Tweaks at Davidson RV

We got Davidson RV to help us with a few other issues.

One was to replace our water pump, as the old one wasn’t performing well:

Water pump

Another issue with fortunate timing was the entry step didn’t fully retract; they lubricated it, and it’s been fine since (I have been lubricating it with silicone lube, but have since purchased some better lube):

Entry step

Finally, the USB ports on my side of the bed had stopped working, so they replaced them:

USB ports

I could have done all three of those things myself, but easier to get them to do so while we were there.

Meaher State Park

We stayed at Meaher State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A delightful state park with spacious sites and lots of wildlife. The I-10 freeway across the water isn’t ideal, but not too bad.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-12-03
Check out: 2023-12-17
14 nights

Weather:

Partly cloudy, some rain
High temps ranging between 57-72°F, lows around 39-59°F
A little wind, gusts to 28 MPH

Noise:

Freeway noise across the bay
No train noise
Negligible neighbor noise, other than kids on weekends

Site:

#54, back in, asphalt
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
Fairly level; used hydraulic leveling
Asphalt driveway about 55 feet long by about 12 feet wide
Grass between sites about 52 feet wide
Picnic table on asphalt patio about 18 by 14 feet
No fire pit
Clean site
Waterfront, though with the back of our coach facing the water

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
25 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 20 Mbps down, 4-9 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
AT&T: 180-395 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 22 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 9-12 Mbps up, 120 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpster
Waterfront (bay)
Walking paths

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Gorgeous sunsets, distant hum of I-10

This is a lovely state park along the Alabama Gulf Coast. Gorgeous views of the water, and various shorebirds. I-10 is visible, but the hum is distant and pretty much just background white noise. There are many nice walking trails in the park, including a boardwalk through the wetlands. Sites were large and nicely spread out. We’d definitely stay here again. We camped at Meaher State Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site, backing onto the water:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Shortly before we left, I got out my telescoping ladder to clear off a bunch of large pinecones that had fallen on our coach:

Ladder on our coach

Pinecones

Not too bad, though (a rare look at our roof; I’ve still never been on it, and this was only the second time I’ve used the ladder to clear stuff off it):

Roof

Behind our site:

Behind our site

“Do not feed or harass the alligators” — we didn’t see any, but they’re probably all brumating by this time:

Behind our site

We were warned that there were invasive ants in the area, and advised to sprinkle borax around the coach (which we did). We saw some ants, but none near our coach:

Ants

Other sites:

Other sites

Cabins:

Cabins

Tents:

Tents

The entrance station:

Entrance

Baby turtle crossing:

Baby turtle crossing

Fungus:

Mushrooms

Fungus

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Other bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Picnic shelter:

Picnic shelter

Boat ramp area:

Boat ramp area

Kayaks etc:

Kayaks etc

Boat ramps and dock:

Boat ramps and dock

Dock

Kayak dock:

Kayak dock

There were lots of birds in the area:

Bird

Birds

Some bees:

Bees

A small beach, popular for fishing:

Beach

A nice delta boardwalk:

Delta boardwalk

A fishing pier:

Fishing pier

One evening I went for a walk to the fishing pier shortly before the sun set, and enjoyed watching the sunset and hundreds of birds:

Sunset from fishing pier

Back to our coach:

Sunset from fishing pier

Another day, another sunset behind our site:

Sunset behind our site

A very nice state park. We’d definitely stay here again.

Video

Video: New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 146 miles from New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.

Travel from New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama

We drove our coach 146 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading northeast:

Route

An interactive map with potential stops; we actually only stopped at the Flying J:

Preparing to leave our site:

Preparing to leave our site

Hooking up our truck, with the City of New Orleans paddleboat in the background:

Hooking up our truck

Rail crossing and onramp:

Rail crossing and onramp

Drawbridge:

Drawbridge

Bridge:

Bridge

Another drawbridge:

Drawbridge

I-10:

I-10

“Welcome to Mississippi”:

Welcome to Mississippi

We stopped at a Flying J truck stop for lunch:

Flying J

The truck parking was rather full. With our toad attached we can’t back up, and this parking area has back-to-back spots, so we could only park where there was two adjacent ones empty so we could pull through. It was a difficult turn and tight squeeze, but Jenn’s driving skills got it done:

Parking between trucks

Parked between trucks

Parked with trucks

This Flying J has a Denny’s restaurant, so we had lunch there:

Denny's menu

I tried a rather decadent “choconana pancake slam”, just to be different:

Breakfast for lunch

Jenn’s was a bit more conventional:

Breakfast for lunch

Back to our coach:

Back to our coach

“I love the way you look at me” Buc-ee’s billboard… a little creepy, perhaps:

I love the way you look at me

I had fun spotting our coach passing by on traffic cameras:

Our coach via traffic camera

Bridge:

Bridge

An amusing info sign: “Cats have 9 lives. You are not a cat. Buckle up”:

Cats have 9 lives, you are not a cat. Buckle up

Another traffic camera:

Our coach via traffic camera

Alabama state line:

Alabama state line

“Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama”:

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama

I think these are electrical transformers:

Transformers on a truck

Another couple of glimpses of our coach on Alabama traffic cameras:

Our coach via traffic camera

Mobile, Alabama:

Mobile, Alabama

A tunnel under the Mobile River:

Tunnel

You can see it curving downward as it goes under the river:

Tunnel

USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park:

USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

USS Alabama Battleship

Our destination for the next two weeks, Meaher State Park:

Meaher State Park

Check out the video from this drive, which includes a picture-in-picture of the view from the truck behind our coach.

Cockpit carpet

Another little project while at Davidson RV was to add some custom-fit carpeting in the cockpit area:

Cockpit carpet

Much better. That helps catch dirt coming into the coach, and is more comfortable, instead of walking on cold tile on cold mornings; the heated tile doesn’t extend into the cockpit area.

Replacing window valances

Our coach came with fabric valances above the windows, which we didn’t like… and Paladin liked scratching. So while in Red Bay, another project we got Davidson RV to do was to replace the fabric portions with wood.

Here’s an example of the old valance, in the bedroom:

Window valance

They removed the whole window surround:

Window valance removed

Then they replaced the fabric portion with wood, stained to a similar color:

Window valances

The improved version re-installed:

Window valance

Another example, the window above the TV lift:

Window valance

Much nicer.

New Orleans RV Resort & Marina

We stayed at New Orleans RV Resort & Marina in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A canal-front site close to the attractions of NOLA.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-11-19
Check out: 2023-12-03
14 nights

Weather:

Partly cloudy, some rain
High temps ranging between 54-77°F, lows around 50-62°F
A little wind, gusts to 24 MPH

Noise:

Some road noise
Distant train noise
Plane noise from local airport
Occasional boat and jetski noise in the canal
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#7, front in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
Fairly level; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 50 feet long by about 20 feet wide
Bark between sites about 6 feet wide
Picnic table on grass
No fire pit
A bunch of small garbage and dog poop
Waterfront!

Utilities:

50 amp power, very conveniently located
35 PSI water, very conveniently located
Very loose sewer connection (the screw part wasn’t connected to the pipe), conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 32 Mbps up, 54 ms ping
AT&T: 7 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 52 ms ping
Verizon: 9-13 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 135 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage pickup from site
Package delivery to office
Onsite restaurant
Waterfront (canal)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Industrial shipyards and pelicans

Don’t let the sketchy-looking area fool you as you drive in. This is a very nice resort close to everything you’d want to do in NOLA. We had a waterfront site and loved watching the birds skimming over the water and the parade of fishing boats going between the lake and the river. Our site was pretty short, just long enough for our 40′ motorhome, with barely enough space to park our tow vehicle alongside, but being able to face over the water was very nice.

The resort has a nice restaurant and bar onsite for when you don’t feel like going into the city itself. All the touristy stuff you’d want to do is conveniently close and parking in the French Quarter was not as scary as I thought it would be. We camped at New Orleans RV Resort & Marina in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our canal-front site:

Our site

Views from our site:

View

A rail drawbridge, sticking up in the open state:

View

And closed:

View

A barge waiting for the drawbridge to open:

View

Lots of pelicans:

View

Moon

The City of New Orleans arriving for servicing:

View

Some rainy days:

Rain

And thunderstorms:

Thunderstorms

The sewer connection was super loose:

Loose sewer

The site wasn’t very clean; this is the trash I picked up on arrival:

Trash

We could fill a gap in our states map (but yes, by the time you read this, Florida will also be there):

States map

We were sandwiched between two “Presidential” sites, with covered kitchens and hot tubs. We wouldn’t have preferred such a site, though, as the roof would have impeded our view:

Other sites

The neighboring hot tub kept blowing open in the wind:

Hot tub

Other sites:

Other sites

Cabins:

Cabin

The office:

Office

They allowed package delivery for guests, with a large pile in the front of the office (not very secure; people just come grab their packages; I prefer it when they have a mail room to keep packages more secure, though of course that is more staff burden):

Packages

There is a shuttle to downtown, though we didn’t use it, preferring to drive and park; plenty of paid parking available:

Shuttle info

Pool:

Pool

Dog park:

Dog park

There are two marinas; this is the smaller one behind the office:

Marina

The larger one opposite a boat repair yard:

Marina

A nice thing about this resort is an onsite restaurant, The LightHouse Bar:

The LightHouse Bar

Menu:

Specials

The LightHouse Bar

We went there several evenings; here are a sampling of our food and beverages:

Drinks

Food

A nice resort; we’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Toomsuba, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana

We drove our coach 208 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Toomsuba, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southwest:

Route

An interactive map:

Back along the narrow road from the campground:

Narrow road

We stopped at the Loves truck stop to use their CAT scale to weigh our coach and truck:

CAT scale

The results are much the same as previous times, though the truck is heavier, no doubt due to the addition of the canopy and slide; all still within the limits:

CAT scale results

Heading onto I-59 south:

I-59 south

The truck parking areas have totally reassuring signs saying “No Security Provided”; we have to wonder what incident caused them to add such signs:

No Security Provided

Lots of space in this parking area:

Parking area

Roadworks:

Roadworks

Another parking area stop; a little smaller and busier, but we found a spot:

Another parking area

“Welcome to Louisiana” sign:

Welcome to Louisiana

Twin span bridge over Lake Pontchartrain:

Twin span bridge over Lake Pontchartrain

Old bridge segment, I guess? Now a fishing pier:

Old bridge, I guess?

Twin span bridge over Lake Pontchartrain

Drawbridge:

Drawbridge

Chef Menteur Highway bridge:

Chef Menteur Highway bridge

Abandoned buildings on the road to our destination:

Abandoned buildings

Arriving at our destination:

Our destination

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

We had a pull-in waterfront spot for two weeks:

Our site

Unfortunately no travel video again today; I didn’t notice that it had filled up and wasn’t recording until after this trip.

Extra shelving

While in Red Bay we spent several days at Davidson RV, getting them to do several projects. One of those was to add extra shelves to many of our cupboards.

Some cupboards above our couch, before adding shelves:

Cupboards before adding shelves