Clements Family Camping Adventures

Yankton SD - Chief White Crane

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:25:00 +0000

We had a great time over Labor Day catching up with all my MOM's side of the family. Chief White Crane campground is AWESOME. You can see Bradley's Campsite Review for more specifics on the campsite itself. Not a lot of dialogue here but I wanted to get some pictures out to share.

Until Next Time - Safe Travels... B

Alyssa and Grandpa Bob

Park Sign

Panorama of our site from the West

Gavins Point Dam

Checking things out just as the fog is lifting

RnR

Me and my better half

HUSKERS WIN - At the bar with family watching the Huskers (Good Times)

Here we all are, we all had a great time

TRI-CLEM plus Uncle Gordon

Ponca State Park - Missouri River Outdoor Expo

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:25:00 +0000

coming soon.

A COUPLE notes of interest...

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:55:00 +0000

I haden't posted about our trip to Big Lake in July yet because I was still bent about losing the camera and all the great pics from the trip... WELL, low and behold the camera was found and its really quite remarkable that it was. Long story short I walked into the woods off the beat and path to relieve myself while we were fishing and it must have fell out of my pocket. Well, a 12 year boy found it and he and his family went out of the way to contact me and arange its return, return coordination is going on now and I am totally happy and surprised. There ARE still some honest people in this world.

SECONDLY, Congratulations to JUDY and DAVE, proud owners of a new HYBRID Travel Trailer, looking forward to spending some "Happy Camping" time with the both of you...

Safe Travels - Bc

Louisville State Rec Area

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:37:00 +0000

We made our first trip of the year to Louisville, we always like this park as its close to home and has a nice layout. The Thomas's camped next to us and we had visitors on Saturday, Rauerts and Travis and Mark stopped out. Sharing our camping makes it all that much more enjoyable. The Weather was a bit hot with the temp hitting 99 on Saturday and lots of scattered thunderstorms on Sunday. It made it a bit interesting getting packed up and out of there on time. Anyhow, enjoy the pics from our latest trip...

Two Smiles at the same time... :-)

Cool panaroma of our campsites

And about 90% Humidity...

Swimming was a good way to keep cool, and another smile...

Lots of action on the river as well...

SMORES anyone???

The Thomas Abode...

Yummies around the campfire...

Dont think the heavy stuff is gonna come down for a while...

Good times, good times...

Safe Travels until next time...

Happy 4th Everyone - God Bless the USA

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:57:00 +0000

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

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:42:00 +0000

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

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:13:00 +0000

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...

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:57:00 +0000

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

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:13:00 +0000

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...

Trip 15 - Fremont State Lakes

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:34:00 +0000

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

May 8-10

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Well, we are headed out to the Fremont Lakes this coming friday and are really looking forward to our first "entire family" nice weather outing. It just so happens to be our 17th anniversary as well as Mothers Day. I think we all agree there isnt anyplace we'd rather be than camping out during this time...

Link for Pictures

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:54:00 +0000

I have created an online picture directory of the pictures from the trip. You can click this link to access that site if you would like.

http://picasaweb.google.com/yeldarb0163?feat=email

Pinehurst #2 Pictures

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Pinehurst #2 is where Payne Stewart won the US Open shortly before he died in a plane crash. I'll have more pictures to share from there soon too and am also setting up a WEBSHOTS account to more easily share all our photos from our trip. That address will be posted here when complete...

A Few Other PICS... Pinehurst and way more in a few days..

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:23:00 +0000

You should be able to double click on any of these photos to see better.

The Heritage campsite outside Pinehurst North Carolina

Cool panoramic photo looking back to Myrtle Beach from the Apache Pier.

On the road to Pinehurst

Golfing at Eagles Nest in North Myrtle Beach

Augusta National

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:22:00 +0000

Its late, we're tired, we just had some GREAT Seafood at Myrtle Beach, here are some higlights of our last few days. More Soon...

Tiger putting on 13
Approach on 13 - within 3 inches.

Greg Norman and crew

Magnolia Lane

The Walrus, Craig Stadler

The Boys

The HOGAN Bridge on 12

12 Green

12th Hole

Our portable hotel room in Aiken South Carolina

Masters Trip Days ONE and TWO - Manchester TN

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Not a lot of dialogue right now but we did drive 17 hours on Day one so we could get further down the road and spend the full day in Manchester. We left at 8:30 am on Friday and rolled into Manchester 60 miles south of Nashville at 2:00am early saturday morning. We had a lot of fun and wanted to share JUST a few photos so far. We'll do a full trip summary as time allows or after the trip.

Enjoy the pics... See you soon...

The Fearless Foursome

Jack Daniels Distillisy - Lynchburg Tennessee

JD Distillery

More JD Distillery

Bear Trace Golf Course - Tims Lake State Park - Tims Ford TN

It was 75 and Sunny Today, who couldn't smile

We had 50 visitors

What a glorious ending to a wonderful day...

Augusta or BUST

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:37:00 +0000

Well, Friday morning Jonnie, Eric, Matt and I will be heading out on the ROAD TRIP of all road trips. We were lucky enough to be selected this year to have an opportunity to get practice round tickets to the Masters and will be there for the Monday round. We're making it a 9 day trip and taking in several other sites in the process including Myrtle Beach, Pinehurst, Lynchburg Tennessee the home of the world famous Jack Daniels distillery and a few other things along the way. If all goes well and we find a few hot spots along the way we'll do some posting here or at least get a few pictures up if you are interested in following our trip. If not, that's cool too.

Take Care - Brad

PS: Let's get more people into the loop to apply for tickets next time, this could become a big annual event, who knows...

Trip 13 - Victorian Acres RV Park - Nebraska City NE

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Pictures for now - more to come...

Hooking Up Tomorrow

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Well, we've decided to take our first real (decent weather) trip of the year tomorrow. We are headed to Victorian Acres RV Park in Nebraska City. It looks like a nice RV park with some decent amenities. The biggest thing I am looking for is FULL hook-ups so we can properly FLUSH and UN winterize the trailer. Full hook ups are the only way to go for the first trip of the season especially when want to flush the entire system two or three times to get all the RV antifreeze out of the system and to do the ANNUAL flushing with a bleach solution. So, we are off, it will be a working trip somewhat cause I have a few other things to do before our BIG boys trip to the Masters in two weeks. The Camper also goes into the shop to fix the door mid next week and they may have it until a few days before we head out so this may really be the only time to get inspection and everything else done. We'll have a bonfire and beers and all the usual stuff associated with a fun time, looking forward to it... We'll report back after the trip...

ALSO - We just reserved BRANCHED OAK for Thursday night through Sunday of the 4th of July Holiday weekend. YEEEEEE HAAAAAAA

WOW - Not AGAIN...

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:29:00 +0000

A while back (maybe 6 months ago or so) I posted that someone attempted to break into my trailer, with no real damage other than a scratch or two on the door. WELL it happened again at Budget Storage off of 159th and Pacific. This time they did a little more damage, they brought a crow bar and really buggered up the door and door jam BUT didn't make it all the way into the trailer, don't know if they were scared off or what but they did NOT gain entry into the trailer. They did however gain entry into my front storage area and made off with BOTH of my tool boxes. I was PISSED for a couple of days but what can I do about it now. Insurance will cover a new door and tools but I will have to pay my deductible, ANYHOW, I guess it could have been worse.

After the last event at this facility I figured anything can happen once but after the second time I immediately pulled my Camper out of there and found a new DOUBLE secret location.

$900 estimate and a $350 check coming my way to replace my tool boxes. $500 detectable, oh well, at least it will be as good as new again. I'll post a pic later...

Should have the camper at the dealer by the 25th and back to me a day or two later - Makes me a little nervous cutting it that close to our masters trip but I am sure it will be fine as long as the new door comes in on time. Its not so bad we couldn't go cause it shuts and forms a seal but it sticks out like a sore thumb and would give incentive to someone as an easy target if they were contemplating something stupid....

I think we'll camp this weekend and get everything ready for our long trip, dunno where, probably somewhere close like Two Rivers or Louisville but it looks to be nice enough to get out and enjoy it.

Until Next Time

16 DAYS UNTIL THE MASTERS TRIP

Memorial Day - Lake Neshonoc Lakeside Camp/Resort

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:54:00 +0000

We finally booked Memorial day weekend for an outing. We really want to get to Wisconsin to see Rich and Beth and the girls so we thought that weekend would be good for an extended trip. We are really looking forward to seeing them again, and there will be a NEW Clements, yet to be named who we'll get to see too - We are REALLY excited about getting to Wisconsin.

The one thing you always have to keep in mind on Memorial and Labor Day is that anybody who owns any type of camper or likes to tent camp is camping on these weekend. There are a couple state parks in that area of WI that are booked solid for any kind of electrical hook up. Another private park I checked (Pettibone) had four of there over 100 sited left so key to success here is getting thing planed and scheduled ahead of time.

We are staying here http://www.neshonoclakeside.com/ and it looks like a GREAT set up. We may be adventurous and leave on Thursday late afternoon and stay WHEREVER about half way up. Makes me nervous not having things scheduled but worse case scenario we can pull off in a city park or a truck stop somewhere to sleep as we wont be making a "camp" per se on Thursday night anyhow.

I really, really want to get to the point where we simply get hooked up and GO. With no certain destination in mind, kind of like wandering nomads but that makes me a little nervous too - Not sure why, I feel that would be a GREAT adventure and a great way to see things you may not see on the way. HECK, half the fun is the travel getting somewhere...

This weekend the weather is going to be great and it will be hard staying put but I have a big Honey Do list to do including fixing our dishwasher that just went on the fritz, so I guess its best to stay home.

Until next time...

Trip 12 - Mahoney State Park

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:38:00 +0000

We really didn't anticipate our first trip of 2009 to take place in January but we were having a terrible case of CABIN Fever. After a several emails between Valerie and I on Friday afternoon, "should we", "I dunno", "maybe", "could be fun" etc. etc. etc. we decided what the heck, we were game for adventure. I don't really thing people who don't have a trailer or do much camping really understand but, its kind of like a "sickness", this camping thing, and you can only go without the antidote for so long until you gotta get your "Fix". I'll forgo all the details but its not just as simple as hooking up and taking off especially when spontaneity is involved. Our destination was a mere 30 miles away and we started working on making it happen late afternoon and finally backed into our spot at 9:30pm Friday night, then there's quite a bit left to do after getting parked but NONE THE LESS it was all worth it.

I didn't "unwinterize" due to the fact that I didn't want to have to "re-winterize" it again but that wasn't really a problem as we picked a spot close to the modern restrooms where their were showers and toilets, oh sure a little inconvenient, but not a big deal at all.

I was really surprised how warm the camper stayed, I mean granted the nights were only going to get into the high teens or maybe low twenties so I guess in retrospect I really wasn't that surprised. We used a couple of electrical ceramic heaters and it kept it REAL toasty in the camper. We have a propane furnace that works well but since we were hooked up to electrical why waste the propane. We did run it to help quicken the warm up process but once it got up to temp it was maintained with the space heaters. Propane also causes a LOT of condensation inside your camper and with electric that wasn't an issue at all.

This was our first pull out of town with the new F350 and I REALLY REALLY REALLY am happy with it. We set the cruise on 65 and many times going up some of the hills on the way to the park the truck never even downshifted at all. The power that thing has is OVERKILL for my trailer but how great is that. The old CHEVY did okay and at the time I thought it did a great job but looking back it was like a YUGO at the INDY 500. There was a point on one of our trips last year into a headwind where the CHEVY really struggled and I got down near 7MPG. No struggling here and although I didn't figure mileage cause we really didn't go far enough to get an accurate reading I know it isn't much worse with the trailer than it is without it. I know exactly what people mean when they say the towed something and "didn't even realize it was back there."

We didn't do a whole lot during this trip, we didn't have a big agenda, sat around the campfire a lot of the day on Saturday, Valerie and Alyssa played a couple of games, we napped, went sightseeing in the park, had a HERO's season TWO movie fest and really relaxed and it was very peaceful and excellent.

The Phillips 19" flat screen SANTA brought the family worked very well in the camper and really turned out to be a BIG space saver. Counter space is at a premium in the camper anyhow so we are very glad to have it. Just need to figure out how and exactly where to mount it IF we mount it.

It's kind of ironic, Santa also brought me a new air compressor specifically to take camping, and we had a low tire on Sunday morning. "WOW BOSS, I get to put the new compressor to use already!!" low and behold I had everything I needed except for the correct chuck to fill the tire. I had taped it and put it onto a quick release valve a couple of weeks ago and set it on my workbench at home, never making it back to the compressor or into the camper. Fortunately it wasn't ANY lower or I would have had my first experience with changing a tire on the camper. We made it up the road to the Flying J and all was well again.

Winter camping has a many advantages compared to camping in a FULL park in the Summer. There were a grand total of TWO of us in both campgrounds (over 100 sites) and the other guys was a full timer in a motor home who had been in the park since October. I guess there aren't as many in this neck of the woods who had the same thoughts as we did and in all reality they missed out on a great weekend of camping.

Photos from our first trip of 2009...

Happy to be there... :-)

New small flat screen - Thanks SANTA :-)

Our Site - Little Creek Campground #46

Hanging by the Campfire

Marina

View from Lakeside Campground

Ice Skating Rink - (Probably 75 people skating)

Lower shady part of the campground

Was still a LOT of snow where the sun doesn't shine directly

Marina

Solar powered facilities including washer and dryers

YES, Sam and I had a good time too...

UNTIL next time.........

PS: OH YEA, our trip to the MASTERS will be here before you know it. :-)

Winter MELTDOWN averted

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Well, it wasn't like actually taking the camper out but this past weekend I went to the camper and did a little fiddling around. Hadn't been there in a few weeks and wanted to see how everything was. I picked up Eric in route and we went to check things out. There had been some break ins recently at the storage site so I always try to go there every couple of week. Well, no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

We hooked up the battery and fired up the furnace, my goal was to check out how I might mount my new 19 inch flat screen in the camper. STILL not really sure as there is NO good place and I am a little hesitant hanging it from one wall stud and expecting it to ride nicely wherever we go. I may rig a backer type board to cross over TWO studs and anchor it in really well and then mount the TV to it. A little more work than I anticipated by I really want it to work out well so we'll see.

Furnace worked well, slide came out with a "little" issue as it appears there was a little frozen water in the seam keeping the top from popping out right away but no big deal. The TV works great with the antenna and I even fired up the generator and plugged in to it. WOW, that is handy, it took a little to get it started but when it fired up it worked like a dream. The furnace didn't warm things up REAL quick but it was getting there. If we go WINTER camping I'll have to be sure to bring our electric heater along too to help.

SPEAKING of winter camping we are looking to give it a try here in the next couple of weeks, we'll see, we wont UNWINTERIZE we'll just go somewhere with bathrooms available and bring our own water in jugs for cooking ETC...

Enough for now....

Happy Camping (SOON)

WOW - Withdrawls

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:42:00 +0000

We are having withdrawls from camping, you guys on in the south have it made.

Merry Christmas

brclements1@cox.net (Brad) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:21:00 +0000

Merry Christmas and HAPPY Holidays to all of you. The weather outside is frightful and its making my mind wanted off to all the great SUMMER camping we did last year and will do this coming year. I can't wait. SANTA was good on the camping front, stocked up on several things specifically for the camper. MORE VERY SOON...

B