In Search Of....

We're on the hunt for a home for our Airstream. This weekend we went on a scouting trip to Bear Run Campground near Moraine State Park. The front of the park is on some very pretty land adjacent to some horse farms. It is close to I79, but not so close that you can hear the highway traffic. The campground has a lot of amenities...playground, swimming pool, general store, etc. The first thing we noticed was that the permanent RV sites are really stacked on top of each other. Most of the campground land is extremely hilly, with large drop offs. Because we were tent-camping this weekend we ended up at one of the primitive sites (meaning, no hook ups), that was way in the back of the park. This might have been awesome, but the whole back end of the park had a waste land feel to it...a huge swath of clear cut hillside was clearly visible from our camp site. The fishing ponds looked like drain ditches. As soon as we got out of the car we heard ATVs. Not exactly the vibe we were going for.

Then we did something that we normally don't do; we headed back to the camp office, asked for a refund, and hit the road. It was already 3 pm, so instead of driving further to check out another potential RV site, we headed a few miles down the road towards Breakneck Campground, where we stayed with the Butler Outdoors Club last year. They have a few cabins for rent, but most of their sites are primitive and the park was quite empty. We found the least soggy site in the park and unpacked the car. Laurel spent about an hour playing inside the tent, folding and refolding her sleeping bag. M set up his hammock. I lounged by the picnic table. It was rather cloudy and cool, but the birds were still singing. As it got closer to dinner time, I realized I forgot matches. Some nice campers down the lane gave us a lighter and some fire starters and the campground owner came around delivered firewood. We ate mountain pies for dinner. Laurel had a great time running around the field and looking at flowers and collecting sticks. Since, I also forgot to pack flashlights, a coat, shoes and socks (oops!), we made it an early night.

Sleeping in a tiny backpacking tent with a squirmy one year old is not exactly the most relaxing sleep. Around 6:00am it started to get light. M tried to convince Laurel to lay down until the rain slowed up, but she kept saying "breakfast". We also didn't have any clean diapers in the tent. So, we all piled into the car and sat there for a while watching the rain and eating cold cheese sandwiches. It was more fun that it sounds. Eventually, we decided that the rain didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, so we threw all of our soggy stuff into the car and drove home pulling into the driveway a little after 8:00am.

Even though we didn't find an rv site and our camping trip lasted less than 18 hours, it was still nice to get out in the fresh air and sit around a campfire for a little while. Next weekend, we hope to check out Smith Grove Campground.