Pocohontas State Park

Guy and I decided we had to have one more camping trip before the season ended. Problem was that I was currently out of vacation days for the year as I was banking the balance I had to use for his upcoming surgery and the Christmas season and it is a lot of work to pack up and travel just for one night so we had decided we were done for the year UNTIL........A lightbulb went off and we decided to check our what state parks were within an hour or less of my office.  Our thinking was that Guy (and Riley) could drive the camper down to the Richmond area on a Thursday and set it up, I could come down after work, spend the night and then go to work on Friday, return to the campsite after work and we would stay through the weekend.  It was perfect!  Research showed us that there are actually several within an hour of my office and so we decided we would be stay at Pocohontas State Park, in Chesterfield, only 35 minutes from work.What we didn't plan on was the rain, and there was plenty of it.  It had rained for the two days leading up to the trip but the forecast was that on Thursday it was suppose to clear out so we decided to go ahead with our plans.  Nature had other plans though and it did clear out but instead came back with a vengeance on Friday and poured buckets throughout the day and night and then on and off all day Saturday.  Instead of going home we decided to just make the best of it so we hung out in the camper, watched movies (tank goodness for the DVD player) and ventured out around the park to see what we could see in between the showers.Overall we had fun together and that is what is important. With all the rain it was very hard to get a real feeling of the park since everything was soaking wet but we will definitely take a weekend next year for another try.Since it was so wet I wasn't able to use the camera(s) very much but did get a few shots in between the raindropsOur wet and soggy campsite:

Belle Isle State Park - Part I - Setting up

Guy decided he wanted to do a break-in weekend with the new RV over Labor Day weekend and tasked me with finding a place to take it that was about 2 hours from the house.  With only two weeks out, this wasn't that easy but we did find Belle Isle State Park had availability and was in the Northern Neck which we both loved so a reservation was made.As I always try to turn 3 day weekends into 5 day weekends I took Thursday and Friday off work and we headed out Thursday mid-day. We wanted to leave by 12:00 but had a small delay in getting the 5th wheel hooked up to the truck. Okay not a small delay it was actually a hour long delay but after some wiggling and waggling it connected and we were off.Arriving before the official check-in time proved to not be an issue and actually gave us almost the entire campground to chose from. Since we didn't have the golf cart we decided to stay close to the bath house and chose site 10 which had a long pull through and had tall trees on both sides. It proved to be perfect with lots of shade, although next time we will take 15 if it is available as it proved to be the most private with woods on three sides.Set up posed its own set of issues as it took us 45 minutes to get the camper off the truck. Something about a slide lock and neither of us noticing it LOL. It won't happen again.Once we were able to get this issue resolved everything came together in no time and we were able to head off to the local Wal-mart (30 minutes away local) and grab some food and drink supplies for the weekend. We spent the rest of the day and evening just hanging out at the site and a bit of driving around the park.  Here are some of the photos I took:The truck and camper combo... The welcoming bike barn at the entrance to the camp grounds (this is where they store the bikes that are available for rent).  More about that later.CampgroundsOur Campsite Up next - We have visitors 

The Cougar

Went with Guy Saturday to shop for a new camper. He was ready to upgrade and knew he wanted a Fifth Wheel but other than that was open to lots of ideas and options.  I will be the first to admit I don't know much abour camping or RV's but I am learning and always have ideas (lol) so I was more than happy to shop and help spend his money :)Wow there are so many options, I had no idea how plush and home-like some of these campers can be.  We must have looked at 10-15 and after the first few I was getting totally confused as to which was which but after a hour or two I really had my favorite three in mind (based on asking him lots of questions on what he wanted and liked and how he planned to use it). He also had his top three choices so we compared notes and we both had the same camper as our #1 so he bought it.Here is the new Keystone Cougar High Country.  He brings it home in a few weeks and already we have plans to take it camping over Labor Day weekend for the test trial.

Not bad is it? Definitely more Glamping than camping in this unit.The only thing that would have made this a more perfect unit would have been if it had a fireplace inside. 

July 4th Weekend Camping

 Guy took me camping in an RV for thh very first time this past July 4th weekend.  We went to BethPage Campground and Resort in the Northern Neck where we met up with some of his family and our friends.  It was a great weekend and I really liked camping with air conditioning haha.BethPage is a Camping styled resort so there is a swimming pool, boat ramps, putt putt golf course, a ice cream dairy and golf carts, lots and lots of golf carts.  It's a place you go with friends and family.  Lots of fun during the weekends but in the off season I think it could be boring as the life of the resort are the people who ar there just to have fun and relax. There was certainly a lot of interesting people watching (like the bug eating lady), we will leave it at that :)A few photos from the trip:

 Here is a video of what the resort travel trailer lots are like.  There were row after row of campers, definitely several hundred throughout the entire grounds.  Everyone we met was so nice and welcoming, it was like meeting lots of old friends.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gro4ToYk8_Iand a few of the permanent trailer/homes.  I love the amount of detail and fun folks put into decorating themhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pz46PHkS9wI can't wait to be able to use the camper again soon.  Such fun!