Neighborhood Watch Needed?

map of Davis Bayou campground

We drove from West Point, GA to Ocean Springs, Mississippi today...a distance of 325 miles, easy peasy for Eldo. We are at the Gulf Islands National Seashore, at Davis Bayou Campground, a hidden gem off the beaten path of highway 90. There is no beach at the national seashore's Davis Bayou area, but public beaches are nearby in Ocean Springs, about 10-15 minutes away. This park is part of the national parks system, so we are in for three nights on Eldy's senior pass, 8.00 a night! Wowee! Water and 50 amp electric and that's it, but hey, for that price, we don't care that there is no pool and that the restrooms are under construction and remodeling. There is a dump station here as well. There's a self-guiding trail and a boat launch into Davis Bayou...launch that kayak, Sparky!

There are viewing stations on some boardwalks and a small but outstanding visitor center in the park. There's some really cool hands on stuff at the visitor center, which has been completely remodeled after the last hurricane destroyed it. The visitor center is terrific! Sparky learned the identification of some more birds that she sees on our travels, learned that bull sharks hang out by the coastal shores in shallower waters...oh, dear. She smelled some wonderful wax myrtle....

And listened to an alligator growl in mating season so she can recognize it in the wild when she's out kayaking by herself in the bayou later this week...

The Davis Bayou Campground is small, around 50+ sites, first come, first served, but there is a mixture of large and small sites. Not very many are shaded. A big rig can get in here just fine, but unhooking before coming into the park is recommended. We found our site and after our long drive today, settled down under the awning for some much needed rest. Sparky started planning the next couple of days' activities, while Eldo contemplated a few things such as the color of the sky and the shape of the clouds and whether we are going to get any rain or not. :-)

Pretty soon, we heard sirens...they kept getting louder and louder....Eldy says, "They are coming into the campground.."   Naw, they are just out on the highway, out on 90, it just sounds loud, says Sparky. Wrong! They came into the park. They came over to the site right around the bend from us. That's when Sparky noticed the guy flat on the ground just opposite from our site.

He was out like a light, unconscious. He was discovered by the camp host on his rounds going around on his bike. (Sure you still want to be a camp host some day, Sparky? asks E.) Uh, sure! Some day.....maybe.....After Judy's story (Travels with Judy and Emma blog) about a woman and her baby that came knocking on her door one night saying their lives were in danger....Sparky is not so sure...But anyway....

Stuff started happenin', let me tell you! The cops came, the ambulance came, the fire truck came...the neighborhood photographers came out of the woodwork! (Sparky, SPARKY?! Where did you go? wondered E.) Sparky went closer to the scene of the action and to get the details and a photo or two. She's gotta know if this place is going to be a zoo in the next couple of days, or if this is an unusual occurrence. It was an unusual occurrence, say the camp hosts. One of the camp hosts was riding his bike around, saw this guy on the ground and couldn't rouse him. So, it was a 9-1-1 call. The police and firemen came fast!

For awhile, there were lot of  support personnel--cops, ambulance guys and park personnel, and then they all left, leaving the unconscious guy who was now conscious and sitting up with the local cop investigating the situation. The ambulance guy had come over and talked to us earlier as we had a totally open view of the whole situation, but we didn't see the guy fall, nor did we hear any arguing, which is the conclusion they came to, that the guy fell. There was a second guy in the site, sitting to the right of that funky looking popup. He totally was unconcerned about his "buddy", didn't bother to come over to see what had happened to his "buddy" when the cops came. "Oh, he'll be all right," he says when they came over to ask him what was going on. Had they been fighting? Naw... He continued to sit on the picnic table to the right of the scene and didn't give a care about what was going on. Very callous attitude. Eventually, the guy that fell or passed out was handcuffed and taken away. Bet it will be a quiet spot over there the rest of the time we are here! We are glad about that. But glad to know the local hospital is just across from the entrance to the national seashore, just in case......

Sparky briefly entertained the idea of starting a neighborhood watch program in the park, (she's joking, folks!) but the camp hosts assured her that really, nothing like this has ever happened before. The police/fire department have only visited this park once before, quite awhile ago, and that was for a little motorhome that caught on fire.

It's gonna be HOT, HOT, HOT again for the next few days..We will be here three days and then one more hop, skip and a jump stop before landing in Spring, TX to see Sparky's daughter, Kerry. Hope we can keep cool. Sparky sees a trip to the beach in the near future to get away from the heat for a bit. See you later, maybe on the Gulf!