Happy Fourth of July 2013

On July 4th we towed our camper to Historic Valley Campground once again.  Since the holiday was a Wednesday we took off the rest of the week to make a nice long 5-day vacation.  We got hitched up, unhitched and set up fairly quickly.  We did need the assistance of a few neighbors to help guide David into our site.  With their help he set it right where we wanted it.  Ahhh, what a nice feeling it was to be back in our camper on site 57!

We did the usual stuff...eat, read, kayak, watch the campground animals scurry around. 

Someone was trying to hitch a ride with us!

This log looks funny...see that sweet little face peeking out?

 We again had 5 beautiful days.  God has been so good to us:-)

On Thursday night the campgrounds had an open house.  We met up with Bill & Pat Flaherty at Amy's Cafe, the concession on the main beach.  They came to see our camper and we offered to let them try out the kayaks.  Bev Pinsonnault had 2 she would let them try.  So we all headed to the lake.  They were a little nervous but ended up liking it.

After they left Bev's son and his girlfriend took the boats over and the 5 of us just hung out on the lake until after dark.  It was so cool.  We made plans to do it again the next night so Gary could be there.

Bev had some battery Christmas lights so we taped them to the kayaks at dusk.  Jamie (Todd) & Pete Wojcik also joined us.  We ended up staying out until about 11 p.m. and had lots of laughs!

We had a wonderful time...one to remember for sure!

On Saturday night the campground had Gary's band playing so we invited Bruce & Jean over.

Unbelievable how listening to the band I was transported back to my earlier days. 

 They sounded great!  And the view outside was spectacular too!

This invention is the Bev Kayak Carrier! 

Bev was looking for a solution to get the kayaks to the lake easier

and dreamed up this little idea and we copied it. 

Once of them works great and the other needs a little work, but will work as well once we tweek.

A really like this picture as a picture!

Sunday morning we were laying in bed and lifted the shades to see this beautiful view! 

Seriously hated to leave, but we'll be back on Thursday!!

These are just a few shots of the lake taken while waiting for our food from Amy's Cafe. 

I know I probably have several pictures of this view but it just doesn't get old. 

That's Bev in the kayak making her way over to the cafe.

Great weekend!

2012 July 1~ Field of Flags

Came down the hill the other night and saw this awesome sight in front of the Congregational Church.

This is called "Field of Flags" and is to honor all those who have died in Iraq.  So moving and so awesome.  It's hard to believe so many have died and that something so horrible can be so beautiful.

Campground shopping~July 1, 2012

I can't believe what beautiful weekends we have had this year!  No complaints.  Since we didn't go camping this weekend we thought we'd do a little campground shopping.  We started out on Saturday morning heading to New York.  Our first stop was at a little campgound called Aqua Vista just over the mountain.  Although there's no lake it does have a stream/river.  This little campground got hit quite badly from Irene last year.  They're just getting things back.  The owners are young and very nice however we probably wouldn't stay there.  The one down thing about this place is that the seasonal section was a mess.  Not because of the owners but because of the seasonals.  They really ruin the look and feel of the campground.

Then we headed to the Broken Wheel campground.  Small and not much to offer us.  We really want a lake.

Next was Deer Run.  We thought we would like it and we did.  It's really a resort.  No lake but it really had a lot to offer.  We'll definely give it a try.

Last was Battenkill.  Very small.  Wasn't impressed.  The only thing it has is the Battenkill River but it's so over-priced.

Oh well...this just made us see what a gem we have right in our backyard.

Sunday was so beautiful we couldn't wait to get to the lake and paddle around.  I can't believe that there aren't more people who kayak this lake.  Nice for us though.  We can't wait until Wednesday!

June 21-24, 2012 Our Second Camping Weekend

Once again the weekend weather was beautiful, other than a thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon.  It was brief and the sky was completely clear within minutes.  The kitties were fine with the thunder and rain..yayy!

We got packed, hitched, and unhitched with no problems this time.  It was so, so hot.  Hazy, hot & humid in the 90's.  The travel (1 mile) was alright too.  Once we were set up we turned the AC on and went to get the fur kids.  They came right out of their crates and seemed very happy to be camping again.  What a relief.

Friday was another scorcher.  We invited Bruce & Jean up to spend the day.  We went on a hike/walk on our favorite path around the campground, then were only too happy to get into the lake.  They borrowed Kayaks so all of us were able to paddle around and not have to share the boats.  It was beautiful on the lake.  Sorry to say I forgot to take pictures!  We had a nice dinner and relaxed...nice day with our friends.

On Sunday we had a graduation party for Max Quinn up at the campers pavilion (lucky for us).  It was nice to see the Racette family, although we lost Aunt Nel for a few hours which was really scarry.  She had wondered off and was found on Route 2 by Cumbies.  Not sure what's happening with her but many prayers were answered, and it was frightening to think of what could have happened.

There was also much excitement in the campground in the evenings.  Many campers, not us:-( had visiting bears at their sites.  Apparently the berries are not out in the woods and the bears are hungry.  I would have loved to see them but I didn't want to add to the excitment.  Seems people were hurrasing the bears.  Sad.  Luckily no one was hurt.  All in all it was a great weekend and we look forward to the next time.

Here are a few pictures of our summer home.

And our view this past weekend from site #44

2012 June 14-16 First camping "trip" in our new girl!

Here she is!!!

We have really wanted a camper for quite some time. 

Thanks to Al & Paula Zoito, her previous owners, we were able to strike and deal and take her home.

She's a 2004 Trail Lite

We hope she'll have as much fun with us as we know we'll have with her.

And here is the boy that will take her to many fun places...

He's a 2009 GMC Sierra

God was watching out for us for sure as we feel we got a great deal on both of them.

On June 14, 2012 we took our first camping trip all the way to Windsor Lake....1 mile away!! 

 Don't judge!!

We need to get to know her and how she works and being so close comes in handy since we weren't even sure we had packed all that we'd need.

We hooked up, towed her and got to the campground safely.  Once there unhitching was another story but thank God Bob Chilson was there to help us along.

Then we went to get Luke and Elly.  The big surprise was that Elly came right out of the cage to investigate her new digs but Luke chose to remain in his crate for the next several hours. 

Once the sun went down and the campground got quieter they began to enjoy the perks of camping...all the night time critters roaming around. 

 By morning they were beginning to think they might like this camping thing. 

It had gotten a bit chilly during the night so we decided to turn the heat on for a few minutes and as soon as the heat turned on boom...Luke flew back in his crate and Elly ran under the couch...through the cabinets and ended up somewhere under the tub.  David eventually had to go home and get some tools to take off a door so we could get her out.  We now know where all of the pass though holes are in the camper so if we need to make any repairs we know how to get to them!!!  Thanks Elly:-)

There weather couldn't have been any better to begin one of many little vacations in our girl. 

We did some kayaking and walking, reading and just basking in the relaxation that camping gives.

Ahhhhhhhhh..................!

2012 May 11 Home on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The day that we both dreaded came quickly.  We said our goodbye to Molly and Brian last night and packed up and ready to leave a little after 8 a.m.  I wonder if I'll every get used to saying goodbye to my baby, but we gave ourselves something to look forward to today...and that was riding part of the way back home on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This was something we had really wanted to do since last year.  And it certainly didn't disappoint.  Here are just a few of the many pictures we took.  It really is incredibly beautiful and the camera just can't do it justice.

These pictures above and below remind me of an ocean of mountain waves!

Christmas tree farm below.  Who knew NC would have so many large christmas tree farms!

These guys were just hangingenjoying this beautiful day!

We followed these guys for over an hour.  We were wishing this beautiful rig was ours. 

They set a nice pace for us.

This was a nice little place we stopped to use the rest rooms and get a little history lesson as well.  There were several different types of fences represented here with the history to go along with them.

Not sure if these were really holding up the wall.

The is the bady of water that leads to the above picture.  It was so pretty here.

Lunchtime view

We spent almost 5 hours on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hooked on to 81 in Roanoke.

It tacked on about 2 hours to our trip because we stopped so many times to breathe in the views but it was worth it.  We ended up traveling until 12:45 a.m. but made it home all in one shot.  We hadn't really planned for that but we missed the kitties and couldn't justify spending the money just to sleep, so we pushed through.  The closer we got to home the more awake we were.  It was nice waking up in our own bed with the fur babies giving us little kisses and rubs.

All in all we had a wonderful vacation with Molly, Brian and with North Carolina!

2012-05-10 Elk Knob Hike

We had a couple days of off and on rain so when we knew today was going to be beautiful we decided to hike Elk Knob.  The woman at the visitors center at Linville Falls had suggested it so we thought it would be a good way to end our time here.  I knew it was almost 2 miles up, and not knowing how steep it is always scares me a little.  The temps were in the 50's with a stiff breeze. A very pretty day to hike.

The trail is recently been competed and looks like this for much of the way.  Luckily the trail is switchbacks so although its a climb it's do-able.

It did get pretty steep in a few places...  But what a great job they did with this trail.

Lots of nice little resting places built in to the trail 

We stopped so we could create some rock-art along the way to beautify the trail

and to let people know we were there!

Our joint creation!

This tree was growing on a rock.  The root grew the whole length of the rock til it found ground!

At the one mile mark you get a little sneak peek view, an incentive to keep going.

Flowers growing all along the trail.  Molly knew them all too!

We made it!

Some views from the top

Molly likes to see things from a different perspective!

3 tries to get a group shot!

Again, I thank God to be able to see His creations.