Dreary Sunday

It's 34 with light rain and snow/ice in the mountains. There are no campers, they all left yesterday. Al l the sites are clean and the comfort station only needs a light cleaning.

We had picked up most of our stuff and packed it away yesterday so there is only a little to do today when the weather clears a little. We also will turn all our Camp Host supplies and say our good bye's.

Now to find enough to do to keep from having cabin fever.

I'm not sure if I will be able to post until we get to Sun-N-Fun on Wed. since I will not put up the antenna until then, if I even need it there. I will try the "card" plugged directly into the usb port. If the cell signal is good it should work ok.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant ...

Maybe this post title should be Blog Slacker ...

Well it is Thanksgiving day and Arlo's song is a must hear and sing along, hence the title.

We'll get back to today a little later but first I want to ketchup, he he.

We're on out second tank of propane since this has been a colder than normal month here in Virginia. So that is about $50 for heating and cooking this month. Of course we also use a 1500W electric space heater and that helps a lot. Once the weather was getting below freezing for several nights in a row we disconnected our fresh water hose. However the hydrant froze up and we had to use a torch to get water flowing again. One of the other campers, a class A, had a similar problem.

We have not had many campers since I last posted. We did meet a nice couple from FL that were here last week before spending time with family for Thanksgiving. They live in St. Pete and we will be looking them up when we get settled at Sun-n-Fun.

We've seen snow flurries, blown and raked leaves, cleaned the comfort station, cleaned sites and all that jazz. We went to Lynchburg on one of our day's off and visited Jefferson's retreat Poplar Forest
and had a very nice tour.

Suzette in front of one of the oak's at Poplar Forest

After that it was off to find a Five Guys for lunch. Then some shopping.

We have had some problem with circuit breakers popping. Seems like 1500W space heater, toaster, microwave, hot water heater, tv, ... exceed the 30A service we have. Maybe we should get a 50A to 30A adapter. Then we would only pop the inside 30A breaker and I would not have to go outside in the cold to reset. The best thing would be to add a separate circuit to run the space heater. Humm.

Earlier I wrote about blowing leaves. Well we wanted something to do so we have been keeping the sites and culverts clean of leaves. Also the leaves near the comfort station had been blowing into the showers and the entrance way to the men's room. So between me using a backpack blower and Suzette using a rake we made a big pile away from the comfort station. The next day the picnic table that had been about 20 feet from the pile of leaves was right on the edge of the pile. Since the pile didn't move we figured that the raccoons must have moved the table so they could jump in.

We spent time working with Lauri, park interpreter, to help prepare a tank for an exhibit as well as look for an old tobacco barn. We found the barn.

We also went to several of the cemeteries that are located within the park but not part of any tour. Also a couple of the buildings that the general public doesn't get to see unless they go off trail. Well this one they can see,
Ok now lets get down to food. We have been eating quite well. Before we left Lake Anna Clif, one of the rangers, gave us some venison hamburger and a Caribou steak. Then on our last trip to Culpeper Phil, our neighbor, gave us some venison/pork sausage. Needless to say we have had some good eats. Also we had purchased a small crock pot several months ago and have been using that to prepare several meals.

Now to Thanksgiving. We had planed to cook the 8# turkey we had purchased in the dutch oven. However when we started to thaw it out we realized that it would not fit in the dutch oven we had. We devised several plans to deal with the over sized turkey. When the day finally arrived we decided that the best thing to do was a little ortho surgery. Maybe dismemberment would be a better description. well anyway we got the bird in the oven with stuffing. About 2 hours later it looked like this.

When the digital meat thermometer read 185 the bird was done.

The bird was done a little before the rest of the fixin's. My fault but Suzette recovered nicely and we sat down to a feast. Now that's good eats!

Later Lauri and Terry stopped by with pie. We had a nice visit with them.

Well I have rambled enough. On Monday we head for Florida.

More to follow.

Oh yeah to see more pictures of our Smith Mountain Lake adventures click here.

Brrrrrrr!!!

31 with flurries this morning. Wind has blown gusty all day. Since this is our day off we decided to take care of some shopping, do the laundry and have lunch out. Mission accomplished.

To damned cold to do much. Actually it wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the wind. weather.com shows temps in the low 20's tonight and it is near freezing now. I added water to our onboard tank and disconnected the hose and filter. It might not be cold enough long enough but why take a chance?

It was cold enough last night and today for water that had accumulated in the large slide topper to freeze. The wind had gotten under the topper and blew the ice off. There are still sheets of ice on the ground.

Today's pic.



Yep we have a tent camper. He is doing a roofing job somewhere on the other side of the lake.

Just checked the thermometer and last nights low was 30.1 and today's high was 38.4.

Shutle Launch, ++

Last night we watched the shuttle launch on NASA's site. Follow the link and click on the Public Channel, live mission coverage. Really neat.

We have not had many campers this week. They had the final 2 days of their managed deer hunt. Not a lot of hunters. After the hunt we did see a nice buck, 6 pointer. On those days we spent a lot of time out of the park. On Monday we went to Roanoke do do some shopping. We stopped a Lowes and purchased PVC and fittings to make 2 rotating flag poles.

We also went to the new Camping World and picked up light bulb and a couple of other items. Always fun to look though. In that same shopping area is a new Gander Mountain and Tractor supply. Needless to say we also visited them. Again we made a small contribution to the local economy.

Tuesday was laundry day so it was off to Moneta to the only laundromat that is close. After the laundry was done we went to lunch at a new sub-shop. Nothing to brag about. Then it was to Moneta Farm Service to get a propane tank refilled and pick up a couple of items.

Wednesday was fairly nice so we went to the maintenance area and picked up a backpack leaf blower so I could get some of the leaves blown off the sites. We want to make sure folks can actually see where to back in.


While doing that job we had a camper arrived. They will be here until Monday.

Friday we took off and went to Westlake and more shopping. Need to keep the economy going you know. Anyway there is another building center that we had not stopped at, Capps, so we took the tour there and bought a new ceramic space heater. We will try and sell our current one. Since that was such a success we continued and gave aid to CVS, Food Lion, and lunch at Chopsticks. Back to the campground to await the arrival of the 3 campers that had reserved sites.

One came in about 4:30 or so and we met them and recommended a site. They wanted to get disconnected and off to B'day dinner. Like I said earlier, after dinner we watched the launch on the computer and a little TV.

About midnight we heard a commotion near the comfort station. There were 3 vehicles there and they were looking for a site. It was raining. It was dark. They have tents and wanted a site with electricity. We directed them to a couple of sites for them to choose from and went back to bed.

More rain off and on today. Time for another puzzle and for me to cacth up on this blog stuff.

Big Event

Friday the 7'th I was in the parking lot at Moneta Farm and Home and my cell rang. It was Lori our lawyer in VT. She wanted to know if we checked our e-mail. Oop's I forgot about the closing on our property in Vermont. She gave me the highlights over the phone and assured me that all was well. So I told her to continue with the closing and that we were heading back to the camper and would check our e-mail and give her a call.

So the net is we are owners of 7.46 (+/-) acres of beautiful land in Vermont.

Lot 5 LaBarron Rd.
That's Mt. Mansfield in the upper left.

The construction continues, few campers

The construction continues. Where will the incoming RV's park?


A couple of RV's will just come to the campground and set up and then return to the office to sign in.


I need to supervise the removal of the kiosk. Well not really they are doing well without my help. Interesting to see water flow from the electrical conduit.



They are getting ready for the second week of hunting. It is nice to see that the deer have a safe place to hang out. I think the park is divided into 10 zones. The biggest zone has 5 hunters most of the others have 2 or 3.

We had 7 campers for the weekend. Made our life easy. One arrived about 7:30 and I went to hold a flashlight to help them back in. They were to have a pullthru but the one they wanted was occupied so they took a back in.

All but one of the pullthru's are on the left of the road. This makes them "backward" pullthru's from our perspective. This means that the awning and entry door face the road. The utilities are on the left as is the picnic table, fire ring, and tent area.

It was an easy weekend and we had everyone out of the CG before 3 PM. We closed and dummy locked the gate. We watched the start of the NASCAR cup race, feed the dog and went to dinner. We wanted pizza but the pizza shop was closed so we went to the new seafood restaurant. We decided to stop at the new drive-in/dinner for coffee and pie. No apple pie and the coffee was like hot water with cream and sugar. Yuck. We bitched and didn't pay for the coffee. The owner said they were having trouble with their coffee maker. We will give them another chance. But if the coffee isn't any good we will cross them off our list.

I was a little, well alot, miffed that ABC cut away from the race, with under 20 to go, when it went longer than scheduled so they could show Americas Funniest Home Videos. What's up with that?

So we will watch football. Oh Jimmie Johnson won the race. Thanks Sirius.

Good Eats

During our last shopping trip we decided we needed a whole chicken to roast. We choose to do the big meal on Thursday. So after we got our work done this is what we ended up with.

It's done.
Using the grill I could cook standing up.

Getting ready to carve the bird.

Acorn squash, white potatoes and white sweet patotes, gravey, stuffing.

Oh boy left overs.

Mike, one of the rangers, was interested in what we were doing and we had him stop by when we were about to take the chicken out of the Dutch. He was impressed.

Only one camper arrived today.

SML - What's this?

We arrived at SML and noted the new entrance sign and stone work gate posts, nice.



Then we saw the parking lot;


No way was I going to pull in there. So we decided to just head to the camp host site and get set up before returning to the office to check in. We made the turn to head toward the CG and were met by a very excited Lauri. It's nice to have a warm welcome.

After we get set up we return to the office to pick up the camp host box of stuff and see what is going on. They are building a new Visitors Center and office building. How can that be with the state short of funds? Ah 200? bond money that they are just now able to spend. Things in the pipe line can be completed. Well they need the office space and the VC will allow the current VC to be put to good use for other naturalist programs.

The campground is empty so we just check a few things out and decide to get a leaf blower to clear the sites before folks arrive for the weekend.

Lake Anna, a few days more

The new camp hosts, Issy and Johanna, were to arrive on Sat Nov 1 so we moved to another site. They arrived late in the day because their GPS wanted them to take a scenic route. Like a detour which required them to unload their toad from the dolly, unhook the dolly, turn the coach around and hook everything back up. Ya just gotta love a GPS.

In any event we had made arrangements to stay at Lake Anna until Nov 5'th because the CG at Smith Mountain Lake was closed Monday and Tuesday for a deer hunt. Since Issy and Johanna arrived late we continued on as hosts while they got settled in. They took over on Monday and we did laundry. On Tuesday we went to Culpeper to put some unneeded items in storage, pick up our mail and restock supplies before heading to SML.

On Wednesday we stopped by the office on our way out to say our final good bye's to those that were there. A bitter sweet moment.

Camp Ghost

On Halloween night the campers at Lake Anna State Park were visited by the Camp Ghost's.



We had fun going from site to site in the golf cart and giving away candy. We actually scared one lady who was leaving her camper to head to the comfort station.

Thanks for the picture Alan.

Drawing to a close

Our time at Lake Anna is drawing to a close so I figured I better put a few words down so folks know what we have been up to. We have found that there are some folks that actually read this blog and give us grief when I don't keep it up, so I will ramble on ....

We had a couple of visits with our Arctic Fox friends from the afnash.com group. Durafox, Steve and Karen from Stafford, stopped by one Sunday afternoon and we had a nice but to short visit. Another day Sandman, Joe and Jeanie from Fairfax, dropped in for an all to short visit. We also had a couple that were interested in an Arctic Fox 30U, Calvin and Judy, stop by one afternoon. They checked out the camper and what we liked and didn't like, short list there, about the camper. Nice folks all.

Our neighbors from Quail Ridge came to camp one weekend. It was good to see Carl, Suzie and the kids. We had a nice weekend with them. We'll miss them and the kids but we can keep in touch with e-mail and phone. The kids had a good time riding their bikes, razor, and hiking the trails.


The campground has been busy on the weekends and very slow during the week so we did take some time to see local attractions. We took a trip to James Madison's home which has been restored to the way it was when James lived there. It was quite a change from when we last visited which was during the renovation.

James Madison's home

Blue Ridge from James Madison's home.

We also visited the Civil War Museum at the Exchange Hotel and in Gordansville, Spotsylvania Court House and the battlefield. I still can't get my head around an engagement where tens of thousands are are lost in a single battle.

The park has acquired some new property and we were able to see that new section. We don't expect it will be open for a few years given the budget cuts in Virginia. This new section is known as the Ware property.

Viewing the lake from the Ware property.

One Friday we went to the office and found them in a panic. Phones and Internet were not working. I worked with Dave checking surge suppressors on the phones all to no avail. I rebooted one of the routers but that did not help the phone or Internet issue. After more checking we reset the hughes.net modem and associated router. Still no apparent help. A while later the park manager, Doug, arrived and when he checked his office computer he found that it was working. So rebooting the hughes.net stuff had some effect. While Suzette was helping Joanne with compiling information for a report I went to our camper and got my laptop and an Ethernet cable. I had figured that the router in the front office might be the issue with the 2 front office computers. I plugged in and NO connection. The wall Ethernet outlet is a duplex outlet. So I plugged into the other outlet. WALLA Internet. Double Walla the phones worked. Humm. Who was the tech that wired an Ethernet, RJ45, outlet to the phone system? It just doesn't seem right that someone would wire phones into an RJ45 Ethernet outlet when the phones in the office use an RJ11 outlet.

The weather has been all over the place. Cold and rain, we saw 33 one morning, as well as clear and warm, yesterday was in the 70's. We have had foggy mornings which made for some pretty pictures of the foliage

Fog in the morning.

On our way shopping one day we received a call from Ann and Wally saying they were leaving for their trip to Florida the next morning and would stop in the Fredricksburg area at a Holiday Inn Express. We figured we would meet for dinner and thought we would check out the area for a restaurant. But first we thought we should find the hotel. We found where a new Holiday Inn Express was being built so figured there must be another one. NOT. Exchanging several calls with Wally he decided to stay an exit earlier, about 6 miles, in Massoponix. Since it was lunch time we decided to hit a Five Guys then to finish our shopping.

That afternoon Ann called again to let us know they would not be coming down I95 but I81. So there is not chance of us meeting on their way down. We will see them next year in Florida.

Halloween. There are a few campers here so we have to do something. Oh we will be the Camp Ghost's. Suzette had brought a sheet to make a costume from so with that done and fitted she stuffed a latex glove and put it in a bowl with some candy. Before Joanne and Roberta left the office we took the golf cart to the office and attempted to sneak up on them. We did a lousy job but it was a good laugh.

After dinner we dressed in our ghost costume and set off about the campground to do reverse tricks and treats. Meaning that we would give out candy. We had quite a time and everyone seemed to like it.

We had changed our plans so that we stayed over here at Lake Anna a few extra days because there is a deer hunt at Smith Mountain Lake and the park is closed so there would be no campers. Also the camp host that was arriving to take our place did not have known hosting experience. So we figured we could help here until the 5th.