Gulf of Mexico & Chickasaw
March 2021
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We wanted to take a longer family trip with our Subaru Ruby and our pop up Taos over spring break. The kids have been remote schooling all year due to the Covid 19 pandemic and Zach works at home full time so overall we have had some serious cabin fever around here! We were both lucky enough to get vaccinated this winter and could stay socially distanced in Taos so it felt safe to plan our camping trip. The mask mandate in Texas was set to expire during our trip, but most people were still wearing masks indoors which was a pleasant surprise.
It’s been a while since we have been to an ocean and our closest ocean is the Gulf off of Texas. We thought about boondocking, looked at State parks and private campgrounds and finally settled on Blue Water RV Resort near Surfside Beach, Texas (more specifics on the resort later).
We drove straight through in one day (14 hours!) but arriving at the ocean and setting Toas up by palm trees was so worth it. Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (Audiobook) got us through the long drive.
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What’s not to love about being at the beach? We took long walks every morning collecting shells, played in the waves every afternoon and all read a bunch of new books while working on our tans! We decided to make meals really easy, soup and sandwiches for lunch and burgers and brats for dinner.....slow life at its finest. No stress....There were nice picnic tables at our sites so it was easy to set our little Coleman up for outdoor cooking. In the evenings we played cards, listened to music or just relaxed.
We had planned to split the drive home into two days with a stop over in Oklahoma, which turned into a two night stay at Chickasaw National Recreation Area. We stayed at Buckhorn campground near The Lake of the Arbuckles in a beautiful campsite in the trees. We will definitely be coming back to Chickasaw, it was quiet, well maintained, and had nice large sites with plenty of hiking trails. The only thing we missed having was our hammock!
One of our main travel goals this trip with Taos and Ruby was determining what kind of campground or resort works best for our family. Although we loved being super close to the ocean, we would not choose Blue Water RV resort again; it was really geared toward bigger RVs. Our neighbors had generators going constantly and the extremely loud sump truck came through in the mornings. Facilities were nice but the nearest bathroom that was open at night was a good 15 minute walk away from our site. Overall Blue Water RV Resort wasn’t really our vibe.....although the beach was beautiful. Next time we are in the area we hope to have upgraded Taos a little with more power and a toilet so we can park right on the beach or stop in at a campground that’s a little less fancy....
Our experience at Buckhorn in Chickasaw National Recreation Area makes us excited to explore more spots in Oklahoma! Just a few hours south of us, Oklahoma has a wide variety of terrain and a great State Park system. Any suggestions for fun places to visit in the Midwest? Send us a message using the link on the main page or email us your experiences at ezadventures.world@gmail.com!
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