In case you haven't noticed the trend of my blog lately, you'll see that I only update on Monday's. I guess you can blame that on the fact that nothing interesting happens during my work week, hence nothing to blog about, and then the weekend finally arrives and flies by, and I'm eagerly counting down til Friday again! Well, heck, at least I have two days out of the week to look forward to :) Anyway, this past weekend was no exception. It was great, and there's nothing better to perk up the Monday Blues by reminiscing.
This weekend, we got out again with my friend Ang and her boyfriend Mike, to a new campground along the Maryland/PA border. Since they reside in Bethesda, MD, we were trying to find a campground at the halfway point, and I think this particular campground was the best we could find. It was called Hidden Springs Campground, right by Rocky Gap State Park, which was beautiful, and nestled in the PA mountains. It took us about 2 1/2 hrs. to get there (a bit too far if it were just me & Ross) but perfect for meeting in the middle. The campground itself was nice, once Ang & Mike explored and found a good site.
They got there a few hrs. before me & Ross, so they were in charge of checking out our site to see if A) it was wooded and shaded, B) if it was private (to avoid Dakota's insistent barking at ppl) and C) away from all the noisy RV's! ha. Well, they were ready to call it a weekend as soon as they got there! To their horror (and ours), our (original) site was located directly across from all the seasonal RV's (aka fake green grass carpet, and an overabundance of tacky lawn ornaments), provided only a few trees for shade (not nearly enough when they were calling for 105 degree weather!) and the sites were very crammed, sitting one on top of the other (I'm sure Dakota would've enjoyed it!). So after making a quick U-turn back to the campground store to inquire about some other sites, they found a perfect site located in the "Tent Area", which by the way, was the only area in the woods. Again, we're not sure why we weren't originally placed there after Ang specifically asked for privacy, woods, shade, lots of room for 2 TENTS, etc. Out of about 15 tent sites, only 2 were already reserved, so they were lucky to have their pick. I was relieved to show up and see that we had everything we had wanted. So after the initial reaction, we loved our site and the campground.
The only con of the whole weekend (besides the heat) were the rules of Rocky Gap State Park. We had anticipated on going swimming at their "beaches" in the lake, but they didn't allow dogs in any of the areas. We had to do a little of our own exploring on the trails to find a spot to get into the water with Dakota, but nothing was sandy except for what they had reserved as the swimming beaches. It's always dissapointing to not be allowed pets, especially when it's such a family-oriented place, and who doesn't treat their dogs like family anymore these days?! So we didn't spend as much time there as we would've liked. Normally, I don't mind putting her in her crate, but in that kind of heat, I didn't want to take the chance.
So overall, we had a great weekend! We can't wait to go back and try out another site that was even better than ours (but already taken). And hopefully next time the heat won't be so bad. After this weekend, I've finally found a flaw with our tent.... it allows NO air circulation! HA. But I still love it.
On a side note.... Happy 2-Year Anniversary to my hubby :) (wow! can't believe it's been 2 yrs. already!!)
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Relaxin'
As much as I love camping, it's nice to have a weekend at home too. I almost think it's necessary to have at least one weekend in between camping trips, just to get the house and chores back in order before being gone for another weekend. And it makes me think that staying home isn't all that bad anyway.
Friday night we got together with the whole fam as an excuse to celebrate Michelle's birthday. Did I get a family cookout for my birthday?! NO. But then again, I'm not the queen of the family. ha...just kidding. Ross at least treats me like the princess I am, on my birthday :)
Saturday was nice to be home to get some errands done. I had a few to run with mom, and of course, that always means lunch is included, which I always enjoy! That night, I went out with 2 of my girlfriends to the Pirate's game (which also was Skyblast night!). It was great to get out for an all-girls night, which hasn't happened in ages, and was long overdue. We also enjoyed the fireworks since none of us bothered to see any for 4th of July, so it was a good ending to a great night!
I'm declaring Sunday my laziest day of the week, every week. Every Sunday seems to be exhausting, even if it means doing nothing all day, but just being lazy, like yesterday. Ross & I forced ourselves to go grocery shopping (like we normally do on Sundays) but we were both so tired, and boy, did it seem like a chore. Luckily, we had a great dinner to look forward to when we got home. Betsy had recommended a great way of cooking Ribs, so we were anxious to try it out. We bought some Baby Back Ribs, put them in the oven, at 275 degrees for a total of 2 hours. During the last hour, we intermittingly spread on our favorite BBQ sauce. They were delicious!! By far, one of our best dinners yet :) We also lounged around and watched a few movies, one of which was 'Avatar.' Ross saw it in theatres with the 3D effects, but I was still curious about all the hype and wanted to see it for myself, even if I didn't get the effects. But I have to admit, it was actually pretty good, after procrastinating to watch it for so long, but was a bit long. Maybe just b/c it ran past my 10:00 bedtime! So needless to say, I am tired today, ha!
So, the weekend was great, with good weather too. Let's hope we can have another sunny weekend since we'll be camping next weekend again. Nothing like camping in the rain when it's calling for scattered thunderstorms all week :( Finger's crossed!
Friday night we got together with the whole fam as an excuse to celebrate Michelle's birthday. Did I get a family cookout for my birthday?! NO. But then again, I'm not the queen of the family. ha...just kidding. Ross at least treats me like the princess I am, on my birthday :)
Saturday was nice to be home to get some errands done. I had a few to run with mom, and of course, that always means lunch is included, which I always enjoy! That night, I went out with 2 of my girlfriends to the Pirate's game (which also was Skyblast night!). It was great to get out for an all-girls night, which hasn't happened in ages, and was long overdue. We also enjoyed the fireworks since none of us bothered to see any for 4th of July, so it was a good ending to a great night!
I'm declaring Sunday my laziest day of the week, every week. Every Sunday seems to be exhausting, even if it means doing nothing all day, but just being lazy, like yesterday. Ross & I forced ourselves to go grocery shopping (like we normally do on Sundays) but we were both so tired, and boy, did it seem like a chore. Luckily, we had a great dinner to look forward to when we got home. Betsy had recommended a great way of cooking Ribs, so we were anxious to try it out. We bought some Baby Back Ribs, put them in the oven, at 275 degrees for a total of 2 hours. During the last hour, we intermittingly spread on our favorite BBQ sauce. They were delicious!! By far, one of our best dinners yet :) We also lounged around and watched a few movies, one of which was 'Avatar.' Ross saw it in theatres with the 3D effects, but I was still curious about all the hype and wanted to see it for myself, even if I didn't get the effects. But I have to admit, it was actually pretty good, after procrastinating to watch it for so long, but was a bit long. Maybe just b/c it ran past my 10:00 bedtime! So needless to say, I am tired today, ha!
So, the weekend was great, with good weather too. Let's hope we can have another sunny weekend since we'll be camping next weekend again. Nothing like camping in the rain when it's calling for scattered thunderstorms all week :( Finger's crossed!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Cooper's Lake Campground
Well, now that we've tried Cooper's Lake Campground, I can say that we're never going back. Maybe it was just us, but it didn't help that the weekend started off badly. Luckily, it ended on a good note....
Friday I got out of work at 4:00 in anticipation of Ross already being home from work, and having the car packed and ready to go by the time I got home. Well, didn't we jinx ourselves. Not only did Ross not get home until I did, but it also started to pour as soon as we were getting ready to pack the car. It was raining pretty badly all day, but it seemed like it would rain for 10 min.'s, then stop, then start again, etc. So I decided we should just try to wait it out again rather than packing the car in the rainstorm and rushing to get to the campground only to sit in the rain some more. Surely it would stop. WRONG! 5:00 rolls by, still pouring (and I remind you, this was not just a drizzle). 6:00 rolls by, Ross falls asleep on the couch, and I finally turn the tv on since staring out the window doesn't seem to be doing any good. Finally, 7:00 rolls by and I wake Ross up. We need to make a decision - either we go now, or don't go at all, b/c by the time we pack and get up there, we're going to be setting up in the dark. We decide to finally pack up the car, in the rain, and get on the road (after changing into dry clothes!). I was checking the weather religously and it looked like the storm would be stopping soon up north, so hopefully it'll be done raining by the time we get there.
Luckily, the campground was only 30 min.'s north of Cranberry, so it was a short drive. We stopped at Burger King for dinner so we wouldn't have to worry about making a fire if it was still raining. We got to the campground around 8:15 pm, with the rain having finally stopped, which, only minutes prior, I was freaking out b/c I thought I rememberd hearing that the office closed at 8:00 pm, and since they didn't take reservations, we would have no way of checking-in. Well, lo and behold, they were open til 9:00 pm, *relief*, so we checked in. We wanted to drive around first to check out the campground, but the lady assured me there were plenty of spots, and to just drive around until we find an area we liked, and camp there, so I went ahead and paid. Well, we drove around. And drove. And drove. One area was complete mud from the rain. No thanks. We drove to another area, but were confused b/c we couldn't tell where the sites were (since they weren't marked). We'd find, what we thought would be a site, but would be missing a picnic table. Then we'd find another nice site, but it's missing a fire ring. Again, and again. What's the deal?! So after driving around the entire campground twice, we had to make the call. Stay or leave? Well, I said, let's drive around one more time. Surely, there has to be *somewhere!* that has a nice spot with both a fire ring AND a picnic table! And I felt bad that I already made the decision to pay and probably couldn't get our money back. So by this point, we just wanted to find a spot, ANY spot. Finally, in the very back of the campground, we found a site. Now it was 8:48 pm and getting dark, especially since we're camping in the woods. AND, we still have to buy firewood if we wanted to build a fire that night, before the store closed at 9:00! So we unloaded the trunk at our site, literally throwing things on the picnic table, trusting it to be safe while we ran to the store (it was, but you can imagine me freaking out the whole time, b/c really, what else could go wrong). We got to the store at 8:58 pm, and luckily, were just in time to buy wood.
So Friday night was definitely not what we had in mind. Camping is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful, and not fun when setting up in the dark. At least on Saturday we had the perfect weather! We had some great food, I got to enjoy some time reading and we just relaxed. We brought Dakota along, which drove us crazy. Normally, I like having her around (unlike Ross, who could do without a dog for a weekend), but this time, she just barked at people, ALL DAY, since people were constantly going by our site. I need to get a handle on her, and why she can't just "give up." So besides her, it was a nice weekend. We won't be going back though, b/c the chances of finding the one spot we mildly liked, is slim, since they don't take reservations. We're moving on.
Maybe next weekend we can drive around to a few campgrounds and check them out, now that we have some suggestions from people. Or at the very least, we have Scarlett Knob as our back-up until we find somewhere better :)
Friday I got out of work at 4:00 in anticipation of Ross already being home from work, and having the car packed and ready to go by the time I got home. Well, didn't we jinx ourselves. Not only did Ross not get home until I did, but it also started to pour as soon as we were getting ready to pack the car. It was raining pretty badly all day, but it seemed like it would rain for 10 min.'s, then stop, then start again, etc. So I decided we should just try to wait it out again rather than packing the car in the rainstorm and rushing to get to the campground only to sit in the rain some more. Surely it would stop. WRONG! 5:00 rolls by, still pouring (and I remind you, this was not just a drizzle). 6:00 rolls by, Ross falls asleep on the couch, and I finally turn the tv on since staring out the window doesn't seem to be doing any good. Finally, 7:00 rolls by and I wake Ross up. We need to make a decision - either we go now, or don't go at all, b/c by the time we pack and get up there, we're going to be setting up in the dark. We decide to finally pack up the car, in the rain, and get on the road (after changing into dry clothes!). I was checking the weather religously and it looked like the storm would be stopping soon up north, so hopefully it'll be done raining by the time we get there.
Luckily, the campground was only 30 min.'s north of Cranberry, so it was a short drive. We stopped at Burger King for dinner so we wouldn't have to worry about making a fire if it was still raining. We got to the campground around 8:15 pm, with the rain having finally stopped, which, only minutes prior, I was freaking out b/c I thought I rememberd hearing that the office closed at 8:00 pm, and since they didn't take reservations, we would have no way of checking-in. Well, lo and behold, they were open til 9:00 pm, *relief*, so we checked in. We wanted to drive around first to check out the campground, but the lady assured me there were plenty of spots, and to just drive around until we find an area we liked, and camp there, so I went ahead and paid. Well, we drove around. And drove. And drove. One area was complete mud from the rain. No thanks. We drove to another area, but were confused b/c we couldn't tell where the sites were (since they weren't marked). We'd find, what we thought would be a site, but would be missing a picnic table. Then we'd find another nice site, but it's missing a fire ring. Again, and again. What's the deal?! So after driving around the entire campground twice, we had to make the call. Stay or leave? Well, I said, let's drive around one more time. Surely, there has to be *somewhere!* that has a nice spot with both a fire ring AND a picnic table! And I felt bad that I already made the decision to pay and probably couldn't get our money back. So by this point, we just wanted to find a spot, ANY spot. Finally, in the very back of the campground, we found a site. Now it was 8:48 pm and getting dark, especially since we're camping in the woods. AND, we still have to buy firewood if we wanted to build a fire that night, before the store closed at 9:00! So we unloaded the trunk at our site, literally throwing things on the picnic table, trusting it to be safe while we ran to the store (it was, but you can imagine me freaking out the whole time, b/c really, what else could go wrong). We got to the store at 8:58 pm, and luckily, were just in time to buy wood.
So Friday night was definitely not what we had in mind. Camping is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful, and not fun when setting up in the dark. At least on Saturday we had the perfect weather! We had some great food, I got to enjoy some time reading and we just relaxed. We brought Dakota along, which drove us crazy. Normally, I like having her around (unlike Ross, who could do without a dog for a weekend), but this time, she just barked at people, ALL DAY, since people were constantly going by our site. I need to get a handle on her, and why she can't just "give up." So besides her, it was a nice weekend. We won't be going back though, b/c the chances of finding the one spot we mildly liked, is slim, since they don't take reservations. We're moving on.
Maybe next weekend we can drive around to a few campgrounds and check them out, now that we have some suggestions from people. Or at the very least, we have Scarlett Knob as our back-up until we find somewhere better :)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Search is on...
It seems so hard to find and decide on trying out a new campground. If you haven't noticed, campground websites are terrible! Rarely do they show pictures of what their sites look like, so you're left to wonder if you'll be out in an open field or in a nice wooded, shady spot. Anyways, Ross & I are going to go camping this weekend, just the 2 of us, and we wanted to try going north for a change. Our first choice is Cooper's Lake Campground. My family used to go there when we were kids, but as I was looking at their website, it says they don't take reservations if it's not a holiday weekend. WHAT?! You want me to drive an hour only to find out you have no spots left?! Well....we'll see about that. Other than that, mom & dad have found a few nice campgrounds, Shenango Lake Campground and Tionesta Lake Campground, which are both associated with US Army Corps of Engineers?! Mom and dad got to drive through them and know that they are nice, but their websites are confusing. They show tent sites, but don't indicate how to reserve one, and are left with a 1-800 number to call. Confusing. Anyways, I'll prob. call around tomorrow (nothing like leaving it to the last minute!). Ross may or may not have to work Saturday, so we need to know for sure before making any plans.
Anyways, if you know of some nice campgrounds for tenting, please share! Me & Ross are willing to try something new, but alas, it's too hard to find campgrounds through web surfing. We love being in the woods with very primitive sites (aka no RV's blasting their a/c's and tv's), hence the reason we love Scarlett Knob Campground (but would like to try somewhere new). So, the search is on...
Anyways, if you know of some nice campgrounds for tenting, please share! Me & Ross are willing to try something new, but alas, it's too hard to find campgrounds through web surfing. We love being in the woods with very primitive sites (aka no RV's blasting their a/c's and tv's), hence the reason we love Scarlett Knob Campground (but would like to try somewhere new). So, the search is on...
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