Grumpy old lady

That would be me. Not really grumpy, just not in the spirit of summer family camping. And it's selfish of me, I know. We used to take our kids camping. We rode bikes, blew bubbles, played frisbee. And there were 'blender sports' as well for the bigger kids. I try to keep that in mind this time of year.
Campgrounds in the summer time are a different place than they are in the off season. (duh) There are waaaaay more people. Lots of kids on bikes, trikes, scooters. I could swear I heard a Big Wheel out there earlier. There are campfires, sometimes most of the day and into the night. This close to the 4th of July there are fireworks here and there. 90% of these folks only have 3, maybe 4 days to get all of their fun in before they have to go home. Sunday afternoon if we are lucky, peace and quiet will reign again. I'm a little worried this weekend, it being so close to the 4th. They may not leave.
I don't know if camprounds in the west have people who bring their rigs out at the beginning of summer and leave them for the season or not. I don't remember being aware of it. It is pretty common here in the east. Folks park the 5th wheel or whatever, and just come out from the city on the weekends. Like a summer home sort of. Some campgrounds are nearly full of these (of course, they are paying by the month) so we have to plan ahead to get a spot.
I guess I am just a little grumpy because we have kind of a crappy spot in this particular park. The spaces are narrow to begin with. Our spot has two small trees that make it impossible to put the awning over the front driver's side window out (and since it's in the 90's it would be nice to have it out) and the big awning only goes out - sort of. No place to put chairs out or put up the bbq. wah wah wah. But we are paying big $$$ for this spot because it's less than an hour from DC so it kind of grinds on me. Ok, I feel better, thanks.

Roadside Attractions

I finally managed to find a place to get my hair cut a couple days ago in Windsor, Ontario. The young woman doing the cutting (and a nice job she did) asked if we ever went to see things like the world's biggest ball of string... I said yeah, we do. We have been to see the world's largest Ketchup bottle (a water tower in Illinois, and then there was the Biscuit bigger than your head in Arkansas. I was out driving toward the land of Longaberger baskets yesterday and of course, drove past this:

We had seen it before when we were here in 2005. It's pretty impressive.

Now we come to the other reason for returning to Buckeye Lake, Ohio. It is a beautiful campground. When we were here in the smaller motor home, we got to stay in the older part of the park just across from a very picturesque stream. This time, we are in the new part of the campground which is not finished and not very pretty -yet. The real reason we came, is gravy. That's right, gravy. On a whim I bought two cans of Patterson's Homestyle Sausage Gravy. They were small cans, enough for about 2 split biscuits. Suprise, suprise, it was really good. We hoarded the second can. We talked about it and told people when the subject of biscuits and gravy came up.... Old retired people like to go out to breakfast, biscuits and gravy are a favorite of mine. A n y w a y......we came back to the source and they still had it! I resisted the urge to buy out the store. I got enough to give to gravy fans back in Arizona and a couple of cans to hoard til we return to Ohio..

Friday 13, 2008 Port Dover ON, CA

We finally made it! After 10 years of reading about this unique little rally, we are in the right place at the right time. Beginning in 1981 when a small group of friends met in Port Dover on a Friday the 13th and vowed to meet every Friday 13th there after, a spontaneous word of mouth bike rally has grown into full fledged event. 2008 brings more than 10,000 bikes and over 150,000 people to the town for a one day gathering. Local news reported that the area economy gets roughly 5 million dollars from their guests. And let me say that the whole town seems to welcome the crowd. Port Dover is located on the shores of Lake Erie and for much of the year it is a lakeside resort destination, not unlike Laconia NH, which also hosts a motorcycle rally in a lakeside resort town. The big difference is the Friday 13th rally goes on every Friday 13th regardless the season and yes, the winter events are much smaller than warm summer days, it is a tradition and somebody shows up every Friday 13th.

880 Steps?

We've been in the Watkins Glen/Corning, New York area for the past 3 days. Lots to see around here but we tried to hit the highlights.
Yesterday we went to the Corning Museum of Glass (attached to where they make... Corning Ware!) While we were touring the museum part a woman near us started talking about the 'Tornado Warning' for the area in effect until 7pm. Huh? We hadn't heard anything about any tornados when we left the dogs in the motorhome 15 miles away..... we finished the museum rather quickly (there is enough to see to take at least a couple of hours) and went to keep an appointment to make blown glass Christmas tree ornaments. Lucky for us, the good folks at Corning have made this idiot proof. They have very capable staff to do the part that can't be learned in 10 minutes and you get to blow on the pipe as directed. It's probably about as close as I will ever get to blowing glass so I thought it was great.
This morning we geared up (comfortable shoes, water, bug spray) and headed for Watkins Glen State Park. It is built around a series of 19 waterfalls that work their way down the gorge. Lots of stairs. They warn you about them before you start out. I didn't think about that when I thought it would be fun to go and see. Some of you know that I spent most of the winter with my knee up, swollen about the size of my head. It finally sorted itself out about April, but 800+ stairs might be a little ambitious. Still, how could I be so close and not try? It took longer than it might have but we made it. It was beautiful and worth every step!
Tomorrow we move on to Canada. But, one more thing.....THE FIREFLIES ARE OUT!!!!!
I wish I could take pictures of them, they are magic.

A Weekend in the Poconos

My brother Steve and his family live in New Jersey. Unless you are near the shore or out in the outlaying areas, campgrounds are hard to come by. Last time we were close to them, we had our old coach and parked it in the yard next to their garage. The new coach won't fit so, if we wanted to visit with them, we had to have a different plan. They have a condo near a ski area in the Poconos and we found a campground nearby.. it was a plan! After we had made all of the arrangements, we found out it was a NASCAR weekend! We heard horror stories of snarled traffic and lots of crazy fan type folks taking over the area. We managed to avoid most of that...except for the party-ers camped next to us who came early, hung out the 'Bud Lite' flags and set out 7 coolers for 6 guys. Even that wasn't too bad. In the end, it was a nice weekend. Dave and Steve went for a motorcycle ride. Char and I went to the outlet mall for a couple of hours. Then there was some eating and drinking. We had brunch this morning for more eating and drinking. No crowds. No traffic. No loud car noises. All good.

Antique Automobile Club of America

Antique Automobile Club of America has a museum in Hershey PA and I visited there today. Back in 05 I also visited this facility. This time in addition to the vehicles from the collection there were a set of cars from the era of "fins". Parts of the museum were undergoing renovation this year so there were gaps (1950's) in the display. I was told most of the vehicles are in running condition. There were two beautiful cars parked out front and one very special finned ride in the fins display.