Two Pods in the Park

Its always fun camping with other Podders! A few years ago we met the Bausman through the R-Pod Owners Facebook group. We really hit it off and discovered that we didn't live far from each other. We have tried to camp a weekend or two a year together ever since.

We tend to meet up in Monroe, MI (my hometown, ironically) and camp at Habortown RV Park. We had another awesome weekend together. The weather was warm enough during the day to enjoy the pool (and work on my tan) and cool enough at night to sit around the fire. 

One of my many favorite things about camping is experimenting and trying new food. We ate real good all weekend long but also experienced a new foil packet options that I cannot wait to try again (maybe as early as this weekend). On Saturday night we had steaks and all brought side dishes to share. The hash browns were cooked in foil packet with sour cream, butter and cheese. They were amazing! We have done sliced potatoes before in the foil packet, but never using the hash browns. This has me on the hunt for different foil packet dinner/side dishes that we can do.

I cannot believe that this weekend is Labor Day weekend already. Where did the time go? I certainly haven't camped enough (especially since I messed up the whole month of July with kidney stones), but we still have a handful of trips on the books. Last year, we camped into November. I wonder if we will be that lucky again? 

Two Pods in the Park

Always trying to get a good photo of the Pod at night
to show off our lights.

Six years and counting...

Site #12 at Stafford County Park • Port Hope, MI

I cannot believe that we have been doing "Cousins Weekend" for six years in a row. I'm super impressed that we keep this going! That says a lot about how important family traditions are.

Apparently, we like going to Stafford County Park in Port Hope, MI as this is third year that we have camped at this park. When Jim and I pulled in with Pod we visited the water fill station. It took FOREVER to fill our tanks. I had plenty of time to refresh my surroundings and kept thinking that this place looked entirely different than I remembered.

Once we were filled and ready, we made our way to our favorite site. Site #12 is right on the banks of Lake Huron and comes complete with the sounds of waves lapping up on the beach all day and all night. Once we got set up on our site, it dawned on both of us why the place looked so different. Every single tree was cut down. Apparently, they had lost all their trees to the emerald ash borer. How sad!

We had a beautiful weekend with our cousins (and added guests Donna and Larry), we stopped in at Heck's Bar in Kinde, MI to check up on some long-distance family members and had a great dinner. Finally,  a trip to Port Hope, wouldn't be completed without a stop (or two) to the Chill Zone for ice cream.

I do think its probably time to switch up the Seventh Annual Cousins Weekend and maybe even the time of year, but as long as we keep the tradition alive, I'll be happy!

One of the best burgers I've ever had!

Cousin Mike and Doug

Cousin John and Laura (and a little bit of Larry)

Brother and Cousin Kathy

 Our running list of Cousins Weekend:

• 2012 - Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, MI
• 2013 - Camping at Muskegon State Park in Muskegon, MI
• 2014 - Camping at Stafford County Park in Port Hope, MI
• 2015 - Cottage weekend at Arend's on Little Gray Goose Lake in Jerome, MI
• 2016 - Camping at Stafford County Park in Port Hope, MI
• 2017 - Camping at Stafford County Park in Port Hope, MI

14 days, 8 states, 6 campgrounds, 4 pod sightings and 2,715 miles...

DISCLAIMER: This is a lengthy post . . .

Once I officially graduated with my Master's Degree in May, Jimmy suggested we plan a big trip to celebrate. How could I say "NO" to that?  Right away, I knew I wanted to head to the Grand Canyon. Once I started looking for campgrounds, I realized that we were a little late to book anything with just a month out from leaving home. I couldn't find one single campground that had openings. 

Enter Plan B...Maine and Acadia National Park.

We mapped out the perfect trip over the course of 14 days! We didn't want to be rushed and wanted to stop at a few places along the way. I have over 500 photos from our trip that has taken me well over a month to go through and get organized.

• FIRST STOP: Letchworth State Park in Castile, New York —My friend and co-worker, Amy Decker told me a few years ago to put this park on my list. She highly recommended it and I'm so glad we took her suggestion! We spent three days exploring this park which is also know as the "Grand Canyon of the East." It was spectacular! 

Letchworth State Park Site 413

Middle Falls at Letchworth State Park in Castile, New York

Had to take a selfie at the Middle Falls...

Trying to capture the beauty of this park

Lowe Falls at Letchworth State Park in Castile, New York

•  SECOND STOP: MountainView Campground, Morristown, Vermont — Since Vermont was "sort of" on the way to Maine, it made sense to stop here for a quick visit. This was a bucket lister for me as I've always wanted to visit the VonTrapp Family Lodge that was inspired from "The Sound of Music." I might not ever make it to Austria, so I figured this was the next best thing. We checked out the lodge and the gardens, which were beautiful and then learned that they just opened a brewery. We had a great lunch there and sampled some of their Austrian beers. We also stopped at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory and took the tour. It was a power-packed days of being tourists, and we enjoyed every minute.

MountainView Campground Site 219.
We practically had the park to ourselves.

This beautiful river was right behind our campsite.

VonTrapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont

Jimmy and his flight of beer at the VonTrapp Family
Brewery in Stowe, Vermont

Ben and Jerry's Factory Tour in Stowe, Vermont

• THIRD STOP: Seawall Campground, Acadia National Park, Maine - Did you know that there isn't an "r" in Acadia? I didn't know that until we visited the visitor center at the national park and watched a movie. We've been pronouncing it wrong all along. Maine was absolutely beautiful! We arrived on a Friday and my first stop was to find a fresh lobster dinner and I wasn't disappointed. I needed a refresher on how to tackle this guy and our waitress at the Upper Deck was very helpful. On Saturday, we spent the day exploring the national park. We drove the park road and pulled off at every stop that we could. The scenery was stunning and we wanted to take it all in. Sunday we set out for Bar Harbor and discovered it was cruise ship day. The town was packed and people were everywhere! We decided to take a whale watching cruise. We didn't see any whales but did run across a lot of seals. We both got extremely sea sick as it was really rough and choppy once we got out on the ocean. I usually don't have a problem, but that's an indication on how bad the water was. I was glad to get back to land and to our campsite. We packed up on Monday and moved to another campground in Maine. 

My first fresh lobster dinner in Maine. It was SO GOOD!

Sand Beach in Acadia National Park

No swimming for us! Brrrrrr....

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

Jordon Pond at Acadia National Park

The top of Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park. 

This is the highest point along the North Atlantic 

seaboard and the first place to view the sunrise in United States.

Seawall Campground Site 13

Whale Watching Cruise

The sites from our whale watching cruise

• Fourth Stop: Camden Hills State Park, Camden, Maine - This state park was about an hour and half south of Acadia National Park and it was a nice, relaxing stop before we started to make our long journey back home.  Within the park was the Mount Battie Auto Road which was definitely worth the trek. Once at the summit we took in the full panoramic view of Camden Harbor and Penobscot Bay. We also enjoyed a day in the town of Camden with some shopping and our last seafood meal at Sea Dog Brewing Company. My mouth is watering just thinking about all the fresh seafood we enjoyed and good beer too!

Camden Hills State Park Site 51X

Jimmy doing a little exploring at the park.

The view from the Mount Battie Auto Road.
Simply beautiful!

Camden Harbor 

• FIFTH STOP: Delta Lake State Park in Rome, New York. I wasn't even sure this stop was worthy of any mention. In all of our years of travel, we have been pretty lucky to run across nice campground, state parks, etc. This was our least favorite state park on our trip.  It rained the entire time, the people were rude and the mosquitos could carry us away. The only good thing is that the park ranger made an awesome suggestion for dinner! She suggested LaRoma Pizzeria and we had to try their signature dishes, "Vodka Riggies." I knew that I already liked the name of it since it was pretty much our last name...LOL. It was out of this world. It was sautéed onions, peppers, prosciutto in a creamy vodka sauce tossed rigatoni. We also ran across Fort Stanwix National Monument. Jim is a history buff and since he endured the VonTrapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont with me, I figured I could do the same for him. I'm not much of a history buff, but I always seem to enjoy our visits to places like this. Jim and I decided that we would have rather stayed a day longer in Maine and skipped this stop. Oh well, its another experience to add to our list.

Delta Lake State Park • Rome, New York • Site A27

Fort Stanwix National Monument • Rome, New York

•  SIXTH STOP: Pymatuning State Park, Jamestown, Pennsylvania. This was our last stop before home. Jamestown, Pennsylvania is located right on the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line. The park was really nice but flooded. This region had experienced a lot of rain and it had rained every day since we had left Maine. Our campsite had a river running through it and our firepit was flooded. It was the weekend before the 4th of July so we were looking forward to watching some fireworks, but it started downpouring just as we were heading out. 

Pymatunning State Park, Jamestown, PA • Site 400

The downpour right before the fireworks

Overall, this was an outstanding trip. We didn't have any mechanical issues and the truck and Pod performed very well with this long haul.  We did everything that we set out to do and enjoyed our time together. We were really surprised that we didn't meet any fellow Podders on our trip. We pass 3 pods on the road and 1 was parked in a driveway in Vermont. We did have our picture taken a few times as we were driving down the freeways, so our rock star status continues! As most Podders know, we love to give tours and talk about our camper with others. People are always amazed to learn that everything you need is packed into this incredibly small space and that's why we love it!

Now that I have my blog updated, its time to take off once again. We have 4 more trips on the books with family and friends and who knows what this fall will bring. There's nothing like fall camping in Michigan!