Camp Hatteras 2016

Starting off this 20 day camping trip in the outer banks at a campground in Rodanthe North Carolina called Camp Hatteras. We're staying here for 7 days and moving on. We left at around 11 am after getting the camper all packed the night before and parking it at my mother andfather in-laws over night. Paul went and got it after night work and we got the last little things packed up and we were on our way. I was smart this trip I packed  a bunch of movies, coloring books and color pencils, along with both of the kids tablets that I charged the night before, sunglasses, and a lunch and snacks for all four of us and extra drinks and stuff for me and Paul. It was smooth sailing and we didn't have any fighting or complaining at all. We were going to stop in Williamsburg but since it was going so well we didn't stop until we got into North Carolina at the welcome center where we had a bathroom break and Paul and I ate the ham sandwiches I packed. We continued on our way after a brief stop for gas and then arrived at Camp Hatteras and got into our spot on the sound side and had no problem getting into our site and got set up and I made dinner.  We're staying Tuesday to Tuesday and by Wednesday the kids met friends and were basically never at the trailer even though it was sweltering hot at like 11 am. We were basically in a field with no trees and no shade until the sun got low enough to hit the camper on the side of us. The trailer had a hard time keeping up most of the time and rarely shut off a couple times it stopped working all together and Paul had to disconnect the battery so it got pretty hot in there. The weather was really nice but it was super hot on Sunday it got up to 103.

Wednesday was a pool day we stayed there most of the day because it was so hot most of the time. You can't have fires on the ground in Camp Hatteras you have to either have a fire pit or rent one from the campground so we didn't have a fire at all and it was to hot most of the time anyway really. You are able to have a fire on the beach in a hole but since we were staying on the sound side we didn't do that either. They have an indoor and an outdoor pool. The indoor pool is right next to the outdoor pool and goes from 3 feet to 5 feet and the hot tub is right next to that. The outdoor pool is bigger then the indoor pool and goes from 3 feet to 8 feet and they have a small kiddie pool gated off from that. The only thing I really didn't like about the pool was they didn't have any tables or umbrellas so the only shade was right up against the building on one side and you were lucky to get a spot there. Fortunately we did every time or else I probably would have been a lobster. That night we went ghost crabbing, all of the things we did here 2 years ago I think this was one of the kids favorite things to do. You just go out on the beach at night with a flash light, nets, and a bucket and scoop up the land crabs as they run away. This year Mckenzie got a little brave though and got her finger bit.

Thursday was a beach day I think I've mentioned in here multiple times that I am not a beach person. I am slowly becoming one and this year I got more then waist deep in the water but I really don't like walking through sand that's the temperature of the sun to and from the beach. Not to mention all the crap you have to carry, buying a beach cart was about the smartest thing we have ever done. Once I get settled and set up I could stay at the beach all day... mostly because I dread walking back through the hot sand. This year it was so bad that on the way back both the kids were screaming that they're feet were on fire and I thought I had blisters. The only thing that saved us was the fact that we had a small bucket of water with seashells in it that I had to throw on our feet.  After heading back from the beach we stopped at the pool had a good rinse and went swimming for a while.

Friday the kids made friends with some kids at the end of our row. They were from Indianapolis Indiana and ironically their father was a fire fighter paramedic, the kids were playing in the camper with Cal and he came looking for them and the father, Mathew, and Paul talked for about an hour. During their conversation he was telling us that they were going to the Wright brothers memorial in town and of course they kids wanted to go because their friends were going. It actually worked out pretty good, even though it was really hot the memorial was nice and we met up with them there and talked and got our learn on. Mckenzie even took a note pad to take notes of the things she learned.

      We stopped at a place called the Outer Banks Brewery on the way home and had lunch and bought a 15 dollars bottle of their homemade root beer. Lunch was really good and you have to admire a place that serves kids real food, not that crap that comes out of a box like some places. JP got a cheese burger and it looked just like the burger Paul got and Mckenzie got a pizza and that looked homemade to. After we ate we stopped at the food lion on the way home and got more beer and bread. We decided yet again it was to hot to go do a fire on the beach and oped to do another pool day and met the kids friends at the pool with some beer and the blue tooth speaker. I took my computer and we stayed till about 930 and had a good time drinking beer and listening to the music.


Saturday everything went down hill, the kids friends left early that morning so they were "bored". I suggested just having a nice relaxing day at the trailer but around 130 everyone was grumpy so I suggested the aquarium instead. Just as we were about to leave the damn air conditioning stopped working again and it's a good thing it happened when it did because the bunny and Elle probably would have died in the heat. So we all stayed in the truck with the air conditioning running with the bunny while poor Paul tried to get the thing going again. He wasn't having much luck so he called a service place and had someone come out to fix it that would cost $100 an hour... gag. I took the kids to the pool while he waited in the heat eventually it started working so we canceled the service and crossed our fingers. I think Paul was at his wits end because he stayed in the camper the rest of the day while me and the kids stayed at the pool and went to the "fair" and had snowballs and cotton candy and played games provided by the campground. When we finally got back to the camper he was pretty much drunk lol and we ate dinner. After dinner we decided to go fly kites on the beach and I had to drive us there lol. We had a good time flying kites and by the time we got them up it was dark and we took them down but flying kites always relaxes Paul and I think it put him in a better mood. Unfortunately he was getting sick and if anyone knows Paul he doesn't just get the sniffles he gets sick sick and sure enough by bed time he had the tissues next to him and wounds up sleeping on the pull out sofa in the living room.
Sunday we woke up and I found Paul sleeping in the living room he was going to pretty much be bed bound all day so I decided to take the kids to the lounge by the pool where they had WIFI and they could download some games on their tablets and I could catch up on my blog which is what I'm doing now. I brought games and everything for the pool just in case they got bored. JP's new favorite game is a dice game called toss up, you roll 10 dice and they have green yellow and red you have to get to 100 points and as long as you don't get all yellow or reds you keep going.














After we had enough of the lounge and did the craft that they provided we got in the pool for a half hour and then went to the the trailer had a sandwich and we were on our way again, this time to the beach around 6pm. The water was very calm and the sand wasn't hot and the sun wasn't to hot so we had a great time. The kids practiced their body surfing and I stood in the water. Mckenzie was able to make some sand castles. After we got done with all of our fun for the day we went back to the trailer where I was informed by Paul we were leaving in the morning. I got my days mixed up so I started packing everything up and the next day we headed to Cherrystone.

Sunset Beach 4th of July

Sunset Beach Resort is a new campground that open July 1st we arrived July 3rd. We got stuck in bay bridge traffic on route 50 for the first 2 hours of our trip, what should have only took 4 hours took us just over 5 but it wasn't a horrible ride just longer then we expected. Sunset beach Resort is just before you get to the Virginia Bay Bridge Tunnel w could see it from the beach. Outside looking in the campground looked very clean everything was obviously new and the lobby smelled of fresh paint. We got our site and when we arrived unfortunately it was already occupied. We told a staff member (Liam) that was walking by and he helped us right away and ran to the office to see what was going on. after several minutes he ran back and told us to go to the site next to it. I looked at him and then to the site because that site was occupied as well... him and my husband went to look at another site that he suggested but we wouldn't have fit so we took the site across the street. It had been raining there for a couple of days and all the sites are just grass so needless to say it was really muddy but we were able to get the camper in the spot no problem. This campground has a big party vibe but everyone we have met has been very nice. We have me, Paul, JP, Kenzie, Elle and we have now have a bunny named Cal Ripkin Perry. this would be my first camping trip in the new Sandpiper, this camper is so much easier to set up for both me and Paul. No more slide locks or leveling because the slides lock on there own and the trailer has a 6 point hydrolic leveling system so it levels with a push of a button and all four slides operate on the same motor so it only has one button. it was set up and ready to go with in 10 minutes and we were inside cooling off with the 2 air conditioning units. I had very high hopes for this campground being new and all but I knew going into that there would be some kinks that they would have to get out. All of signs were temporary and a lot of them were just very poorly placed to the point where some were already knocked over from being ran over and same with all the trees they planted most were right in the middle of the sites impeding on people awnings. Another thing that people were complaining about was they had a couple of things advertised that just didn't exist like the spa and an indoor dog park and the adult pool they advertised was connected to the kid pool. In order to get to the beach area you had to walk through the outdoor part of the bar where it was loud and at time unrulier. We made friends with some very friendly seasonal people a Mrs Linda and her husband who was apparently was an avid rabbit hunter to the extent that his licence plate said rabbit. It rained a couple of times but we really did make the best of it and went to the beach in the rain unfortunately because it rained the entire weekend before we got there everything was a muddy mess and because they didn't have any concrete pads due to environmental laws there was no getting away from it.
The first night we stayed was Saturday night and this campground was a big party spot because most everyone was fall down drunk and screaming and cursing and driving their golf carts around all night. we even had someone outside our room at 330 am having a screaming match. I really don't think we'll ever go back to this campground and if you do it wont be on a weekend at one point it rained in the morning a little and they canceled the kids activities for the entire day so the kids had nothing to do. It's pretty sad when even your kids said they didn't want to go back to that campground.

Meet Sandy April 2016

Paul and I finally took the steps and we got a brand new 5th wheel. Paul and I both agreed that when we started looking for a new camper a bunk house would be a must. The kids are getting older and are going to want to start bringing their friends. Plus our parents are getting older and we didn't want them to have to sleep on an air mattress. We have been looking at this camper for a couple of years now and tried to purchase is last year but the financing didn't go through. We drove from Baltimore Maryland to Lexington North Carolina its about 403 miles and should have took about 6 hours but i took us like 8 thinks to DC traffic. we arrived late and stayed over night at a hotel with our old camper in tow. We woke up early and went to me the owner over Country roads rv center http://www.crrvc.com/. I have to say that although no one was rude to us, they weren't exactly nice either. We had our dog with us and they wouldn't let us bring her inside even though we were there from 8 am to 3pm and thank goodness they were having an open house that day because they had burgers and hot dogs to eat I'm not sure what we would have ate. so after finding out that our rockwood was basically rotting from the inside out and they couldn't possibly give us what they originally offered us we cut a deal. & hours later we were back on the rd to make the 403 mile hike back to Baltimore and about 380 miles in our brakes on the trailer stopped working... We have like the worst luck with trailer I swear. we drove the rest of the way very cousiously and arrived home safely around 10pm.  I will have pictures up soon but a little description. She is 42 feet long stainless steel appliances it sleeps 10 and has a bunk house on the back with a pull out couch, 2 bathrooms (more then my house) and an outdoor kitchen with a microwave fridge and sink. I'm very excited for our first camping trip but I'll be in New York City watching my sister graduate from vet school so Paul will be taking the kids to Granite Hill on her maiden voyage.