Friday, October 22, 2021
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Harrisonburg KOA
We headed back to the Harrisonburg KOA this is another campground that we go to every year and this year we get to go twice. We arrived on Thursday on the way down we did MadLibs for most of the ride after the kids were done their virtual school, I can't believe they enjoyed it so much. Paul and I used to do Madlibs on the road when we tent camped. When we arrived at the campground the kids got out and played at the playground while we got the camper set up. Paul had a little trouble getting the trailer unhitched apparently something bent in the hitch area.
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Mammoth Cave
We started out our trip with a 7 hour trip from our house in
Maryland 2 patriot Ohio. During the 7 hour ride to Ohio we stopped twice for
gas, drove by a nuclear power plant right on the road and saw some beautiful
sites. The road to the vinard was a scary one however, there were the most
redneck white trash RVs that people were living out of. There’s no way any of
them had all their teeth. During the only night we stayed at the vineyard we
made two friends 1's name was Harley the others was Sam, they were both Beagle
hound mixes, and they stayed by our camper for hours just peering in our door.
when we got there it was raining but by the next morning the rain had stopped
me and mackenzie took a walk down the very long driveway and Harley was right
by our side. sleeping overnight in the trailer wasn't as bad as I thought it
was gonna be, we all slept in the backroom JP, Mckenzie, Paul, myself, the dog,
and the Bunny. We only ran the generator overnight with the refrigerator
plugged in and the back air conditioning unit on. Paul and I slept on the
pullout sofa and around midnight we had to kick the Bunny out of the room
because he was being so loud, I really don't understand how the kids sleep with
him back there. There, we boondock in a vineyard over night. The man who owned
it who's very nice it was a Sunday so technically we were unable to purchase
any wine however he said that as long as we paid cash it shouldn't be a problem.
so as soon as we got everything set up Paul and I had a private tasting and I
bought 6 bottles of wine. We were back on the road again around 11:30 to make
her way 2 cave city in Kentucky.
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| Twisted Vineyards Ohio |
The next morning we all woke up early had some cereal and
got on the road. we drove about 1/2 an hour 2 Bowling Green Ky to go on a cave
boat tour. it was amazing to me that this cave boat tour welcome center was
right in the middle of like a town. with restaurants and banks and everything
all around it, the welcome center was about a 5 minute walk from where the tour
started. once we got to where the meeting point is for the tour guide took us
down a hill to a hole in the ground that is filled with water that kind of
feeds The Cave and the hole is fed by underground springs. they told us some
interesting facts about it in the early 1800s somebody tried to measure the
depth on the whole and they thought that it was like 15 feet deep but modern
technology has shown that it's only really like 8 feet deep and they assumed
that when the explorers in 1800s threw a rock in string it was actually
measuring the length of the river and not the depth. after we got educated with
some fun facts about the lake we walked probably another 50 feet down to The
Cave opening where the actual boat tour would start. in order to get to the
boat we had to go down a small flight of steps we were in a small group of 16
and we all boarded the electric boat with our guide Caleb. the very first thing
when you start the tour his go under a very low hanging rock in which everybody
on the boat has to duck down very low in order to not hit your head. once we
got past that obstacle we went down a small river probably about the size of a
football field to a dam in which we stopped turned around and went back. we did
stop several times while we were on the boat going down this small river to
look at different spots in The Cave learn different facts about The Cave we did
see a big place where rocks fell. it was a pretty cool experience but I thought
that it was going to be longer than that. Caleb also said that if it weren't
for the dam The Cave would only be about ankle or calf deep and the reason they
put the dam in was so that they could do the boat tours so that the water would
be deep enough. All in all a good experience however probably would not do it
again. when we exited the key we went back up the steps and visited the
nightclub which was a concrete room with a very beautiful chandelier in the
middle of the ceiling. the last river came also had a couple of trails that you
could walk through before or after your tour we went and saw a butterfly room
it was like a small green room with probably eight different species of
butterflies that was really neat although it was very hot that day but it was
well worth seeing all the butterflies. after that we went back to the lost
river welcome center we all bought a couple of things from the gift shop and
headed out in search of food. we stopped at a restaurant that was called
cheddar's where they served free honey butter croissants the service was OK
with the food was OK the croissants were absolutely delicious. After we were
finished eating we drove back to the camper, Paul bought stuff to make orange
crush is. He and I drank while the kids went to the lake and made friends at
the lake. At one point we were trying to look for our children so we went for a
walk with her beverages looking for them whilst we were out looking for the
children it started to rain. I will tell you that Paul and I were unabbreviated
with drinks in hand walking around looking for our children, and at one point
it started to rain. we finally got ahold of them and they were at the trailer
eating their leftover cheddar's. Needless to say we had the usual heart to
heart with them about keeping in touch with us always having their watches on
and answering the phone and checking in when they leave. lucky for us it did
eventually stop raining and the kids went back out to play with their newfound
friends they brought their new friend friends back to the camper, Gage and
Jase, to show them out. when I asked where their parents trailer was they said
it's right over there down the hill so Paul said that I should go down there
and invite them up for a couple of drinks. Jase, the younger of the two, told
me to follow him to his trailer, I was not aware that he was going to take me
down the Cliff… in my slides (sandals with no backs). Leave us to say about
halfway through I fell and busted my ass, Jase being the gentleman that he was
all eight years of him looked back and said are you OK in which point I really
couldn't feel anything anyway responded yes let's keep going. when I got to the
bottom of the hill he introduced myself to his parents Eli and Amanda, and
invited both of them up to have some drinks. that was all she wrote we stayed
up till probably 12:30 in the morning talking, laughing, exchanging stories, and
making a new friendship. When they all went home that night they also went down
the Cliff they all made it just fine however once Amanda got to flat ground she
too busted her ass, we all laughed way too hard. Amanda and Eli are good people they live in
Kentucky about 3 hours away from the campground we hung out at our camper for
the next three nights just having good conversations. our kids and their kids
got along great and played together whenever they had a chance.
The next morning was Wednesday July 14th we had
plans to go to the national Corvette museum. Needless to say Paul and I both
had a little trouble getting out of bed the next morning me more so than him. he
cooked a nice breakfast and we headed back to Bowling Green to go to the
national Corvette museum. the museum was actually pretty big when you first
walked in there were probably eight corvettes for on either side ribbon around
them. these corvettes were custom corvettes that people had ordered and they
were sitting on the showroom floor waiting for them to pick them up. while we were
standing there looking around there was a couple who was getting a tutorial of
one of these corvettes. they also had a racetrack where you could purchase a
ticket to drive a new Corvette around a track four times for about $360, not worth
it to me. second I could afford however the full sized Corvette driving
simulator. it was basically a Corvette in the room and it had these three giant
screens in front of it and you could drive it virtually like a giant video game
that was only $10, we didn't do that either though. the museum itself was very
interesting a lot of old cars a lot of prototype cars and even newer cars. a
couple of years ago in one of the show rooms they had a giant sinkhole and they
lost 8 corvettes, two of which were on loan from GM motors. they have a big
exhibit with pictures of the accident videos of the actual sinkhole happening.
The sinkhole was 30 feet deep and it opened up to a very large cave they have
the actual cars that fell into the sinkhole on display now. They also have a
very long giant pipe that goes from the showroom all the way down into The Cave
that is clear so you can look down into it.
When the museum tour was over we came out in the gift shop, well played
national Corvette museum, Paul and JP both bought shirts. The rest of the day we kind of just hung out
happy campground and Eli and Amanda both came over again that night.
The morning was our last day in Kentucky. We already had a cave tour schedules for 10am. The Mammoth caves is the number one reason I picked the trip to Kentucky. We met a family last year and I saw the pictures on his Facebook page. It looked really cool, so I figured Paul is always asking me for ideas where to came so here we go. I absolutely love a cave tour, as a matter of fact my next house will be a cave. It is always so cool in a cave, constantly in the 50 degree mark. Walking through the cave is nice because you don’t really get hot, as a matter of fact t had a light sweatshirt on and I was comfortable pretty much the entire time. The drive only took us like 10 minutes we walked down a paved path for about 100 yards. As soon as you turned the corner to go down the steps into the cave you could feel a very cool breeze. The ranger whom did the tour said the entire tour would be about a 2 mile walk. We would be going through very spacious and very narrow passages. Along the tour we would have to duck and go single file in some placed. She told us we would be going down a lot of steps, and of course what goes down must go back up. The steps in total would be about 500 up and down. The last of the steps were 125 up a tower to get out of the cave. She told everyone that once they got to those steps they must go up and there was no going back the other way. We walked down the cave entrance past a waterfall and moss cover rock formations. In the cave was a massive room dimly lit with orangish lights. We have done a lot of cave tours but I haven’t seen anything as grand as this. Ceilings were about 175 feet tall and I knew right away why this cave was called mammoth. We were in a group of about 25 or 30 people, every so often we would stop and get a history lesson. At one point in the tour they turned the lights off in the cave and Pitch black is a pretty good description. To think that the first persons to discover this cave system would be walking around just using a torch or a candle was amazing. We walked and walked, over a bridge 130 feet above a whole, through caverns and fat mans agony and tall mans misery, where even I had to duck in placed. Down, down, down into the cave until we reached the very bottom about 200 feet underground. Once we got there she pointed to an opening that led to a river and told us how this particular part of the cave has a tendency to flood, water marks in the wall showed that it would have been well over all of our heads. That was the point in the tour where what goes down must go back up. She pointed and said that is the last step down, and that over there is the first step up. At he end of the cave tour we were in a huge dome shaped room and looking up at those 125 steps seemed like a daunting task but there was no going back soo… we started our climb. There were many people who had to stop and take breaks, but not the Perry family we trucked right through and made it no problem, not going to lie my legs were pure jelly by the time I was at the top. But not the less I made it. I was not looking forward to leaving the cave though, it was such a cool temperature and I knew it was not only hot as hell outside, but I was going to have to take my fat ass back up the 65 steps out of the cave and up hill 100 yards. That’s the worst part about cave tours the back up part. But all in all it was a very good experience and a sight to see for sure. By the time we got all the way back up to the truck we were all starving, so we introduced the kids to Wendys and had frostys and french-fries. I’m very aware that we have Wendys in White Marsh but oddly enough my kids have never been to one. The loved dipping their French fries into the frosty, even though they were very skeptical at first. The rest of the day was spent chilling in the pool and hanging out with our new friends. We cleaned everything up that night woke up the next morning, said our last farewells and got on the road at 10:30 am a half hour before check out time.
Sunday, August 23, 2020
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
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