast Agricultural Expo.  Today as we crossed into Mississippi, we felt a little like a chick having flown from the nest after having lived in Florida for the past 30 plus years.

We arrived at the Gulf Shores National Seashore Park, Davis Bayou, in Ocean Springs, Ms. just east of Biloxi, Ms. at 12:30 hrs having traveled about 120 miles. 

About 2 miles inside the park is the entrance to the campground.  There were no fee stations coming into the park.

This park is a first come first serve park that does not take reservations.  That’s fine with me as I hate to make reservations! 

We had our self pick of about 10 sites. However, we could only fit into maybe half of the available sites. 

There were a couple of sites available with shade however, we chose a large site in the open field with full sun.  The temps only rose to 55 degrees today with more cold weather expected.  So a sunny site would fit the bill for us.

Our site was not big enough for two vehicles to be parked on the narrow asphalt.  So Joyce parked her car in a parking space a short distance from our rig.

Certainly not one of the prettiest or spacious sites we’ve had to date.  However, it does have 50 amps and water for only $16 a night.  There is no sewer hook-up, but the campground has a dump station.

The picture below is a shot down the center of the main loop.  The road circles around out of view.  Our rig is dead center between the two trees in the center of the photo.

The campground which is about 2 miles south of US98 on Park Road, appears to abut to a neighborhood that can be seen through the thin winter foliage. We decided to pay for a week. We spent the rest of the afternoon setting up and walking the dogs.  

I got the satellite dish set-up after a minor struggle.  However, there are about 15 channels available via the antennae.  We still had the local channels for the Milton area.  However, Joyce called to get the local channels on our Dish for our new site.  Dish erased our previous local channels and told us to wait for the new locals to appear in our channel guide.  Well after waiting, Joyce called back and after much discussion, learned that the only local channels for Dish in this are is a PBS channel, no national network channels.  We didn’t realize that some areas didn’t receive local network channels via Dish.  We since learned that on the Dish website you can plug in your address to learn what local network channels are available.  Something we will do next time before having them clear what we have.

I took a walk and took some pictures of the campground which is divided into two loops.  We are in the much larger loop.  The smaller loop is surrounded by trees.  Both loops quickly filled up. The bathhouse is old and needs updating.

Later in the afternoon, I watched as several RVs drove through looking for sites but there were no more RV size sights available.  I had suspected that this park would fill quickly as it is just outside of the casino strips in Biloxi and its cheap!  The entire park outside of the campground appears to be quite large and will demand some exploration later.

Later we spoke with our friends Rocky and Gloria whom live in Spanish Fort, Alabama.  Rocky was once stationed at Keesler A.F.B. right here in Biloxi, Ms.  They were able to get a room on Keesler A.F.B. (retired military).  So we plan to spend the day together Saturday as they show us around Biloxi.  We are looking forward to spending the day with them.