The Gulf State Park DISMeet 2017 Thread (aka "The Sequel")

[garneska]

Finally enjoying some time outside. Went for a 5 mil run this morning. Weather is so much better than last year. The run was so nice and quiet. After we stopped and saw tiggerdad and southalabamer and spent the morning with them. Sorry for the smell guys. Next we did some outside stuff, then lunch. Still need to get the lights hung before t just enjoying the outdoors. Will post some pics in th following post from the phone. Trying to go back and forth. Still quiet at the park but only expecting it to stay that way for another couple of hours.

 

[garneska]

 

[FtW Mike]

Been biking most of the day. Several miles of new trail has been built since last year. Madison, our youngest is off the training wheels for the first time today. She's...had a full morning to say the least.

Mr. D was watching close. You could tell he had that "watchful eye" and he said "I'm just a grampa. She's going too fast". So we slowed her down and she is doing well. I bid Mr. and Mrs. D a farewell as they pulled out around 9:30 and he told me "Well, you gotta deal with Big Ed now."
Hehe! Big Ed.

On our way around we stopped by and visited the rock stars.
View attachment 239894
Okay, as far as the squirrels go. I'm on vacation, so it extends to them too. I'm just letting them do their thing.

You've all been warned.

Bravo Madison soon you'll be teaching your dad how it's done.
Since everyone is on "VACATION" all attendees are free to dispense with the customary offering as no tribute will be paid to His Excellency The Grand High and Exalted POOHBAH

 

[Teamubr]

I think I had to drive through some interesting storms in southern Illinois last year. Looks like I'm in for it again tomorrow. Oh goody.

j

 

[FtW Mike]

Kris I am so Jealous of your dogs. My 3 would be all over that poor child looking to lick the last 3 months of ice cream out of her while vying for her attention

 

[tiggerdad]

I think I had to drive through some interesting storms in southern Illinois last year. Looks like I'm in for it again tomorrow. Oh goody.

j

Be careful there Jim.

Well, we are eating at Live Bait this evening in Orange Beach. Never had it, so we'll see how it is. Crowds haven't built up yet but the campers are lined up checking in as we left out.

They have a mechanical shark here. I'm gonna try and get Randy on it. I'll post pics if I do.

 

[bama_ed]

IIRC (and my memory was a little hazy ) there used to be a Live Bait II (two) right behind or to the side of LB1. It was a dump as I remember. At least I think it was....

LB1 was where you went for food.
LB2 was where you went for drink.

That was a long time ago though.

Bama Ed

PS - safe travels Jim

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

The fun has just begun!!!

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

Video to come!

 

[tiggerdad]

You are correct Ed. The restaurant is in front and the bar is out back.

Between the two is this:


That's right folks, your hero himself, Southalabama5er! You notice that expression of "I'm beaten" on that shark? Man absolutely nailed it!

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

If no one sees me in the morning it's because I'm too sore to get out bed!!

 

[FtW Mike]

Jim we'll pray for a safe trip. Hopefully you will get lucky like we did on our first trip to The Fort. For our first trip to The Fort forecast was for severe storms all the way to Georgia We could see the cells ahead of us but by the time we got there they had passed hope you get the same
I suspect Bill Engvall sums up Randy and Micheal's latest escapade fairly well with Tequila was involved!"

 

[Flametamr]

Sorry I missed the Shark rides. I'm sure that was fun. I'm pretty much loaded and almost ready. Hope to be up at 6 am to load the kayak and bikes. Then all that is left is to raise the jacks and roll. Already hooked up and locked in. I'm hoping to be on my site by 9 am and in the pool with a beer by 10.

 

[tiggerdad]

The food at Live Bait was pretty good. I had steak burger


The girls had shrimp pasta

Live Bait's slogan:


So, in all fairness Randy and I lasted roughly 20-30 seconds each on that mechanical shark. We would have lasted longer but the girls were egging the guy on to hit the "red button" which apparently is labeled "Adios". The record for the evening was a duel riding pair.

A full 1:30!

So after embarrassing ourselves we went down to the beach for sunset walking.


From the middle beach here at GSP this is looking at Orange Beach


And this is the pier and Gulf Shores


Sunset


We came back just in time for the rock stars to come by so we sat outside behind the protection of our mosquito net and nobody was bitten by yellow flies! My wife is overjoyed.

Oh, and on the way to the bath house I ran across a new friend

I named him George. He looked lonely so I set him up in a vacated A liner across the street from me. He seemed pleased.

 

[grumpyaggie]

Friendofeeyore (Glo) is wishing lots of safe travels & more fun than ever. Wish we were there, but next year for sure. We are RETIRING, hopefully in a few months!! Bama Ed, please let us know what site we need to request this week for next year. Hopefully the bad storms will stay out of Alabama this week-end. A cold front is hitting us Sunday afternoon thru Monday. Really wish Mother Nature would take a pill and calm down. See you real soon!! Grumpy Aggie says the same safe travels!!

 

[garneska]

Enjoying some morning coffee finally. Had to do some cleaning broke two glasses this morning. Glass everywhere.

 

[garneska]

Out for a bike ride this morning and saw this. It's mama and two baby gators.

 

[bama_ed]

Well count me among the arrived. It is a glorious day with a fantastic blue sky, a breeze, and a little humid.

I got here at 130pm and after lunch and a walmart run, i am enjoying the shady breeze at my campsite. There were lots of folks still arriving in gulf shores today and traffic was very heavy inbound.

But there is a sense of relief when you turn onto Camp Road #2 and see the iconic water tank...



More later. Glo i will do some research and get back to you on sites. However i posted in this thread last month that the online system for reservations now works well and next year can already be booked.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Well Glo it is already booking up for next year - I guess folks are finding the online system.

23 and 25 are available on Live Oak (I'm on site 4 and tiggerdad has booked site 18). So behind me are sites 1-2-3 which are mostly sun. I think being in the sun is not an issue at this time of the year and if you have good awnings. But 23 & 25 are last choice for a reason. Your awning faces the rising sun and it backs up to the lake but you have trees and bushes blocking your view. In the afternoon the sun is on the driver's side of the camper which would cast shade on your site. Sumac is parallel behind us and the sites are fine.



Go to www.alapark.com, choose Gulf, choosing Camping, and choose the Book online reservation. I did put in some extreme dates (in on a Thursday and out about 10 later on Saturday so you could play with shorter dates and see what pops up. When you get to the screen above, you can click on a site and there will pop up a window with site info and a picture of the site (only 1) but you can click on that to make it bigger and see what it looks like.

Hey, it's only a reservation. You can always cancel it.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

Okay I'll post some more now about the trip down.

On the drive down I went ahead and stopped at the cheese farm we often visit here, Sweet Home Farm. They have made cheese there for 34 years now so you would think I would remember that they are only open on Fridays and Saturdays but I forgot last year and brought tiggerdad and family out there on a Sunday. As you can tell, he won't let me forget it.

Sweet Home is about 30 minutes away from Gulf State Park but if you are coming from the Foley Beach Express into Gulf, it's less than 10 minutes out of the way.



It's not much to look at but it's good cheese.



I know it's 2017 but they don't take any plastic.



They sure are proud of their cheese.



I got some for myself and also these peace offering for tiggerdad. The Tuscany cheese is the one my kids call "the pizza cheese" because that's the seasoning (tomato, basil, garlic) and also some chocolate fudge cheese (girls like chocolate, right?).



After leaving there, I eventually swung over to Hwy 59 to cross over the Lulu's bridge and avoid paying the toll on the Orange Beach toll bridge. Should have paid in retrospect.



Coming to the campground, the little gravel lot across from the beach on Camp Road 2 was crammed with some double parked cars. With all the new trails around here, the beach is more easily walked to or ridden on bikes to. And lots of people were out today since it was beautiful.



I forgot to add that the sites behind Live Oak Road on Sumac Road are fine too (some folks stayed there last year). Some folks like the garneska and flametamr have their favorite areas they stay in. So anyplace will work (bring your bikes for sure here - book soon if you want to come in 2018.
Bama Ed