Two nights at storage unit

Well there have not been any lookers at the storage unit in the last 2.5 weeks. We talked to our agent and she said things have really been slow. If nothing happens in the next month and the outlook hasn't improved we think we will just wait for a better time.

We spend 2 hours touring Wal-Mart Friday doing our shopping. Very crowded since it was "food stamp day". Since the 1st is Sunday the food stamps were available on Friday. We need to watch for that in the future.

Today was laundry, washing the camper and repacking for the next adventure at Smith Mountain Lake. The truck was also washed and fueled and is now hooked up and ready to head out.

Tomorrow we have breakfast at the Jeffersonton Community Center, Little Fork Volunteer FD puts on the feed. This is a chance to see some of our neighbors.

Oh the cost of fuel. The last two tanks averaged 16.8mpg or so which I feel is quite good pulling. On our Florida trip I was getting in the 11 to 14 range on the slab at 65mph or so. The last two pulls were at 50-60 mph. Another factor could be that there is now 20K+ on the GMC, professional grade you know, and I have read on various forums that you don't start getting decent mileage until some where over 15K. With some folks reporting the magic number to be in the 25 to 35K range. We can only hope.

Two days off

The last two days were our off days so we took in some of the park attractions.

Yesterday we took a mountain bike ride to the old gold mine. Yep Virginia had gold mines. In fact Virginia was the 3rd largest in gold production between 1830 and 1849.










Then off to lunch at the local Deli, 601 Variety. They have an angus burger that is about 4" in diameter and thick. They have a good BBQ also.

While we were at the mine Suzette collected pine needles to make another couple of baskets so she set about preparing them to make a basket on Thu.

Then it was off to the lake for a little kayaking. We put in at area B and headed for Weirs Cove and the feeder creek. Nice paddle. Suzette saw a river otter and we scared up a couple of Great Blue Herons.

Even though it was our day off we made a couple of tours of the campground and checks on the comfort stations.

Today was a little more of the same. Mountain bike in the morning and paddle in the evening. During the afternoon Suzette made her pine needle basket. I decided to mount the Hero to the handle bar and see how a video would look.




We had a campfire tonight and made S'mores. What a nice evening. Tomorrow we leave for home.

The Day After ... In Tents

Today we needed to do laundry so we took our clothes with us on the morning tour and started the laundry before we took our report to the office. We talked with Roberta and Doug for a while before returning to clean the showers we didn't do yesterday. The wash was done so into the dryer's while we cleaned the showers.

That done we headed out to get milk and a few other things. The smell of Pizza said LUNCH so we bought one and headed back to the camper for lunch. It was a long lunch. Then off to paddle on the lake and try our the new car top boat launch. We paddled for about an hour and a half. Back at the camper I took a nap.




Later we cleaned the shower in the comfort station closest to us and called us DONE. Well we weren't done yet. We decided to take a tour when we could see a new tent in the distance. So off we go to say hi and to answer their questions about the park. We spent about an hour visiting the 3 new arrivals.

We have only 1 RV in the park, ours. There are 5 tent campers and the one occupied camping cabin.

Tomorrow starts our 2 days off before we leave for home.

You might think this is a lot of work and you'd be correct but Jimmy Buffet's song "It's My Job" keeps ringing in our ears.

I have added pictures of our paddling to our album.

The Exodus

Monday was the great exodus from the campground however the day use areas were very busy. We didn't get to see what was going on but from the radio traffic we know all the staff was very very busy. I think it was about 1000 when they started holding folks at the entrance station until they could find parking spaces. Then they would let the next 10 or 30 vehicles in, what ever they found room for.

Trash and open containers of adult beverages were an ongoing problem.

We started the day by making our tour about 0800 with a quick check of the comfort stations. After a quick cleaning of the restroom areas we returned to the camper and cooked a big brunch because we knew we would be busy. We kept looping the campground cleaning sites as folks left. We would make a periodic trip to the office to keep Joanne informed on which sites were empty and ready for new arrivals. We kept this up until sometime around 1700 or 1730 when we took a supper break. Then back at it to see the new arrivals and finish the site cleanup. We had one popup, 3 tent campers, and one camping cabin. A long day.

Oh what a day.....

46 sites and over booked by 5. Great reservation system. Not sure what went wrong but it sure created an interesting couple of hours while things got sorted out.

The overbook was in the standard site, no W/E, area. Then there are the families that want to be close together. One has a standard site reservation and the others is W/E. Two separate loops.

Any way we were busy trying to keep the comfort stations serviced and work with the staff on the overbooking issue and keeping a smile on everyone face. Some how the staff and volunteer team was able to make it happen. We sure put in more than our 6 hour/day expectation. Oh the overtime we will have in our volunteer check.

Also we had folks from the church group that has 15 sites ask to volunteer to clean the comfort station in the loop they are in. We thought that was really nice of them. The door closer on the womens room which is close to our site slams the door closed. Maintenance has been unable to properly adjust it and the slam is an annoyance. One of the ladies apologized for the noise.

A very busy day.

The Sign Says ...

Alcoholic Beverages Prohibited
The campground rules state "Public display or consumption of alcoholic beverages prohibited"

Today we learned what happens when you violate the Public Display. You get to either take your 24 bottles of Corona back to your home OR pour it out while the park ranger watches. That sure put a damper on a couple of campers weekend.

We did meet a fellow from Oregon but he didn't know our son Mike. Maybe if he lived in Portland he would have known him. The real question is why did he move from Oregon to DC? I guess we will have to ask.

Today I decided to put the Sirius radio antenna on the roof of the Fox. Not a permanent mount, just to see if the reception was better. Yeah Radio Margaritaville ALL DAY concert replays. Now about that alcohol thing....., damn no margarita's on this cruise.

We were busy all day with a few campers leaving and others arriving but most were here for the duration. We burned a lot of gas in the golf cart making tours of the campground and talking with folks. We made several passes through the comfort stations to keep them tidy.

Big news is that we received our official 'T' and Polo shirts. Now we look official and sharp.

To all of us who served - Thanks.

Some pictures of Lake Anna. I will add more as our tour of duty continues.

Big weekend

The campground is full. Well all the sites are reserved but not all are occupied yet. One group of 15 or so doesn't seem to understand that sites are first come first served. They had reserved 15 sites and expected to have sites 1-15. It just don't work that way.

Although full it has not been a difficult day. We found time to visit with campers and met a couple from Culpeper. Also we decided to go to the campfire ring and set up the campfire for tonights program. A nice log cabin fire lay with a teepee inside. We used dryer lint and pine cones for the starter. To make sure it was lit from the correct side, where the lint and pine cones were, we made an arrow using 3 sticks. Kathy, the interpreter, was happy that we did that for her.

All in all a good day.

Now to see how tomorrow will go.

Yumm O

It was a realitively easy day. Only a few campsites to clean up.

We have had a nice time visiting with folks that have come and gone. One of the groups that left today was JWAC. We had never heard of them before. What do they really do?

Went out for B'day dinner today since we didn't feel right going out on Friday with a large number of campers arriving. We had a Yumm O dinner at Tavern On the Rail in Fredericks Hall which is about half way between Mineral and Bumpass, Bump-ass to some locals of course. I had a really great 9 oz. steak w/blue cheese and herb butter. Fantastic. Suzette had their Fredericks Hall Casserole.

When we returned we found that several more folks had arrived so we made our rounds and talked with most of the new of arrivals. We spent a lot of time talking with some folks from Minnesota who are visiting to tour many of the Civil War Battlefields. We really enjoyed talking with them.

Back to Lake Anna

Today was a visit to the Ortho. Met with PA and Dr. and all is well as far as tendons and such good news.

Mowed a little by the pond and the front yard then we went for detailing, well you might say haircuts. Then back to the lake. We talked with the Rotti owners and toured the campground to get the morning report together.

Suzette's hand swelling is going down and she is getting more movement back.

Our day off

As I said yesterday we returned to our storage unit and then went to the Faquier Hospital ER to have Suzette's hand looked at. Antibiotics, x-ray's, splint and we were on our way, another 2 hours, but at least they did something and we didn't have to wait forever.

Tomorrow she should have a follow up with Ortho but they haven't called back with an appointment time.

We plan to return to Lake Anna tomorrow since that is where all the food is.

Dinner out tonight. Early B'day dinner me thinks.

How old you ask? 29 years and 11 months older than our sons. Give or take a couple of days. You do the math. SEG.

It started as a good day

Nice bright sunny morning although a bit cold. We had a light breakfast and headed out on our rounds. Very much a ghost town, 1 RV, 4 tent campers and us. We did our checks of the shower houses and took our list to the park office.

Back at the camper we decided to have a larger breakfast, english muffin, ham, egg, cheese sandwich. Filling. We cleaned up the camper and went to the north shower house to give the showers a cleaning and make sure the ladies and mens rooms were clean.

Then off the the south shower house to do the same task and since that is the one with the laundry we decided to take care of that chore also. While we were cleaning the showers Bill and Millie, the camp hosts we are filling in for, came by. We talked for quite a while and agreed that they would take over on May 30.

About 1500 we noticed that a Motor home had arrived so we set out to do our meet and greet thing. We decided to make the full loop of the W/E sites and see if anyone else arrived. Yep there was one backing in at the far end of the loop. We went to see them and the wife was walking their dog. Seemed friendly. Liked to be petted. But something went sour in a heartbeat. The damn thing bit Suzette on her right hand. Nice puncture wound. The dog has had it's rabies shots so that isn't a worry.

Cleaned and dressed the wound and off to the park office to make that report. We decided to have it checked out at a medical facility, Medic 1. Well it masks as a facility. After we filled out the forms we found that the other lady in the waiting room had been there 2 hours. Twenty minutes after the patient who was called just prior to the lady waiting 2 hours and we were still waiting for them to call in the 2 hour lady. We decided we pissed away enough time after about twenty more minutes. Told them they suck and we were leaving. So now on our day off we will try and get in at our regular doctor since were planning on going to the storage unit, house, we still own.

As we were finishing supper we noticed a Cruise America coach circling and figured we should see if we can help them. Well they are from Germany and the town of Ulm. Ulm is where a good friend had lived several years ago. We had a nice long talk and explained various items in the park and at the campground. We also found out that they are in the States for 3 weeks with no specific route. We suggested that they give a little thought to where they would be on Memorial weekend and make some reservations. We also gave them enough wood for a fire tonight since the office was closed.

All things considered it started as a good day and ended with a nice visit with our new German friends.

Frogg Togg Sunday

Rain in the forecast so we donned our Frogg Toggs, scooter trash knows what I'm talking about, and headed out on rounds. Cool and overcast this morning. We did our early round and took the occupancy report to the office. Then it was time for a cooked breakfast.

As the campers started to leave we checked and cleaned their sites. We found a snake skin and gave it to one of the Tiger Cub leaders. They said they would use it at their next court of honor.

We visited with several campers and several took the time to tell us what a good time they had and how much they liked the campground and how well kept it is. That was our bonus for the time we put in.

About 1500 it poured for several minutes, maybe as much as 30. We hid out in the south bath house area waiting for the worst to pass. As we were headed back to our site we noticed that one of the campers had left their roof vent open. I'm sure they had a few wet things.

By 1900 it was clear and the wind had become calm. We made our last check of the campground at 2000 and there were only 4 tent campers on site, one tent still pitched but no one had been their most of the day, and only 1 RV in the W/E loop.

All in all a good day.

Sunny Saturday

What a beautiful day. Sunny and in the middle 70's.

There has been a steady stream of campers arriving most of the day, 40 of 46 sites are occupied as well as 2 of the 6 camping cabins. The high cost of fuel doesn't seem to keep folks away. Yes there are a lot of folks from VA here but we have a good representation from PA, NJ, MD, WV. Everything from tent campers to Class A's. There is also a lot of boating activity.

We did get a chance to visit with our friends Gordon and Sandy and their grand children as well as many of the other campers. Gordon and Sandy borrowed our bikes so they could accompany their grandchildren on a long ride.

There is a group of Tiger Scouts here and they are having a good time and they sure are eating well. Glad to see the adults and kids having a good time together.

Meet Greet and smile

Yep we do that and clean a few toilets also.

Seems like we spend a lot of time and then can't seem to remember what we did. Our day today was to make a loop around the campground and note which sites were occupied for our AM report to the office. We checked the bath housed to make sure they were clean and had enough supplies and empty trash.

Two sites checked out today so we had to clean those sites. Not really much work as both campers kept a clean site.

We made some changes to the bulletin boards adding new information. We took a ride around the park to see what had changed and what was new. Found that there is a new car top boat launch in picnic loop B.

We made several loops of the campground doing a little of this and that.

After supper we made more loops of the campground talking to the new arrivals and visiting with the Kane's who arrived with their grand-tots.

Since there had been some raccoon activity we visited all the tent campers and took their trash to the dumpster.

The nice part of this "job" is meeting and talking to the campers.

Free Pipes

Free if you don't count the volunteer work.

After a few miscue's we were accepted to be camp host at Lake Anna State Park.

When we arrived and notified them that we were the camp hosts they were happy to see us. Before we were completely disconnected Rich, one of the rangers, came by to talk about us getting a tour of the campground, keys, ... A few minutes later Cliff, the ranger that is responsible for the campground arrived. We talked for a while and they left.

About 15 or 30 minutes later Cliff returned with the golf cart and a set of keys. Then we were off on a tour. I think they were glad to see us.

The next day, Wednesday, we checked out a few sites and cleaned their fire pits and then spent the rest of the morning going over responsibilities, signing more papers, and meeting more of the staff. After lunch we headed out to get a couple of papers notarized and look at a little more of the surrounding area.

So far not bad. There were 3 campers here when we arrived and another one arriving later in the day Wednesday.

Today, Thursday, we did a light cleaning of the bath houses and just chilled in the afternoon. We we did a little light work with Logan riding along in the golf cart. He seemed to like that.

We decided to leave the park for some grocery shopping this evening after supper. Of course on our way out we were met by several campers arriving. When we returned from our shopping we found that there were two pop-up and a tent camper set up and it was raining lightly.

Weather radio, damn weather radio

Well I am a little behind on posts so this one will cover the last week in North Carolina.
Suzette has been busy making pine needle baskets and visiting with one of the gals in the campground.

After work on Tuesday we took the kayaks down to the boat launch are and put in along the beach. Our objective was to paddle out and view the sunset. Not a good sunset night but we did have a nice paddle.

Although it is late to be looking for camp host opportunities we set the wheels in motion to see if there is anything available in Virginia and there may be a fill-in assignment or two so we will see what happens.

The weather again. I didn't bother to set the S.A.M.E. codes for the counties near where the campground is. Not a good idea. The darn radio was going off constantly as the storms moved from west to east. After the alert about 0030 we decided to roll up the awning and take up the patio mat. NOAA. Yep there were storms but not nearly as bad as they forecast in our area. Some of the other area's were hit pretty bad.

Oh well that little middle of the night exercise made for less work in the morning to get hooked up and on the road.

It looks like we will have a camp host job starting in the middle of next week.

44/144 F54

Yes you got it. 44 days of camping in 2008, 143 since we purchased our first trailer in June '06 and 54 days since we purchased our Fox in September '07.

Yesterday we got out early and waited at the gate for the park to open so we could leave. Yep locked in at night. Kinda like a gated community. Gotta keep the campers safe from the hoodlums that are about.

Well anyway, we made it to our friends house a little after 0830 and the ladies headed out for a pottery show in Sanford. The guys loaded up kayaks and headed for Falls Lake. Who had the better time? Depends on where you were.

One of the highlights of the pottery show was that Suzette met friends that we had not seen since 1996. The Mettlers who now live in Southern Pines. Really cool to be at a big show and meet old friends.

I, with my 9'6" Manatee kayak from LLBean, was off to play with Greg and Eric. They had 17' and 16.5' Wilderness kayaks. We spent about 2 hours kayaking on Falls Lake. I got to take a turn in one of the Wilderness kayaks. That sure is different than the wide Manatee. I thought for sure I was going to go swimming. I did keep it upright and was feeling quite comfortable by the time we reached the take-out location. I guess I paddled the Wilderness about 1/2 mile or less.

Today was chores day. Laundry, shopping, diesel-up. You gotta love WW. In the east Murphy USA has stations associated with WW and diesel today was $4.129 or $4.099 if you had WW's credit card. Other local stations are at $4.199 or higher.

Later in the afternoon we decided to do some paddling in this section of Falls Lake. We put in near the swim beach here at Rolling View CG and paddled for about 2 hours. Then supper and relax.

Suzette enjoying the paddle


Osprey nest and picnic shelter on shore



The swim beach

What's new?

Well the weather has been varied. It has warmed up today and should be nice for a few days before the rain returns. I have been working and Suzette keeps an eye on the campground. We have made friends with the camp host and given him some help with his trailer.

On Wed. we went to Greg and Barbara's for dinner. Great food and a good visit. On Thursday they came to the campground and we did burgers, dogs, potato's carrots and onions in foil cooked over a wood and charcoal fire. Just before we sat down for dinner I put the dutch oven dessert, peach cobbler, on the coals.

We had invited Ed and his wife from a class A near by to come by for desert. Ed brought a pot of coffee. Good visit and good company.

Today after work it was time to make a trip to the dump station. Oh what fun. Well it really isn't such a job and we have made a game of backing in and trying to hit the same spot we were in when we left. Getting pretty good at it. Only had to slightly move the boards we used to level things up this time.

Suzette has been keeping busy making pine needle baskets and doing an interview for a local TV station, Fox 8. They are doing a program on things to do during the summer months in the area. The program should air in a month. Nicole Fergurson, who did the interview said they would send us a video clip. We will post it when we get it.

We really don't run much

What a fine job.

When we were in Florida having a slight problem with our dump snake the camper in the next site offered us his hose support. I liked the idea so much I made my own. It consists of a 5' section of pvc waste pipe cut in half. I cut it on a table saw with the fence set to half the diameter. I kept the blade just high enough to make the cut.
Works great.

Sewer hose support.