As I mentioned, the Dixie Campers seem to camp almost exclusively to eat. The cooks went from breakfast (eggs, bacon, cheese grits) almost directly to lunch (muffalettas) and then to dinner. Vinnie never seems to turn off the propane burners outside his motorhome. And it was all terrific. So far our contributions have been light: some double-chocolate Ghiradelli cocoa at breakfast, avocado dip and smoked mullet pate for appetizers, and a box of chocolates that we shared for dessert.

This is a really nice group of people. I put in a request for some crawfish and this evening a huge cooler full of crawfish showed up, direct from New Orleans. There has to be a several dozen pounds of crawfish in there, all still very much alive under a towel and some ice. We’ll boil them tomorrow night with some spices, cajun style.

A few more rigs arrived today, including a slick polished 1962 Globetrotter, so our crowd has grown and the evening has gotten more, uh, “lively”. All I can say is that it’s a good thing there’s virtually nobody else in this campground, or they’d probably toss us all out!

And mysteries are starting to appear. Was Vinnie really once a drummer for John Fred & the Playboys? Why is the owner of the Globetrotter called “The Governor”? Where did they find a giant case of crawfish out of season? Why do the motorhomes have sequential license plates? What’s the story behind Vinnie’s raccoon hat? The Dixie Campers are indeed a curious bunch. (And since they are reading this blog every night, I can’t reveal the answers to these questions until I’m safely away!)