Shakedown Trip 04.07.17

I lied. I told you our first camp out of 2017 was Easter weekend, but I forgot about our "shakedown" trip at the cabin at Ingham Lake. This is the trip where we are close to resources as we make sure everything works right after having the T@b stored all winter. The area we get to use here is lake front and level, we run an extension cord from the cabin so we have power, and we hook our hose to an outdoor spigot so we have water! Really doesn't get much better than this.

One of the coolest things about the T@b is how easy it is to maneuver manually. See those handles on the front? We grabbed those and rotated the T@b so our door would face the lake. Easy as can be!

The view was amazing:

It was early April, so it was a little chilly, but not too bad. Another awesome feature of the T@b is the excellent heating system. We set the temperature and it keeps us cozy day and night. We even have our own fire pit to keep us warm outside.

The good news is, we didn't have any problems with any of the camper systems. The water, heat, propane, and battery all worked like a charm.

On Saturday, we broke from our normal camping routine and...nah, just kidding. We drove to Okoboji and went to West O Brewery! LOL! (C'mon... we are still us!)

We also did some camper cooking and put to use cute lunch trays Jeff and Kathy had purchased for us. They are just like the old school lunch trays, and they work great for breakfast foods I don't like my syrup from pancakes mixing with eggs or bacon. Gross.

Perfect! I just need a tiny milk carton...

We enjoyed the weekend, were pleased with all the workings of the camper, and we were ready to go on our first official camping trip on Easter weekend!

Happy camping!
Peggy

1st Annual Halloween Campout 10.29.16

What better way to spend Halloween than camping with friends?! Kathy and I coordinated our Tiny Trailerville at Clear Lake State Park, where we had camped, us in a tent, Jeff and Kathy in their Scamp, a few years earlier, before Andy and I had bought our T@b. This campground, and these sites in particular, had become a quick favorite. This area of the campground is separate from the main part of the campground, and is more rustic. There are no gravel or paved pads to park on, the walk to the main bathrooms and showers is farther, but they are very private and give you lots of space! Here's how we chose to set up this weekend:

It's our Tiny Trailerville again! Behind the Scamp, we set our chairs around the fire pit, and we aimed our kitchen that way so our speakers would be facing us as we sat around the campfire.

See all the trees in the background? Those are separating our campsites from the main part of the campground. While it was late and the season and not very busy to begin with, we felt like we were the only ones there, and that makes for the best camping experience!

When we weren't relaxing by the fire, we did our typical tour of the area and went to a favorite brewery, Lake Time Brewery, in Clear Lake. If you've read my blog, you'll see we have been here before. It's owned by some good friends, and we are happy to support their establishment.

I believe I'm enjoying a "Chasing Sunsets" brew in these pics. Mmmm...

The brewery has a small area with a couch and comfy chairs, and we find it a wonderful place to hang out, relax, and pass the time.

Eventually, we pulled ourselves away and back to the campsite where Kathy and I went scavenging for wood. While walking along the roadway, I took a mis-step, and did a fairly lovely job of twisting my ankle. We managed to still have fun though and enjoyed an evening by the fire.

Andy and Jeff by the fire, Jeff holding Willam De Gnome, their Scamp travel companion.

Kathy and I are being "scary" cuz it was Halloween weekend! Boo!

The next morning, I woke up to an extremely swollen, painful ankle. Oops. Probably should have paid more attention to it when I first injured it.

Enter Dr. Kathy with her weird colored tape, ace bandages, and ice pack. Then enter engineer Jeff who constructed a way to keep the ice pack in place without me having to hold it. (He then went to stand on the picnic table in an effort to make me laugh and ignore my ouch. It kinda worked.) :)

The final piece to our camping trip this weekend was that Jeff and I invented/discovered a delicious new campground breakfast item:

Roasted powdered sugar donuts! OMG, seriously you guys. Heat over the fire like you do a marshmallow, wait for the sugar to just start caramelizing, remove from heat, let it COOL (sugar gets hot!) and enjoy. Do NOT overcook like Jeff may have done:

If your donut looks like this, you did it wrong. HA!

This sums up the end of our trip, and the end of our first season with the T@b. We had many, many adventures and hated to put it away for the winter, but we immediately started planning our outings for 2017.

In my next post, we will open the camping season on Easter weekend. Check back soon!

Happy camping!
Peggy

Dolliver State Park 09.30.16

Yikes. I didn't expect it, but this is turning out to be a rather emotional post for me. I'm finding it difficult to focus on the events we experienced with camping this trip, as a life changing event took place in my world outside of camping.

My mom, Jan, had been quite sick for a long time, and while we were here, we got the news that she only had a few days left to live. After talking to my siblings late Saturday night, we hustled out of camp to get to Rochester to spend as much time as we could with Mom. She died two days later.

So, due to grief smacking me in the gut, I think I'll just post a few pics to show you where we were, who we were with, doggos that came along... It's good for me to remember too. 💖

Tiny Trailerville with Jeff and Kathy and their Scamp!

Andy and our flamingos, Fred and Lucy.

The Des Moines River, just steps from the campground.

TY!

PORTER!

Kathy and me in our matching tshirts walking Ty and Porter!

Not even sorry for the short post. I will say that I'd like to go back and do a little more exploring and have an experience just about camping. Hugs!

Happy Camping!
Peggy

Somewhere Near West Union, IA 09.16.16

Forgive the long hiatus, friends and readers. I wish I could tell you that the reason I haven't been posting more camping eye candy for you is because I've been so busy camping, but that would not be true. I think the problem is, I got out of the habit! Bad self! So, I'm back to share with you the fun and unique experience we had in northeast Iowa.

This was quite different from our normal camping routine. This weekend, we parked on the property of a gorgeous, rustic cabin, partly owned by my brother and sister in law, Matt and Wendy. I can't even give you an exact location, but it was remote, serene, and beautiful. Andy and I arrived before Matt and Wendy, and we had to set up just as it was getting dark. Here's the shot at dusk. (Ignore the blue bag on the front!)

As you can see, our little yellow flamingos, Fred and Lucy, made the trip as well. We were parked right next to their cabin, and ran an extension cord out to the B@r T@b so we would have power. We filled the freshwater tank with water from the hose, and get this...their cabin has NO bathroom, but does have an outdoor shower and outhouse. Obviously our little camper bathroom got quite a bit of use this weekend. :)

Once we were set up, we got a fire going in the firepit, and relaxed while we waited for our family to arrive.

It's hard to go wrong with this view, but if we turned around, that view wasn't bad either!

Hello, sunset!

The next morning we followed our usual routine of driving around the area and enjoying activities. We found several!

First, we found this awesome heirloom seed farm, Seed Savers in Decorah, IA. It was the end of the season, but it didn't stop us from looking at the beautiful fall gardens and picking up a few items in their gift shop!

SELFIES!!!

After that, we traveled to Toppling Goliath Brewery, also in Decorah. (How is it we always find breweries? Hmmm...)

We enjoyed a taste of a few different brews in their tasting room/bar, took a bunch of goofy pics that I'll save you from having to view, (could be the beer influence?) then headed back to our little abodes.

We spent the evening mostly outside, then retired to the porch of the cabin where three people tried their darndest to teach me cards...I think it was Euchre? I don't know. I do know that I wasn't very good, and everyone took their turn being a patient partner with me. It was still fun, even if I didn't have skills.

The next day, I think the guys went hunting or fishing or something. I do know that they took along Tess, the world's most adorable lab!

She is NOT a small dog, but she sure is sweet. Anyway, she tagged along with Andy and Matt, and Wendy and I explored a greenhouse/gift shop in Hawkeye, IA.

This was just one area of their outdoor garden. Don't ask me why I didn't take more pictures! It was huge and beautiful!

After shopping there, we went to Country View Dairy, located on a working farm, near Hawkeye. Talk about farm fresh!

The best part about this dairy is that there is a self-serve area that's always open. (Though, I hope people would respect some reasonable hours as they do live here.)

In this little shop, you can purchase yogurt, cheese, eggs, butter, milk, and even a self-serve fro-yo!

Here I am using my skills from my DQ days to make a pretty little sample cup. It's all based on the honor system, so you write down your name, what you purchased, your total, and either leave cash or a check for the correct amount. I am thrilled that people respect this! Restores my faith in humanity a little. 💗

I was so enthralled with this little setup that I made Andy go back with me on our way home the following day.

Northeast Iowa is beautiful, and I highly recommend a visit, whether you have a camper or not!

Happy Camping!
Peggy

Loon Lake Minnesota 09.09.16

We have camping fever. In the words of our Scamp friend Jeff, we "camp entirely too much." That may be the best compliment a new, happy camper could ever receive.

About two weeks after returning home from the big Westward trip, we decided it was time to add another state to our cute camper map. We chose Minnesota, since it's only about 35 miles away, and there were lots of places to choose for a campsite.

There I am! Putting on the official MN sticker. (Please, hold your applause.)  This map is great. It comes with the blank US map, and all 50 state stickers to add as we travel. We figure somebody must use it for some reason other than camping cuz they include Hawaii. LOL! Wouldn't be too easy to get there towing a camper! :) Anyway, we got this on Amazon. Here is a link to The RV State Sticker Travel Map if you're interested in getting one.

Our campsite was a walk-in only site at Robertson Park, part of the Jackson County Minnesota park system. Just a few minutes into MN, it took us no time to get there, choose a spot, and get set up. The park is beautifully shaded with lots of large trees. We were able to hop into a lakefront campsite, our favorite.

We continue to marvel at how many lakefront sites we've been able to find, and you just can't beat the price! I think we paid $20/night for this one. It was a huge site, and nobody at the campsite on one side of us gave us lots of space to enjoy.

The weather was cool, calm, and sunny...one of those fall days you read about in stories. We took advantage of the firepit and sat down with some beverages to help warm us from the inside. :)

Andy, fireside, working on breaking our found firewood in two by burning it in the middle.

Here I am with my cool new "Camping Hair Don't Care" tshirt my sister bought me for my birthday, and (shocker!) I'm drinking wine from my new silicone yellow wine glass. The glass itself is very...well...weird. It's awfully flexible, and has a small rim. Takes some getting used to, but certainly is NOT breakable, which makes it camper-friendly. The wine inside was fantastic! It was from one of my most favorite places on the planet, Little Swan Lake. Go to their website, or their Facebook page here. They even have a B&B that is wonderful.

This was one of the most relaxing camping trips to date. On Saturday, we drove to the Okoboji area and did a little shopping.  One of the places we stopped at is a closeout store, and we found a cool Coleman brand dome, 12x12 for CHEAP. It was even yellow, like the camper trim, so we had to have it. We bought it, brought it back to the campsite, and I quickly realized there was something broken. Andy on the other hand, took much longer to admit that it wasn't going to work. I sat down and watched the comedy show. :)

The conversation that took place during the dome-raising attempt.

A-"Why won't it work?"
P- "Because it's broken."
A- "It's not broken, we just need instructions. Why won't this lock into place?"
P-  "Because it's broken."
A- "Ok, This is broken."

We returned it on our way home Sunday. LOL!

That night, we were treated with yet another spectacular sunset. I will never tire of these!

I love all the colors and textures that are included in a sunset, especially a sunset over a body of water.

I'll leave you with that beautiful image until next post when I tell you all about camping in eastern Iowa near West Union.

Happy Camping!
Peggy

Go West! Part 6, The Final Post

How am I still talking about a trip we took last August? Time to finish up this trip and start talking about all the other cool stuff we've seen and done.

After leaving our campsite in Wyoming, we drove for 9,736,846 hours through Nebraska and finally stopping at a campground in Kearney, Fort Kearney State Recreation Area. You never truly appreciate what a looooooong state Nebraska is, until you're at the end of a wonderful vacation, and are just trying to get home. No offense, Nebraska. I still like you. :)

So, here we are, on our last night of our BIG Westward trip, so we decide to set up all of our stuff! Lights, rugs, awnings, candles, etc. We sure looked good!

The lights on the awning tie-downs are brilliant! They keep us from tripping over the tie-downs in the dark, and they give a nice ambiance to the campsite. I bought these at Big Lots, for super cheap, and each strand runs off of 2 AA batteries. They are designed for indoor/outdoor use, so they're perfect for camping! No cords, and since they're battery powered instead of solar, I don't need to get them in the sunlight while traveling.

Normally, on just a quick overnight, we wouldn't go to the trouble of setting up the awning, but since it got used so little during the trip, it was worth it!

We were pretty tired and just ready to be home, so we just hung out at the campsite, doing a whole lotta nothing! :)

Well, clearly not "nothing." We must have had OK phone service!

One of my favorite things to do while camping is take in the scenery of wherever we camp. Kearney SRA didn't disappoint. Got a beautiful sunset!

That pretty much marks the end of our Westward trip! We had a great time, really fell in love with the T@b, and are ready for the next adventure!

Happy Camping!
Peggy

Go West! Part 5

Following our Utah stay, our next stop was Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming, and our first ever "rustic" (no water or electricity) camping experience.

Let's face it, I'm a proud "glamper." I like the camping experience, but I like it a whole lot more with the amenities of A/C or heat as needed, electricity, running water, kitchen amenities, and a flushing toilet. When we reserved the spot at Curt Gowdy SP, I knew I'd have battery power and propane for cooking, but I knew we wouldn't be able to run the A/C if it was a hot night! Luckily, the weather was fantastic, and we were able to sleep quite comfortably with the windows cracked open.

We chose a campsite that was a good distance from all the other sites and near the vault toilets (bleh! They were NOT as clean as the ones at Sibley Lake!)  The space around us was so lovely to have...nobody walking through our campsite, no noisy neighbors either. Nice!

See what I mean? I took a walk to see the sights while Andy rested next to the fire we had built. This pic is taken from the road in front of all the other campsites. Space, and lots of it.

We stocked up on firewood and ice from an on-site seller, who also let us fill our fresh water tank with a hose they had. This took away the worry that we might run out of water, so we really appreciated the kind people there. 

The park is truly wonderful. It has lots of walking/biking trails, gorgeous lake views, and lake access for water sports. We were only there overnight, so we didn't really take advantage of everything, but we did manage to walk on one of the trails for a bit.

Here are some sights from our walk:

If you look way in the background to the left of the rock, you'll see our camping setup!

Pretty lake!

Our cute selves with our cuter camper in the background.

We walked towards another campsite that had an R-Pod camper, hoping to meet its owners, but they weren't around. These campers are similar in shape to the T@B, but they're a bit bigger and heavier, and many include slide-outs too. We thought it would be fun to compare, but no luck.

When we got back to the campsite, we had a fellow camper come visit us! She saw our little rig when she went to the bathroom, and really wanted to see what it had. We had fun giving her a tour and watching her delight when she saw the full bathroom facilities inside. This might be one of my favorite things about owning such an adorable, well planned camper. :)

As I stated above, it turned out to be a very beautiful night. We cooked and enjoyed the fire and sunset. We even budgeted some battery life to play some music late into the evening, since we were so separated from other campers. What a lovely experience!

It was really pretty in person...the gold in the sky matched the gold of the B@R T@B!

Camping is most fun when there's a campfire to enjoy.

We packed up again in the morning (I don't think we ever even unhooked the car!) to head to Kearney, Nebraska, our final stop before returning home. Guess that will be Part 6 of our Go West! series. :)

Happy camping!

Peggy