Harley and I left the house at about 9:30 in the morning. I didn’t even start to pack until after 6 Thursday night so I was in no hurry to get going. Also because I didn’t pack until the last minute, I had forgotten a dozen things I needed (or wanted) for the trip. We stopped at Walmart to get a tarp and a couple of other items and I planned on stopping once we got closer to get the hot dogs, buns and other last minute food items. The directions I got from Mapquest took us to a dead end that may once have connected to the campground, but no longer did. I called them and got good directions and we finally got here about 1:00. Unfortunately, by the time I realized we were close, there were no grocery stores or even drugstores around. We checked into the campground and I picked a site overlooking the pond. I have pictures, which I will get developed and share with you later, but they should be worth waiting for. This is a very pretty campsite. There are quite a few bugs, but I brought Mom’s pop up screen house and we have been fairly safe so far.
Before I could get the tent out of the car, I had to unload the bike from the trailer hitch bike rack and remove the rack. I could have gotten the tent out first, but I didn’t want to fight with the bike while I did it.
It took me about an hour to put up the tent. It should have been less than half of that, but Harley refused to help. He stood to one side and offered suggestions, but they weren’t very helpful. On the other hand, he was diligent about chasing away any stray bugs, dogs, squirrels or children that wandered by. I got the tent up with a minimum of injury and we went back to the office to finish registering and to buy some bug spray. I found out that their “store” mainly consists of bug spray, marshmallows and a paperback trade in. I drove a couple of miles back down route 3 to the nearest convenience store and bought some cheese, ice, diet sodas and so on. They didn’t have any beef franks, just weiners which I refuse to eat. I came back to camp, set up the air bed and unloaded the car. By then I really wanted a swim but it turns out the pond is not open for swimming at all and the swimming pool is closed until Memorial Day. I read for a while and then, getting hungry and not wanting just peanut butter and cheese, Harley and I went back out on the road. We finally found a small local store which smelled heavily of cigarette smoke and dirt and had the most peculiar dog wandering around in it despite the fact that they sold open food. He really was odd, he was half golden retriever and half welsh corgi. He had the face, body and coloring of a golden, but his legs were 1/3 the normal height. Very funny looking.
The local store had beef franks! We came back and lit a fire and I toasted hot dogs for Harley and I and we shared a few marshmallows. After dinner it started to get dark and I was worn out from the lack of sleep all week and the work of setting up the tent and camp, so we drove to the bathroom and I took a quick shower and got ready for bed. I read for a while (Tamora Pierce’s Trickster’s Queen) and then we walked back for one last potty break before bed. Now it’s about 10:30 and I’m off to sleep.
I’m probably going to comment all over, but hey, that’s the fun of blogs. 🙂
Sounds like a pretty good day, really, even though not the best of luck with Mapquest (I stick to Google Maps, these days) and all.