Gulf State Park Dismeet 2018: Sand, Sun, and Puzzles...

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Ended our stay at GSP with a bang! I proposed to Ashley on the beach yesterday evening before we left. I originally planned to do it the first few days there but the weather had everything messed up.
I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life with Ashley she the right person for me.

Congratulations to you both. Great way to end a trip. :jumping1:
 
Hi to all, I was at GSP thursday- through sat. I was out cycling and saw PaHunter's fort decor and that reminded me to let yall know that I followed some advice from yall from last fall and we have now tent camped 3 times on air mattresses in a 12 man tent. I would have said hi but no one was outside the camper and I didn't want to impose (it was really early so folks may have been sleeping). DH is contemplating a pop up, though we survived w/o ac, we stayed at the pool or the outlet most of the short 2 night trip. At night we took the rain fly off and ran a huge box fan and that got all the day time heat out of the tent. We were in site 153 on bear rd and we had a ton of rabbits. I actually was able to book that site 3 weeks before the first night, called instead of using online reservations. Unfortunately in the chaos of car camping with 3 kids I only took pics at the pool (none of the site). PaHunter, your new shepherds look amazing! we have a 7 month old GSD that did not go with us this trip as he is SO active he would have driven us crazy. He looks a lot like Diesel. I'm contemplating booking for next year for GSP but probably not May, looking at Fall dates, my DD gymnastics schedule makes fall camping hard though as that is meet season. Is it easier to get fall dates?
 
Hi to all, I was at GSP thursday- through sat. I was out cycling and saw PaHunter's fort decor and that reminded me to let yall know that I followed some advice from yall from last fall and we have now tent camped 3 times on air mattresses in a 12 man tent. I would have said hi but no one was outside the camper and I didn't want to impose (it was really early so folks may have been sleeping). DH is contemplating a pop up, though we survived w/o ac, we stayed at the pool or the outlet most of the short 2 night trip. At night we took the rain fly off and ran a huge box fan and that got all the day time heat out of the tent. We were in site 153 on bear rd and we had a ton of rabbits. I actually was able to book that site 3 weeks before the first night, called instead of using online reservations. Unfortunately in the chaos of car camping with 3 kids I only took pics at the pool (none of the site). PaHunter, your new shepherds look amazing! we have a 7 month old GSD that did not go with us this trip as he is SO active he would have driven us crazy. He looks a lot like Diesel. I'm contemplating booking for next year for GSP but probably not May, looking at Fall dates, my DD gymnastics schedule makes fall camping hard though as that is meet season. Is it easier to get fall dates?

Well first of all, glad you had a good camping trip, and doing without AC. Our was on the minute we plugged in, the humidity was killing me. We were away from the trailer except to sleep, visiting with all the other diser's. As for imposing, it would not have been, DW and I are used to strangers stopping and knocking on the front door of our house. Have had people stop to ask about our travel trailer, our fifth wheel, our new truck.
Thank you for the compliments on the new dogs, they have been pretty good so far, a few minor accidents, as they adjust to a new environment.
Our first camping trip with the dogs will be in two weeks, have to get them accustomed to the truck and introduced to the fifth wheel.
 
Hi to all, I was at GSP thursday- through sat. I was out cycling and saw PaHunter's fort decor and that reminded me to let yall know that I followed some advice from yall from last fall and we have now tent camped 3 times on air mattresses in a 12 man tent. I would have said hi but no one was outside the camper and I didn't want to impose (it was really early so folks may have been sleeping). DH is contemplating a pop up, though we survived w/o ac, we stayed at the pool or the outlet most of the short 2 night trip. At night we took the rain fly off and ran a huge box fan and that got all the day time heat out of the tent. We were in site 153 on bear rd and we had a ton of rabbits. I actually was able to book that site 3 weeks before the first night, called instead of using online reservations. Unfortunately in the chaos of car camping with 3 kids I only took pics at the pool (none of the site). PaHunter, your new shepherds look amazing! we have a 7 month old GSD that did not go with us this trip as he is SO active he would have driven us crazy. He looks a lot like Diesel. I'm contemplating booking for next year for GSP but probably not May, looking at Fall dates, my DD gymnastics schedule makes fall camping hard though as that is meet season. Is it easier to get fall dates?

Glad you made it, hate we didn't get to meet up. Maybe next year?
 


Is it easier to get fall dates?

HI Meshell2002.

Fall dates are generally easier to get as long as you avoid a few times.

First, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of the summer season and it's crowded (and still hot/humid). Not the best tent camping weather.

Second, mid-October is the time for the Gulf Shores Shrimp Fesitval (long time off season tourism event-this year is the 47th annual). This year it is Thursday October 11- Sunday October 14. It's a busier weekend.

Third, starting in November Gulf State Park has traditionally gone into their "snowbird" mode through March. Of their 500 campsites, 450 are given over to 30-days at a time reservations for people from up North who spend the winter down at Gulf in their campers and rv's so that leaves only about 50 sites available for regular short-term reservations (up to 14 days). Once I tried to get a February weekend reservation a month ahead and those 50 were full.

My recommendation for best tent camping time would be around the last two weeks of October.

Enjoy!

Bama Ed
 
Congrats Randy! Invite us all to the wedding and you might be surprised who shows up.

Meshell,

Welcome to the group. I remember tent camping in the summer. I'm too old now. I'll be at GSP in September. It can still be pretty warm. Tell us a little about yourself. Obviously a Disney and beach fan, so you'll fit right in with this group.

j
 


Randy Congrats But bear this in mind. Marriage is the chief cause of all the divorces.
 
Okay I guess I get to post the final part due to being last to leave. But first Randy and Ashley congratulations on your engagement. I wish you a life time of happiness together.

After the storm turned east and failed to gain power we decided to head back to the camper. Had some rain but just as I guessed the week was great. Partly cloudy and hot. We swam, biked and ate out a couple of times. Nothing fancy though. The last 2 days there was a heat advisory due to the high heat and humidity being over 100. I felt it was 150 while trying to pack up to leave today. I will go ahead and tell on myself now. While taking my time today I hooked up the tank flush and walked away. Got busy and forgot I had failed to go back in a few minutes and open the valve. Guess when I discovered it. Yeah it was when water came gushing off of the roof. I sprinted and killed to water and raced inside to find my worse nightmare. Water with an unfriendly odor was pouring out of my ceiling around the vents and light fixtures. It seems that Open Range put little if any glue on the vent pipes. I quickly rounded up towels and pulled down the lights so it could drain. I think I may have dodged the big bullet but for the next week I'm going to holding my breath and praying. I know others have done this but I feel completely foolish. I just hope nothing starts to buckle or mold. I'm keeping the camper open now with fans blowing into the ceiling holes. And to make matters worse that all put me behind so I had to rush to get off the site.

Just when I thought I could decompress and enjoy the hour long pull home my trucks air conditioner would not cool down. It has a slow leak and I added one can of Freon before the trip and it was fine. But I'm afraid the leak has gotten worse and it lost too much siting for those 10 days. When I got home I added another can and it started cooling again so we'll see. I got the camper unloaded and finally was able to sit down and type this all out. Tomorrow will be the deep cleaning and backing the camper into it's spot beside the house.

I'm sorry if I seemed unsociable this week it was not on purpose. I promise I rode by a couple or three times and everyone seemed to be out. I look forward to next year and being a little closer to the action in site 8. It looks like it will be our biggest meet yet. Hopefully my new job if I still have it then will allow me to attend. I accepted a position at the Walmart Distribution Center. I start in 3 weeks but my shifts are every Sat, Sun and Mon 12 hour shifts 6A-6P. So I may Miss the weekend stuff next year.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to dry out my ceiling I'm all ears. I will be in touch with the TA this week and report back. Then we'll have to decide for sure if we are going to the Fort in 2020 and when. Personally I would prefer to just move the location for one year and keep the same time frame around Memorial Day. There is very little chance I can do two trips in October and I would really hate to cancel my Halloween trip. But we'll try work it out based on the group decision.
 
Joe, hate to hear about that. On a funny note, I do believe one of our other Disers, not to be named...okay it's @SouthAlabama5er told me a story that sounded pretty familiar. Best advice I can give is buy a dehumidifier and let it run non-stop for quite a while. I would wonder if your insurance might not cover this kinda thing. I was thinking about Servepro actually. You would think there would be a failsafe to keep that from happening. Of course, I'm just in a poor man's TT so I don't even have the option of a flush.

I still would highly recommend a dehumidifier.
 
Michael it really didn't get on the carpet much. Luckily I had an older style quilt on the bed and it caught a lot. We were able to soak up what got on the bathroom floor. My problem is what is trapped in the wall behind the toilet or ceiling joints. And yes there is a slight odor. Luckily we only allow no 1s in the camper if possible. Tomorrow I will see about pulling some wood down and inspecting further. It's possible I may have been spared a lot if damage but will have to suffer the odor of my mistake for a while. That being said I really doubt it would be enough damage to warrant an insurance claim but I will certainly consider it if it looks worse than I thing it will.
 
I agree with the dehumidifier. If you can open some small holes or loosen some screws or nails for it to pull air through. We have 2- 70 pint dehumidifiers they work great.
 
Well first of all, glad you had a good camping trip, and doing without AC. Our was on the minute we plugged in, the humidity was killing me. We were away from the trailer except to sleep, visiting with all the other diser's. As for imposing, it would not have been, DW and I are used to strangers stopping and knocking on the front door of our house. Have had people stop to ask about our travel trailer, our fifth wheel, our new truck.
Thank you for the compliments on the new dogs, they have been pretty good so far, a few minor accidents, as they adjust to a new environment.
Our first camping trip with the dogs will be in two weeks, have to get them accustomed to the truck and introduced to the fifth wheel.

I would love to take our guy camping, currently he is going through adolescence. He chews on everything. He seems high strung to me, but he's my first GSD. DH is training him in german commands with an ex military trainer. He is 7 mos and about 65 pounds, he's got some police lines and I think that's why he's so active. DH walks him 4 miles a day. When people hear us give commands in German, I say of course he speaks German... he's a German Shepherd. I get some weird looks on that joke. We will be taking him hiking in July, staying in a state park with a pet friendly cabin (instead of a tent).

Glad you made it, hate we didn't get to meet up. Maybe next year?

HI Meshell2002.

Fall dates are generally easier to get as long as you avoid a few times.

First, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of the summer season and it's crowded (and still hot/humid). Not the best tent camping weather.

Second, mid-October is the time for the Gulf Shores Shrimp Fesitval (long time off season tourism event-this year is the 47th annual). This year it is Thursday October 11- Sunday October 14. It's a busier weekend.

Third, starting in November Gulf State Park has traditionally gone into their "snowbird" mode through March. Of their 500 campsites, 450 are given over to 30-days at a time reservations for people from up North who spend the winter down at Gulf in their campers and rv's so that leaves only about 50 sites available for regular short-term reservations (up to 14 days). Once I tried to get a February weekend reservation a month ahead and those 50 were full.

My recommendation for best tent camping time would be around the last two weeks of October.

Enjoy!

Bama Ed

I will consider that, the last 2 weeks of October is probably the only weekends that work for DD gymnastics schedule.

Congrats Randy! Invite us all to the wedding and you might be surprised who shows up.

Meshell,

Welcome to the group. I remember tent camping in the summer. I'm too old now. I'll be at GSP in September. It can still be pretty warm. Tell us a little about yourself. Obviously a Disney and beach fan, so you'll fit right in with this group.

j

DH & I have been married 16 years, have DS11, DD9, DD5. We have been to WDW 5 times as a family, wanted to go in 2019 because DH wanted to wait until DHS is farther along. DH & I both work so we rarely take long trips (except WDW). DH had never been to WDW until our honeymoon in 2002. I grew up military and lived in FL as a child, went to WDW several times as a kid. My parents were from WV, so we moved back there when Dad got out of the USAF, but I now live in AL just south of Bama Ed. We are about 2.5 hrs from GSP, and have stayed in many of the condos up and down Gulf Shores/ Orange Beach.
 
dehumidifier, can set it up to drain into your gray tank thru the shower drain.
 
Congrats Randy and Ashley. :hug:.

Joe, sorry to hear about your mishap, and yes to dehumidifier
 
Joe,

Congrats on the WM job. DS works for Sam's. Not a bad company.

As for the crappy rain :-). I nearly did the same the 2nd or 3rd time taking my new 5er out. This is the first trailer with a black tank flush. The fittings are right next to each other. When I was setting up, I hooked up the hose and turned on the water, then set about getting chairs, carpet and the rest of "camp" setup. DW was inside doing things and apparently took my niece to the BR. When they stepped on the flush, in my wife's words, "The toilet exploded!!!" Thankfully mine was only a little on the floor... Ok, a lot on the floor. And the tank was mostly empty. At least I caught mine before it was raining.

j
 
Randy and I nearly went to jail (because of the previously mentioned steaks). That's no joke...we nearly did.

The answer may be somewhere in the 26 pages of this thread, but don't want to read them all. I would love to know how people could potentially go to jail over steaks. :crazy2: Did they think you were cooking up endangered species or something?
 
The answer may be somewhere in the 26 pages of this thread, but don't want to read them all. I would love to know how people could potentially go to jail over steaks. :crazy2: Did they think you were cooking up endangered species or something?

https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...f-state-park-in-may-june-2016.3462415/page-41

This is the link to the 2016 Dismeet. Page 41 I believe. If you go halfway down you'll see the big plug of meat wrapped up. I had posted the story, but apparently it was deleted :sad2:

In a nutshell we needed to cut that plug of meat up and our tools wouldn't do it. So we took it to a local market that had told us via phone that they could do it for us. Problem was by that time we had removed the plastic wrap that included the FDA inspection information sooooooo...it turns out it was a felony....:scared:
 
FortForever what Tiggerdad is not telling you is that this story is just a typical chapter in the ongoing adventures of Tiggerdad and SouthAlabama5er. Like last year when the tried to ride THE SHARK, This year weather and common sense exercised by some of the wives cut things short so the Gator Rasslin has been deferred till next year, my kind of guys
 

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