Getting ready for Gustav!!

The campers started slowly coming in all evening long, one here and there and then around 9 pm there wasn't many sites left!

As you can this morning when light appeared, the camp sites were filling up.

Here is Ms. Southwind nicely tucked in her nice quiet little corner.

In the picture above notice the wildcat & prowler are park side beside?

Now look in this picture, they are parked behind each other on one site!!

Campers have been pouring in most of the day and almost everyone has had to un hook and relocate so that everyone can double up and piggy back to make room for more campers.

This close up picture shows just
how close campers are to each other! Wow, i bet they can hear each other snore tonight!!

These pictures gives you a some what ideal of how close we are packed into the camper ground and trying to escape the storm.

Everyone is sharing elec, sewer, water, cable and wifi.

Here is one of the workers working to add more electric and water for those campers that are parked along here that do not have any hookups yet. The staff has been working so hard today and they have to be exhausted!


This is a rather big campground and normally you are only allowed to park on the concrete slabs, but this is not the case for us refuge's. Thank goodness we are all just thankful to have a safe place to park and escape the storm heading our way.

This is the new road that is for the new area that their making into a campground. They have even opened up this area for campers even though they were not ready. The power company showed up today and helped get power to them. Wow, wasn't that so nice of the power company? Thanks power company!!

This dog seems to be taking it all in stride and enjoying the view. Hmmm does he look like a stressed out dog?

The owners even allowed campers to park by their homes and plug into their electric. Everyone is conserving and basically just running our air conditioners and TV's. We have been asked to limit what we run.


No one is allowed to use more then one air conditioner, we are all limited to a 20 amp's service. If our breaker blows outside we have to have the office turn it back on as they have them locked so we can't turn them on. Anyone with satellite is asked to use them instead of the cable.


This little camper and bus is dry camping and allowed to run their generator. Usually generator's are not allowed, but for now they are if you do not have shore power or if we lose our power from the stores.

On my walk I found this, interesting .. isn't the back ground a beautiful scenery??

Everyone is taking it all in great stride and just relaxing and enjoying themselves. A early vacation as they say and no need to worry about something you can not change. What will be will be. Wow great attitudes!! Several in the campground are having gtg and anyone in the park is invited. Isn't that great? I'm impressed how we the people of this country can still come together in such a tragic event. There seems to be no rich/poor lines among this camping community. Everyone is visiting and talking and trying to have to much fun out of a bad situation.

I visited with this family and they are so amazing. They are proud survivors of 6 hurricanes!! This is their first hurricane they have evacuated on and left all their belongings & homes behind. They said after riding Katrina out and surviving never again will they do that again. From now on they will pack up and head out.

The hurricanes they've survived are the following .............................

Betsy in Sept 10th, 1965 ... Flood protection in New Orleans has been a hot topic for more than four decades - since Hurricane Betsy devastated the city in 1965.

Camille in Aug 17th, 1969....The most significant storm for Mississippi and Louisiana during the 20th century was Hurricane Camille, which struck the Mississippi coast on August 17th, 1969 with a small diameter and a forward speed of 14 mph (Yamazaki, 2002). Camille was one of only three storms to hit the U.S. mainland as a Category 5 during the 20th century, rivaled by Florida’s 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Andrew in 1992.

George in Sept 28th, 1998..... Georges inflicted extensive damage on numerous Caribbean islands before making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi on September 28, 1998 with a maximum sustained surface wind of 104 mph and a central pressure of 964 mb.

Ivan in Sept 14th, 2004 ..... Hurricane Ivan exposed major evacuation issues as more than a million people tried to leave the greater New Orleans area on Tuesday September 14, 2004, creating a traffic jam worse than the traffic when people evacuated for Georges. The state police enacted contraflow traffic patterns in the afternoon, but the 60 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge was a seven hour ordeal (New Orleans Hurricane Risk).

Katrina in Aug 29, 2005 .... Hurricane Katrina may be the most memorable storm in New Orleans history, but its trajectory across the Pelican State was far from unique damaging and costly hurricanes in the history of the United States. One of the most disappointing issues of the catastrophe is that the devastation was due in part to human engineering failures

Rita in Sept. 23, 2005 ... Damage from Hurricane Rita as it swept across parts of Texas and Louisiana today was perhaps at least five times less severe than the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina as it battered New Orleans, the rest of eastern Louisiana and Mississippi earlier this year, according to initial estimates by insurance industry experts.

And now Gustav! Wow, they have some stories to tell and it's amazing how they take it all in stride. Have you noticed that these dates are all within a month?

See all types of campers are pulling in. On my walk this popup was waiting to be directed to a spot.


At 6 pm this is the long line of campers that were still looking to find a safe spot to park.

They were even lined up out on the highway. Traffic was stopped as far as i could see.

It's been an amazing day and a crazy one, who knows what the next few days will hold for us. But, at least i can say I'm safely parked, completely stocked up on water, food and fuel!

Here is the view out the left window. Unlike most campers, I have at least one side that someone isn't parked on top of me. Actually other then directly behind, I don't have any campers on either side.

This ditch is on the left side too, but I'm up on a hill compared to most campers and i don't think if we get lots of rain I will have to worry about being flooded as I did at the last campground ... all is good inside Ms. Southwind so far.

In the past week I've spent $390 on fuel alone. But I'm completely filled up, have 78 gals in the motor home, 3 gals in the generator, 20 gals in the tow car & and 5 - 5 gal jugs filled to the brim! Plus have driven the motor home 381 miles! averaged around 7 mpg in the Rv with towing the tow, hauling a camper packed with supplies to the hilt and around 100 gals of water! I have enough grocery supplies to last a month. The tow is packed to the hilt as well. Gas here today is $3.59 per gal. The gas station fueled up at said that during Katrina they lost power for a week and ran out of fuel and didn't get anymore for over a week! So I figure with the gas I have and what the generator uses I can last 24/7 for 24 days running it.

I have more pictures to show you of the campground but since were limited on the wifi and it's 12.30 am i am going to head to bed .... night all and hope your all safe and secure as we are so far.

I will try to keep you updated as much as i can..... until later ..............