Camping Trip – July 11-13, 2018

What do you do when you want to go camping, but still have things you need to do in the real world?  Keep it local!  One more time, we headed up to Misty Mountain Camp Resort.   Yay!  Our Scamp was all dressed up with somewhere to go.  🙂

 

We stayed in site #59 again, and after we had everything set up and got the A/C in the trailer turned on (it was in the 90s), we went to the pool.  Yes, there are perks to mid-week camping–we had the pool to ourselves!

After we got back to the trailer, Wayne needed to go check on something at the house, and I decided to stay and take a nap in the trailer.  I fell right to sleep, but after 20 minutes I startled awake when I felt the trailer move!  It literally felt like someone had pushed on the tongue of the trailer and quickly moved it side to side.  WTH?!  As I jumped up and peeked out the windows, an app on my phone alerted me to a severe thunderstorm warning.  Had the shaking been caused by thunder?!

I didn’t hear any thunder–and there was no more shaking–but when Wayne got back about 10-15 minutes later, he said he’d run into a crazy-strong storm just east of the campground by a couple of miles!

While this storm didn’t make a direct hit at Misty Mountain, radar showed that another one was coming right towards us from the west.  We  scurried around hoping we’d be able to quickly get our soup heated up on the camp stove, but we weren’t quick enough…

As a result, “first dinner” wound up being yogurt and popcorn in the trailer.

  

It literally poured for a while, but at least we were comfortable and dry in the trailer….

When the rain tapered off to light sprinkles, we decided to try cooking again.

  

Better, even though we did have to eat inside!

  

The next morning was clear, beautiful, and much cooler than the previous day.  We left the campground around 7 (yes, 7 a.m.!) and came home to feed and cuddle with Kian, our old Siamese guy.  Next on our to-do list was feeding the feral kitties that we care for.

  

After stopping by the post office to mail one of my spare tire covers to a buyer in Canada, we ate a late breakfast/early lunch.  When we finally got back to the campground, it was time for some serious relaxing.  🙂

And then it was pool time again!

I’m not sure why the water made me look 8 feet tall, but I was totally blissed out!

Love this picture of Wayne:

We stayed in the pool for over an hour–floating, swimming, and totally enjoying ourselves–before going back up the hill to our campsite. A tiny dragonfly stopped by to visit.

  

We had soup again for dinner, but this time we were able to eat outside on the picnic table.

As it started to get dark, Wayne got a campfire going.

And since we had the fixin’s this time out, S’mores happened!

  

We sat outside by the fire until there was nothing left but embers, thankful that we’d been able to take a 2-day mini-vacation and still keep up with everything else in our busy lives.  We hope to do this again before the summer is over!

Camping Trip – June 9-10, 2018

For our first trip out for the year, we kept it local by going to Misty Mountain Camp Resort.  We’ve stayed there a few times, and it’s always like a mini vacation. 🙂

All set up in site #59.

So nice to sit back and relax. 🙂

Our Scamp, sporting the decorative spare tire cover that I made. 🙂

It was a hot day so we thought about going swimming in the campground pool, but then we met our neighbors!  I’d recently “met” one of them in a Facebook group (and knew she’d be at Misty Mountain), and she introduced us to some of her friends from PA who were camping there, too.  Fun times; you meet the nicest people in campgrounds. 🙂

By the time we’d finished visiting, it was almost time for dinner.  Wayne made a run to a store/deli to pick up a few things, plus we’d brought along some of our homemade soup.  Yum!

  

Later that evening after a few games of pool at the community center (always one of our favorite activities at Misty Mountain), we returned to our campsite.  With rain in the forecast, we opted not to start a campfire.  Instead, we simply sat outside in the dark enjoying our view of the night sky until clouds blocked out the stars.

Shortly after we came inside, it began to rain.  This was the first time we’d been in the trailer during a hard rain, and I wondered if I’d be able to sleep since it was so loud on the fiberglass roof!   Those concerns were unfounded, however, as I went right to sleep!

The next morning we were up early.  We made a quick trip home to feed our cat, then trekked over to feed the feral kitties before returning to the campground.  (Yes, there are advantages to staying close, sometimes!)

We took a couple more pictures of our “little house in the big woods” before getting everything packed up and ready to go.

  

We always test the lights before we get out on the road, and this morning the brake lights worked, and the turn signals worked, but the running lights (marker lights & rear lights) didn’t come on when I turned on the car lights.  Not good….  This wasn’t an immediate problem since we were driving home on a sunny day, but it was still worrisome.

When we got home, I started “Googling” to try to diagnose the problem.  I found a diagram that showed what each “pin” controls, so we knew the “where” of the problem, but still not the “what.”   We checked both the car and the trailer connectors, and there didn’t appear to be any corrosion or water in either….

 

Another Google search suggested that there could be an issue with a fuse, so that was our next step.  We opened up the hood of the car, located the fuse in question, and pulled it out.  It appeared to be okay, too.

After pushing the fuse back into place, we connected the cords again–and everything worked!  Of course we have no idea why the running lights didn’t come on earlier, and absolutely no idea why they did–and that’s still worrisome!

At least for now, though, our little trailer seems ready for its next adventure as soon as we are. 🙂

UPDATE: The wiring on the trailer is fine, but the 7-pin plug on my car needs to be replaced.  It’s mounted very low on the hitch, and apparently got bumped at some point, and this loosened the wires.  🙂