Camping season 2018

Its the the end of May and officially camping season! The kids get out of school on June 15th and that weekend we have a camping trip to Harper Ferry planned. I'm so excited for camping season to start this will be the beginning of a much needed family packed summer and I'm going to take it all in because I start nursing school August 27th and I will be pulling out my hair for the next 2 years and probably wont have much time to do anything.

 Nursing school has already ruined a late summer vacation we planned a trip up to lake placid and then over to Niagra Falls at the end of August we even all got passports to go into Canada and see the falls. We planned it for August 18th to the 28th but I just found out that I have a mandatory orientation on the 21st and school starts for me on the 27th. We even had my parents and Pauls parents going with us and we were all looking forward to seeing the falls. We are making lemonade out of lemons though and just canceling that trip and going somewhere else that's closer so that I can drive home and we plan on redoing that trip later.

I really am looking forward to camping I'm just not looking forward to all the packing and moving around. Were going to the Outbanks and Cherrystone then most likely to Cherrystone again in August and we plan on making little trips here and there wherever we can. This year we also are planning to let the kids bring a friend I think they're at the age where it would be fun and we know a couple of the parents that would be ok with us taking the kids for a weekend, and if doesn't work out then we just wont do it again.

It's funny every year around this time Paul always asks me if there anything or gadget that I would want for the trailer and every year I say no lol. I think it's just an excuse for him to go out and buy something that I have approved or something. I just feel like we already pack so much and we already have so much in the camper that just adding to the ciaos is just pointless. Plus this year I feel like is going to be tight as far as money goes because I have so much stuff to buy for school.

I was just looking through my old blogs and I've noticed my blogging has been seriously lacking these last couple of years camping. This is really just a personal diary and I'm pretty sure only family reads this but I hope to share it with my children when they're older .

Hershey Park November 2017

I had a field trip for school to philly so Paul loaded up the trailer alone and went to Hershey and I picked up the kids after I got home. The bus hit a lot of traffic on the way back home so we got home a half hour later then expected at 6pm. I went home a grabbed a couple of things and then picked up the kids and got gas and we were on our way. We hit a lot of traffic on the belt way in Baltimore but once we got to Pennsylvania it was pretty smooth sailing I think we got there around 830 or so. Paul already had a roaring fore going and we ate some left overs and enjoyed sitting by the fire.

Granite Hill fall 2017

Decided to take a weekend trip to Granite hill. I stayed home friday because I had a Chemistry and Nutrition test but I joined the kids and Paul Saturday early afternoon.
I got there and the kids were at the playground and they were really happy to see me. That night the campground had a little dance party the kids had so much fun and we had beautiful weather.

Hershey Park Halloween 2017

We have never camped at Hershey campground for Halloween before and since we couldn't book anywhere else we decided to give it a try. The only other time we've been here was when Mckenzie was like 9 months old and I honestly I don't remember it at all. We arrive Friday after we hit a ton of traffic we had a site all the way in the back all the sites seem pretty spacious and everything was pretty clean. we got set up ok and the kids went exploring while a cooked dinner. It was pretty packed they only had a couple sites here and there open and most of the sites were decorated. The gave us a map at the gate and someone in a golf cart showed us to our site everyone seemed very nice and helpful. Friday was pretty uneventful we didn't bring any wood with us so we just stayed in the camper most of the night and watched TV. Saturday we woke up and I made breakfast they put out a schedule of the events for the day and I was surprised to see they all started at 9am and were done by 12pm, they had a costume contest and pumpkin carving contests and all the prizes were given out from 9 am to 10am, at 11 am the trick or treating started.... yes 11 AM and lasted till noon. The paper said to meet at the office and visit the different places on the map and get candy... we were so confused so apparently they give you a map of 12 different station to go to and get candy and thats it for the most part. and these stations just go in a big circle I had to ask because I wasn't sure whats was going on. The lady I asked said they do it this was so that the campers aren't expected to give out any candy. So we were done in about 10 minutes lol. There were some campers giving out candy but not many and we didn't give out any and usually we go through 2 big bags of candy but no this year. The park has a an event that you can pay to go to but the kids wanted to stay and play with their friends, thats the only other reason I can think that they have trick or treating so early. they rest of the day the kids played on the playground and we got some fire wood from the office that was wet so it didn't burn very well. all in all it was an ok weekend but we will not be going back for Halloween again just wasn't enough for the kids to do.

Double G RV park 2017

We planned on leaving in the morning as usual when Paul got off night work, unfortunately my husband landed himself in the ER with some stomach pain. After I met him over the hospital and he was finally discharged he wanted to rest for a little while before we got on the road. We were heading to Double G RV park in McHenry Md about a 4 hour drive from Baltimore. We packed up the trailer and were ready to go around 5 pm Sunday I only forgot the kids helmets and when I went to unlock the trailer to put them in I couldn't get the key to go in... Paul worked on it for about a half hour until we finally gave up and payed $129 for locksmith to come out and fix it in 10 minutes. I'm telling you our camping luck really isn't the best I feel like almost every trip we take something goes wrong and costs us money.  

 Its now 6 something and we're just now leaving we had a very smooth ride up there but we didn't arrive till 1030. We decided that when we go there we would just unhitch and level it and just go to bed and do everything else in the morning. When we arrived it was pitch black with no lights the lady at registration was nice enough to leave us a map on the door at the camp store. We found our site very easy and the neighbors that were already there jumped up and helped us get into our site no problem.  We basically had some popcorn for dinner and went to bed.

Double G is mostly permanent camping sites, they have about 10 over night sites up front with no trees and the rest are permanent sites with decks and sun-rooms on the them. There also is pretty much nothing for the kids to do there. They had a small playground that surprisingly kept the kids occupied for the trip. They made friends with a family that was showing a horse at the fair who has a similarly aged son and a 12 year old girl. They don't have a pool or anything else going on there, it family owned and very clean considering. We decided to go to Double G because since we bough the fifth wheel we're pretty sure we no longer will fit in the state park where we normally camp. Double G is literally right next to the fairgrounds there and we decided to take the kids back to the Garrett County fair.

Monday we woke up and had some breakfast and got some more of our setting up done and just relaxed for a little while.  Mrs Ann and Mr Lee met up with us around 1 and we got some firewood and ice cream and after that we went and played a round of golf. After that we just hung out at the camper and the kids played with the couple of kids that were staying near us. One ironically lived right by us and went to school with a couple of our friends, and the grandfather was a retired Fire Fighter (FADO) for Baltimore county fire dept.

Tuesday we woke up and Paul made everyone breakfast and then we set out for the fair. This is unlike any fair in Baltimore they have carnival rides and so much food and animal shows. They show sheep, goats, horses, chickens, rabbits, ducks, pigs, cows, alpacas, and donkeys, basically if its on a farm they show it. They even prance them around like it's a dog show or something, as a matter of fact that about the only animal they don't show. We sat and watched the sheep showing. hey pull the poor things around by their heads and then when the judge comes over the grab them by the necks and pull their front legs off the ground, it was actually a little hard to watch. They have kids of all ages to looked like from maybe 9 or 10 to maybe 18 or so, the judge gave out ribbons and ropes for the prizes. They also have rodeos, tractor pulls, lassoing, and a derby of some sort. We took the kids to get on the rides there once before and they had a ball, this year however they decided they didn't really want to ride anything, after we bought the ride all day bracelet, and just wanted to see the animals. Needless to say Paul and I were a little annoyed and angry, we walked around for a little bit and finally put up or hands and decided that we were just going to go back to the camper and stew. As we were leaving just before we got out of the gate they finally decided that they wanted to go on the bumper cars but by that time Paul had already reached his limit and he decided to go back to the camper for some alone time while me and the in-laws stayed and convinced the kids to not be boring. They rode most of the kiddie rides over and over until we decided we were hungry. Paul came and picked us up and we all went to a placed called Perkins for lunch, it was just OK and I most likely wouldn't go there again. As we were leaving Perkins we saw the ski resort Wisp from across the lake and noticed they had some kind of roller coaster thing in operation. So the Google master (Paul) looked it up to see whats it was all about. Turns out they have an adventure park open during the summer and you can zip line, ride a coaster from the top of the mountain, do a ski lift tours, they have water sports, and some kind of on land snow board thing. My phone died and I wasn't able to get any picture of all the things we did. JP went first on the climbing rope thing, they put a helmet and a harness on you and attach you to a rope and your able to climb though the obstacles. I would stay they were a good 20 feet up in the air. JP did really good until he got to the parts where they didn't have a rope he could hold on to. Then he started freaking out and crying, eventually the worker had to come out and help him because he was holding up Mckenzie and another man behind her. Mckeknzie on the other hand rolled right through it and wasn't afraid once,  JP said he just likes the zip line.

After we were done at Wisp we decided to give the fair one more chance so we headed back to check out more rides. This time the kids were fine they didn't get on a couple that we showed then but at least they got on some. After they were done with the rides we checked out the rodeo, another special to be seen. This was the high school junior rodeo it was all kids from Mckenzie age to I guess 10. They did calf roping, pole bending, and barrel racing, I don't think I have ever seen a horse run full speed in person and oh man are they fast. 

Fort Whaley 2017

We arrived at Fort Whaley after a short drive from Cherrystone, we left around 11:15 and arrived around 2:27. We were starving so Mckenzie and I went to the camp store and ordered a pizza while Jp and Paul set up the trailer. we came back and ate pizza. After we all finished eating I took a trip tp Walmart because lets face it our trip wouldn't be complete without at least one trip to Walmart. JP came with me and apparently didn't tell his father because after being gone for about 30 minutes he called me wondering if her was with me. I'm pretty sure we were there for like 8 hours before we finally left and went back to the trailer. When we got back JP and Kenzie went to the pond to catch minnows with their little nets.

We were at a different site this year in the woods because for some reason the campground made our favorite camp site into a cabin site. I was really happy with the site though, it's in the woods and has plenty of space and shade. After JP and Mckenzie went net fishing we all went to the pool and played  with thier new diving rings. We also saw a momma bird sitting on a nest of three eggs out in the open in the mulch. We sat at the table closest to her and every time we would get up to walk around she would puff her feathers and yell at us until we sat back down. After swimming JP, Paul, and Mckenzie went on a trick bike ramp and JP fell off it, he was fine and was now done with the bike ramp however Paul and Mckenzie.  stayed on and had fun. I went back to the camper to make dinner and Paul and the kids went to the camp store.  After we all finished dinner the kids stayed in the back room and watched Lego Batman while Paul watched a movie in the living room and I started blogging. When the movie was over JP and Kenzie came out and I showed them pictures from the blog. Mckenzie liked it so much that she took over and wrote a couple sentences for me.

Tuesday was July 4th and we had every intention of going to the boardwalk and playing games at the arcade and hanging out for a while. The drive to ocean city from the campground is about 20 min and when we got there inlet parking was 30 dollars and some of the private places we sometimes park was 50 so we changed our minds and just went for a drive. We stopped at 67th street and played golf at the indoor course, I won. Then we drove to the Delaware line and stopped at the library because the kids wanted to look at the books...lol.  Unfortunately we didn't take into consideration that it was a federal holiday and they weren't open so we drove back to the campground.

Wednesday we woke up and had breakfast and set off for a day of fun, first stop, the Salisbury Zoo. The kids and me go on a trip alone in April and stay in a hotel in ocean city that has a indoor pool. One day I took them to the Salisbury Zoo Paul was in turkey and they said the next time they went to Ocean City they were going to take dad to the zoo, so we did. Its a very small zoo that is free to all. They have some local animals and some exotic ones as well and on one side of the zoo they have a large playground for the kids. After that we went to the water park for a couple of hours to cool off where the kids enjoyed the lazy river and some slides. We went straight to the boardwalk from there and finally got to do the arcade as promised to the kids. We gave the both 20 dollars in quarters and said when it's gone your done. As predicted JP flew through his and Kenzie took her time she was nice enough to give JP a couple dollars and she won him a couple little toys to. When all the quarters were gone they used their tickets to earn a bunch of little toys and a comb knife lol. A busy day turned to a busy night, we bought some ocean city shirts for the kids and myself and we all had ice cream except for JP, he wanted a coke. Then we did something even I have never done, rode the tram from the inlet to the the end of the boardwalk and back. My parents never would have spent money to ride on the tram when we had 2 legs that worked just fine. Even Paul admitted to only riding on it once when he was a kid and only because his mother was tired of walking. After the ride we finally went back to the trailer and went to bed.

Thursday I had to leave around 1 to go to a wedding so I made the 3 hour drive back to Baltimore and I didn't get back into Ocean City until 2:30 am Friday. During the time that I was gone Paul took the kids back to the arcade and on the OC rocket and out for dinner.

Saturday we woke up around 8am and took our bikes to the boardwalk and rode from the inlet to the end I think it was about 4 miles all together. Your only allowed bikes on the Ocean city boardwalk from like 2 am to 11am during the peak season, Paul wanted to get breakfast so he gave me and both kids heart attacks and took us out on the main rd, and since they didn't have anywhere to park the bikes we went right back to the boardwalk and drove the truck there instead. after that we went back to the trailer for a little while and just hung out. At 4 we headed back to ocean city to go on a pirate ship ride called the DUCKANEER. OMG this boat ride was so fun, they take you out and tell you a story of a pirate trying to search for treasure and they never found it. Then they give everyone a pirate tattoo (adults included) a uni-brow and facial hair of some kind with a face crayon. The a guy in a little dingy comes and squirts everyone with water and they have water cannons attached to the ship so you can defend the ship. If you are trying not to get wet the pirate on board throws a bucket of water on you. It was so fun and the kids and the adults had such a good time. At the end they let the kids grab and big hand full of treasure ie. plastic gold coins, bracelets, and rubber eye balls, and everyone gets an eye patch.

After we got off the ship we got changed in the truck and headed to the beach and stayed for a while. They had some kind of swimming race going on while we were there all the life guards had these surf boards and they all sat about a 100 yards out and waited for the swimmers to enter. The whole thing went by pretty fast and before we knew it they were gone swimming toward the end of the board walk.

Sunday it was back to reality and we had to bring our trip to an end. It's always nice to get away but after 20 days of not being home it's kind of nice to be home for a little while.

Cherrystone 2017

We arrived at Cherrystone after a short 3 hour drive from the OBX we only stopped once for gas and arrived around 3pm.

After we got the camper set up I made burgers and gravy for dinner and we let the kids play on the 3 new bounce pillow till 10pm before calling them back home.

I was so nice out that night we decided to play a quick round of exploding kittens outside. As usual the game ended, along with the night, after JP cried because he didn't win. 

 Tuesday, morning we finished setting up the camper and we let the kids go back to the bounce pillow where they met up with some friends they met the night before. I really don't like them being away from the trailer that long Paul doesn't really car e but I'm the mom thats always concerned with the "what if ". What if they fall or bleed or fall and bleed.... The stayed with their friends most of the day until their friend went to the pool. Mckenzie comes to me and say mom can we go to the pool with our friend I think I actually laughed in her face before I told her not a chance. My kids are now 9 and 7 like I'm going to let some random person watched them in a pool, yeah right not happening. Besides Mrs Ann and Mr Lee were on their way to the campground and we needed to wait for them to give them the car pass. Before they arrived I went to the laundry room and washed a load of towels. I will say the laundry room at Cherrystone is quite spacious however they have no A/C so it's hot as hell in there. They have 2 large washers and 4 larger driers 16 washers and 14 driers. After they arrived we sat around for a little bit while the kids continued to bug us about going to the pool. finally Mr Lee took them to the pool and Paul followed shortly after and Mrs Ann and I took the opportunity to go to the grocery store and get some things. When we came back the men were back at the camper but of course the kids were no where to be found. I cooked the spaghetti that Mrs Ann brought and we all had dinner after we found the kids and wouldn't you imagine as soon as they were done eating back to the bounce pillow they went. I went back to the laundry room and did laundry it was cool and I was the only one there.


Wednesday we hung out at the camper for a little while after I made chip beef gravy for breakfast. Then I took JP to check out how much the chicken necks were and we went the camp store while taking a bike ride around the campground. After we got back me and the kids went for a bike ride and got some chicken necks and some ice cream from the cafe. Paul and the inlaws met up with us and we took the kids to paddle boats and back to the bait shop just because. we sat around just being lazy most of the day and then went crabbing and didn't catch anything lol. A couple people felt sorry for us and gave us like 5 crabs and I steamed them up for JP and I.  After that the kids stayed at the bounce pillow with their new friend Evan who is also from Md him and his family live in Odenton. Paul and Mr Lee played a rousing game of washers Paul making sure to keep a good eye on him because he has a tendency of cheating when you not looking. He pretty much cheats at everything if you don't watch him good enough lol. Paul got some fire wood, finally, and we had some smores and ended the night around midnight. 

The next morning everyone was up pretty early mostly because someone was running in and out of the trailer and the door kept clicking shut. I took JP to a local Dr office because he had swimmers ear and we went to the grocery store to get my mother inlaw an ice cream cake and a card. We all went to a local pharmacy to have lunch.... yes you read that right. It's like right out of the 60s or something. one third dinner one third pharmacy one third  novelty store, but nonetheless the have pretty good food and I got JPs ear drops while we were there anyway so win. After lunch we went in to Cape Charles and looked around, Kenzie and I did some art appreciation and Paul bought the kids boogie boards at the hardware store. We came back and went to the pool, poor JP had to wear an ear plug and I apparently broke his ear when I tried to put it in so he salked for a little bit before putting it in himself. After that we went back to the camper and ate dinner had some cake and sat outside for a while. The inlaws will be leaving in the morning and My brother is coming down for the weekend. 

Friday Mr Lee and Mrs Ann left around 10:30 and Bernie arrived not long after that. As soon as Bernie got there he went straight to the cafe to get lunch. After that we went to the pool for a little while and then we went crabbing just for fun. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and we went home with nothing and didn't even mind. That night we got to talking to our neighbors and we sat out there talking to them on their site till about 12:30 am. The kids went in to their camper and played and watched a movie and we just sat around outside telling stories and getting to know each other. This, I will say is one of my favorite things about camping, meeting new people and hitting it off, even if you never talk to them or see them again, it's nice to hear how other people live their lives and the places they love to camp.

Our neighbors are from New Jersey and this is only their second season with their travel trailer. April and Zeke have 12 and 9 year old girls and a 3 year old boy, Maloria and Corley and Mack. They are really very nice, they had her parents there with them but they had rented a trailer in the park. The parents brought a snowball machine and that what drew us over and like I said we started talking and didn't realize by the time we looked at the clock it was past midnight.

Saturday we went to the pool and Mckenzie met up with the 9 year old daughter from next store and they stayed at the pool for a while. When they left for lunch Kenzie asked to go with them and have lunch with them I said yes. Our daughters went to the snack bar and got a little pizza and an ice cream that Corley bought her. I only know this because I was there getting a soft crab sandwich with Bernie and Kenz came up and said they ordered ice cream and didn't have enough money to pay for it and needed 4 dollars.... I gave her the 3 I had and told both girls that I hope they learned a lesson about ordering something before they knew they had enough to pay for it. Kenzie spent most of her day with Corley while JP and  Bernie did some things around the campground together. That night we invited the nieghbors over and watched Moana on the blow up screen and had popcorn.


Sunday we went to the pool and that night April and Zeke and the kids came over and I introduced them to the pizza sandwich, apparently it's Zekes new favorite camping food.

Monday it was time to leave, we exchanged number with Zeke and Amy and left to go to Fort Whaley in Ocean City. We left at 11:15 and didn't stop.