Beach Camping...

On Sunday afternoon when we arrived at Surfside Beach this was a parking lot. Lots of people out having fun in the sun. This is the free beach. Driving and camping is free on this part compared to the county maintained fee area that begins at the red light where you come off the bridge. We got on the beach at Access Road #2 and driving toward San Luis Pass the day trippers were in full force but we only saw a handful of campers. We picked a spot probably less than a mile past the landmark of the container houses. We set up next to the dunes and sun worshipers cleared by the evening though the last hard cores continued driving up and down Mad Max style on into the night till Monday morning when we were finally alone to the sound of surf and wind.     

This was our first trip to camp without hook ups of any kind. While the Rpod can do some stuff on battery and propane power the generator allows you to run air, big lights, microwave if you need that kind of thing and wall plugs for a coffee pot and phone charging. We picked the Champion 4650 dual fuel generator. We might have made due with something a bit smaller but generators are like tow vehicles better to have more than you need and it has been coming in handy around the house for water slides and power outages. Only draw back is the weight but as long as I only have to set it out of the pickup on the ground by the trailer tongue where we chained it for security as it's our most high dollar camping item I think I'll be ok. 

With the Gulf breezes we opened the pop out tent windows and air conditioning was not necessary. We have not run the air yet on four camping trips from April up till now.    

Beach camping tip: With the generator it's a good idea to run the porch light all night. Probably not needed on less crowded weekdays but I felt like late night drivers could see us. 

We did come home a day early as gusty wind to 30 MPH threatened our pop out tent. With a 13 year old camper there's usually a few things to fix after each trip but they are minor and by leaving we avoided major. I don't think we could have cooked on the fire pit in this wind anyway. 

Last year during May and June I had seen good fishing reports and I was hot for that kind of action but with the wind churning the surf I remembered why I always preferred late July on into the fall. If the wind shifts north and east the water is calmer and clearer. When I was a young man I'd battle that kind of water but now days I'll even give up swimming to just sit and watch the waves and birds.    

We both like the beach and have many fond memories of childhood, coming of age teen trips and vacations with our own family to the beach. We will be coming back as we hone our cut the cord camping.