Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio - Another Item for the Bucket List!

Despite having traveled through Ohio countless times, our family has never actually vacationed there.  Our overnight stays in the state have always been pleasant but, except for a future visit to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, it hasn’t really been on my radar.  That all changed when I learned about Hocking Hills State Park from Denisa and Mark over at Wandering His Wonders (one of my favorite blogs listed at the right), and I'll tell you why.

But Wait, There's More . . . My Second Most Favorite Road Sign Ever!

In March of 2017, Alan and I traveled to the Apache Camping Center in Everett, Washington, to purchase our new travel trailer – a Creek Side 26RLS made by Outdoors RV Manufacturing (ORV) in the mountains of eastern Oregon.  Prior to picking up the Creek Side, we stopped at ORV’s facility in La Grande, Oregon, to take advantage of their factory tour.  (It was tons of fun – and extremely educational, too!  Thanks, Kevin!)  There are some incredibly beautiful mountain passes near La Grande with sweeping views and, I imagine, a fairly good chance of picking up significant snowfall during the winter months.  So, what road sign did we see that has become my second favorite road sign of all time?  Here it is . . .

Mammoth Cave National Park - and My Most Favorite Road Sign Ever! (National Parks Trip #2)

This post represents another installment in the series detailing the second of our three cross country National Parks camping trips with kids and travel trailer in tow.

Okay, people, I’m finally making good on my promise!  Below is the best road sign I’ve ever seen.  Alan and I, along with our two kids (Ryan, aged 16 at the time, and Kyra, aged 11) had settled ourselves in at the Wax Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) facility on Nolin River Lake in Kentucky in order to visit Mammoth Cave National Park.  But, on our 20 mile jaunt from the campground to the Park entrance, we came upon this road sign . . .

I'm Back and We're DONE!

Please enjoy these photos of various sunrises and sunsets – they’re a good fit for today’s post about happy endings and new beginnings!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  I am just so giddy with excitement that I can’t contain myself!  The MAJOR construction project at our rental property is done, done, DONE!  And we are happy, happy, HAPPY!

Meander with Me on the Road to Miscellanea

For those of you who are remembering that I promised to share with you my most favorite road sign EVER in an upcoming post, please be assured that I have not forgotten my promise.  That road sign will appear in the near future along with the next installment of our National Parks Trip #2 story.  Before I get to that, I wanted to share with you some random reflections about a few different topics or happenings that have been on my mind this week.  I don’t know about you but, if I don’t write it down immediately, it will be gone forever!  

"Miscellanea."  What a delightful word!  It sounds to me like it should be the magical town where all singular socks end up, all lost reading glasses convene and all the little screws from the whatchamacallit that Alan said not to lose can be found.  In my mind, the little town of Miscellanea might be found in the middle of the wheat fields of the Midwest or on a remote mountain plateau in the Rockies or even in the Alaskan outback, reachable only by float plane and dog sled.  But, alas, that’s not what Merriam-Webster says.  Merriam-Webster defines “miscellanea” as “a collection of miscellaneous objects or writings.”  And that’s exactly what we have here today.

Guess How Much I Weigh!

Okay, I have a confession to make.  I'm using the old “bait and switch” tactic.  Completely illegal and extremely annoying, I know.  Why did I pull a fast one?  Because I don’t really want to talk about my weight; I want to talk about how much my travel trailer weighs.  But, for those of you who are only interested (for whatever reason) in what I weigh, it’s 115 lbs.  That’s on a 5’ 1’ frame and it’s all muscle.  (Wink, wink.)  If that’s all you really wanted to know, you can safely stop reading.  I promise there will be no further divulgence of personal information today.  Unless you count a list of items we pack in our travel trailer as personal information and you have a burning desire to know what’s on the list.  What’s even more interesting than what's on the list, though, is how much the items weigh.  You will be amazed!

Social Hermit: A Personal Definition

The photos accompanying this post are of places and campsites that held particular appeal due to their solitude or the feeling of quiet contentment they evoked.  Enjoy!

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned the fact that I consider myself a “social hermit.”  While I won’t necessarily claim credit for coining the term, I have to admit that it’s not a phrase I’ve heard uttered by anyone other than myself or my husband, Alan.  (I’m pretty sure he’d be classified as a social hermit, too, but I’ll leave it to him to conduct his own psychological evaluation.)  Since I’m aware that those two words – social hermit – can conjure up an image in people’s minds of a guy of indeterminate age with a long, shaggy beard who lives by himself in a shack in the woods, bathes in a creek and has no contact with the outside world, I thought it might be a good idea to share with you my personal definition of social hermit in order to dispel that myth.  Because, really, I don’t look or live anything like that.  And, although we may not be consciously aware of it, an individual’s personality can have a major impact on his or her travel style, as well as the activities he or she enjoys. 

Three Cheers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers! (National Parks Trip #2)

This post represents another installment in the series detailing the second of our three cross country National Parks camping trips with kids and travel trailer in tow.

Prior to our first National Parks trip with the kids back in 2007, we hadn’t yet experienced the delight of camping directly in State or National Park campgrounds.  We had only had our first travel trailer for a year, and most of our early camping trips involved private RV parks with activities for children.  It was during that 2007 journey that we ventured into the Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park.  That two night stay would forever change our camping lives and I devoted a blog post to that event some time ago (A Camping Epiphany - link HERE).  So, when planning the second of our National Parks trips in 2010, I was focusing on state and federally operated campgrounds in the locations we would be visiting.

The first night of the trip, we stayed in the RV section of one of the travel plazas on the Ohio Turnpike.  The second night would bring us to our first actual campground, and a love affair was born that very night.

July's Tidbits

It seems like every month I stumble across some intriguing little tidbits of news – none of which are worth a full blog post but all of which I find interesting, so I thought this format would be a good way to share them with you.  Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way.  I’m not affiliated with, recommending or receiving payment from any of the companies or organizations mentioned.  I’m just sharing what I consider to be delightful or useful bits of news with you – just the kind of stuff that might come up during an evening around the campfire.

For those of you who don’t already know, I find cloud formations mesmerizing.  It always amazes me how fluid (and gorgeous!) they are and how quickly they seem to disappear and reinvent themselves.  Since I don’t have any photos appropriate to the Tidbits included in this post, please enjoy some of my favorite cloud formations, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with the items below.  A fair warning though - these probably won’t be the last photos of clouds you’ll ever see here.  (I did take a bunch of photos of the inside features of a dozen travel trailers at the Hershey RV Show a couple of years ago but, somehow, I just knew you wouldn’t find them fascinating.)  So, let’s move on to July’s tidbits . . .

National Parks Trip #2 - The Adventure Begins

Welcome to Reflections Around the Campfire!  This post represents the first installment in the series detailing the second of our three cross country National Parks camping trips with kids and travel trailer in tow.

“What About Now?”  That song title, one of the country music group Lonestar’s popular songs from a number of years ago, pretty much summed up Alan’s philosophy and mine during our working years.  As young adults, we were pretty serious and goal-oriented, but we had agreed early on that saving for the future and planning for retirement would never get in the way of living life to its fullest.  Since Alan had been working for a single company since his college days, he had built up an enviable vacation allotment of six weeks per year.  While I can’t say that his request for four solid weeks of vacation was met with enthusiasm, it was approved and our family of four set out on the second of three cross country National Parks camping trips in the summer of 2010.  Our son Ryan was 16; our daughter Kyra was 11.  By this time, they were both seasoned travelers, each with at least one cross continent trip to Alaska (two for Ryan) and one cross country camping trip under their belts.

To have a four week block of time in which to vacation is a blessing.  To fit everything you want to see and do in that four week block of time is impossible.  We had already decided that this trip would focus on the National Parks of the southwest, but a decision needed to be made early on:  Should we pick just one or two Parks and do them up right or should we visit more Parks, but spend less time in each?  The dream of four wonderful weeks on the road was quickly replaced with the realization that, no matter what we decided, the choice would be an imperfect one and opportunities would be both gained and lost along the way.

RV Blessed? You Bet!

I have good news to share - only because I know you were all so worried about me (wink, wink).  Gander Outdoors re-stocked their supply of bear spray, and I was able to purchase a can a couple of days ago.  Just in time, as far as I'm concerned, since we had yet another bear sighting in the neighborhood.  They're only black bears but, still, I figure it's best not to take any chances, especially since there are a couple of cubs out and about.  So, I'm all set.  Thank you for your concern.

Over the course of the past six months or so, I’ve recounted our family’s travels during the first of three cross country National Parks camping trips with our kids and travel trailer in tow.  Our second trip (in the summer of 2010) was to the “Grand Circle” in the southwest and future posts will cover the tale of this epic journey.  Suffice it to say for now that this trip included 9 National Parks - 2 in Colorado, 1 in Arizona and 6 in Utah - and at least 2 State Parks.  In preparation for those upcoming posts, I pulled out our itinerary and have been scrolling through our photos, opening the floodgates to a whole host of memories.

Tidbits and Tips - June

Over the past month, I’ve been collecting a few (hopefully useful) tips and I’ve come across some intriguing little tidbits of news – none of which are worth a full blog post but all of which I thought might be of interest to you, and I decided that this format would be a good way to share them.  Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way.  I’m not affiliated with, recommending or receiving payment from any of the companies or organizations mentioned.  I’m just sharing what I consider to be delightful or useful bits of news with you – you know, the kind of stuff you might talk about when you get in a discussion about camping with your friends around a campfire.  First, the tips . . .