Fountainbleau State Park

We visited Fountainbleau for Memorial Day weekend.  We've been here once before last year when we rented a camper.  It was very crowded this time around, due to the holiday weekend.  We were in spot 68 this time around.  I chose this spot because it was right beside the bath house, I would not choose it again.  There are a couple of reasons why.

The spot is on a corner of two roads, it's about 50ft from the bath house.  It's nice when you need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (we don't #2 in our camper unless it's an emergency), but the amount of children that cut through our campsite was crazy.  We've always taught ours to be courteous and not cut through the middle of someones camp, I just think it's rude.  Also, we have a large German Shepard and she gets really excited when kids run close to our camp.  There was also a large tree right off of the pad that wouldn't allow us to extend the awning all the way out.

Of course, the kids had fun riding bikes and playing on the play ground.  The splash park was shut down the entire weekend for some reason.  Sign said it was undergoing maintenance but we never saw anyone working on it.  They did swim in the lake a little and did some kayaking, that is until the small alligator ran everyone out of the lake.  We ran into some old friends that had their grand kids with them that were about the same age as ours so they stayed busy the entire time.

We like cooking and eating at the camper when we camp.  Sometimes, depending on where we are, there are exceptions to that.  Fountainbleau is one of those excepts.  There is a little meat market on Hwy 190 called Saia's, it's about 3-4 miles back west of the entrance to the state park.  They have some really good shrimp poboys.  The sandwich is stuffed with so much shrimp that they just pour out everywhere, and you can't beat the price for $6.99.  If you are ever in the area you should really check them out, they also sell fried chicken and other types of poboy sandwiches.

One of our favorite things to do here is ride around at night and count deer.  Although we didn't see nearly as many as we did our first trip here we did see a bunch.  I think we counted thirty something this trip along with many rabbits and squirrels.  There were also signs of wild hogs.  We didn't see any but they had been in our campsite before we arrived, grass was pretty torn up.

We enjoy camping pretty much everywhere we go, although we are still very new to this and haven't been many places yet.  Sitting around the camp and looking at the amount of people that were at this state park on Memorial Day weekend got us talking and thinking.  I don't know everything that goes into operating a state park, but I just can't understand why Louisiana State Parks are in such turmoil right now.  They have gone up on fee's and I can't see anything that has been improved at Fountainbleau since we were here a year ago, with the exception of the splash park being broke down.  The campground was completely booked solid all weekend and you couldn't hardly get a spot on the beach with the amount of people that come in and buy day passes.  Where is the money going?  It's sad when you can go right across the line into Mississippi and pay cheaper rates with full sewer hook ups.  Camping really can be a great experience for families.  We truly have enjoyed our short time camping adventures and hope to have many more to come.

We'll be headed out on our next trip to Big Lagoon State Park in Florida at the end of June.  Until then.....Happy Camping!!

Buccaneer State Park

This weekend we stayed at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, MS.   We were in site #95 in the Blackbeard Loop.  The loop was small and our spot was a little tricky to get into but we had plenty of room once we got the camper situated.  The site had full hook up, including sewer, a BBQ pit, and picnic table.  There was no fire pit but there was a spot where people had been burning so that's what we used.  The sites in our loop weren't to close together but they have some in other loops that are pretty close.  The one right across from us (94) would be another good one, much easier to back into and has some shade but hardly any grass.

Although the pool and water park were closed we still had lots of stuff to do.  They have a disc golf course that the boys really liked, a pretty good sized playground, and some hiking trails.  They also have an arcade, laundry and camp store by the pool area (none of this was open while we were there).  The bath houses were in decent shape, pretty old but seemed to be well maintained.  They don't have anyone at the gate house 24/7.  We had someone playing extremely loud music our first night there.  At about 11pm we tried calling the park to have someone ride over and speak to them but kept getting a busy signal every time.  Finally had to go ask if they could turn it down a bit, which they did.  Quiet time is from 10pm-6am.

There is also lots of stuff to do around the area.  Saturday we went to the beach for a bit, water was still kind of cold but manageable.  There is also a nice fishing pier about 4-5 miles east of the campground.  We went for a bit Saturday night but all we caught were hard head cats.  It was still fun just being out there fishing!  The campground is not far from town so if you forget something there is a Walmart there along with some other grocery stores and fast food places.  To the west of the campground is the Silver Slipper Casino for any gamblers out there.

All in all we had a good time.  Of course, as it always is, time goes by to fast and the trip was way to short.  I would like to go back when the water activities are open and see how all that is.