Campers Come In All Shapes and Sizes

Rick and I prefer to stay in public campgrounds (state parks, COE campgrounds, US Forest Service campgrounds) rather than private ones.  We prefer the spaciousness and outdoor recreation activities at these type of campgrounds.

In public campgrounds, there is no telling what kind of campers you will see.  One of the things I like to do when we walk around the campground is find older and/or unusual campers.

It is not unusual to see older bumper-pull and fifth wheel campers, especially with window air conditioners.

Sometimes, we find older model motorhomes that were considered state of the art luxury in their day.

At Blue Bluff COE campground, this great boxy travel trailer was parked next to us.  It's hard to distinguish, but it was ALL chrome on the outside.

We spotted this retro camper at Wall Doxey State Park.  Love the wing  and hubcaps!

You have probably seen your share of tiny campers,

but this one probably ranks up there as one of the smallest I have seen.  Parked in front of this one was a new or close to new speed boat.

Every one in a while we come across these type of campers that have a top piece that pops up.

I don't know about other parts of the country, but here in the southeast U.S., it is not unusual to see a school

bus being used as a camper.  Here is one we saw at Paul B. Johnson State Park outside Hattiesburg, MS. 




Sometimes, it doesn't look like it has been modified at all.  We spotted this one at John Kyle State Park at Sardis, MS.

But my favorite, hands down was one we saw at Pickensville COE in Alabama.

This pretty much says it all!

Oak Grove Campground at Sardis Lake

It's ridiculous that it has been so long since I have written in this blog.  We have been camping several times since I last wrote, mainly at South Abutment campground at Arkabutla Lake and Oak Grove Campground at Sardis Lake.

Back in the fall of 2013, we camped at the state park (John W. Kyle) at Sardis and saw the Oak Grove campground right next door.  The two campgrounds are separated by a boat launch ramp and dock.  Kyle is a MS State Park while Oak Grove is a COE.  

We found that we really like Oak Grove.  There are plenty of shady spots and most pads have plenty of room between them.  

The access to the water is great and this campground is very popular with fishermen (& women).  The first time we stayed here, I kept seeing huge fish come out from under the dock when I put my bait (worm) in.  But they wouldn't take it.  I played around with it a little and made it seem like it was jumping around.  One took it and nearly pulled me off the dock.  It snapped my line and got away :(     

All sites have water and 30/50 amp electricity.  There is a dump station at the entrance.  There are 3 bath houses that are kept pretty clean.  

This campground does not take reservations, it is strictly first come, first served.  It operates on a self-pay system with the camp host coming around and checking every evening.  Since it is first come, first served, we try to get here on a Thursday before it starts filling up.  This worked out well, but Memorial Day weekend 2016 we ran into a problem.  We checked the state park next door several weeks ahead of time and found that they were booked up.  So, we decided to head out to Oak Grove on Wednesday, May 25 to get ahead of the weekend crowd...Wrong!  There was not a single site to be had on Wednesday :(  This campground is close enough to home so we just came back and decided to spend the Memorial Day holiday at home.

If TV reception is important to you, this isn't the place for you.  We could only pick up the public tv stations out of Oxford.  My Sprint service did not work well here, but Rick's C-Spire service did.