Our family discovered Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA in the spring of 2014. Now every time we are in that part of Louisiana, we try to stop for a hike.
This time, we had our two year old grandson with us. He loved the Nature Center; especially the aquariums! As soon as he got on the boardwalk trail behind the Nature Center, he started to laugh and run. It’s a great place for small children because most of the trail has a railing on both sides.
We saw turtles, heard a variety of birds, threw small twigs and leaves into the water, and looked up at the tall trees in wonder. It’s amazing how the world opens up when you are looking through the eyes of a child.
The trail is the perfect distance for little legs and he loved going through the Nature Center one more time before we strapped him into his car seat for the ride back to our park.
We can’t wait to take him again and hopefully next time, we will camp there.
We love camping at Lake Lurleen State Park. The lake is large and beautiful. The sites are huge and many of them overlook the lake. As with many Alabama State Parks, most of the sites have electric, sewer and water. The park is clean, remote and the staff is first-rate!
With approximately 19.5 miles of trails, you will find them perfect for short hikes or long bike trips.
WiFi Signal Problem
The MAIN difficulty with this park and really, the ONLY downside for us wanderers, is the lack of internet and phone signal. The park is in a valley and the cell towers are up on the hill. Our phones may receive a text, sporadically, but that is few and far between.
Before we made our next trip to Lake Lurleen, I saw some YouTubers talk about the same problem and they said it was solved by using a booster system. Having researched boosters, we bought and installed the SolidRF Signal Booster.
Every morning, I would jump in the truck with my laptop and MiFi card to get signal. It was about a 7 mile drive until I could reach strong enough signal to check my email and phone messages. Since my businesses are 100% internet-based, I found myself having to make this trip multiple times throughout the day… THEN… I thought… “what if my drone could carry my MiFi card into the sky and connect with a tower?” So, two questions:
First: “Will the State Park let me fly my drone?” I got permission.
Second: “If I send the MiFi card 100-200 feet into the air, will the MiFi signal be strong enough for me to still connect to it?” It does!
Make sure you watch the video below to see how I connect to the cell tower using my drone and MiFi card! I am probably the first camper to actually watch a streaming YouTube! 😉
Here is a link to the parts that I used to make my “Drone MiFi”
SuzAnne has the uncanny ability to find wildflowers whenever we hike. Until she started to show me wildflowers as we walked trails, everything just seemed to be another green weed – to me. She can pick out the smallest of flowers that I NEVER would have paid attention to! Today’s hike is NO exception! In fact, I never saw or heard of this flower until we made this video.
While hiking this trail in northern Alabama, SuzAnne said that she was looking for a “little brown jug.” Mind you, hiking in the woods of Alabama, looking for a “little brown jug,” a wildflower is the last thing that comes to my mind! Did she stumble into someone’s backyard still?!
Seriously though, this plant is hidden under thick leaf litter. You can find the plant by finding the main heart-shaped leaf that extends above the leaf litter. Watch the video below and you will see this amazingly cool plant!
Well… our plans to stay for one month at Gulf State Park changed and we stayed until March 1st! Now my Android phone has automatically identified the State Park as “Home.” In many ways, it has truly become our Alabama “Home.” Yet, the time has come to move on.
We belong to a number of different resort systems. Since we are camping 365 days a year, belonging to at least two resort systems is the best way to travel. Styx is part of the Ocean Canyon resorts. We stay for 2 weeks then move on to the next resort.More
Hello from Gulf Shores, Alabama! We were here last January and couldn’t stay away. Currently, we are staying at a state park at least through the end of January. We may not be able to make the girls leave!
When we left Michigan at the end of October, we headed to Van Wert, OH, on business for a couple of days. From there we headed to KY, where we stayed a couple of weeks in the Mammoth Cave area. We loved it but colder weather and frozen pipes pushed us further south. We spent a couple of days in Columbia, TN, where we got to visit with family.
Friday, March 2—When we got out of the Suburban at our new park, Sunshine Travel RV Resort in Vero Beach, FL, we heard very welcoming and very much welcomed, “Hello! Welcome!! I see you are from Michigan.” We hadn’t heard much English since we left the Everglades and it was very nice to be able to converse freely with the nice man parked next to us.
We really liked this park a lot and wished we could stay more than three nights. They have a beautiful pool in this very clean park with more spacious sites than those we left behind in Pompano Beach. After doing a little shopping, we walked around the park in the evening. It was cut a bit short when we saw what we believe to be a King Snake slither across the road.More
Monday February 27: After hearing more French than English while in the Keys, we were excited to head back to mainland Florida and English. From the moment we entered the gates of Breezy Hill RV Resort in Pompano Beach, however, we knew this wasn’t going to be the case. Most of the signs were in French and as Barry stood in line to register at the sales office, he hoped that someone would speak English. Fortunately, they did! We found out that about 90% of the park were from Quebec (we think 98% since the only U.S. license plates were ours from MI and a couple from Montana). It was strange to be somewhat of a novelty in our own country. “You speak English?” We joked that if a country wanted to invade Quebec, the winter months would be the time as most of Quebec seemed to be in southern Florida.More
This morning we got up and headed immediately to the beach for a little physical education and Science. We got there almost as the tide was at its lowest. It was sunny and nearly clear of the fog that was so dense yesterday. It was still humid enough that our hair was once again wet by the time we left. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the large amount of shells we were expecting but we did find a lot (hundreds) of small Portuguese Man of War. Barry and I were stung by larger versions of the species several years ago so we were very careful not to let the girls (or us) get caught between the incoming waves and the dead animals. We stopped to investigate several of them. I contemplated assigning a report on the curious little creatures but the older girls are up to their ears studying Kingdom Protista in Biology and Eva is enjoying Botany. (I can’t say that the older girls are enjoying Kingdom Protista!)
After lunch and school, we headed back to the beach. This time we went to another area of this very large state park. Barry and the girls had planned on going out into the waves with boogie boards but we found even more Portuguese Man of War than on the previous beach. We found several that were a pretty good size so we decided not to risk any stings but to walk the beach instead.
The farther we got away from our truck, the more wicked the sky north and south of us grew. We ended up hurrying to the truck with just moments to spare before we got pelted with rain. The sky remained gray for the rest of the day delaying our plans for a nighttime walk on the beach at high-tide. Instead, we enjoyed a quiet night at home and a good supper.
If all Alabama state parks are like Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama, they get an A+. With over 5 miles of white sandy beaches, a beautiful campground in an alligator habitat, hiking trails, the Gulfs longest pier, and…AND very nice, clean bathrooms this is a must stop if you ever visit southern Alabama. The Nature Center, indoor pool and laundry facilities are new and well kept. There are also a lot of areas in which to bike.
The town of Gulf Shores offers a lot of shopping, restaurants and new hotels. It’s close to Pensacola, Pensacola Beach, other state parks and Gulf Islands National Seashore. We didn’t do much except for walk the beach but we loved our time here and hope to return!
(The picture of the dead trees is part of the state park at which we are staying. After Hurricane Ivan hit, the salt water didn’t drain out of the swamps but just sat there and killed the trees. This gives some of the park a rather eerie look. It looks almost like the remnants of a nuclear disaster. Still, we found some very large eagle’s nests perched atop some of the trees. There are other parts of the park that are thickly forested.)