Happy 4th Everyone - God Bless the USA

This year we made our 4th of July trip to Branched Oak Rec Area outside of Lincoln. It was our first trip to this park and we'll be back for sure. We had a nice time there and the Johnsons were there and are still there as we speak and Barb and Tim came up on Saturday.

Although the weather was not the best it was actually better than being 105 in the shade and Sunday was the best day of all, we did get some swimming in before we left. This trip made me want to look into a small boat even more, so who knows what the future will bring.

It two weeks we are off to Big Lake in Missouri. We are meeting several friends from college there and are trying to revive an annual trip we did in the ninties with a bunch of WSC friends. We are really looking forward to it and Corey, Kim and Gaby are going with us.

Branched Oak Trip Pictures:

Swimming on Sunday

One of the best parts of camping.

Ever try to catch fireworks on a pocket digital camera?

Cheers...

Going FISHIN...

Mama caught the big one...

USA, USA, USA, USA....

Concentration...

Big DOG....

See you next time...

4th of July

Well, we are off to Branched Oak for Independence Day. We are looking forward to it because we've never been there before. Camper is in the driveway now, sanitized the H2O today for the first time this year, cleaned it up a bit. We'll be chomping at the bit by Thursday morning.

Thats one of the great things about having a camper, when you go to the "Cabin" for the weekend you never know where it will be parked. Post Trip Report next week...

Trip 17 - Fremont State Lakes

We made it back in one piece from Fremont this afternoon. We really had a fun time despite the weather not being the best, but at least it was dry during the day and everyone had a fun time. Pictures for now more dialogue later... (I'm Tired :-) )

Off for the Weekend...

We'll we're off to the Fremont Lakes for the weekend in about an hour. MUCH needed rest as work has been extremely stressful... We'll recap and catch up next week. (Campsite 5 if anyone is in the area :-) )

Happy Camping

Trip 16 - Memorial Day with Family in Wisconsin

We had a BLAST on this trip, as I always do I learned something new too.

William Robert Clements is SO COOL, and his sisters are SO COOL with him, it really was VERY COOL. Notice things are COOL. :-) Seriously we are so proud of Rich and Beth and their new addition. He really kind of digs his Uncle Brad too...

We brought my Dad along on this trip and it was GREAT to spend time with family, we actually had a nice bar-b-que at Rich and Beth's on Friday. It was great to see their new house and all or Beth's family that we haven't seen for a while. They are a fun bunch of people and we had a great time. All of us spent Saturday and Sunday at the Nechonic Lakeside Campground where we were camping out. It is about 2 miles from their house and is a WONDERFUL park, probably the nicest park we have stayed at so far. The only thing that could have made it better is if Corey, Kim and Gaby were there but they were in Switzerland visiting Kim's family so I know they had a great time too.

Neshonic Campground was a bit busy as expected on Memorial Day weekend, actually the park was full. Part of the park is home to full time spots and they also rent golf carts so it was golf cart mania, they even had a golf cart parade throughout the campground complete with candy thrown for the kids, kind of neat but kind of busy, like rush our traffic with golf carts. The amenities at this park are fabulous. Two large swimming pools, hot tub, laundry, basketball courts, volleyball courts, horseshoe pits, you name it they had it. Very pretty and very green. Sophie and Eva had a great time and so did Alyssa, that's the most important thing; the kids having fun. Actually all of us adults did too.

Some highlights include:

• Seeing Will and all the family
• Making Peach Surprise
• Smores by the campfire
• Swimming
• The Hot Tub (18 and older please)
• Blue yummies by the campfire :-)

I mentioned the one lesson learned - NEVER, i repeat, NEVER try to go 170 miles on 169 miles worth of gas. As you can see by the pictures it was a lesson learned. :-)

The rest of our photos from the trip can be seen on my Facebook account or by hitting the following link : http://picasaweb.google.com/yeldarb0163/MemorialHolidayTrip2009WestSalemWISCONSIN#

Until Next Time - Safe Travels...

Bc

Trip 15 - Fremont State Lakes

Our trip to the Fremont State Lakes this past weekend was to celebrate Mother's Day as well as our 17th Wedding Anniversary, as if we needed a reason to go camping.

The weather was pretty nice outside of the strong winds on Friday night that actually took the power down in the park for a few hours, never did find out what actually happened but it appeared to be more the power in the area than isolated to the park, anyhow we are none the worse for the ware...

We actually got our fishing licenses and did a little fishing this trip. Alyssa really enyoys it but she has the patience of her dad at times so sometimes we are both challenged when it comes to fishing, patience is the key and we lack that at times. We even got Valerie into the mix this trip too, there was a stretch where Dad was baiting hooks and taking fish off hooks for 15 or 20 minutes before I was able to get my line back in the water. 12, maybe 15 bluegills was our haul.

The park was in pretty good shape although they appeared to miss their mowing schedule this past week... :-) Oh, well, I know times are kind of tough now and if a little long grass is the price we have to pay to help keep our State Parks open then it is sure worth it to us...

Here is proof that Valerie and Alyssa had a good time, smiles all around... :-)


I had put a front receiver hitch on my truck and this was the first trip trying it out with the bike rack. People ask me WHY in the world would you want to haul your bikes off the front of your truck, why not put a receiver on the back of the trailer. We'll those folks usually arn't people who have campers. The receiver worked flawlessley and the set up in the front was STURDY and STRONG. I feel good about this set up and it gives me a nice sense of security in actually seeing the bikes riding along. The ONLY thing I will change is that the bike rack is a BIT too high, maybe needs 6 inches taken out of it to give it a better balance between covering the lights and my line of sight. We'll tackle that task next weekend.

I finally got a chance to use the new cast iron cookware the DW bought me for Christmas, I love it and plan to to a LOT of cooking over the fire and in the Dutch Oven moving forward.

Rob and Linda and the girls and Rob's his Uncle Larry and his family and Tim and Barb and their son were all part of the group, we sure had a nice time. Actually JACK and SIR Windsor visited Rob and I on Saturday night, we tried to fight back, honestly.... :-)

My new "favoritest" picture of the set up....

Two weeks until we are off to NESHONIC Lake and Resort in West Salem WI over Memorial Day weekend. We can't wait to get up there cause the real reason for the trip is to visit that new NEPHEW of ours, William Robert Clements... YAHOOOOO

Until NEXT time... Bc