Camping in Springfield, W.V.

This account of my camping trip is taken from an entry made into my AOL Journal a day ago. It's lengthy and I decided to add it here as a posted item in my portfolio. It's my first experience with camping in the wild. At least, I didn't sleep in a tent. I welcome any questions and comments.

CAMPING IN SPRINGFIELD, W.V.

It's great to be back from our camping trip to Springfield, W. Virginia. I was a guest of my son, Dan, and his wife, Roseann over the Labor Day weekend. Dan’s truck was pulling a 5th wheel 30-foot camper. We were meeting up with Roseann's siblings and their spouses at a preplanned location. It's something that they do every year. They all have their own RVs and campers, and live in different states. The place selected is usually centrally located. In that way, they would all reach their destination near the same time. We started out on the morning of Thursday, August 31, at 3:45, and arrived at Milliston's Camping Grounds in Springfield 8 hours later. We had stopped a couple of times; including breakfast at a Perkins' Truck stop where Dan refueled his truck. Diesel fuel was $2.87.9 then. Coming home, it was $2.93.9 a gallon.



Right now I have mixed feelings as to whether I like that kind of camping. Where we stayed, it was like being in the boondocks. I felt it was so far out of touch with everything. I drew that conclusion as we turned off the main road to enter another pointing the way to Milliston’s. We traveled on a dirt mountain road just wide enough for one vehicle. I was thinking how scary it was, and what if another RV came in the opposite direction. It was a long and bumpy ride, but then after what seemed forever, we arrived at the campgrounds and checked in before going directly to our designated campsite. We were the first of our group to arrive. The others came the next day. Our campsite was out in the open with hardly any trees to afford shade. But, we weren’t concerned. We would be spending all of our days with the rest of our group. They had some trees on their campsites, and later on they set up two open screen houses to relax and dine in shaded comfort.



Cooking was mostly done on an outside wood burning fire pit. I must confess everything was delicious, but we were limited to what we could cook outside. It was heartening to see that everyone did their part in setting up tables and making the side dishes. If I tried to lend a hand, I was told to sit back and be comfortable. I was treated regally.



Someone should have told me not to use scented hair spray. On the first morning, I sat myself down into a camping chair, and suddenly I was flailing my arms in the air swatting at little gnat-like flies. They were all flying about my head. One made its way into my sparse hair and then traveled through a maze of hair only to be plucked by my finger as it emerged from the side of my head. I used no hairspray or scented powder for the duration of my stay at the camping grounds.



My daughter-in-law, Roseann's two brothers took turns in cooking the meats. The women did breakfasts, mostly using two or more electric griddles and skillets. We had pancakes, French toast, bacon, eggs, sausages, sauteed peppers and onions, and even hash browns. One morning, sausage gravy and hot bisquits dominated the center of the table. The dish was lovingly made by Roseann's sister-in-law, Mary Jean. Each morning, Roseann would make a pot of coffee in our camper with her new Gavalia Coffee maker and carry it over to the gathering site. We were a total of 9 people consisting of Roseann's two brothers and their wives, her sister, Bonnie, and her better half, Bob.



The women water soaked batches of corn on the cob with the husks still attached. Just the silks were removed. One of the men roasted the moist corncobs. They were wrapped in foil, placed on a rack, which was suspended on a tripod and set above the flaming fire pit. The corncobs were cooked just right and delicious. The fire pit was kept burning and the flames flickering all night long until bedtime. There was an abundance of logs to toss on the fire. My son, Dan, added his supply of logs to the stockpile. Those sitting around the fire were kept warm, and the smoke kept flying insects at bay. It was pitch black outside. In the quiet of evening, I could hear the sounds of animals, and one, which I had never heard before, the screech owl. Later on in the week, Roseann's sister-in-law, Mary Jean took the kernels off the leftover corncobs, and fried them making for tasty fare with special seasonings. This was another first for me. We even had garlic and chive mashed potatoes one evening. Mary Jean offered homemade Chocolate Zucchini and Coconut Zucchini breads that she had previously baked in her oven at home. That was a delicious treat for dessert.



One evening as we sat in a circle around a rousing fire, Roseann's sister, Bonnie, made a batch of Long Island Iced Teas. I accepted a glass of her special mix, and took a sip. It was delicious. Then I left the four couples to retire for the night, and carried my tall glass of her Long Island Iced Tea to the camper in order to enjoy it in comfort. Bonnie is not going to know that I consumed only half a glass of her Iced Tea, and tossed the rest of the drink in the kitchen sink. I was starting to feel the effects from it. She'll just have to read my Essay, because I'm not telling her.



I realize food dominates a good portion in describing my trip, but the subject is dear to my heart and I can't help talking or writing about it. There was so much more of the good stuff to eat, but I'll give you a break from my rambling after I tell you about the hobo pies that the girls prepared. They made small pies that you bake right onto the open fire. I retired early on that night, and I missed the actual cooking of these pies. I surmise that everybody was handed a hobo pie maker to lower into the flames. They used two slices of white bread and filled them with canned pie fillings, such as strawberry, apple, raspberry, and blueberry. There were some solemn faces that lemon filling wasn't available. The fruit filled breads were placed into metal sandwich holders that had long handles attached to them. The finished product was delectable; toasted bread with hot sweet filling sealed up like a pie, then dusted with powdered sugar. Dan brought back an apple hobo pie for me. I was sitting at the table inside our camper watching a DVD movie. My fingers were busy crocheting a fun fur boa, but I dropped them quickly to gobble up the hobo pie. Later on, Dan told me that the group were thinking about mixing a variety of fruit fillings into my hobo pie. It wouldn't have made any difference to me. I like all kinds of fruit.




I just want to say if you're a meat eater, there's nothing better than tasting steaks, ribs, chicken, and more that were cooked on a grated open fire. I'm not a beefeater, but I tasted a tiny piece of a one and a quarter inch T-bone steak. Oh, it was so tender. It melted in my mouth, and I was really satisfied. Actually, I felt a little guilt about liking the taste.



I loved being inside the camper. It's comfy, although small, of course. Roseann and Dan are used to the daily routine of living in the camper. In that way, they are comfortable with the setup. They know where everything is. It's a little different with me, and especially at my age. Yes, I'll use age as a cop out, and why not!



What made it tolerable was the fact that we all had electric, water, and sewage. Our camper went without sewage hookup for a couple of days. It seems the campsite allotted to us was a bit cockeyed, to say the least. It's supposed to be a back-in site, and no matter what Dan did with ours, the sewage pipe was on the opposite side of the camper. The camper couldn't be turned around, because of a steep hilly barrier at the back end. Then he realized that the drainage pipe would not reach the sewage hole. So off we went to Wal-Mart, which was 45 minutes away from the camping grounds in Springfield, W.V. Dan connected the hose the next day. It was a pleasure to take a leisurely shower without worry of filling a holding or gray water tank up. I guess you can tell I'm a rookie by my novice choice of camping words.



While at Wal-Mart, we did some shopping. I bought a few items, including a colorful bath mat that matches my bathroom at home. It's light beige with seashells scattered about. I was very happy to finally see a bath rug that had the material on both sides, too. I bought one, and it was only $7.00. Without the normal foam backing, the rug is soft when you step on it and it can be tossed into the washer without any worry about the backing eventually peeling off. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for lunch. Roseann and I had a fish sandwich and French fries. It did remind me of McDonald's a little, except for when we had ice cream cones dipped in chocolate.



Our campsite was separated from the other three in our group. We were about 125 feet away and on the opposite side of the road. I welcomed the little walk a few times a day. It was a break from the constant sitting. The men drank beer occasionally, and played horseshoes and corn toss. I tried my hand at corn toss, but soon tired shortly. I bet with practice, I would be able to get the corn kernel filled cloth bags into the hole. I thought that game was ingenious; less dangerous than the metal horseshoes.



One of the brothers' wife, Ginger, engineered that game. She mentioned that she got the idea from the Internet. The couple built two wooden boards with sloping low-lying legs. Each board had the appropriate hole near the higher and upper front end. The boards, which were approximately four feet long and maybe two and a half feet wide, were painted in stripes of red, white and blue. The top part of the boards was shiny and smooth so that the bags would slide along the top. Ginger sewed 8 colorful cloth bags, four of each in a checkered material and in gingham. She filled each bag with 1 pound of corn kernels and sewed them closed. Corn toss is a nice change from playing horseshoes, although similar. I brought my dice game, Zilch, with me, and that helped pass the time one afternoon. In fact, there were a variety of board and card games to wile the afternoons away. We had gorgeous weather everyday with not a hint of rain in sight.



Roseann's brothers and their wives brought their dogs along. One couple had three dogs; two mediums, tan in color, and one small white Terrier Maltese type. I'm not certain of the breed. The other couple had a small tan longhaired Chihuahua. The dogs were kept on very long leashes, and they got along with one another. It was very amusing to watch the larger dogs fun wrestle with each other. They had plenty of room to frolic. In fact, the dogs added a home atmosphere to our camping days. It was a pleasure having them there.



The camping grounds filled up just for the Labor Day weekend. Live music and Karaoke could be heard coming from the public buildings. The place came alive with people strolling the dirt paths. Children were riding bikes and playing games such as Badminton. Small-motorized carts, similar to the ones that golf players used were going back and forth. But that was only for the weekend. Quiet soon set in for the few that remained.



On one of the days, we all went to the Smoke Hole Caverns. It was a one-hour and half drive. We took three vehicles. I thought the roads Upstate in the Adirondack Mountains were hilly, but this part of West Virginia beats all. To make matters even more intriguing, the lead vehicle, not ours, made a wrong turn. We wound up climbing a mountain to nowhere, and finally stopped. The men were pondering whether a 5th wheeler or motor home could make the climb up that steep mountain. We only saw one other vehicle on that road at the time, and it was parked in a rest area. Its occupants were probably walking about the mountain trails. We wisely turned around and made it back down and finally arrived at our destination. We had a nice time at the caverns, and I managed the tour and wet metal stairs, because we weren't rushed, and rested when our guide stopped to explain the wonders of the dark caverns.



It was a different kind of vacation going camping. I'll be honest; I like the camper. I like the idea of a traveling hotel. It saves money, and you can be relaxed and not worry about dressing up and such. That's great. Personally, I like the camper for just that; a place to sleep and have breakfast, even lunch and dinner occasionally. I do not care to hang around all day doing the same thing, or stare at a fire too long at night. I would like to explore places of interest everyday; something like what Dan and Roseann did when they went to a Resort Camping area in Pennsylvania. They went out and did something different each day that they were there. If I was younger, and my hubby lived, I could see us buying a camper. I would love to go to Florida or see the Grand Canyon, and other attractions. And even if the campsite didn't have all the utilities, I wouldn't mind using the public facilities of a RV campsite, as long as we had our own vehicles to go sightseeing on most days.


All in all, I had a good time on this trip. We stayed through the following Tuesday, and said our goodbyes to the rest of the group. They'll be there until the following Sunday. It looks like they will have good weather throughout, but they will have to contend with the sand and dust kicking up in the roads going in and leaving the camping grounds, because of the many days without rain. There is nothing to see ahead of you. It's like driving through thick fog, even in the middle of the day. The group planned visiting a Winery on one of the remaining days, and hopefully seeks other places of interest to visit. It was my pleasure to share part of their vacation and witness family togetherness.

Note:

I read about RVing on the Internet. Here are some answers to the question.
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