Navy Base Camping with a Peg-Legged RV

After leaving Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, we spent a couple of days driving to our next location–Pensacola, Florida. As we hitched up, our front landing gear was having trouble retracting–an experience we had on a prior camper, and knew it would need our attention soon.

We found a Bass Pro Shop that allowed overnights in Pearl, Mississippi, and since the landing gear was stil being stubborn, we opted to stay hitched up. We then headed to a KOA for a couple of nights on the other side of the river from NAS Pensacola, our next stop. We’ve been procrastinating on getting the military ID’s for the boys (mostly due to proximity, time and confusion on paperwork-IYKYK), so still have to get them guest passes to stay at MWRs. It was easier to be close by and drive over for passes without towing the RV, then move to the new campground. We found out after the fact that we didn’t actually need it for them since the Blue Angels Park isn’t on the main base, but every base is different and we went by the base website.

We went to set up at our site and the post had an electrical issue, so they moved us to another site–and we still had our water view. We set up and spent the week of Thanksgiving there, enjoying the campground, exploring the base, including the air museum and lighthouse, visiting with family in the area and resting after a long haul across the US.

We kept Thanksgiving pretty low key, watching the parade and dog show and enjoying turkey sandwiches and crustless pumpkin pie, as well as an attempt at gluten free chocolate glazed donuts. Happy to say it was all yummy!

The campground has lots of places to hike and explore, and there were lots of wildlife to see, including deer that came through the campsites. On one walk, a fawn was running straight at Luna, dodging at the last minute, startling both the fawn and Luna (it happened so fast on our evening stroll, no cameras were involved–sorry!).

The campground has a decent bathhouse with separate rooms for each shower/toilet space, a laundry area, elevated platforms for tent campers, cabin rentals, and water and electric sites, with a dump station at both campground areas. Luckily we had our tote, so we just hauled tank water over every few days, as needed. They have places to fish and a boat ramp, and rentals available on the weekends.

We enjoyed the National Naval Air Museum on base and loved the immersive displays, tons of aircraft, and even had lunch at the cafe on site. We’ve always loved the Blue Angels, and even though it was their off time for flight, we saw some great static displays and history at the museum.

We stopped at the Pensacola Lighthouse & Maritime Museum across the street, but since we spent too long at the air museum, we weren’t able to climb it or explore the grounds except from the perimeter.

We met some great people, saw some beautiful sunsets and enjoyed our time. Unfortunately, we had an issue with our landing gear when we arrived and, even though we planned to slowly work our way past home and down to Key Largo, our next big stop, we opted to just have parts shipped to home base and go straight there, with an overnight stop half way, especially since it took us an extra hour to get hooked up with our leg, and therefore our leveling system, not working right.

We did a Cracker Barrel overnight in Lake City, and it was a popular place on a weekend night. We had no real issue other than crowded parking and a Class A that left it’s toad hanging out in the travel lane. With our landing gear acting up, we didn’t unhitch, and then headed on into home base the next day.

With a few days at home, we were able to catch our mail, see some family and friends and get our landing gear replaced. Then we were on to our next reservation to meet up with friends, and why we had hustled across the US in such a hurry–John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park.

More on that in the next blog!

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