Rocky Gap Aug 2020

 So glad to be coming back to rocky gap for a serving time this camping season. I always say that this is literally one of our favorite campgrounds to come to. We were supposed to come on Monday to Thursday but we decided to come Sunday to Thursday because Paul got out of drill a little early. We didn’t get on the road until probably 330 or four but we arrived at 6:38 made really good time. We were inside 12 It was the smallest site that we’ve had here ever but we may do it was still a nice site the trailer fit just fine the bunny cage fit too. It was a little bit further of a walk to the bathhouse but that was no big deal. Since we arrived really late Sunday we didn’t do much just got the site set up had dinner which was just Caesar salad wraps Hung out outside for a little while and then went to bed. 

Monday we got up Paul made sausage gravy for breakfast with biscuits and around 12 noon we headed to the lake. We stayed at the lake until probably 630 it was the best time that I’ve had in a while. We set up the umbrella and the beach shelter Paul and I had a couple of drinks the kids played in the water and we all played a rousing game of keep-away for about an hour. While we were at the lake a family came and set up next to us. They had the cutest little dog it was so well behaved but the boy who was probably about 12 let the dog lick him inside of his mouth for probably 10 minutes. I can’t believe that I watch this boy basically make out with His dog for most of the time that we were sitting there. It was the most disgusting thing that I have seen and his family just let it happen. When we got home we had cheesesteak subs for dinner Paul set up the hammock for Mckenzie and JP we made a fire I took the dishes to go get washed at the bathhouse because we only have a limited amount of water and take space. When I came back Paul and me Played Heads Up! which is a game on my phone where you have to put your phone up to your head and the person has to tell you clues in order for you to guess the word that’s on the phone. We love this game we play this game all the time and we sat there for probably an hour just getting back-and-forth while the kids played Snapchat filters in the Hamic. We came in around 1115 and get ready for bed. Poor JP developed a rash last week when we came home from elk next State Park he had these horrible welts on his legs and they seem to just be getting worse. They were really itchy and red and inflamed and open wounds and they just looked really really horrible and they were causing him a lot of discomfort so we decided it would be best to drive him to the emergency room so he could get some treatment for these crazy sores on his legs. He probably had 15 of these nickel to quarter size blister like spots on his legs and arms. We thought maybe it was impetigo or maybe some kind of infection so Paul took him to the emergency room in Cumberland while I stayed back with Mckenzie. They wound up not even getting seen until 4:00 in the morning. The doctor at the ER said that he wasn't sure what it was and that we would have to follow up with our primary care doctor and would most likey have to see a dermatologist. He gave JP a steroid cream and prednisone and sent them home. The next morning I woke up at 10:30 everyone else woke up closer to 1:30, the kids wanted to go back to the girls are cooking so went there for lunch, I had wings, JP had wings, Paul has a BLT, and Kenzie has a personal pizza. the food was good and it's not that expensive. I think next time were going to try a new place though just to change it up a little. 

It takes about 25 minutes to get tot he Walmart in Lavale, it right on the other side of Cumberland, another camping trip to the Walmart per usual only this time it wasn't really our fault. Never the less we went and of course since we had to wait a half hour for the prescription we browsed the store and found things that we "needed", $70 later we left prescriptions in hand.... the medication only cost $3...We made our way back to the campground after getting gas. when we got the campground we stopped to see the birds but it was closed for construction. Mckenzie got a 3D puzzle at Walmart so we helped her put that together which really means she couldn't figure it out so we did it for her. The rest of that day was apparently a blur because I don't remember what we did. that night Mckenzie and I went to the bath house and got showers than came home and chilled by the fire.

Wednesday after using the cream the Doctor prescribed JPs wounds looked worse, they were blistered around the edges and weeping clear fluid so Paul and I decided it would be best to make an appointment for as soon as we got home. When I called his doctors office they said they could do a video chat that day at 3pm which was even better because when Paul suggested maybe JP impetigo to the ER doctor he said that wasn't what he thought it was so we were really worried because it was just getting worse and worse. We had French toast and sausage for breakfast and decided to do a hike to the damn with the dog to pass some time. 

The lake is pretty big and it's man made so there's a damn all the way on the other side from the campground, there's a lake side loop trail that we wanted to do this year but since JP also has wounds on both of his ankles we did't' think doing the whole hike would be a good idea. the damn is a short drive from the campground and its about a 15 minute hike from the parking lot. You can either walk up the road or you can hike through the woods. The road is sunny and the hike in the wood is mostly shade and it hugs the lake and is part of the lakeside loop trail so we decided to just walk through the words. The path leads to a small fishing pier, has lillypads, and some spots that you can get to the water. I don't think your allowed to swim anywhere other then the designated beach areas so you can't get in... not that anyone would see you... but we did that the dog go for a dip. The dog swam and JP, Paul, and Mckenzie tried to see who could get the most skips from rocks. JP actually whooped everyone, the rocks there were really flat and perfect for skipping, I think the most skips was 8. Poor Kenzie found a big flat rock to skip and sliced her finger open, and in typical Kenzie fashion started freaking out. Her cut was wet so it was bleeding pretty good and I couldn't get it to stop at first. Eventually it stopped she quit and pouted on a little hill for a while but she eventually got over and we finished the walk to the damn. We tried to go to the nature center but it was closed because of COVID. By the time we got back it was time for the video call with the Doctor it took her about 5 seconds to tell us that JP did in fact have impetigo and that what the ER doctor gave him wasn't going to do anything for him, so she prescribed him an antibiotic cream and an oral antibiotic which means.... you guessed it, back to Walmart.... 25 minute later we were back at walmart and they sent the script to the wrong pharmacy. I called the pharmacy we use at home told them to cancel the order called the Dr back had them resend the order while I was doing all of this guess what the other 3 were doing... thats right browsing... another $70 later 3 more 3D puzzles and 4 fluffy pillows and an hour wait in the truck later we had the new medication in hand and it was now 530. Our last day in Rocky gap that was suppose to be another beach day was basically ruined, by the time we got back to the trailer, cooked dinner, cleaned up, and Paul went to get more fire wood it was dark. We made the most of the night and went to the lake and played hide and seek in the dark for a couple of hours, that's always a good time, walked down to the lake and used the star finder app to look at all the stars. It's so beautiful up there, you can see soo many starts in the sky, I think even more then you can see in the outer banks. One day I wouldn't mind moving out there, as a matter of fact it's the only place in Maryland I'd be glad to move to, there or Garrette County . Back at the trailer we had our fire Paul put everything away and we were back on the road at 1130 the next morning. 

I'm telling you I can never take to many trips to Rocky Gap, it is by far my number one place to go camping. This year the park turned a bunch of the electric sites into cabins which we were annoyed with. It's already hard to get a spot there a lot of the time and now they have less spots. The trip our favorite site 19 had a damn tent in it. There were a lot of tents taking up the electric sites another annoying thing. We had a much smaller site there that we have ever had. Don't get my wrong we fit in it ok and everything but we could have used more room to get around. Site 19 is a very large site and really should be reserved for bigger campers, but I guess it's first come first serve and all. 

Paul, JP, my dad, my brother, and Mr Lee planned a boys trip in September to Frontier town, My mom, my sister, Kenzie and I are staying in a hotel on Deep Creek Lake while they camp and are having a girls weekend of our own that I'm looking forward to. Other then that our next trip as a family is going to be Sept. 24 to the 28 at the Harrisonburg KOA 

Luray Jellystone 2020

We decided that going home Thursday would be totally lame so at the last minute we hopped online to look for a place to stay until Sunday since Paul didn’t have to go back to work until Tuesday. We looked at Harrisonburg KOA and Cherrystone as well, but they didn’t have any vacancy. So, we set out at 930am to make a 6 hour drive to Luray. We stopped right outside of Roanoke to get fuel and everyone decided they were hungry, so we made an unexpected stop at the Cracker Barrel right down the street and stayed much longer then we wanted to. When we stop with the dog and the bunny we leave the leave the key we start the truck and leave the key in and take the key fob with us so they have the A/C on. We try hard to not stay in the restaurant to long so they don’t get lonely.  When we picked the site for the KOA we put that we only had slides on one side. When we picked both sides it limited our selection. We don’t usually do that but the sites we had to choose from with the option slides on both sides really sucked so we took our chances. When arrived, they took us to our site and I was very pleased that our site had plenty of room for our camper on both sides, and bonus we were in the woods!! Score. Funny story we were right across the street from the same people who were next to us in Harpers ferry at the beginning of our trip, what a small world. We relaxed for a little while set up the trailer while the kids played and went to bed around 11.

The next day we chilled at the campground I got up at 730 am had class studied for a couple of hours until Paul woke up around 10. He’s been cooking more often since we bought the griddle, so he cooked us breakfast. This is another campground where you have to sign up for pool time so we had a 530 to 730 pool time. The kids were out most of the day, Paul whooped me in 500 rummy and then we went for a walk to find the kids. We had a couple of drinks and I had two glasses of wine that I bought in Tennessee. We made friends the family across the road the Ladd family from up state New York. They are retired Navy and are now both teacher now so they get all summer off. They have taken their travel trailer all over the country, last summer they went to San Diego and once took a 45 day straight trip. Very nice people Paul and John talked for a while a couple of times, exchanged tips, showed off innovation and talked shop. John was a F16 mechanic in the Navy and his wife handle cargo on planes. His wife came over and we talked for a little while and her grandson came over with another little girl and gave the dog and bunny some love. We went to the pool to meet the kids, they were able to get in early because there was extra spots so we chilled there for an hour and went back to the camper and made campfire nachos for dinner and afterwards Paul talked to John for about an hour, while I blogged. I love hearing other peoples stories, campers are some of the nicest people you’ll talk to. They are always willing to help, always up for a talk, and always ready to show you something that will almost always make life easier. I am not above walking up to someone and asking “hey do you mind showing me…” or “hey where did you get that?”. I was once at Harpers Ferry and asked a question about the camper that we have now, but we were looking to purchase, and the women was like “come on in let me show you”. John, Paul and I stayed up until midnight just shooting the shit.

Saturday, we got up ate breakfast a drove to Skyline drive where I was finally able to take my pictures after not doing so for like 3 years. We stopped at a couple of the overlooks and enjoyed the view. It was overcast and the clouds were pretty low to the point where we drove through them a couple of times. Kenzie said she felt close to Jesus we were so high up. We stopped briefly at the welcome center then went on a hike to a water fall where I was quickly left behind my entire family and when I finally got down to the water fall they were no where to found so I snap a couple of pictures and walked back to the truck alone stopped a couple of times so that I didn’t die and dipped my hat into some water. The water here wasn’t as cold as the water in the smoky mountains but it was so refreshing. I waited for the rest of my family, whom had all the water by the way, for about a half hour. They said they took a trail further down past the waterfall where there were less people and got in the water. I wish that I would have been able to get in the water to but the waterfall where I was just had to many people it wasn’t worth it to me. When they finally met me at the start of the trail they told me all about it and I finally got my drink of water. We drove to the next exit in the park about 20 min and took a detour to get ice cream at a place that we have always wanted to stop but it’s never been open. We came back to rain in the campground and stayed in to cook dinner. The kids could care less about rain, as a matter of fact they would rather stay out and play in it with their friends then stay in the camper and be bored. We had no WIFI at all in the campground so they would have had to watch TV or a movie. Paul was making his ,as JP would say, “famous fried chicken” for dinner. The kids made friends pretty fast here and they really weren’t at the camper much. Paul and I took a couple of walks around the campground and the kids watched movies at the outdoor theatre a couple of times to, they played Frozen, the Grinch stole Christmas, and Home Alone. I was really not looking forward to going home the next day, I really enjoy our camping trips but our tame had run out and it was back to reality for us. The next day we woke up did the last couple of things to pack up with zero help from our kids because they were going to “say good bye to our friends” which apparently took an hour because we drove to the front part of the campground with the camper to look for them. They got a lecture about helping pack the trailer up and how it goes faster with more people and saying goodbye to friends means ok bye were leaving and then coming home.

Natural Bridge KOA

We had a pretty easy ride to this campground it was literally right off of interstate 81. We had an ok site but it was ok we were putting anything out because we were only staying overnight. We ate a very quick dinner and headed out to go to the Natural Bridge state park where we took a whole bunch of really great pictures and took a couple mile hike to a waterfall. I apparently went to the natural bridge when I was 4 with my parents. My mother was very adamant that I send her a picture of the kids to her and of course the picture I did get wasn’t good enough lol.  The walk was beautiful and we stopped and cooled off in a stream with some water on our heads. The hike back was was nice until we got the the 5 flights of stairs back up to the parking lot. I am very out of shape. We stopped at the gas station on the way back to the campground, the park is only about a 10 min drive. We had to sign up for pool time at this campground so we go the 9pm to 10pm slot, I love a night swim. Mckenzie said she doesn’t like swimming at night because of the amount of bugs that get in the pool lol. The next day we were on the road headed to Tennessee for the first time ever.