We arrived at the Harpers Ferry KOA right around 3 with Pauls
parents, they’ll be staying with us for the first 2 stops of our trip, so the
to the 17th. We had a fairly nice site with a cement patio, a bench
rocker and table and chairs. The site was big enough for everything we set up
and had room for our Bunny cage for Cal. This year we added 4 more extensions
so he has more room to run around. Another new edition to the Perry camping
experience is a brand new, custom made bike rack for the kids bikes that goes
on the front of our 5th wheel hitch. Now when we go down the road we
don’t have to worry about the bumper falling off of the camper, considering it
isn’t rated for any extra weight. We have gotten quite a few looks and
questions about it,most people usually just walk up and take a picture of it without even talking to us about it. Another new addition
this year is a new grill for the camper, we decided to go with a propane
Blackstone griddle, this way we can use it for breakfast as well as for dinner.
It was getting to be a pain getting the griddle out every time we wanted to
cook bacon and scrapple and stuff like that, now all we have to do is fire up
the griddle grill and that’s it nothing extra. So now we have a really sweet
outdoor kitchen set up, 2 tables, one for prep and one to put the outdoor
stove top, and the a grill table that fits the grill perfectly on it. So, like
I said we were able to get into the site after Paul went down the wrong way and
had to back up about 50 yards down a street before realizing that the site was
a pull through… With COVID still going on, complete pain in the butt, we had to
wear masks in the store and you had to take your own chairs to the pool and
maintain social distancing at all times. Not really sure if anyone did it but
we all did have our masks to go in and out of the store. I stayed at the camper
most of the time because I’m still in school and I have classes on Tuesday and
Fridays. We mostly just relaxed Thursday the kids went to the pool with Paul
and Mrs Ann and Mr Lee. Thursday Paul got wasted on Crown Royal and coke. I
went to bed early because I had to get up early for class, Paul stopped adding
the Coke to his Crown and Coke while he
was sitting by the fire with his mother and came to bed thinking he was
dying… he kept me up until 2am and threw up in a trash can in bed hahaha!!! I
can’t believe that he actually got up at 930 the next day because Friday Paul and Mr Lee took the kids to river
riders and went floating done the river while I was in class from 8 am to 3pm
By 2pm on Friday my parents joined us for the weekend. So we had Paul, me,
Mckenzie, JP, Mrs Ann, Mr Lee, my mother, my father, Elle, and Cal all in our
camper…… wow My parents slept on the jack knife couch in the back room with the
kids and we took Cals cage and put him in our shower at night, because he bite
that cage at night for attention. Mr Lee and Mrs Ann sleep on the jack knife in
the living room, JP sleep in the big bunk and Kenzie gets the twin bunk both in
the back. Funny story this trip my inlaws brought a huge pillow top to put on
their bed, we keep and foam pad in the camper that they purchased for when they
stay with us. So they had the foam mattress and the pillow top on their bed, pretty
sure they were about 5 feet off the ground lol they let my parents use the foam pad while they were
with us but man I’m telling you moving that big ass pillow top on and off of
that bed every night and day was a huge pain in the ass and it wouldn’t fail I
would take out a fan in the process lol. Like I said Paul, Mr Lee, JP, and
Kenzie all went on a river ride Friday. Kenzie of course was freaking about it
before she even got there. I couldn’t go because I had class and Mrs Ann wasn’t
interested. When they got back Kenzie
told me that Mr Lee and her stayed together most of the time but at one
point he couldn’t get back into his float in which point Paul had to take him to the side of the
river so that he could hop back on his float. Mckenzie gave us a visual and
made it look like he was a fish out of water flopping around, pretty hilarious,
I wish I would have gotten video of her doing it. I think they all had a really
good time considering Kenzie didn’t even want to go. My parents arrived while I
was still in class and right after they got there Paul came back from the
river. We enjoyed a lovely weekend with them. It was really hot outside and my
dad stayed outside with us for most of the weekend. Saturday we all woke up and
had breakfast we all stayed in the campground and talked and played games.. Saturday
early afternoon my parents and Pauls parents took our trip to the Walmart, This
was the only time we went to a Walmart, if you have read any one of my posts
you will know that we can’t go a trip without going to a Walmart of some kind.
As a matter of fact I am pretty sure that I know where all the Walmart’s are
from Boston to the Outer Banks. I really like it when we have family with us on
our camping trips. It’s does get a little cramped at times but we spend a lot
of time outside, the only time we are really all in the camper at once is
around bedtime and when it’s really hot or raining. This trip I just brought on
of the outside chairs in for someone to sit in. We really have plenty of space,
especially with the couch in the back. We
played SKIP-BO that night, it was Paul, Mrs Ann, Me Lee, my mom, my dad, and
myself. I have no idea how we did it though because at one point we ran out of
cards lol. Sunday My parents and Paul’s parents left around lunch time. Mr Lee
and Mrs Ann were supposed to follow us to Rocky Gap but Mr Lee was having some
issues with his knee hurting him so he made an appointment for Monday to get it
checked out. One of the kids friends told them about caverns that were close by
that their family took them to and
Mckenzie told us she would like to go see them, so we decided that would be a
new fun thing to do and we make the 30 some minute drive to a place called,
Crystal Grottoes cavern. It was obviously a private family owned place. We paid
20 dollars for Paul and I and 10 for the kids. It was a complete rip off lol but
it was something new. The guide looked like she was maybe 17 or 18 and made a
lot of quirky add-ons about the different formations. There were only 8 of us in
the group, we must have been the last group because as we went through the
cavern the girl was turning off the lights. At one point she was like “now I’m
going to show you what cave darkness looks like” let me tell you I don’t think I
have ever experienced darkness like that before in my life. When I tell you I
couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face I am not exaggerating. Someone could
have walked up to me and punched me right in the face and I wouldn’t have seen
it coming. This cavern was much smaller them Luray, we seen the whole thing in
less than a half hour and it dripped freezing cold water out of the ceiling.
When we finally emerged, it started pouring down rain, so we didn’t even get a
wrap up we all just ran to our cars. The kids were out with friends the rest of
the day and that night Paul and I packed up everything outside to move on in the
morning. Mckenzie brought a very eccentric friend over that night who was very insistent
that they exchange numbers and keep in touch because they were both into anemia.
All I can say is thank goodness she didn’t meet her the day we got there
because she was a ball of energy, even more then Kenzie is I think. The next morning we got on the road got gas and
headed to the Walmart to grab a couple of cleaning supplies and a tackle box
and then we headed to my all-time favorite place. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts
to get coffee and planned on getting lunch.
