VIDALIA — Eleven-year-old Cameron Angele isn’t anxious to get back to school after his Labor Day weekend.

Swimming, sightseeing and being chased by dragonflies along the Mississippi River is far more exciting than sixth grade in Denham Springs, La.

“I’ve been hanging with them,” Cameron said, referring to parents Chip and Cindy. The Angeles drove two hours from Denham Springs for a camping weekend at River View RV Park.

“We went on the boardwalk and we went swimming. When we were on the boardwalk, a whole swarm of dragonflies chased me. I was like, ‘Oh my God! Aaaaahhhhh!’ It was fun,” Cameron said.

The Angeles ventured outside Vidalia to tour Melrose Plantation in Natchez, where Cameron received a cool gadget.

“Let me show you my bird caller,” he said. “You’re going to be surprised what this little thing can do.”

The Angeles have been traveling to River View for the past five years for either Labor Day or Memorial Day, Chip said.

“We like Natchez and this is a nice campground,” Chip said. “We come here more for the things to do around the campground. We can kind of pretend we’re off somewhere a long ways from home on a big nice vacation.”

A fan of LSU Football, Chip was invited to watch Saturday’s season opener against Washington by Evan Thomas, a fellow camper from Liberty, who traveled to River View with wife Lauren and 6-year-old daughter Shaylee.

“It’s the best group of people you ever want to meet,” Chip said of his RV park neighbors. “Everyone lets their guard down and everyone’s very friendly.

“(The Thomases) were very joyful to be around and fed us some good homemade deer sausage.”

For the Thomases, this was their first trip to River View, and they plan on making a return trip. The family spent the weekend fishing, swimming and grilling pork chops and Texas toast.

“We have definitely enjoyed ourselves over here,” Lauren said. “We’ll be back.

Linda Johnson, general manger at River View, appreciates the positive reviews. Of the park’s 135 sites, 107 were occupied during Labor Day weekend.

“This year we did fairly well,” Johnson said. “We weren’t full, but we were around 75 percent.”

Johnson said campers this weekend received a special holiday rate of $75 for three nights. A night’s stay at River View is regularly $34.95 plus tax.

Johnson said River View usually has 70 percent capacity on holiday weekends, but summer business is slower than in years past.

“On July 4 we had a weekend special and in May we had a special for Memorial Day,” Johnson said. “We kind of dropped off in August, but we don’t know if it’s due to the economy or the heat.”