Monthly Archives: October 2006

October 6 — October 9, 2006

The last camping trip of the season :(. We headed out on Friday in the middle of a nor’easter. Not the best time to go, but we wanted to get out on the road and setup with the hope that the weather would turn on Saturday. We ended up with the best spot in the campground for the weekend, our camper opened up right to the swimming lake. The campground was virtually empty, so it was a relatively quiet weekend. We liked the spot so much, we tried to book it for any week next year. After the folks at the front desk stopped laughing, they did find us another spot right by the lake which is almost as nice (it’s even a pull-through site) for a week next year.

Saturday was also a relative wash-out. While not necessarily raining, it was cloudy and damp and windy all day. We setup a campfire early in the afternoon and the kids played inside all day. Only breaking to head out and fix the flat on the car. Not sure what happened there, but by the time we got to the campground Friday night, the tire was completely flat.

Me-mom and Pop-pop came down on Sunday and we headed out to Cape May Zoo which is right down the road. The weather on Sunday and Monday turned out absolutely gorgeous. Before hitting the zoo, a heated basketball game broke out between the team of Andrew/Me-mom and Matt/Pop-pop. Not sure who won (or even if a basket was scored). I’m sure that Me-mom and Pop-pop paid for that on Monday.

Ephrata, PA — September 29 — October 1st

We decided to head up to Ephrata for the weekend to camp by Middle Creek Wildlife Reserve and catch some of the Ephrata Fair. The Starlite Campground is on top of a mountain right by the Middle Creek reserve just north of Ephrata. There was a fabulous vista of the entire Ephrata region right from our site.

Saturday morning, we went to the reserve and hiked the conservation trail. Matthew had a great time talking about all of the scenery and looking for wildlife. He was surprised that there were no Kangaroos in the woods. Since it was lightly raining during the hike, Emily thought it was a trek through a rain forest.

The kids spent some time trying to find some birds…

In the afternoon, we stopped by Terri’s new house in Ephrata to park and walk down to the fair. Met up with Mark, Sue and Devin along the way. Matt and Emily rode on some rides and ate some fries.

Saturday evening, Kathy and I sat around the fire while the kids enjoyed a movie in the warmth of the camper. My smoke for the night was a 5 Vegas Gold Churchill. It was a pleasant smoke — although I had to work hard to keep it lit. I now know without doubt that my humidor is running too high. I’ll fix that up when I get home.

Overall, it was quite cold this weekend. We figured out how to work the furnace (it was tough pushing that button) — and it stayed on the whole weekend.

The weather cleared right before we left and we realized how nice the campground was…