Camping Day 75

Lake Anna SP
Sunday October 21, 2007

This started out as another lazy day. Since it was a very nice day we decided to extend our stay another day and spend some time today paddling our kayaks on the lake. After lunch we headed out with a stop at the park office to pay for our extra day.

Nice to see some color.

Once we had our kayak's launched we headed down the lake with the idea that we would paddle around the point and up the cove where the camping cabins are. Well we didn't take a real good look at the map/chart and after a good hour of paddling we still had not reached the cove where the cabins are. So we headed back to the launch area to pack up and head back to the camper and see if we could catch a few laps of the Nextel Cup race at Martinsville.

After supper we watched a little more TV while Suzette knitted and I read a few more chapters of "State of Denial".

Camping Day 74

Lake Anna SP
Saturday October 20, 2007

A little cool this morning so we turned up the heat while we took showers. Cooked a breakfast of sausage, eggs and pancakes. Something about food cooked outside, even on a gas grill.

Neither of us were motivated to do much this morning so after we put up the awning and set out the mat we sat outside and Suzette knitted and I read. After walking the dog and a light lunch we left to drive to Mineral to see the museum that we had passed on several occasions while traveling on US522. Well it wasn't open and we did not find a sign for the hours of operation so we took a tour of Mineral. That didn't take long. It is interesting that the GPS shows streets that nolonger exist. I guess I will have to look into getting map and POI updates.

On our way to Mineral we stopped by the Lake Anna Winery and tasted a few and bought what we tasted. Nice wines.

We spend most of the afternoon doing more nothing, well the same nothing we did in the morning. Then it was another dog walk and we decided to take a bike ride to the waterfront on the new paved path. Since our last visit a campfire ring and outdoor classroom have been added. When we returned from our ride we started supper.

After supper we watched TV waiting for the playoff game to start. It is now the top of the 8th and it is Cle 2, Bos 10.

Camping Day 73

Lake Anna SP
Friday October 19, 2007

We got a late start today for our trip to Lake Anna arriving about 3 PM. We found that there were a number of campers already set up and more were to come for the weekend. We were told that a no burn order had been issued, not even a charcoal fire, because of the drought conditions.

We picked a pull-thru site, 32, just to make life easy. We had hardly stopped and the camp host arrived to get our name and make sure that we were going to stay at this site. We positioned the trailer about 3 times before we were satisified. Not really much of a show for the folks in the 5er across the way but they watched anyway.

We choose not to extend our awning or put out our patio mat and chairs since the forecast was for rain and high winds from a front coming thru later in the night. We did get a few minutes of rain and wind about 9 PM.

The fall colors were just starting and the maple trees were quite colorful.

Watched some TV while Suzette knitted and I started to read "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward.

Home again home again

Belle Isle to home
Monday October 1, 2007

Travel days to home don't count a camping days since we will not spend the night in the camper.

After a breakfast of english muffin, egg, ham we stowed a few items and decided to take another bike ride around the park. We went to the picnic area and enjoyed the shore along the river and watched a couple of Osprey glide on the air currents above the river. They looked like they were fishing. We did not seem them dive for a catch though.

After the picnic area we decided to ride over to the boat launch again. We watched a small sailboat tack in Deep Creek and studied the chart that was in the kiosk. We wondered if that chart/map was for sale at Camp HQ so we biked back there. They don't have that chart/map for sale.

We packed up and headed for home.

You can see all the pictures of this trip here.

Camping Day 72

Belle Isle SP
Sunday September 30, 2007

This is also our 100th day camping since we purchased the Flagstaff last June.

Today we had a group breakfast which we cooked in dutch ovens. We made Mountain Man breakfast while Doug and Athena made the biscuits. I started the charcoal inside the fire ring and started to cook the bacon but it wasn't doing very well. So I decided there wasn't enough air flow for the charcoal and moved to my standby hubcap method.

Mountain Man Breakfast with biscuits

Doug used the coals in the fire ring to do the baking. After we finished breakfast Doug and Athena along with Glenn and Sue started to pack up to leave. We had chosen to stay another day so after saying our good bye's we headed for the boat launch to put the kayaks in the water and spend a few hours exploring areas of Deep Creek that we did not do on our last visit.

As we were loading the kayaks after our paddle we noticed a class C with Vermont plates making a tour of the park. A while later they pulled in to the camp ground and choose a site several away from ours. After we finished supper we took a walk with Logan and visited with the folks from Vermont. They are from the White River Junction area and we had a good visit and exchanged information on various campgrounds. They were not familiar with North Beach in Burlington Vermont so we described it and suggested they reserve early if they plan to spend time there.

Camping Day 71

Belle Isle SP
Saturday September 29, 2007

52 and clear when we got up this morning. Turned the furnace on to take off the chill. We visited with the group over coffee before returning to cook breakfast. We cooked pancakes, sausage and eggs on the outside grill. The rest of the gang brought over their breakfasts and we ate and visited.
After all was cleaned up we biked over to the car top boat launch to check out the water condition since it was blowing pretty good. There were no white caps since the wind didn't have much fetch in the little creek/bay.

We decided to go to Morattico to visit the General Store museum. We encountered a large number of bikers on our way over. Once there we found that the museum was a stop on the "Bike Virginia" route. The museum is very interesting with 3 floors of of stuff from the area. The ground floor was the store and is pretty much as it was when it closed some years ago. The upper two floors have a wide variety of displays and pictures from those bygone days.

Once we completed our tour it was off to Capt. Tom's Seafood in Bertrand. Almost at the end of VA 354. It was a long trip because we kept having to slow for the biker's. All of us bought some seafood. By the time we got back to camp it was about 2:30. Suzette and I decided to just kick back since we were to get dinner started about 4:30 or so. The rest of the gang went on a marriage encounter, well really a canoe paddle up Mulberry Creek.

While they were gone on their canoe trip Bob and Flo from the Springdale that was camped near by came over to take a look at our Fox. They were quite impressed. Bob told me they wanted to put a slide topper on their unit but there was nothing to bolt it to. They also wanted to install an entry assist handle but again there was no structure to fasten it to.

We got supper preparations organized and went to the launch are to get pictures of Glenn, Sue, Doug and Athena as they returned. Their marriages survived intact. They had a good time paddling in Mulberry Creek. At the canoe launch there was a couple that were camped a few sites from us with their Nash. I didn't get the model but it looked to be about a 25 footer.

Supper consisted of a great salad, chili-mac and corn bread prepared in dutch oven's, with pineapple upside down cake also baked in a dutch oven. We had way more food than the 6 of us could eat. As I was putting up some of the left overs we saw folks from a near by campsite arrive. They hadn't eaten so we invited them over to help us out. So now we have new friends Dave and Dottie from Gretna Virginia. We had a nice time visiting with them and they were very happy to have dinner with us.

Doug set up his telescope so we could look at start, planets, and the full moon. When the batteries went dead and we had seen enough of the moon we had another campfire at the Lilly's.

Camping Day 70 back to Belle Isle

Belle Isle SP
Friday September 28, 2007

We had pretty much packed the camper on Thursday so we could get a decent start. That was a good thing because we had 1.48" of rain overnight and it was damp with light showers this morning. However the skies were clearing by the time we left at 0910.

The trip down was uneventful and we arrived a little after noon. We decided on pull thru site 9 which would allow our friends to pick sites on either side of us. After we got setup we had lunch and relaxed that afternoon. We did use the awning tie downs since the wind was somewhat gusty. I had to add rope extensions to the tie downs since this trailer sets about 6" higher than the Flagstaff we had.

We got a call from Glenn and Sue and talked the directions over with them. We expected them at about 1730. When it got close to their arrival time we decided to ride our bikes to greet them as they came in. We rode, waited, rode some more and managed to miss them arriving. We had gone out the "back exit" of the camp ground when they had already made the turn to come in the entrance drive. So much for the escort service.

A little after 1800 Doug called and said they were leaving from Bealton. An electric fuel pump gave up the ghost. It took Doug some time to find the problem and get things in order. He was able to run on the mechanical pump.

About 2045 the Barth arrived carrying Doug and Athena.


After they got set up we had a campfire and sat around and talked for some time.