Bama Ed Is Heading To Gulf State Park In November 2016

[PaHunter]

As I said way back in the May 2016 Gulf Shores trip report, I'm a morning guy. When I'm down here I get up to watch the sunrise - it's worth it.

Here is a panarama shot from just a few minutes ago:



A closer up photo of the reflection of the clouds off Middle Lake looking toward the beach:



And the high point of the morning (birds singing etc.):



Bama Ed

Very nice pictures there Ed. Mornings can be awesome, used to drive bus in to New York city and some of the sunrises over the city were great.

 

[bama_ed]

We are having a little down time right now.

We went on a 5.6 mile bike ride this morning. For those familiar, we went out the far end of the campground road, turned left up the Power Line trail (paved since I biked it many years ago - it was wood chips then), left again on the Hurricane Ridge trail back down to Campground Road 2 at the trail head, left toward the campground entrance along the portion of CG 2 that is now closed to vehicular traffic, and then past the big blue water tank back into the campground.



After lunch, DW is taking her nap. She LOVES to ride bikes when we are down here and because we live in a hilly suburban neighborhood, we don't get the chance at home.

We're gonna head up to the Foley outlets later this afternoon then hit the beach. I'd like to eat dinner at the Sea-n-Suds which is built out into the water on concrete piers between some condos on East Beach and then we talked about going to a movie tonight.

Here is our setup.



Bama Ed

PS - gonna put my feet up outside, close my eyes, and listen to the beach music on Sunny 105.

 

[PaHunter]

We are having a little down time right now.

We went on a 5.6 mile bike ride this morning. For those familiar, we went out the far end of the campground road, turned left up the Power Line trail (paved since I biked it many years ago - it was wood chips then), left again on the Hurricane Ridge trail back down to Campground Road 2 at the trail head, left toward the campground entrance along the portion of CG 2 that is now closed to vehicular traffic, and then past the big blue water tank back into the campground.



After lunch, DW is taking her nap. She LOVES to ride bikes when we are down here and because we live in a hilly suburban neighborhood, we don't get the chance at home.

We're gonna head up to the Foley outlets later this afternoon then hit the beach. I'd like to eat dinner at the Sea-n-Suds which is built out into the water on concrete piers between some condos on East Beach and then we talked about going to a movie tonight.

Here is our setup.



Bama Ed

PS - gonna put my feet up outside, close my eyes, and listen to the beach music on Sunny 105.

That is a very nice setup you have going on there.

 

[bama_ed]

That is a very nice setup you have going on there.

Thanks Chris. I like my little popup and my Bama tailgate stuff like the EZ up, feather, and tablecloth pull double duty when camping.

We went to the beach this afternoon and it was nice although a little overcast. A few fisherman were out on the surf line which had the yellow flag out for medium surf and a purple flag for marine life (jellies?).



The entire beach along Gulf State Park and even into Gulf Shores at the Public Beach at the Tee is showing signs of erosion possible from a recent storm. Part of the beach nearest the water is 1-2 feet lower in places. Either that or it was a helluva low tide.





The swells appear bigger than they actually were. It was pretty weak wave action.



Spent about an hour at the Foley Outlets. Tiggerdad, every store I went into, the staff inquired about you and when/if you were coming back. You'll need to bring the kids because they've already started putting out Christmas decorations and the merry-go-round was among the first things to show the Christmas spirit.



Dinner at Sea-n-Suds was a little disappointing. Now I remember why I haven't been back there in 20 years. It was one of many restaurants here that only serve entree's fried. Fish, oysters, shrimp all fried. When I asked if anything was blackened or grilled, only the steamed shrimp and fresh shucked oysters on the appetizer menu were pointed out to me. So I went with the fried oyster platter and it came out on a disposable plate (?) with fries and slaw.

No. Just no. For $18 I should get a real dinner plate.

DW is in charge of picking tomorrow's dinner location.

Bama Ed

 

[tiggerdad]

Looks good Ed. You should be having great weather this weekend. We are actually heading to the Birmingham Zoo in the morning.

Those outlets depend on my wife and daughters to financially support them through the summer.

 

[garneska]

Great report Ed. Hope you are getting some enjoyable runs there. Bert and I enjoyed running there, of course would 100% better in temps now then in June!

 

[bama_ed]

Its a beautiful sunny warm Chamber of Commerce day in Gulf Shores. We are watching the Bama game now at The Hangout but i will update later. For now i will leave you with this.



Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Lots to update today. I'll go chronologically first with the Oyster Run, next post more beach pictures (it's a gorgeous sunny warm breezy day), and then discuss more about the campground.

The Oyster Run, as I have stated, is up in Foley in a little quiet small business/residential part of downtown (such as it is). There are old houses converted to businesses spread among the large oak trees so predominate in the south.

Here is the check-in area. They mix the shirt choice each year: long or short sleeve, cotton or active tee, but always the current design/year.





Like the shirt. It might be my choice of wear when I wake up for the Disney Full in 2 months. This year's mix was short and active.

The awards table is set up before the run. Age group 1-2-3 winners get a glass. Left over glasses are available FCFS.





DW and I can't agree what style the glass is. I say mayonnaise jar type and DW says scented candle full size glass container. Anyone got an opinion?

Waiting under the oaks for the start.



This little open lot behind some small businesses is our awards/food area.



The start line. I try not to get run over by the elementary school kids. Best to let them get ahead of me since they will finish before me anyway.



Also before the race, some snacks and refreshments are set out. The healthy stuff:



And the two kegs are iced down (not so funny story - after the race someone pulled an ACL working the foot pump on the keg).



We learned quickly in the early years of attendance to spot your chair for the awards ceremony BEFORE the run starts.



And then we ran the race. More to come.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

The air was crisp and cool in the shade for the race and warm in the sun. The air was so clear it was like the day was in HD. The route was out-and-back down to where the pecan tree farms are and then turn around. I did some mileage here at GSP yesterday and it was fun to finish. The line was already forming for the fresh shucked oysters from Bon Secour Fisheries. They are served to you (your plate holds six jewels) and everyone only gets one plate (almost 200 people signed up). Great to have a local sponsor like Bon Secour Fisheries (the term Bon Secour is a French phrase that loosely means "Safe Harbour").



These hard working folks kept the oyster line moving.



There's also jambalaya and hot dogs (wrapped in paper towels beyond). Man was I hungry!



Here is the line for the food after the run/before the awards.



Top that off with some pizza and beer and I'm ready for the awards ceremony now.



So we eat and wait for the Fun Run to finish.



A group of school kids in their burgandy school shirts ran in front of me.



The sky over the kids through the oak trees was blue and beautiful with a few white clouds.



Three points from the awards ceremony.

First, I did NOT win the grand door prize again this year (3 night condo stay at the beach).

Second, big laugh for a door prize winner who was 8-year old Taylor T. who won a tshirt, oil change, lube, and tire rotation from a local new car dealership. Well, she was ambivalent about her new prize but her dad was very happy.

Third, Killer Kowalsky placed first again in his age group (and I do mean again) now he is in the 85-89 Male group. It was cute - he helped the younger guys (the ones in the 80-84 age group) get up out of their folding chairs to claim there prize. They may have to keep inventing older age groups so he can keep winning.



After the race and awards it was 11am so we found the Bama game on radio and drove to the Gulf Shores public beach. I didn't expect much drama in the game and listening/watching now while I type it's 44-3 Bama.

More pictures coming up.

Bama Ed

PS - The Oyster Run is a lot of fun. I'm sure DW and I will be back.

 

[bama_ed]

The Gulf Shores public beach is down where the main north-south highway, Hwy 59, terminates at the beach highway that runs east-west at the intersection I refer to as The Tee. The city has had a new sign up for about a year with their new marketing slogan:



DW suggested we stop there on the way back from the race so that afterwards we could go back to the campsite and she could take an unrushed nap. Fine, says I. The view is beautiful here too.



A yellow surf flag was out again but there were very mild swells and the sugar white sands were clean and powdery. Water was cool but fantastic.



These birds were sitting calmly on the beach so I hung out with them. I randomly decided to name them Randy, Michael, Jim, Joe, and Kris.





It would be repetitive to say that this is a beautiful, pretty empty time of year in Gulf Shores (not in the campground though-more on that later).

To the west was a real game of beach volleyball. I wanted to take pictures that capture equal amounts of sky and sand.



To the east was the same old boring sensational view.



On the way back to the car we could hear the BSPN broadcast with the voice of Joe Tess coming loudly from the restaurant there at the Tee called The Hangout. DW suggested we go in and get a snack and watch the game. Wanting to be a supportive husband, I reluctantly agreed.

Been a long time since I've been at The Hangout. The food is still meh IMO but with all the tv screens it's fun to watch with lots of fans.





Inside the door of the Hangout is a blowup of a 1949 local newspaper headline that says it all.



Gonna take a break now.

Bama Ed

 

[Teamubr]

Great stuff Ed!

The pics make me very happy that we are coming back down in May to see everyone and hit the beach again. And it's nice to see that many of us have gong to the birds.

j

 

[2goofycampers]

Ed ....If we were to come to Gulf State Park what site would Frank like? You know, as close to water as possible. TT is 32 ft with slide and a beast of a truck.

 

[bama_ed]

Ed ....If we were to come to Gulf State Park what site would Frank like? You know, as close to water as possible. TT is 32 ft with slide and a beast of a truck.

Well, Denise, you know I'm no fisherman. There are many waterfront sites as shown on this page with a campground map of all sites and then satellite closeups of each section. The main issue I see is that there are cattails/reeds along the shore for most and that might bank fishing a little difficult. But it's doable. I noticed this trip that the cattails/reads have been cut back.

http://www.alapark.com/gulf-state-park-campground-maps-site-specific

Here is a picture of the cutback behind the sites on Live Oak Drive (sites 11-39).



To answer your question, any of the aforementioned Live Oak sites along the water would be good. Most sites will accomodate large trailers/rv's and they all have hookups. Also there are many sites along Gator Road with 220-277 along the water - some with very deep grass space behind the sites to the water's edge.

The other possibility is the few pull thru sites which are along the canal between the two lakes but there is no Comfort Station near them (not that it matters to you perhaps) and it's on the water but not a very big space - just room for boats. My other suggestion would be to get a site anywhere near the campground store/pool area. They have a nice dock built along the lake there and I rarely see a boat tied there so it might be a walkable spot to fish from.

A couple notes: the campground is about 2/3 or 3/4 full this weekend. The long term snow bird rates start Nov 1 and go through the end of March so of the about 500 sites here, over 400 are given over to the long term campers during the snow bird season. All kinds of trailers and rv's here and also I think I've seen every variety of bicycle known to mankind. There are also some tenters still since the weather is still nice. Be forewarned that sites along the lake or across the street can get very strong winds in winter.

I have more pix to share from our visit to the fishing pier yesterday and will probably post those when I get home tonight. We're starting to pack up this morning.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Denise,

I went on a bike ride this Sunday morning of a few different waterfront sites which I will post when I get to the Sunday stuff. Right now I'm going to catch up on Saturday afternoon.

Technology update: Those that know me will agree I know very little of technology but I marvel at it. This weekend I tried out the zero rating offering from AT&T. I have AT&T wireless and Directv at home and AT&T now says DTV can be watched on your Android device without counting against your data plan (I believe the term is "zero rated"). So after we left The Hangout I dialed up my Directv app, did a search on the Bama-MSU game, and watched it live on my 6.2 inch Samsung screen. Here is a screen grab - it was fine for what it was.



Later in the afternoon we decided to take advantage of free access to the Gulf State Park Fishing Pier. Tiggerdad had commented on this in his TR and I had not been since it was rebuilt after the hurricanes of the past few years. So as the sun was heading down we went over to check it out.

There is a separate parking lot for the Pier and the approach is up the long ramp.



Note the beach access on the left side of the ramp - there were a number of folks fishing off the beach using this way to get there.

I'll throw in pix of the dropping sun to the west against the Gulf Shores condos and clouds. Here note the rainbow colored prism effect on the right hand side of the sun over the condos. It's not so colorful here but in reality you could see all the different colors in the sky.



Further around to the left before we went up the Pier ramp I snapped a picture of the current status of the State Park Lodge rebuild.



Before it was destroyed in past hurricanes, the Lodge was a beloved lodging space here with affordable rooms and many people are nostalgic about it. We stayed their when my first DS was a baby - DW says that's where he had his first "sleep-through-the-night" as an infant (and it was several months before he did it again ). It was more popular with our family later on when we camped because of the affordable seafood buffet (with fried clam strips no less) and huge glass windows to watch the sun set and what looked like original 70s naugahyde furniture. Here is a Nostalgia video about it:

I'm going to post the pictures in the order I took them to help keep my sanity.

Nothing goes to waste at the Pier. When a keeper is caught and cleaned there, nothing goes to waste.



Pier fishing is serious business for those that were out there Saturday afternoon.



Out at the farthest end there were many people.





Remember when I mentioned the purple flags indicate marine life and be cautious swimming? There were jellyfish in the water.



DS#2 got stung by one once and it was painful. They are not to be ignored.

Out at the end of the pier everyone's gear/tackle has to stay behind the red line painted on the deck. That's why all these rolling fishing tackle setups are not up close to the railing.



More in another post.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

More on the GSP Fishing Pier.

First, campers get a free visit to the Pier if you just want to look and also get a $3 discount if you want to fish. As a reminder, the big Park pavilion about a mile away is also free to park at for campers.

As I said, the Pier is kept clean and picked up because all the parts get used up by someone keeping an eye on things.





One of the fisherman on the end of the pier got a bite and started reeling it in and announced, "don't stand behind me - I'm going to flip it up on the deck".







I think the GSP Pier is the longest on the Gulf. Here is half of it.



Ah. Sunset.



More watching eyes.



It was about a half hour before sunset when we left but the view was beautiful.



The biggest fish we saw caught was this 14# redfish being dumped unceremoniously in the back of a truck for later cleaning.



That ought to feed a few people for supper.

That night I watched parts of the Ole Miss-Texas A&M and LSU-Arkansas on my phone and we relaxed. We had been on another bike ride that afternoon so we took it easy. Our site backed up to the swamp/bog and the frogs were loud at night. There also apparently is a pack of coyotes in the natural areas back there so nature is always working even at night.

Next up will be our Sunday morning bike ride.

Bama Ed

PS - we got home tonight before dark and got the camper put away and truck emptied. It's nice to be home.

 

[tiggerdad]

Looked good Ed. Funny how each of the lights on the pier have small metal "spiders" on top to keep the birds away but they seem to pay them no attention.

All the new paved and bridged trails are really great. I noticed that they were extending the power line trail in the direction of Orange Beach when we were there in October.

 

[bama_ed]

tiggerdad, I get what you're saying about the spider wires and I agree. They apparently are not very effective.

Well I promised Denise some Sunday pictures and that will include waterfront sites.

On Sunday morning we went to Tacky Jack's restaurant in Gulf Shores which has a good rep for breakfast. They open at 7:30am and we were there at 7:31am. DW finally got her shrimp and grits (all it needed, she said, was some crumpled bacon on top) and I got a Farmer's Omlet (with potatoes) and it is on the south side of the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW).

After church that morning we did a last bike ride around Gulf State Park. I was on the lookout for waterfront sites and found a few. Let's take a look at them.

I pedaled over to Live Oak and checked out waterfront sites. One open site that morning was #15 (refer to the map link above) which is directly across from site #4 where Bama Ed stayed last May (that's probably a minus in most people's book). The reeds and cattails had been cut down but it's a nice waterfront site.



Sites at GSP do book up well in advance and if you don't get a waterfront site, in my opinion there is still good fishing along the boat pier behind the campstore in the middle of the park in the pool/nature center/store/tennis court area. Many sites are within easy walking distance here. The pier will avoid the reeds/cattails (but don't antagonize the alligators) and it's rarely used.



I mentioned that Gator Road has lots of waterfront sites since it's longer and more in the back of the park. I came across site 245 on Gator which was 23 paces deep (over 60 feet) and it shows a lot of space behind it with more cut down reeds and tails.





Further down Gator Road, site 259 was open and there is more grass space behind it. Seriously, at this point I would walk behind my site to the water and then feel welcome to go left or right along the bank of Middle Lake. It's a "fur" distance.



In the big/bigger/BIGGEST comparison, here is site 273 which has so much room behind it that the master plan for Gulf State Park wants to put a group campsite back there (like for an RV rally - sites close together). The point is there are LOTS of waterfront spaces available at Gulf.



As an Eagle Boy Scout, fomer Cub Scout Packmaster, Den Leader, and plate/bottle washer, I was glad to see this Cub Scout Pack camping at GSP this weekend (and I like the tent that looks like a log cabin in the back). The weather was perfect and I hope all those young men had a great experience.



But at some point, like Cinderella, the great weekend/ball with the Prince is over and we all turn into pumpkins again. So the trip is over, the camper is closed up, the bikes are piled on, and the Suburban is hitched up and ready to go. tiggerdad and I did these trip reports to share a wonderful camping place and I hope that any of you who want to come camp with us next May will see something that will get you to come on down.



I'll be back in May with some DIS'sers. I hope to meet any/all of you there then.

Signing off....

Bama Ed

 

[2goofycampers]

Thanks for the pics. Since we can't bring the GC Frank would bring his Jon boat. The boat ramp looks perfect. I'm thinking Thanksgiving week of 2017. I so wish we could make it in May, but work will not approve time off in May.

 

[bama_ed]

One postscript to my trip report...

Remember the picture I posted earlier on page 2 of the sign at the Gulf Shores Public Beach at The Tee that said, "Small Town, Big Beach"?

I saw a new business establishment that opened in the latter half of October that I would like to visit with fellow DIS'sers. Not a restaurant, not a bar, but a BUSINESS! A local brewery named Big Beach Brewery is now open for business in Gulf Shores on the south side of the Intracoastal Waterway across the street from The Diner. Naturally they have a tasting room.

If my DW gives me any grief, our alternative is to head over towards Orange Beach. So I think she would want to keep me in Gulf Shores.

Looking forward to sampling the wares. If it only had a pool table............

http://www.bigbeachbrewing.com/home

Bama Ed

 

[tiggerdad]

Ed, we'll tell the ladies we're just headed to Wal Mart.