July SPUT Weekend

Date: 17-19 July 08 (2 Nights, 11 Total)

Campground: Niagara Falls KOA

Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Site: 147 (Electric/Water Pull-thru)

Notes: Our weekend started out when I got home from work Thursday afternoon. The trailer was still set up in the backyard, so I loaded the fridge and went to take down. When I got to the step where I raise the stabilizer jacks, I noticed there was more weight on the jacks than usual. A quick examination found the cause was due to a flat tire. (Sput #1) I finished taking down the trailer and went to change the tire. The easiest way to change a trailer is with it hooked up to a tow vehicle. When it's not hooked up, it is very hard to keep the trailer from moving when it's jacked up. I eventually got the tire changed, found the nail in the flat (it still needs to get plugged) and got the pop-up hooked up to the truck. Once everyone was loaded in the truck, we headed off to Lazy Lakes.

For those of you not familiar with Lazy Lakes, the campsites are on a first come/first serve. They do not take reservations except for US and Canadian holidays. You can imagine I was a bit surprised when I went up to the guard shack to register and the guard asked if I have a reservation. Apparently Hawaiian Luau Weekend is a holiday. Of course, I don't have a reservation. (Sput #2) On our way home, we talked about other options. I had heard good things about the KOA in Niagara Falls, ON. We figured we'd go home, feed Lexi, and give Kamping on Asphalt a try.

When we got home, Kristi got Lexi's dinner ready while I made a phone call and got reservations. (No way we were going to try our luck a second time.) We got into the campground between 8 and 9. Kristi and Lexi roamed the campground while I set up the trailer. Once we were set up, we put Lexi to bed and failed at a camp fire (The wood was in big pieces and very hard and we had no kindling. Once our firestarter failed to get the fire going, we were confident Lexi was asleep and we turned in ourselves.

The Niagara Falls KOA is a very nice park. They have an indoor heated pool, an outdoor pool with a wading pool, a large playground and a giant bouncing pillow. The campground is located in one of the big tourist areas of Niagara Falls, but you would never notice on the campground. They do a very good job of making you feel away from it all. Among some of the organized activities the campground has is a wagon ride through the park in the evening. We took Lexi on this. She had so much fun, as soon as we took her off, she turned around and walked right back to the wagon to go again. Since there wasn't a full load of people, Lexi and Kristi went on again.

I picked up some kindling, So I was actually able to get a fire going Friday night. Saturday was more of same. We didn't feel the need to go anywhere special, so we just relaxed at the campsite. It rained a little later in the afternoon, but not enough to get in the way of our day. When the rain let up a little, Lexi realized she could splash in puddles. Since we had to be at church Sunday morning, we got the trailer packed up around 8pm. Lexi was changed into jammies and we headed out. We got home and got the trailer set back up in the back yard to dry out and to get ready for the next camping adventure.

Gathering @ the Glen 2008

Date: 27-29 June 2008 (2 nights, 9 Total)

Campground: Watkins Glen State Park

Location: Watkins Glen, NY

Site: 93

Notes: This weekend was the fourth annual PopUp Explorer Gathering @ the Glen rally. In one way or another, we have been to all four rallies. Kristi and I both attended the 2005 rally. In 2006, I was deployed to the Middle East, so Kristi went with one of her friends. Last year, Kristi was 9+ months pregnant, so we did not camp. Instead we went up for the day on the Saturday of the rally. This year, all three members of the Bug clan were camping.

The weekend was great. We really enjoyed reuniting with old camping buddies and making new friends. Lexi was never short of people with whom she could interact.

Since this Sunday was Lexi's first birthday, we thought it would be very appropriate to celebrate it camping. (Seeing that we were camping last year when Kristi went into labor) We got a birthday cake and set it out at the big pot luck dinner on Saturday night.

A note on the site: The site was nice, as they all are at Watkins Glen. However, it was very difficult to back into. In order to get the trailer where I wanted it to go would have involved the front end of the truck hitting a tree.

Father's Day

Date: 13-15 June 2008 (3 Nights, 7 Total)

Campground: ECRA Bass Lake

Location: Parish, NY

Notes: For my first Father's Day, I wanted to go camping. This is the second time we were at Bass Lake. We first came hear last fall for our Columbus Day camp trip. This campground is part of the Resorts of Distinction affiliation. The campground is about 20 minutes north of Syracuse. It's a nice quiet campground. There's nothing really special about it, just a nice place in which to get away.

While we were driving to the campground, we realized we forget to pack a high chair. Since Lexi does a lot better in a high chair, we realized we should probably make a stop. I pulled up the nearest Wal*Mart in the gps and had it route us there. It ended up taking us to a Target. (My maps/POI data is a few years old.) We picked up a small high chair booster that we can keep in the trailer.

Lexi expanded her love affair of camping. She found out she could push her stroller and then wanted push it all around the campground.

Memorial Day

Date: 22-26 May 2008 (4 Nights)

Campground: Niagara's Lazy Lakes

Location: Cambria, NY

Notes: This was our annual Memorial Day camping trip to Lazy Lakes. This was also Lexi's first time camping where she was old enough to get something out of it. (I can't really count the couple of trips we did last year when she was only a couple of months old). Lexi had a ball being outside at the campground all day and saying hi to all the kids and dogs around the park. She also got to go on a swing for the first time and go swimming.

On Sunday, we had our family cookout. All six grandparents were there, as well as Great-Grandma Nell, Great Grandma and Grandpa Spitzer, Aunt Renee, Uncle Ben and Aunt Robin as well as one of my cousins from Kentucky and her family. Everyone had a great time.