Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi

Gulf Islands National Seashore

The RV life for families, senior citizen travelers and retired folks encompasses camping, fishing, wild life observations, meeting interesting fellow travelers, photographing nature at her best, enjoying walks through pristine forests and along sandy beaches, swimming in lakes and oceans. The following account tells of just such an encounter with nature and humans.

Bright morning sun light streams through stands of tall slash pines and loblollies casting a fretwork of light and shadow across the campground.

The sky shows itself pale blue with grayish white cloud puffs slowly drifting. A perfect day, it seems, is in the making.

RVs of many sizes and types, uncanny creatures in this forest's natural venue, sit on asphalt pads laid down among the trees. It is early morning and no one is stirring. But at least in one RV the people are watching the morning news on television.

This much I know, because they are in the next site to us. It is a very large vehicle with sections that extend out from the sides causing the thing to look more like a house than a traveling van. Presumably, the people inside are having their breakfast as well.

But not us. We ate several hours ago. Margot is out in the forest taking photos. As for myself, a solid hour has been spent on the Internet, checking emails and looking into various web sites that I customarily visit - political, scientific and general networks.

We are in the Gulf Islands National Seashore, part of the U.S. National Park Service, situated on the edge of the quaint old town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It is January 14, 2004.

While a deep freeze holds the northern parts of this nation in its grip, here at the edge of the gulf, we can walk around in our shirts, even at this hour of the morning.

To be able to say we are grateful for this boon, traveling in our van through the warm southern states away from the piercing cold, is in itself a blessing worth mentioning.