Camping At Holly Beach, La

One of the greatest adventures of our camping was the time we went to Louisana to visit our sister and family that lived in Lake Charles. This was a trip that Delbert, Ruby, Gayle, Debbie, Helen Fant's daughter (don't remember her name), Maybe Cammie or Rose ( one of Delbert's sisters), Myself, Naomi, Darleen, Hugh and Karen. Eleven people in all the group.We had planned this trip for several months and was planning on taking a side trip to Holly Beach, a resort, we thought, south of Lake Charles along the Gulf of Mexico. I had found it on the map and it sounded interesting, so that was where we would go.!We had just started camping and was getting tired of the blow-up air mattresses and decided to buy some surplus army cots to go with our tent. I went out and found an old trailer that was laying in some people back yard and decided to fix it up to carry our camping equipment. It was more like a axle with a flat bed and only had one wheel. I paid the man $7.00 for it and went to the junk yard and bought a wheel and tire for $3.00 and pulled it home. I fixed up the frame and built a wooden bed on it, painted it up and installed new tail lights. We loaded all the camping equipment and our luggage in it and off we went to Lake Charles.

We left early one Monday morning with Delbert & Ruby's crew following us and made it to Lake Charles late that afternoon.Francis and Leo was waiting on us and we went out to eat at a Sea food Buffet and went Bowling. Francis and Leo was big at that time in Ham Radio and had this large rotating Antenna on top of their house. They had a radio room set up in the house and talked to people all over the world. We also met several of their Club members and had a good time while there. We stayed 2 nights and them took off to Holly Beach....We asked them to go with us, but they laughted and said "No thank you"......which should have told us something.

After we left Lake Charles and went south.....the trees disappeared...nothing but sea grass as far as you could see. The area was very deserted with no buildings in sight. We drove along this narrow road and finally saw a weather beaten building in the distance. As we got closer, we discovered that it was a old country store. We were all looking for a bathroom or a bush to get behind, when we noticed several old wooden outhouses. We had noticed a sign several miles back that said that Holly Beach ahead, so we figured it was close by. With the store this close, we decided to get a few supplies before we proceded to the campgrounds.

We went into the store and bought a few things and went to check out and asked the clerk how far it was to the beach and campgrounds. He looked kind of funny at us and said "Well, the beach is out back and you can camp anywhere you want?"We left out of the store and drove around to the back and over a sand dune and there was Holly Beach! A long "Dirty" sandy beach as far as you could see, pigs roaming around in the Garbage, it was a sight to behold. Hurricane Carla had come through before this and nothing had been cleaned up. We drove along a road about a 100 feet from the water and decided to set up camp. We unloaded and set up the tent and put all the cots inside.....there was room for all eleven to sleep inside. We cooked up a meal and cleaned up and decided to go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.....thrill, thrill!

Later we found that the pigs were getting ready to raid us to get food. After all the food was locked up and the sun went down, the Mosquitoes started swarming in so everyone got inside the tent. We could shine a light on the top of the tent and see all the mosquitoes plaster on the top. Needless to say, no one left the tent that night. During the night, you could hear the water slapping along the shore and it made you slept so well.....the next morning the sound was getting closer. The "Tide" had come in and was up almost to the edge of the tent.After we got up and ate breakfast, we loaded up and headed back to Lake Charles. After swimming in the salt water, we all washed off with a water hose in Francis' yard and headed back to the great state of Arkansas!!1
Posted by Arkie38 at 9:43 PM 1 comments