Clements Family Camping Adventures

Moving

2011-01-06T10:03:00.000-06:00

Consolidating blogs and moving everything over to http://brad-clements.blogspot.com/

Hope to see you there... :-)

Ponca State Park - Missouri River Outdoor Expo

2010-09-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

Well, were are about 3 hours from departure to Ponca State Park - This weekend is the weekend of the 6th or 7th Annual Missouri River Outdoor Expo and we are excited to attend. This weekend is CRAZY at Ponca as there will be over 50K visitors to the Expo. They do a REAL nice job with parking and shuttles and the suck and all of the Expo vendors and activities are kept down on the bottom part of the park away from the campgrounds SO you can peacefully camp while still taking part in the expo... I promise a full trip report an pics when we return...

Info on the Expo

Safe Travels and Happy Camping...

BAD BLOGGER

2010-09-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

I've been terribly remiss on my blogging lately, seems like the summer has flown by and has been pretty busy. We've been out several times since our official summer vacation to places including; Fremont Lakes, Branched Oak and Crystal Springs - We'll post a few pics from those trips another time...

Headed out tomorrow for the 3 day Labor Day weekend, hitting Louisville SRA with 6 other couples - We have spots all together and we are all reallying looking forward to it... MORE TO COME....

I've embedded a video montage from the movie RV here on the blog, one funny movie especially if you can relate to camping...

Until Next Time - Save Travels

Clements Family Summer Vacation - 2010

2010-06-15T14:16:00.001-05:00

Wow, it went by fast but we had a good time. Left Omaha on June 4th returning on June 13th and that many days away is good for the soul and good for a person's mental health. No work, no office, no life stress, everything slowing down and moving into the RnR mode, great times.

1st Stop - Indian Cave State Park - Shubert Nebraska in Richardson County right on the Missouri River. A very interesting park with hills and a LOT of shade throughout the park. Campsites were good sized and pelantiful to say the least. No full hook ups here but thats generally not a worry for a stay of only a couple of days. The cave is pretty cool and its ALL the way on the far end of the park, feels like you are driving forever as this park is bigger than it seems. Part of the park includes remains of the old settlement of St Deron with a school house and a store as well as a seperate area with living history set ups including a blacksmith, soap maker and candle maker. Another highlight of the park is the overview area at the top of the park - gret view of the river and beautiful countryside. Our pictures are included in a slideshow on the right side of this blog so I wont include a LOT of pictures here but here are a couple (click on any pic to enlarge)...

Indian Cave

View our or door - Site 31

My Girls

Indian Cave SP Overlook - Pic does not do it justice...

We pulled out of Indian Cave on Monday at Noon headed for stop 2.

Stop 2 - Kansas City staying at Worlds of Fun Village - Worlds of fun village is an RV'ers RV Park with all the bells and whistles, this is like the 5 STAR hotel in the hotel world - Its as good as it usually gets for Campers and Rv'ers - Cable hook ups, sewer, electrical and water, full concrete pad with a pool, hot tup, arcade, convenience store and laundry all on site... We were definately a little fish in a big world here as there were several HUGE rigs there, many costing more than my HOUSE.... BUT, it was nice, very nice...

Tuesday in KC we really had nothing scheduled, we knew we had 3 full days to to WOF and the KC zoo so on Tuesday we did laundry, ate bar-b-que and watched it rain...

Wednesday was Worlds of Fun, now I am telling you I will probably NEVER go to worlds of fun again on a busy summer weekend, there was NEVER a wait for Any rides and not fighting crowds was a great bonus, the park was nice, it wasn't too hot, we took in a couple shows and some rides as well as some games. Didnt spend lots of $$$$ on the food at the park as our camper was only a few blocks away... :-)

Thursday was the KC Zoo. When you have the HD Zoo in Omaha you kind of get spoiled because it is as good as it gets in the US. The KC Zoo wasnt bad by any means but just not near then quality of the one in Omaha - None the less we had a good time... A few pics with the rest in the slideshow above.

Arthur Bryants at the Casino

My two favorite' s at the KC Zoo

WOF Village Entrance Site 81 - WOF Village

We pulled out of KC friday at noon headed for stop 3.

Stop 3 - Viking Lake State Park - With Maggie on the fritz we took the rounte I THOUGHT she has wanted us to take by getting off I-29 north at Rock Port and going cross country up to Stanton, as it turns out it may have been better to take I-29 all the way north to the Red Oak exit and head straight east to the park - Its about 35 miles east of the interstate and the "Fastest Time" according to Maggie was going cross country - seemed like it took us forever BUT we did see some nice countryside... Viking lake was hyped by some fellow campers and it is a nice park with a restraunt, convenience store, decent sites with sewer and water (always a plus) and very picturesque. Warm, humid and rain off and on the whole time we were there and we were getting a bit tired so maybe that dulled my view of the park. Not really anything wrong with it just not up to what I had expected from all the hype. We finally had a campfire on our last night out and it was nice to relax and sit around the fire that night. Sunday morning dodging rain while trying to pack up the camper left me a bit crabby but all in all lit was a great family trip... A few pics of Stop 3...

Viking Lake State Park - #65

Final night campfire

Dutch Oven Egg Bake - YOU BET...

Now we just need to start thinking about our 10 day family vacation in 2011 - Branson or Rocky Mountain National Park anyone????

Until next time, save travels...

Less than 24 Hours Now....

2010-06-03T15:04:00.002-05:00

Who's ready for summer vacation.... 10 days and 9 nights coming up out and about in the TT.... WOOOOOT WOOOOOOT

2010 Trip 3 - Fremont State Lakes

2010-04-13T14:10:00.001-05:00

Its good to finally get out and be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt, now it was a bit windy so sweatshirts were in order in the morning and the evening BUT to finally be out when the temp is in the 70's was fantastic. It was a bit windy at times, well that is anytime we were not trying to fly the kites :-).

We camped with Pat/Brian and Noah and Noah's buddy Joe and Jodi/Bernie and Blacker so I took the camper out Thursday evening to stake our "claim". Probably was not needed BUT we wanted a certain area where we can all be side by side with a big "yard" to share. Nebraska State Parks are not generally reservable until closer to Memrial Day so its first come first served... A big plus is that they were still charging winter rates and $13 for an electrical is a great deal.

Friday night we had a roaring campfire and sat around and drank some GREAT scotch that Bernie had brought along. The margaritas Jodi made were pretty tasty as well.

Saturday morning brought the usual routine of coffee sitting outside the camper, man it really is relaxing and peaceful in the mornings. We had other guests during the day as well as most of the Mitchells, Henkeinus's and Schuberts stopped out along with Travis and his girls. I had thought maybe Hildings might stop out but it is Masters weekend. We broke out into a battle of FARKLE which yours truely won as well as the bean bag toss and threw the football around a little. I really like the SOCIAL aspect of camping and had a nice time.

Saturday for supper Bernie tried out his new "Can Cooker" and Brian and I cooked with the dutch ovens. That can cooker does a real nice job and the Pizza out of Brian's dutch oven was definately something I want to try sometime. We were all satisfied with the Saturday night meal and Brian even brought Ice Cream for everyones' Peach Suprise...

Sunday we meandered around loading up the camper, we werent in too big of a hurry and even contemplated staying another day, AHHHHH, I guess there is always next time... I guess Alyssa's T-Shirt says it best...

Until Next Time - Safe Travels

Alyssa's Camping T-Shirt

Valerie and Brian "Relaxing"

Three Maidens all in a Row...

Better check the Tow Capacity of this TV...

2010-04-12T12:29:00.003-05:00

The folks at www.rv.net/forum would have a blast with this set up. I frequent it often and there's a lot of back and fourth about tow capacity and the such. There are folks on there who swear you can't tow a 6K camper with anything but a 3/4 ton Diesel and there are also folks on there who say you can tow a 12K camper with a 1/2 ton truck. They are affectionately called the "Weight Police." This post if for you guys...

We came across this setup this past weekend at Fremont State Lakes. My buddy Brian told me he saw them unloading a SMART Car out of the back of the Toy Hauler. What an AWESOME set up... :-)

Good Old, Close By - Stand By Park - Louisville SRA

2010-04-05T14:44:00.002-05:00

Why can't you camp and still honor your spiritual beliefs, you know there is a Catholic church within 20 miles of everywhere in the US...

The weather was supposed to be 55 and rainy on Friday but we planned on going anyhow, thats why we have a camper and not a tent. We'll by the time we pulled out of Omaha on Friday it was 70 and sunny, BONUS... (We were at site 154)

I got a second bigger dutch oven over Christmas and really want to start doing more with the dutch ovens, the food is ALWAYS so good cooked in the dutch oven. We made it a double stacker on Saturday night, peach surprise in the smaller dutch oven and cheesy augratin potatoes in the larger one. They both cooked up pretty well using the stacking process. You have to be aware of your heat and length of time to cook when you go stacking ovens and both of these called for about the same heat and about the same time so it all worked out well. The cobbler could have used 5 less minutes and the potatoes maybe 5 more but part of the fun of cooking with the ovens is learning as you go. It was very quiet at supper and everyone liked it so it was good. I want ONE more so I can gook three courses at once for meals so we'll be shopping for another one soon... Probably looking for one right between the sizes I have now.

We had a guest on this camping trip, the first time this guest has come along. Brandon came along with Alyssa and I believe they both actually had a pretty good time, bike riding, watching movies, sitting by the campfire. The possibility exists that they may have been a little boared or at least Brandon may have been but I think its more understood that part of camping out is SITTING AROUND with your feet up not doing a whole lot.... That understanding probably comes with age.... LOL... Pat, Brian and Noah stopped out for a bit on Saturday afternoon as well, its always good to visit with them. I know their camper is coming home soon so maybe next time they can join us. :-)

We didn't get a chance to thow the fishing lines in the water this trip, we were going to but noticed a LOT of FISH carcases around the lake we were set up by. Upon further review this lake and one other at the park really suffered from the freeze this last winter and basically we were told that almost all of the fish in these two lakes died off due to lack of oxygen and the hard LONG winter freeze. With my patience for fishing I wouldnt have lasted long without at least getting a nibble or two every now and then... :-) I guess the plan is to "shock" a couple of the other lakes at the park and bring some fish into these spots... ANYHOW, if you at Louisville check in to see which lakes will have fish and which ones wont before you go about your business...

As it was Easter Sunday we did plan to attend Easter services Sunday morning. Our initial plan was to drive to Plattsmouth for the 8am Service. After a late start and a wrong turn we found it to be about 5 minutes to start and we were still 20 minutes away according to Maggie. PLAN B - a couple phone calls and a re-route and we ended up in MANLEY Nebraska (actually closer to the park than our original plan) for the 9am service. VERY nice little small town church in Rural America, we had a nice service and Valerie and I were VERY glad we made the extra effort to make it happen...

After the service it was back to the park to pack up then off to Judy and Daves for easter lunch, easter egg hunt and all the fun that goes with bringing the family together...

Sunday was a pretty long day as once we got home we cleaned up the camper and ended up taking it back to the storage facility, but the time we made it back home it was close to sunset and we were all pretty worn out... MUCH more relaxing on weekends that done include extra plans on Sunday but it was all worth it..

Happy Easter and Safe Travels, until next time... Bc

2010 - The First Trip - Spontaneity at its FINEST....

2010-03-30T11:45:00.002-05:00

3:30 PM Thursday afternoon and Alyssa sends me a TEXT, "Hey Dad, let’s go camping!" I hit the reply button and start to put in reasons why we can’t go camping and then it struck me, hey, we can go camping!!!! Valerie and I had already taken the day Friday off because it was Alyssa's last day of spring break but we did have Saturday plans. Fast FORWARD 36 minutes, it’s now 4:06 and I get a hold of my wife... "Wife", I say "Let's get out with the camper tonight, I don’t have the new tags on the camper yet, can you get to the DMV and make it happen all before they close at 4:30?" I hear a silence and then a profound "YES" and she's off... 4:33pm I receive a text "The Eagle Has Landed, I repeat the Eagle Has Landed..." and we're off.... Backing in and setting up in the twilight at about 7:15pm has got to be the quickest preparation and execution of a trip we've made to date.... It helps when your wife has been "frothing at the mouth" to do some camping.... :-)

Two Rivers is only about 16 miles from our house and about 8 miles from where the camper is in storage. We unwinterized and since no facilities were available at the campgrounds yet and everything seems to have weathered the LONG COLD WINTER just fine.

Did a little fishing, sat by the campfire, you know the routine. Biggest problem we ran into is that the dump station (which was open when we pulled through on Thursday) was closed on Saturday morning so we just skipped it and pulled the camper home, we'll hit one on the way out this weekend - Louisville so we can be in the proximity of Judy and Daves for Easter on Sunday...

Pictures to follow - Until next time..... Safe Travels

Fillin Up the Fresh Water Tank

Our Site - Lakeside #22

Now thats a FIRE....

Friday morning 7AM - And everyone else is headed to the office... Oh Yea...

Our coffee maker died so we did it the old fashioned way... Not TOO Bad... :-)

PLEASE.... Enough already...

2010-01-04T12:50:00.001-06:00

This cold weather is for the BIRDS.... It was actually -15 early this morning, not much good for any kind of camping I want to do... Not sure I could even get to the camper right now anyhow...

Stay Warm Out There...

Safe Traves... BC

Ponca State Park - Missouri River Outdoor Expo

2009-09-21T13:25:00.030-05:00

Finally getting the opportunity to get caught up here. We attended the Missouri River Ourdoor Expo while camping at Ponca State Park September 18th to the 20th... This Expo was pretty incredible, its amazing what this little state park can turn into during one of these. The camping areas are far enough away from the main attractions that they still remain calm and peaceful but a good majority of the park is transformed into vendors, booths, displays, petting zoos, archery and rifle shooting, dutch oven cooking and boat rides etc... Lots of COOL and interesting things. I expect there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 people through the expo during this weekend. Here is the link for this years expo. See for yourself what goes on, we are already reserved for the third weekend of September next year and I believe all sites are booked...

We camped with the Johnsons and we always enjoy that, the Huskers lost to VA Tech so that wasnt so great and I had a electric window go out on the Ford and had to run around every Saturday morning but. None the less I think everyone had a good time, at least I got a couple of smiles out of the girls...

Until next time, safe travels... BRC

Yankton SD - Chief White Crane

2009-09-21T13:25:00.006-05:00

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

A COUPLE notes of interest...

2009-08-11T00:55:00.004-05:00

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

CAMERA IS BACK... A couple teasers for now...

Louisville State Rec Area

2009-08-11T00:37:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-05T18:57:00.005-05:00

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

2009-06-28T23:42:00.002-05:00

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

2009-06-07T22:13:00.005-05:00

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...

2009-06-05T16:57:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-01T15:13:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-10T21:34:00.007-05:00

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

2009-05-05T13:35:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-14T14:54:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-13T13:57:00.004-05:00

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..

2009-04-11T00:23:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-08T01:22:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-04T23:39:00.008-05:00

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

2009-04-01T16:37:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-24T19:47:00.007-05:00

Pictures for now - more to come...

Hooking Up Tomorrow

2009-03-19T16:13:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-03-17T15:29:00.004-05:00

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

2009-02-06T10:54:00.004-06:00

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

2009-02-01T21:38:00.007-06:00

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

2009-01-27T11:08:00.002-06:00

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

2009-01-12T10:42:00.001-06:00

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

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T13:21:00.002-06:00

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

Becoming MORE self contained

2008-11-17T10:37:00.004-06:00

I picked up a new generator this last weekend. Cabela's was having a great sale and I had a coupon so this generator became part of the family.

My big thing with a generator was, "WILL I REALLY ever use it?"

3500 watt generator will basically get you about what a 30 amp hook up will get you as far as power goes, you'll have to manage your power a bit but essentially we'll be free to camp ANYWHERE we want to camp. Now granted we generally use hook ups at parks that include electricity but opportunities to camp in remote areas where no power is available is pretty exciting. I'm sure it will come in handy on our trip to Augusta in the spring as well, opening up the doors to a lot more possible adventure :-).

We'll have one now if the power goes out at home, last time the power went out due to a big storm it was off for about 24 hours, just long enough for about 1/3 rd of the basement carpet to get soaked. Realizing AFTER the fact that the sump pump needs electricity to keep the water out of the basement... LIVE AND LEARN.

Until Next Time... BC

PS: About the ONLY thing I need to upgrade now is having a second deep cycle battery in the loop on the TT, with that I'd be set for absolutely anything.

Link to Cabela's site for Champion generator.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0040261522130a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=generator&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

Topper Added

2008-11-09T21:04:00.004-06:00

Last Monday I found a topper that I couldn't pass up taking a look at. It was on a 2004 Ford F-250 and it was white. The price listed on CRAIGSLIST was $100 so even though I saw a picture I wasn't expecting too much. Well it took me all of 30 seconds when I arrived to say SOLD, so we have a topper for the new truck and are pretty stoked about it. Its not a PERFECT fit but so close that I am really satisfied. Just so happens that my mileage went up this trip to the gas station, we'll see if thats a fluke or not next time. (See the charts on the right)

Now if spring would just get here we could do some camping...

Until next time - B

Our New Honey - Ford F-350 6.8L V10 Short Box Dually

2008-10-30T09:31:00.008-05:00

Now that's a mouthful.

We had a truck in the back of our mind's for next summer but as things turned out I was made a deal we couldn't refuse and therefore we have a new TV. 24,000 miles on a 2005 is pretty nice. The previous owners did pull a fifth wheel with the truck but parked in unless they were camping so therefore the below average miles. (or so the dealership says)

I pulled the TT to the storage facility on Tuesday night and WOW, I mean WOW. The 1500 worked fine but this is a MONSTER. Really its hard to tell you are pulling anything and that is VERY cool. Mileage in the 1500 ranged from 8 to 13 towing but the engine usually had to work pretty hard, especially in the hills. The ease of towing and power associated with this truck means it wont have to work so hard so I fully expect to get at least 10 to 13 with this truck if not a bit more. I've heard from some of the guys on the RVNET forum that claim to get 12 to 16 when towing so we will see. Driving style is the biggest factor in maximizing MPG anyhow. The one time I did get 8 (actually 7.5) was going 75mph down the interstate into a head wind and being in a hurry (really does nothing for mpg)

A few things that are taking a little getting used to.

A. Duallys make the back end exactly the same width as my TT. SOOOO, no curb checks yet but my driving habits have changed a bit and I drive it just like the TT is behind it. (NO MORE FAST FOOD DRIVE THROUGH BUT THAT CAN'T BE A BAD THING)

B. You don't sit down into it, you climb up into it. In the silverado I could get in and sit without using the running boards to get in, NOT ANY MORE.

C. The BLIND spot on the passenger side is REALLY a blind spot. A lot of cars are shorter than the back end of the truck and are HARD to see even looking over your right shoulder. I've got blind spot mirrors built in so that helps a bit but I have to be very careful. I actually almost took out a little Honda Civic who was traveling right in my blind spot the second night I had the truck.

Anyhow, I know I'm a geek but I am pretty excited, and the best thing to boot is that my truck payment went down almost $100 a month although now I have 60 months left instead of 8. Insurance is only up $150 for the entire year, better than I expected.... YAY

Until next time...

Winterizing, Storage and Break IN

2008-10-28T15:52:00.005-05:00

Well the beast is winterized and knock on wood I did everything right so we wont have any surprises come spring time. The big key is to get all the water out of the plumbing and pump some antifreeze (special RV antifreeze) into the plumbing. A little down each drain of all sinks and tub and a little in the Grey and Black tanks as well as the hot water heater after draining it. It's been parked at home all week since it gives me a little flexibility to work on it a bit here and a bit there.

I wish it was possible to keep it at home but its not and our storage is pretty reasonable. I am curious though as there are a couple in driveways all the time in our subdivision and I know its against the covenants. OH WELL, its probably better kept in our storage facility where its out of the way.

One kind of interesting tidbit is that our storage facility did get broken into about a month ago and the culprits tried to get into a whole bunch of RV's including ours. We had our deadbolt locked so they moved on to others but did manage to break into 4 units and stole a couple of big flat screen TV's. Not real sure I'd keep an expensive flat screen in my camper but if I did I'd definitely keep the dead bolt locked.

An expensive lesson for them.

The police suspect gang activity and some sort of initiation. WHAT the HELL, that's why we chose this location for storage. 159th and Pacific right in the heart of "suburbia". Who'd of thunk it.

Enough rambling for now, next post we'll discuss the new "TV" (tow vehicle) we purchased yesterday... WOOOOOO WHOOOOOOOO...

Trip 11 - Ponca State Park

2008-10-21T10:29:00.008-05:00

Ponca State Park was a GREAT time. We met up with Rob Johnson and his family and had a great time. The weather was cool but not too cool and it was very refreshing.

The Johnsons, our camping friends from Columbus and their kids (with Alyssa above) and their rig below.

We were set up just across the road from them and I was luck enough to be right near a water faucet that had two faucets on it. I hooked up and ran city water all weekend and nobody said anything about it so that was nice.

The fall colors at PSP were very evident and it was a beautiful settting. These two shots were taken walking in the trails that started 30 feet behind our site.

We came across some turkeys on the trail and for all the times I've gone Turkey hunting with Eric this is the time they were close enought that we could have easlily had a nice turkey dinner over the campfire.

Walking back up the trail toward our spot.

Another gorgeous shot of the sunrise on Sunday morning. This doesn't do it justice but it was very inspiring.

Rob turned us on to Dutch Oven cooking and the setup is definately on our Christmas list this year. Here Valerie and Rob discuss the finer points of cooking peach cobbler in the dutch oven. WOW, how AWESOME.

Alyssa and Toby out for a walk.

The CLEMENTS Clan - Taken from the new camera on a 10 second timer.

Our set up at site #38. I'd try for that spot everytime.

I love to fly the flag when camping, some people may call me a dork but its fun. Now I just need a Cubs flag to fly below it and I'd be set.

A very neat "Retro" camper was in the site right next to us.

Ponca was fun and its sad to say but with winter upon us opportunites will be fewer until the spring. BUT, I have no problem going in the snow and it might actually be kind of fun as long as its not below ZERO.

READY

2008-10-16T13:49:00.000-05:00

I am starting to lose focus as I am really ready to get on the road.

Ponca Again

2008-10-02T13:55:00.004-05:00

We have reservations for the weekend of the 17th of October for Ponca and are looking forward to what may just be our last scheduled trip of the year. As the weather gets colder we'll have to play it by ear and after winterizing the camper we will have to be a little more primative with water during the winter.

Trip 10 - Spontaneous, spur of the moment, OOOPS...

2008-09-22T11:04:00.004-05:00

We'll you learn as you go I guess.

Friday we decided late in the day to make a trip this weekend and we had NO reservations and a late start. We had a party at a friends house between Mo Valley and Logan and decided we wanted to camp somewhere in the neighborhood, now there are actually quite a few choices but when you leave late and have no reservation things can be a little tricky.

We pulled into Wilson Island State park at about 8pm and it was dark and upon finally getting to the park entrance we were greeted with "All Electric Sites Full". We'll shoot, we knew this would be an adventure so we headed back in the opposite direction toward the interstate. I knew the Mo Vally City park had electrical and would be pretty much empty but we really wanted a regular campsite so we knew it would be there for a last resort.

We ended up north in Onawa at the KOA, I decided to go for the FULL HOOK ups since this could possibly be the last outing before it gets cold and I could really get the tanks cleaned out good there. Plus I wanted to try the KOA before, they are always a little pricey it seems (actually everything is when you compare it to State Parks or "govt" sites). It wasn't bad but at $72 for two night compared to $24 to $30 for a state park I think I'll plan a little better in advance moving forward.

We did have a good time, after all we were camping....

KOA main building complete with awesome shower's, laundry and a convenience store.

Blue lake and Lewis and Clark state park are behind the KOA - We did drive through Lewis and Clark and will go there sometime for a weekend for sure.

Our site was in the midst of a bunch of full timers and was rather small.

We rented the three wheel recumbant bike and both Alyssa and I both really liked it. They were selling it and we came close to bringing it home.

Until next time....

Trip 9 - Two Rivers State Rec Area

2008-09-05T21:36:00.012-05:00

It was nice to be able to camp over the long holiday weekend but it all seemed kind of rushed and last minute. AHHHH, Well, I guess that's because it was. As mentioned in the previous post we got the last campsite available and it wasn't real pretty, but it worked.

We spent time on both Saturday and Sunday wading in the river just on the opposite side of the campsite, it was fun but it was a workout.

We revamped the flag pole and got it back up during this trip and even had a little HUSKER decorations for the first HUSKER game.

Two Rivers has a unique set up for CABIN camping in that they brought in 6 or 8 cabooses from UP and converted them into Cabins. I understand they are nice and you can read more about them by hitting the link in my LINKS area on this blog. Might be something neat to try sometime.

What's camping without some SMORES...

Alyssa was a great helper this trip as she was more than willing to get up on the roof and sweep off the slide as we were getting ready to ship out.

One of the FIRSTS for me was having to wait in line at the dump station on our way out of the park. I realized that with this weekend being a holiday and the park being full that we would probably have to. We didn't hurry around and get out of there early and by the time we left at one minute before the checkout time our area was pretty empty. There was hope but ALAS it was not to be 45 minute in line wasn't really that bad as everyone ahead of us didn't dilly dally around doing their duty.

I really enjoyed the face time with my girls as school is starting and fact time will no doubt be harder to have during the school year.

Until Next Time - B

More Two Rivers Pictures

River Access

SMILE..

Campsite for next time...

DUH Lumpy...

Lets go explore...

Hanging out having fun...

Trials and Tribulations of Finding a spot during a Holiday Weekend

2008-08-27T23:51:00.003-05:00

Our MO is short trips to local areas most of the time. Somewhere we can get in an hour or two at the most especially if its a standard weekend or a long weekend. I like the travel and getting there but its more economical to stay close and there is PLENTY to do and see within 100 miles of the BIG O. With all the planning and details associated with our big family vacation I screwed around and didn't get a reservation for Labor Day. We were supposed to meet up with the Thomas's at Louisville so when I didn't make our reservation in time I figured I'd line us up with a first come first served site, hey, at least we'd be at the same park even if we weren't neighbors. WELL, I called out there bright and early Wednesday morning and the lady at the desk told me she just sold her last site on Tuesday night. HUH, the park is FULL already!!!! Come to discover you don't actually have to pull your camper out and set it up at the site but you do need to go the the Campground and register and pay for a site ahead of time and OH yes pay for the night you may not plan on staying just to be sure you have a site.... After she explained this to me it made more sense, in all reality Louisville is way less than half full on Wednesday and maybe more like 25% but all the reservable are reserved and all the first come first served are paid for and tagged even if they are sitting empty.... NOVEL idea, my knowledge is now expanded. The proximity of Louisville to Omaha really leave this as a easy thing for campers to do, drive down a few days early and get a spot, and evidently a lot of them do. 15 minutes south of 144th and I-80 is an easy quick drive out after work for anyone who seriously wants a spot.

SO, in one last ditch effort to land a spot I called TWO Rivers on Wednesday morning. This campground is the same distance and is located out by the little town of VENICE south west of Elkhorn. I am thinking NO way, probably the same story second verse. The man on the other end said YEP, 13 electrical sites left but you better hurry. AWESOME BABY AWESOME... This was at 10AM mind you. I decided to run out to the campsite at lunchtime and left the office around 12:15. I pull into the park at shortly there after and ask about his 13 sites, well, now were down to TWO and you have to go take a look at the site before I will rent it to you. WHAT, just what does that mean! SO, I take a look at the site and I understand why they make you take a look, there has been some dirt work done and basically these last two sites could be classified as the worst sites in the park. HEY, live and learn I guess. I decided to take one and when I went back another guy was taking the other. The catch is this, the park had probably 10 campers on location for around 75 or so sites so the proximity to Omaha played a factor in filling this campground too. OH WELL, we are camping and we'll make the most of it and really are looking forward to more "face time" with the family.... Stay tuned for our post trip report.

Until Next Time - B

Clements Family Summer Vacation 2008

2008-08-11T22:25:00.000-05:00

10 Days away from home is a new experience for us and one we'll surely do again. I had Matt check the house a couple of times as my AC had leaked in the past and everything at home went just fine. We've been on a cruise, several smaller vacations and various long weekends but I was a little nervous about 10 days but it turned out AWESOME...

Day 1 - Leave for Prairie Rose State Park between Walnut and Harlan Iowa
(Click on ANY pictures to enlarge)

I was off at noon and to Alyssa's final day of camp with Valerie for the bar-b-que they were having for parents. That was nice and they said they really liked Alyssa as a Junior counselor and can't wait for her to be back next year. Valerie went back to work and I took Alyssa home

and off we went. My goal was to be at the campground and set up by dark but unfortunately that wasn't the case here. Between the running and running and going to the bank and walmart and the grocery store and to get the camper and take it home, clean it out and get it all packed it was near 7:45 by the time we left. Now, I had never been to this park before but Maggie led us right to it BUT unfortunately I missed the turn and in the process of getting turned around I traveled through most of the northern part of the park all which appeared to be dead end roads not designed for big trailers. We got turned around without much trouble but it was tight and took a couple of times before we finally made it. The problem was the tight roads and big trees, in retrospect after checking out the park we were a few 100 yards around the corner from a big circle which I could have simply driven around and headed back where we came from. Cost me 30 minutes and the rest of the daylight. Once we found our site and backed in it was after 9:30 and dark, BUT the only streetlight in the campground was directly across from our site and that helped a lot. Full hook ups at this site including sewer, water and electrical. AWESOME - Friday was kind of hectic and stressful but it would be the last day like that for quite a while.

Day 2 - Prairie Rose State Park

Day two was about doing nothing and liking it. We finished all the set up that was not completed

the night before and then basically lounged the rest of the day. We went swimming at the beach, played this new game we bought called "Washers", rode the

bikes a bit and RELAXED. There's something about sitting outside the camper in the morning with a nice cup of coffee and enjoying nature that is real appealing to me.

Day 3 - Prairie Rose State Park and Walnut (Antique Capitol of Iowa) Iowa

Sunday we knew we wanted to get to Walnut to do some window shopping at all the antique stores but it was HOT so we didn't really HUSTLE around to get there. In retrospect we should have been there really early to avoid the heat but that's not what this trip was all about, no agenda's and no schedules. We made it into Walnut around 3:30 and it was HOT... We did some window shopping and walked around the area with all the shops, the ones with Air Conditioning got most of our attention. One of the coolest and biggest shops did not have AC and as it was 100 outside and even hotter as we walked in the door we didn't spend more than a few minutes there. I pumped in $68 worth of gas as Walnut for our first fill up since leaving. I had promised Alyssa we would swim again today but not until it was 90 or less out, we went to the beach just after 8pm but it was still HOT... :-) This was the first night we built a fire and sat out under the stars. It is AMAZING how well you see all the stars after you get away from the lights of the city. We saw several shooting stars and had smores over the campfire and a few beers. AHHHHHH Life is good.

More about the Park - Prairie Rose is a VERY beautiful park and has a very unique set up. It has two long rows for camping both facing the west and looking out over the south east part of the lake. The front row is basically lake access and the back row where we were is elevated probably 40/50 feet and basically feels like you are on a bluff overlooking the campers below and the lake. VERY picturesque. The park did have spots that would have been available all weekend long which is good to remember and once Sunday LATE hit we were only one of 4 campers left on at the campground. They had a basketball hoop, a great shower house (which I donated my shampoo and soap to accidentally) and full hook ups. The lake is a no wake fishing lake basically.

Goods: Very rural and relaxed, picturesque, Nice beach area
Bad: Site was a little small and the sewer ran a bit uphill.
Ugly: LOTS of condensation drips off the camper on VERY hot days - My gutters need to be re caulked as the water came mostly down the seam and onto the slide as opposed to the front or back. - The neighbors sewer was a little close to our campfire.

MORE PICTURES FROM PRAIRIE ROSE STATE PARK

The Dogs even had a good time.
View from our campsite.
And another view.
And another - These pics don't really do it justice.
Washers anyone?

Day 4 - Travel Day and Brushy Creek State Rec Area SE of Fort Dodge Iowa

It was HOT on Monday, and I sweat through my clothes in about 10 minutes packing up the camper and getting ready to roll. Unfortunately we were running cross country and up and down the hills to Fort Dodge and as hot as it was I was a little hesitant to crank up the AC at first. We traveled through small town after small town getting to our location and in all reality it was an enjoyable ride and much more relaxing than taking the interstate and having all the traffic to deal with. We did come across one kind of interesting deal while driving. We had a convoy of WIDE loads we came upon and wider than you average WIDE load. We actually had to slow way down and pull halfway off the road when they went by. These were bulk liquid tanks like you'd see on ICE ROAD TRUCKERS :-) and they had that type of trailer where their is no frame only back wheels and front wheels that hook directly to the load. I can't be sure but if the average semi trailer is 53 feet then these were every bit of 100 feet. I dunno, it was neat to see. The one drawback to the hills is that it seemed as though I could see my gas gage actually moving but what the heck.

When we got there I was expecting a pretty nice campsite and I wasn't let down. We had a pull through asphalt site with sewer and water and PLENTY of room. It was raining when we pulled in and I was so concerned to get set up and get the awning out so the family could get started with the inside while I did the outside that I had the awning out a couple of things unpacked and was starting to chock the wheels when Valerie proclaimed that she didn't think this was our SITE. I told her she was crazy and lo and behold she was right. CRAP... LOL... We were 4 sites over so we moved, it wasn't really that bid of a deal but I learned something there, CHECK the site number first for SURE no matter if its RAINING, SNOWING, or Dark. That surely would have sucked to have to pick up camp and move when the rightful renter pulled in at midnight. :-) By the time we moved to the next site the rain had stopped and it was turning into a nice afternoon.

We met an interesting fellow next to us during our stay here. For the life of me I can not remember his name but he looked to be close to retirement and had a hobby of photography. He had a big fancy camera on a big tripod and he was basically hunting for pictures of nature. He shared a framed picture of a blue jay that he had that "whitetail review" is purchasing and several other pictures of wildlife including one of a dragon fly that was AWESOME. He must have been into astronomy because he filled us in on when the SPACE STATION would be coming over and we watched it for the three minutes it was flying over us. He also shared his telescope and viewing the moon with us. Very nice gentleman, I wish I could remember his name.

Kris and Cornell joined us for dinner and what a cutie he is. He and I had a great time while Valerie and Kris visited and I fed him, he smiled, and laughed and is a pretty good baby. This is Cornell, not Cornell for those of you who know them. I don't think Cornell would appreciate me calling him Cute and trying to feed him a bottle but I know Cornell likes it. :-) (Don't be confused) It was good to see them even if Cornell had to work.

We had a campfire that night after and watched a big storm build in the west, we prepared for the worst but it never made it to our location but watching the lightning and seeing it build up and pass by just in the distance was AWESOME. Of course we had a couple of adult beverages too.

Day 5 - Brushy Creek State Rec Area - The FORT Museum

We needed a few supplies so we decided to go to Fort Dodge and hit the Walmart and while we were there we went to the FORT MUSEUM. A Very interesting museum tucked away on the west edge of Fort Dodge. I wont go into a lot of details about the actual museum here but you can hit the link if you'd like to see more about it. http://www.fortmuseum.com/

Alyssa gave Toby a haircut which actually turned out quite nice. We rode bikes, sat around and relaxed, drove through the park and went swimming for a bit before dark, a great time spent together. It was pretty cool over the course of the day and was a little cool swimming that evening. Its amazing how one day can be so different than the next in the mid-west.

More about the park - Brushy Creek has three separate campgrounds. Two of those campgrounds are Equine campgrounds complete with hitching posts at each campsite. There is a north and south equine site and the NON equine site where we stayed. Our area seemed like it was much newer as the trees were less mature and the pavement and everything seemed newer. The other two areas seemed unique with the set up to bring horses and there were a lot of trails running throughout the park for horseback riding. Its located a few miles southeast of Fort Dodge and I would definitely camp there again anytime.

GOOD: Big Site and Full Hook Ups
BAD: 7 Miles to the nearest ICE or supplies.
UGLY: Double check your site prior to setting up

MORE PICTURES FROM BRUSHY CREEK AND FORT MUSEUM

Me and the better half.

The two wonderful WOMEN in my life.
The Fort
Brushy Creek
The traditional grilling picture. :-)
Main street at the Fort

Day 6 - Moving day and Bob Shetler Campground at Saylorville Lake (Des Moines)

Once again the drive from Brushy Creek to Bob Shetler was a nice drive. Staying off the interstate really makes for a much nicer drive and you take in more of the sights. As we are coming south down the west side of Saylorville lake I had a little conflicting information from Maggie and ended up pulling into Jester Park on the west bank of Saylorville lake. I jigged when I should have jagged. NO PROBLEM I say to myself but I was WRONG. We come to an intersection in the park where the options are LEFT to a campground, straight ahead to the Lodge and Right to whatever. So I am looking for a place to turn around and for the life of me I don't understand why I took the straight to the lodge as opposed to the left to the campground. I mean campgrounds are set up to accomodate trailers and the such and would have surely ben a walk in the park to get turned around by going that way. Maybe I just wanted to see the lodge or maybe I wasn't thinking but I went straight and went maybe a half mile and as I pulled into the lodge area I realized that something was going on at the lodge, a business meeting or a conference or something of the sort. There were cars EVERYWHERE, full parking lot, parked on both sides of the curb and anywhere else they could park. I got out and surveyed the situation and there was ABSOLUTELY NO way for me to get through and NO opportunity to turn around. Needless to say I was a little dissappointed I had gotten myself into this situation as one of the CARDINAL rules when pulling a camper is to NOT get yourself into a situation where you can't get out. We'll I made it awful hard on us but after about 15 to 20 minute of following the middle yellow line backwards out out of the lodge area while my Wife ran interference for any cars coming our way we were turned around and back on our way.

OKAY, so I am back to following Maggies directions and realized she gave me the right directions the first time I just chose to know better than her and I won't make that mistake again. (yea right). So we're moving south again on BEAVER Drive and we are approaching the road that will go to the dam and there we will find our campsite. I turn east on NW 78th Ave which should take us by Camp Dodge and to the dam. DRATS, the bridge is OUT from the flooding and here I am again in a place where it isn't exactly a walk in the park to get turned around towing a 30 ft trailer. We made it, got turned around after backing up the rest of the traffic that was turning around and continued on our way. WHY would they not mention, on the saylorville website, that you can not access the dam from the west due to problems with the FLOOD, not real happy. BUT, I refused to get too stressed because after all this was vacation and not the end of the word. Part of the enjoyment of camping is the journey getting there too, we sure had an interesting one on this day... What an interseting campground this turned out to be.

Day 7 - Bob Shetler, Laundry and the Iowa State Fair

Bob Shetler campground is very unique in that is site "below" the dam in the proximity of the spillway and Des Mones River. The ONLY way in and out of this campground is to pass over the spillway on a small 2 lane road and proceed to the campsite and recreation area. The spillway wasn't open a LOT but the amount of power and the rate the water was coming through the spillway was IMPRESSIVE to say the least.

Our site was basically right in the middle of the campground, look east or west and see more campground, look south and see a nice wooded area, look north and see a MASSIVE 100 ft wall of earth holding back millions of gallons of water to form Saylorville lake. Wasn't it the Little Dutch Boy who plugged the dike to keep it from flooding, if something ever happened here (not that it would but once in a million years it COULD) it would be over in a split second. :-) I could go on about the area but you can click this link for more. http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/Saylorville/Camping.cfm

Although we didn't have "full hook-ups" our site was good sized with a big patio and plenty of parking, a shady lawn for the dogs to relax in as well. Our firepit and picnic table seemed a little close to our neighbors but we were on the end and only had one neighbor close.

My experiencw is when you make a reservation online and pay ahead of time you usually drive right into the campground, find your spot and set up. Not here, we had to stop at the gate and register just like a hotel, not that thats good or bad just different than the norm.

When you go on this long of a trip and still need to keep you load weight down you plan on getting more supplies and doing laundry on the road. Thursday morning we made our way to Ankeny Iowa and found a laundry mat and did 8 loads of laundry, can you believe it 8 loads but we were good to go after that. There were actually others at the laundry mat who were camping at our exact site as well so I guess it goes with the territory. We also got a few supplies and another tank of propane

Thursday later in the day we headed out to the Iowa State Fair. We had half price admission for the day and we really had a pretty good time. By this time in the day it was a little cooler and we enjoyed our trip to the fair. I paid a guy $5 and parked in his lawn and we walked a few blocks and we were there. The first stop inside the gate was an RV dealership who had probably 50-60 units on display and a lot of them were listed at 30-35% off as a "State Fair Price." WOW, there are some amazing units out there and we definately got some ideas for an upgrade in a few years, although the Chevy will have to be upgraded before then but we'll see...

The set up for the fair is pretty neat as its surroundings all appear to be permanant, lots of buildings and grandstands and the one thing that really stood out to me was all the FOOD vendors there. If there was ONE there was 100 and a couple of our favorites included the deep fried snickers and the footlong corn dogs, not to mention the $9 beers... We saw the butter cow and Shawn Johnson sculpture from afar and that was pretty cool. We spent too much money trying to win stuffed animals and the such but I guess thats just what you do when you're at the fair.

Alyssa and Valerie had a great time and thats what really counts. (I had a good time too). By the time we got back we were tired, no fire, no smores, no beers, just off to bed.

Day 8 - Bob Shetler, Saylorville Lake Tour and RELAXIN

Friday once again nothing much was on the agenda, we knew we wanted to swim and take a look around. We drove completey around the lake and checked out all the other campgrounds. They have a couple others that look pretty nice as well and one other that is pretty dumpy so we know what our choices are when we get to this area again. One dissappointment was that NONE of the swimming beaches were open yet. Evidently they haven't been able to get them all back up to snuff since the flooding and I would assume they may not know about debris that may have moved in under water where the beaches are. They have a REAL neat marina on the East central part of the lake by where the Saylorville Drive (hwy415) crosses over the lake, it includes hundreds of sailboats and houseboats moored in the lagoon. By the time we decided to snap some pictures it was too late but really a cool site.

We played some washers, went for a bike ride and had some great steaks and grilled chicken breasts along with a little wine and a nice campfire before bed on Friday night, an EXTRA relaxing day and we were happy with that.

Bob Shetler Campground - GOOD: Interesting, level site, immaculate shower/rest rooms

BAD: Hornets nest in the electrical box

UGLY: Washed out bridge and no access from the west

Day 9 - Bob Shetler, Guests and Adventureland

Saturday was our trip to Adventurland and the Hildings were coming to join us for the park and a night of camping. We met them at the park shortly after noon and spent the entire day there. We saw a magic show and rode a few rides. I think Brett and Brooke are becoming roller coaster junkies at an early age, nope, not me, at least not anymore. My putting skills were "masterful" on this day and I won stuffed dogs for all the kids. I made a trip mid-day out to the car because as usual in these places you end up carrying more than you care too. Actually its a NO Tobacco park so I didnt mind the walk because I was "jonesing" by then anyhow.

Adventureland has really grown up over the years, I remember going there in the 70's as a kid, it was a good vacation spot for the Clements family back then. There are actually several rides still there that were there back then. Everything was really spread out back then and now things have pretty much filled in the gaps all over the park.

We only had really two dissappointment during the trip to the park. One was one of the staff who proceeded to swear to her friend while Alyssa and I were standing there waiting for our foor. I bit my toungue the first time but the second time I let her know that I had an issue with her Customer Service and wasn't really pleased. (We'll just leave it at that :-) ). The second one was with the new water slide they have called "Cocomo Cove". Now I won't say it in itself is bad because it really is a pretty cool set up but we were expecting maybe a pool or a wave pool or something a little more. AND we had planned on spending our last couple of hours there at the end of the day but as we were walking in at 6:45pm we learned that part of the park closed at 7pm. We hurried and made a few runs down the slide none the less. Check out the park here http://www.adventurelandpark.com/

MORE ADVENTURELAND PICTURES

Win me a puppy daddy...
The Hilding Clan
Cocomo Cove and FTF Inspiration.
A little splash never hurt anyone
Train at the park
Uncle Matt trying to win that CUBS helmet.

Once we made it back to the campsite we proceeded to grill some food and have maybe one or two too many adult beverages. Our sleeping arangements worked a little better this time and I believe a fun time was had by everyone.

Day 10 - Moving day to HOME

We'll Sunday came as we knew it would. We didn't really rush around to get on the road as we really weren't ready to go home. Matt helped me pack up some stuff and they hit the road about an hour before we did. Once we finally hit the road it was the interstate all the way home and boy that will make a guy tired real quick.

Conclusion

Sometimes we take everything we have for granted. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life and how "busy" we make ourselves sometimes we forget to "stop and smell the roses". This kind of trip will let you get a little "whif" of the roses and help you to realize there is more to life than fighting the daily grind. I feel real blessed and lucky to have had this chance and spending a GREAT amount of quality time with my girls was a blessing. We probably had more face time together during this 10 day vacation than we do in a months time in the "regular" world. That's too bad but thats what makes times like this very special...

Until next time... B

A FEW MORE PICTURES OF OUR TRIP

NO MORE DEAD ENDS PLEASE!
Wearing IOWA garb in Cyclone country
Bob Shetler campground
Overflow gorge at Saylorville

BYE BYE, See you next time...

On the Road FRIDAY

2008-07-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

We get on the road friday for the Clements Family Summer Vacation 2008 and we are STOKED....

Trip 7 - Fremont State Lakes

2008-07-07T11:12:00.001-05:00

Our Set Up

Fremont was a good setting for us and not far from home at all. The park area has 20 lakes that include roughly 15 or 16 that are strictly for fishing. We has a wonderful time and being the holiday we even had an extra night of camping.

Only TWO major fatalities from the trip. One was the flag pole. I left it up overnight with a big spotlight on it (which was pretty darn cool if I do say so myself) and it must have been a bit too windy because the section of PVC pipe I had glued broke free and it came crashing down in the middle of the night. The second was the weather radio that I dropped in the sink. We'll see if it will work once its had time to dry.

We had some guests on this trip as Joe and Kris and their kids joined us one night and Jon and Kari and the kids joined us another night and my Dad came by for dinner as well. Jane also met us at the park as we were pulling in.

We had a great time. (more to come including pictures)

Dad and Alyssa "Relaxin" Horseshoes Anyone???
Ready to Ride
Toby and Sam have fun...
Dad and Brad eating as usual... :-)

Until Next Time - B

Trip 6 - Louisville State Recreation Area

2008-06-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

It seemed like it had been too long since we last camped so we were all excited to get out of the house on Friday, work has been stressful for both of us so we needed some time away to do NOTHING and de-stress. I got off a bit early and had the camper back at the house and ready to load the girls stuff into and the dogs (we always love taking those two along) and get on the road. After about a 30 minute drive we pulled in and quickly realized that they had a LOT of water standing in the campground and some minor flooding was still evident from the previous weekend. I'll post some pictures of that shortly.

Once we got everything set up with no troubles we settled in and had a nice relaxing evening including roasting hot dogs for dinner around a nice campfire.

Usually when camping its pretty hard to sleep in and Saturday was no exception and we were up by 7am. Valerie made a great scrambled eggs and sausage breakfast with coffee. There's something extra special about a good cup of coffee or three when you are camping. Alyssa had wanted to go swimming Friday night but it was too late once we were all set up so she and I headed down to the swimming lake and pretty much had it all to ourselves at about 8:30 on Saturday morning, the water was COLD, lets just leave it at that. We sat up our new screened in tent and spent some time lounging in that after our early morning swim.

The plan was for the Hildings to join us this weekend and they showed up around noon on Saturday ready for the camping experience... We grilled up some lunch and we had a good time throughout the day on Saturday with swimming and bike riding taking up parts of the day. Val and Michelle went to our nephew's surprise birthday party in Omaha on Saturday night and left the kids with Matt and I. Guess what, we all survived. Part of the reason for camping close was so our families could be represented at the birthday party so that all worked out well.

Once the girls had left we had the first of two rain storms on Saturday night. Eric had come down and the three of us huddled under the awning watching the rain for a bit. Bret and Brooke were in and out enjoying the rain with us and Alyssa was pretty much glued to the movie she had playing in the trailer. I try not to get the TV out much when camping, we usually reserve it for bad weather and this certainly qualified for bad weather. We had huddled everything under the awning and put a few things away in anticipation of the rain so everything stayed pretty much dry except for me and Bret. I realized that the awning wasn't slanted quite like I wanted it after the rain started and I adjusted it and as I was tightening the tie down the water came off the awning and DRENCHED me, this was no small drenching. Bret thought that was rather funny and he indulged in the drenching as well. We had a great time.

This rain only kept up for maybe 20 minutes or so but it was fairly heavy at times. It cleared up, the girls made it back, and actually our fire flared back up so Eric, Matt and I enjoyed roasted marshmallows and adult beverages around the fire for the rest of the night until Eric hit the road.

The storm on Saturday night was the same storm that produced an F2 tornado just 15 miles north of us in Omaha. The first CRASH of thunder at 2:20 AM had me sitting straight up in bed in a split second. Now if you know me you know I could sleep through a hurricane so you know this was loud. I listened to the weather radio for a bit and heard Tornado warnings for Omaha but no warning exactly where we were at so after about 30 minutes I went back to sleep. There ended up being quite a bit of damage in the Millard area of Omaha and not that I wish anything bad for anyone I thank GOD that those tornado's weren't 12-15 miles south because they would have gone RIGHT through the park.

Sunday we relaxed, had some wonderful breakfast and Matt helped me get things packed up and ready to go. They took off around noon and we did a few more things, took a trip through the park and were through the dump station by 3pm.

I think everyone had a pretty good time and I am glad it went well. We had a little "anti-coordination" with sleeping arrangements but we'll know better how to handle that next time.

Until Next Time...

More Pictures of our Trip and the Flooding

Yes, thats us.

Lots of Geese with babies around

Our campground was dry but it was close

Other Sites weren't

No dry fishing here?

Want to build a Fire?

Usually Sand Bars spot this river

Relaxin

Just WHO is the BOSS?

PS: You know Eric calls my blog the HAPPY CAMPER blog and he;s right, I am. Maybe a name change is in store for this blog.... hummmm...... Nope, dont think so...

Next Weekend - Louisville Trip

2008-06-02T00:12:00.001-05:00

We are ON for next weekend and I made a reservation at Lousiville SRA. Now that I made that reservation this morning I heard that the Platte was way up right now and there was some flooding down there. SO, I'll have to give them a call tomorrow but there was NOTHING on the web site about any part of the campground being closed.

The Hildings are joining us this weekend and we needed to be close due to a commitment on Saturday for a while. Michelle and Valerie will go to that while Matt and I and the kids hang out and fish and relax. We are really looking forward to it as the weather looks very promising for the weekend, highs in the upper 80's and sunny, heck it may be the FIRST weekend where the WEATHER will be perfect (Knock on Wood).

We are in Camping area 3 and site number 182.

UPDATE: I called today (6/2) and they suggested moving out of the site I had reserved and into site 161. They had evacuated my reserved site last weekend due to flooding and it appears rain is in the forecast the balance of the week. They said we'd be fine in 161...

Starting to get CRANKY

2008-05-30T00:12:00.001-05:00

TOO MUCH going on this summer already - Starting to get cranky at the lack of camping. I'm easy to please, even a trip to Manawa or Louisville which are VERY close would get my spirit lifted...

Trip 5 - Ponca State Park

2008-05-12T17:10:00.002-05:00

Ponca State Park has changed a bit since the last time we were there. They've added roads, buildings, dug out a man made lake, built a pool and waterfall and changed the whole entrance area around. A lot of hard work has greatly improved this park, not that it was lacking in the first place but they've really worked hard at turning it into a great park.

Friday afternoon we picked up Alyssa right after school and headed out. We took HWY 75 up through Blair, Tekamah and the Reservations. We could have taken I-29 to Sioux City and over for a quicker route but we cut about 25 miles off our route by taking the more direct route. Part of the fun of RVing is the journey getting there too. There are a LOT of breathtaking views along 75 once you get north of Decatur and up into the bluffs and it was a nice drive. Not to be negative or anything but driving through the Omaha and Winnebago reservations can tend to help you keep life in perspective. (Enough said about that :-) )

One WHOOOPS occurred on Friday as we were pulling through the park. Alyssa go to the point where she had to go to the bathroom urgently and we pulled off on a side road just inside the park and she went back to use the bathroom, I got out and stretched my legs and unlock the camper so she could do her duty. She was done and got back into the truck and so did I, "absent mindedly" I forgot to do a walk around the camper and I had left the door locked open and the steps down and started tooling through the park to find our spot. A mile or so up the road I realized my mistake and calmly pulled off and rectified the situation (I believe I was calmer than the other two in my car). Not a big deal this time but if I had taken off back down the highway it may have been a different story. LESSON LEARNED...

Friday night was very nice, we pulled in and got set up, put the awning out and built a nice campfire and everything, we were there and ready to relax.

Saturday - We (all three of us) had originally thought about bringing our golf clubs along on this trip since PONCA has one of the NICEST 9 hole courses I've ever played. Once we realized that Saturday wasn't going to be a great day to golf we decided to leave them behind. SURE enough 6:00AM on Saturday the rain came. Not really any torrential down pours but just enough of a steady rain to make things interesting on Saturday. (I'd say maybe an inch to an inch and a half throughout the day Saturday) We brought some movies anticipating a less than ideal day on Saturday and throughout the weekend watched the first 12 episodes of HERO's, one of our favorite shows from last year. We did get out and have some fun on Saturday as we toured the park in the rain and checked out the new Missouri National Recreational River Resource and Education Center (wow that's a mouthful - hit this link for more details http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/parks/guides/parksearch/addons/poncasp/edcenter.asp ) It was very informative and they have a very nice set up there. We also made it a point no to let the the weather get us down and geared up and actually walked some of the trails for about an hour out in the rain, it was a little muddy but it was just like being a KID again...

Saturday late afternoon the wind picked up and we had to put the awning up and, up to that point we had been doing alright with our "big umbrella" keeping everything outside pretty dry. We had to get most things packed away late in the day and we managed to survive the wind and rain on Saturday.

Sunday morning we pulled the awning and hung up the rugs and set out everything that was damp to dry and Sunday ended up being a nice sunny calm day. Valerie made some great breakfast and we enjoyed our time together on Sunday until about noon when we started packing up for the trip home. Fortunately everything had pretty much dried out and that always helps. Still having an issue getting ONE of my stabilizer jacks back up so I wired it again but other than that Sunday was pretty uneventful other than paying $3.69 a gallon to fill back up in Ponca. Oh well, it is what it is and its really not that big of a deal considering all the quality time we get to spend together while we are camping.

Kind of bummed a bit now because I am not sure when we are going to be able to get back out, schedule is filling up quite quickly for the rest of the summer but rest assured we'll take every opportunity we can to get out.

Until next time...

Bc

(More pics of our Ponca Trip)

Dogs get more attention when its rainy.

Max Air II Vents in Action

Exercise when its rainy outside

Education Center

View of Campsite
Dancing Lessons (Who's teaching who here)

Rain Rain, GO AWAY...

Alyssa's Water Conservation Plan :-)

Springtime at Ponca State Park

Thanks - Bc

Tongue Jack, Max Air and other fun stuff

2008-05-05T11:56:00.000-05:00

We'll, thanks to Matt's willingness to get on the roof of the camper the Max AIR II vents are on and should prove to be a big help with ventilation in the camper. I think I could probably get on the roof of my camper but it kind of worried me so I opted for someone much lighter (THANKS SO MUCH)... :-) Wile Matt was doing that I continued mounting my new Electric Tongue jack and WOW, what a great invention that is. It works like a SNAP and I think they should just come standard on campers as it has to be the number ONE thing anybody would do to upgrade their TT. ALSO fixed the two driver's side stabilizer jacks so they work like a charm now. The plastic KEYs that hold the bolt from coming out of the JACK had come out and I have them working again now. I used wire as opposed to another plastic key and will replace with a metal "cotter key" when I find one that will fit. The last change I made was to turn my closet into more of a dresser. Works great and who takes clothes camping that need to be hung up anyhow. I'll post some pictures sometime. I plan to do this to Valerie and Alyssa's closets too if they so desire but wanted to see how it would work on mine first.

We also organized the storage and cleaned the entire TT inside and out and Val and Alyssa worked their butts off helping with that too, needless to say it was a long day Sunday...

That's it for now, we're off to Ponca next weekend to celebrate 16 years of wedded bliss...

Bc

Weekend at Home

2008-04-30T16:31:00.000-05:00

I'm a little bummed but we need to spend this next weekend at home. The Honey-do's have piled up lately and I really have a busy weekend planned taking care of some long over-do stuff at home. Actually I'll probably pull the camper home on one of the days to give it a good cleaning and make a couple of mods if time permits.

With that being said I did confirm reservations (Oak Bluffs Site #51) for next weekend at Ponca State Park. We're camping for our 16th anniversary and both happy to be doing so. Valerie thought it would be neat to make a trip to Bob's Bar in Martinsburg (just up the road from the park) for old times sake and I couldn't agree more. Looking very much forward to this trip to Ponca and we may even play 9 holes of golf at that wonderful little course outside the park.

Bc

Trip 4 - Tuttle Creek Cove Kansas

2008-04-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

Camping this past weekend consisted of a BOYS GOLF TRIP. James, Matt and I packed up the TT and went down to Manhattan Kansas and stayed at Tuttle Creek Cove Park on the southwest corner of Tuttle Creek Reservoir. We arrived late on Friday night and all went pretty well getting things set up with a couple of exceptions. We pulled through and the dump and water station were right there by the front gate but not really accessible for someone pulling into the park and wanting to fill up tanks. As I sat there trying to determine if I could figure out how to make the VERY tight turn back into the dump station for water the workkamping fella drove up and asked why I needed water as there were hookups at each site in the park. WELL WOOOOOOHOOOOO, that just make life easier. Until we blew by the entry to our camping area and had to back up the road to get back to the site. I wasn't real familiar with the layout of the park so I felt it was better to back up a bit than spend time wandering around the park trying to get back to where we were. Anyhow we had the only pull through site at the park and finally made it onto out site, got everything leveled and settled down for a beer just before midnight.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time actually at the park other than sleeping and eating but from the time we did spend there this was a pretty nice park. With good sites and water hookups all the way around. They had nice aluminum picnic tables at each site and even had several logs and kindling sitting by the fire ring for all the sites. We parked right on the lake (see pics below) and it was a bit windy as can be expected with a north wind coming off the lake but I will definitely take the family down sometime down the line and actually spend some time at the park. The HOSTS at the park were very friendly and helpful as we didn't exactly keep to the exact GATE hours but they treated us very well. The were Good Sam's so that really doesn't surprise me.

Hutch joined us on Saturday morning and the four of us hit the lynx at Colbert Hills. This course rocks and is the number one rated course in Kansas. Its 7500 yards from the tips and of course we had to play it from the tips. My score card read 56/46 for a 102 with a little generosity coming during the rainy and cold conditions we had for the last 5 holes. James was similar and both Hutch and Matt did better than us as expected (at lease somewhat).

The course is VERY beautiful and spread out, I wouldn't want to walk this course even if I were in any kind of shape.

Preparing for the challenge.

Action shot usually followed by a few curse words. :-)

Followed by a lot of trampling through the native grasses.

Manhattan is a pretty nice smaller town, I even got a picture of the "Bill Snyder Family Stadium" and took a tour through campus and to James's old fraternity house. Looks like I could have gotten into a LOT of trouble there if you know what I mean.

We hit the town on Saturday night and I won't go into details in order to protect the innocent (or in our case the guilty) but suffice to say we are defiantly not 21 anymore but sometimes we tend to think we are. OUCH.....

We rounded off the trip by traveling back through Fairbury and playing at the site of the famous "TUCKY Two Tooth" and had a nice round there. I've probably played this course in the neighborhood of 30 times over the course of the years and I can safely say this was the first time I EVER played it when there wasn't a BUSCH Light in site. Don't think there will be for at least a while either...

The HOOT in Action...

Matt praying...

The gang...

A very fun but too quick weekend.

Until next time...

Bc

Trip 3 - Louisville State Rec Area

2008-04-20T22:07:00.001-05:00

We visited Louisville SRA this past weekend and had a very enjoyable time. This SRA is close to home is is very economical on the "gas budget". Its about 12 miles straight south of the 144th st exit off of I-80 in Omaha.

I was a little surprised as we first pulled in at the number of campers already at the park. The reservable sites on the west end of the park were fairly full and the non-reservable sites on the east end were pretty full as well. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised as the weather forecast called for great weather on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night was a little chilly but it more than made up for it on Saturday as the high in the ballpark of 70 with a slight breeze.

I got to try out the new flag pole I recently fabricated out of 1.5 in and 2in PVC pipe and I couldn't have been more pleased with how it turned out. I may make some adjustments down the line to the mount but as it sits now it is working very well. I have TWO more 6.5' lengths that can be added to this as well but in retrospect I probably will never use those as this pole at 20' works very well. (see pics below)

The Mackey's came out for the day on Saturday and we all enjoyed biking, fishing and going for ice cream at the snack shack. Sabra was convinced that she could definitely get into "this" type of camping. Heck, convincing the wife tends to be the harder part so its ONE down and ONE to go (well Trav??? )

Brother Corey also stopped by with his new TOY. Wow, what a SHARP ride. My wife insists that I spent my motorcycle money on a camper and I agree with her (for a few years anyhow).

Alyssa was the fishing champ for the weekend hauling in 5 fish with Mom taking second place with 4 and Dad getting skunked. I enjoyed watching all the girls fishing on Saturday and having them all have a good time. The 10 minutes I did get to fish I played with one fish in particular that continued to snag my bait and spit my hook back at me. He won this time but better watch out next time.

I got an unexpected surprise this weekend when one of my buddies I met online through the Open Roads Forum pulled through the park on Friday night. He and his wife and kids were camping up on the west end of the park and I got to meet him in person for the first time. Kind of a small world, I look forward to getting to know them better and sharing many camping experiences with them as well. He has two girls who are 9 and 13 so that could make a good mix with Alyssa. (Thanks for the poker, my turn to buy next time :-) )

All in all it was a great weekend as I finally feel as though I have this thing down. We actually pulled the awning out for the first time, lit the water heater and pretty much have mastered the basic knowledge of this trailer. One thing we did learn is that we need to ration water a little better. We've got 50 gallons to start with but when you run it like you do at your house it doesn't last nearly as long.

POWER PROBLEMS UPDATE: I did end up replacing the GFI receptacle and all is working well. I wouldn't have expect the receptacle to go bad on a brand new trailer but then again it was a pretty easy fix and all is working like new now...

Some more pictures of the flag pole...

Next up: Tuttle Creek COVE - Manhattan Kansas - Colbert Hills golfing trip...

Until next time - B

Rain, Rain GO AWAY...

2008-04-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

We're due to pull the TT out to Louisville SRA this afternoon and as I sit here it is raining and a bit chilly. The rain is supposed to quit by mid-day or so and maybe drizzle a bit later in the day but tomorrow its supposed to be 70+ and quite nice. I am pretty adventurous so I guess we'll get some good practice driving and dealing with the TT in the rain. Wish us luck...

Power Problems

2008-04-09T12:12:00.000-05:00

On our recent trip to Lake Manawa we had our GFI's pop. This happened midway into our trip and we couldn't get them to reset, the reset button would never hold. I called the tech line on my Coach Net RS and they had me try a couple of things I had already tried and were not any help. Not a HUGE deal just utilized other plugs in our TT until back home on Monday.

I contacted my dealer's service department first thing. When I told the Service guy I had been out this weekend and my GFI had popped and I couldn't get it to reset he came back with this; "Let me guess, you were in Iowa and possibly at Lake Manawa." I told him he should take over for the great CARNAC and asked him how he knew. He told me that sometimes the power in the State parks in IA is a little screwy and will trip the GFI and not allow it to be reset. He said to try it on another power source and he feels it should be fine. AWESOME, now if I had only tried it while I was parked outside my house on Sunday unloading I wouldn't have to go hook up and drag it back to the house this weekend. :-) Live and Learn Baby....

Trip 2 - Lake Manawa State Park

2008-04-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

It's not the distance in the travel for us yet but the travel in itself. Still trying to master everything and not deciding where or IF we were going for sure until late Thursday we happily took off on our latest adventure Friday early evening.

We traveled only 25miles and found ourselves at Lake Manawa State Park just across the river in Council Bluffs. Never been there before and and its a pretty interesting setting.

As you pull into the park from the north you circle around on the west and drive by half million to million dollar homes on the west of you and Lake Manawa on the east. There are lagoons backing up to these homes and access under the road to the lake for their boats. Its kind of a narrow winding road and water pretty close to both sides of the road in some places makes it kind of neat. It was twilight as we entered the park and we spotted a bunch of WHITE spots on the lake only to put down the windows and hear the noise of thousands of Snow Geese who has flocked to the lake. In our route to the campsite we also saw several deer, a skunk, a white owl and many ducks. By the time we reached the campsite we had killed a LOT of daylight and it was pretty much DARK...

I pulled through the gate wanting to find a spot and worry about the self registration later. The first bunch of sites were all short and had no electrical so I wandered on and finally came to the part of the campsite that had electrical and just to my luck PULL-THROUGH sites. Backing the trailer is not difficult but I was in a hurry and it is now totally dark. We came to the first spot and pulled in, this looked good, wonder why this site in the middle is wide open and there are several campers on both sides of it. Well after pulling in and scouting around looking for an electric box there wasn't one. For one reason or another this site just didn't have one (site marked electrical). We ended up backing out of this spot because going forward would have either resulted in going IN the OUT or taking a SHARP LEFT turn right next to a big MH to circle back around. Not having paid enough attention about leaving when I pulled IN I wasn't in the position to turn left when pulling out. We found our second spot and assured it had electrical and decided this looked good. We leveled the trailer and got everything situated and within 30 minutes we were setting pretty good (this isn't so tough after all). [By the time we were set to head out on this trip I knew there was a good possibility of it being DARK by the time we set up camp and kind of wanted it to be to work through the KINKS of getting everything together in the dark].
Morning came and I realized I hadn't picked out the "most premium" site available (see picture) as coming out the door facing the southeast I was greeted with house after house (not the million dollar homes either) as the southern boundary of the park has a neighborhood backing up to it. Had we faced northeast we would have had a nice view of the woods and the lake and everything else besides the neighborhood. It wasn't as bad as it could have been but it surely could have been better.

I learned something new calling around on Friday preparing to leave. Iowa doesn't have a State Park Sticker system fueling money into the state parks. You could definitely tell some of the resources are a little scarce or should I say have been a little scarce for this park. I know its "the off season" but this park has definitely been used and is showing its age. NOT saying I would not go here again because it does have a LOT to offer but it just seemed very "worn".

Because my glass is always HALF FULL I wanted to share some positives about the park.

Bike Trails - This park has a good system of bike trails throughout the southern boundary of it. It has a MOUNTAIN Biking Trail further south but Alyssa and I never made it that far. Wasn't a paved trail so Alyssa kind of balked at it.
Beach and Sand Volleyball - Since we're still in the off season the Beach house and volley ball courts were still closed off but the setting looks real inviting on a Hot summer day
"Dream Playground" - This is definitely the biggest kids playground I have ever seen, probably bigger than the biggest 4 playgrounds I have ever seen. I mean this thing was HUGE, 50 yards wide by 40 yards deep.

Proximity - The idea that I can pull out in the TT and within 45 minutes easily be cracking open a refreshment is very nice.
Gas is cheaper in Iowa - 3.07 on Sunday when leaving, wife asks me if I want to top off and I say NAW, I got 3/4 of a tank. $3.29 at the station near our house - WIVES RULE

I'll end it on that note leaving this entry with some lessons learned.

Scout your site prior to backing in to assure everything is as is should be.
Don't be afraid to use what you have. We weren't planning on using our fresh water (as its not exactly out of freezing threat here) but when we pulled in and couldn't find any toilets unlocked facing a 4 mile slow trip back to town we "let her rip" and filled up the tanks the next morning. - 100 ft of hose and 97 feet to the nearest hydrant. AHHH Life is good.
Don't forget to RAISE the dolly - Nutshell version, (or not) We were leaving Sunday and couldn't get the coupler locked on, decided to drive a bit and have the WD hitch set up a little better as couldn't get the linkage I wanted either but couldn't get hitch to lift truck since wouldn't lock on. Parked in the parking lot by boat dock, wife and daughter went for a walk. I went to the back and the coupler lock had settled onto the hitch nicely... YAHOOOOOOO - Tighten up the linkage on the WD hitch and we'll be good to go. YEP, about 3 feet until I felt the drop of the back end of the truck and trailer and felt a HUGE PIT IN MY STOMACH as I realized I had left the dolly down. AHHHHHHH CRAP - went around the edge of the truck expecting some catastrophe and WALA, no harm no foul.... AHHHHHHH Life IS good.
Camping World is the DEVIL :-) . (although I did get a GREEN light to pick up an ELECTRIC Tongue JACK - Wives ROCK).

We had a great time and feeling pretty good about where we sit, I am sure there are bound to be many, many things that will come up on our adventures but I am confident it wont be anything we can't handle.

Observations

If you BS with the guy filling your propane he MAY knock a buck a gallon of the price making it only $3.25 a gallon instead of $4.25 a gallon.
TT toilets are TINY but MIGHTY :-)
Your propane goes further than you think (although I did get the GREEN light, at camping world, to pick up a couple of propane tank indicators that screw into you line in front of the regulator and measure you propane - WIVES ROCK)

A few more pictures of our fun.

Until next time.... Yeldarb

Trip 1 - Mahoney State Park - FINALLY

2008-03-24T23:43:00.000-05:00

We knew it might be chilly, we knew it may even snow, we knew it may be windy and cold but we KNEW we couldn't miss the opportunity to get out and get going this past weekend. School was out on Friday and Monday for Easter and Valerie and I both took Friday and Monday off, so needless to say we were going come hell or high water ( or snow, or sleet, or rain or.....)

ONCE we got to the storage unit and hooked up the the Trailer everything went extremely well. We hooked up pulled out and were off to Mahoney State Park, we took a bunch of advice to stay close to home on our MAIDEN VOYAGE and did just that. We were backing into our spot less than an hour after leaving the storage unit.

We basically had our pick of the park and one of the two campgrounds even had shower and toilet facilities that were heated and open all year round. I had contemplated filling our fresh water tank and becoming fully self contained but ended up NOT taking our own water and using the facilities there that were less than 50 steps from our campsite. The last thing I wanted to do is have something freeze up or have to run antifreeze back through the system after our trip. It wasn't bad and we didn't miss a beat without running water or a toilet. I am sure after we get a few trips under our belt I will be a bit more at ease with the whole process, who knows we may even go in Dec/January sometime. :-)

Mahoney has always been more of a tourist trap in my opinion than a camp ground. We've stayed there before in tents and the cabins and it really doesn't seem like much of a place to REST AND RELAX and get away from it all (in the SUMMER that is). This time that couldn't have been further from the truth. During the peak season its always packed and good luck finding a spot, if you don't reserve a cabin a year in advance you probably wont get one and with the water slide and the non stop activities it feels like a busting metropolis at times rather than a comfortable, peaceful, relaxing place to "take a load off". I have a whole new respect for the park after this trip. The jury is still out until we make the trip out there during the busy season.

One of the things that's kind of ironic about the whole trip is that at the top of the hill in the middle of the park they have an outdoor ice skating rink. Camping and ice skating don't usually cross paths in conversation very much so I kind of got a kick out of that aspect of this trip.

We saw deer galore running throughout the park and when I finished backing in our spot I got out of the truck and looked around and had one within 25 feet of me just looking at me. I am sure he was thinking "who's this dumb bunny invading my territory in this 30 degree weather". I am sure he couldn't wait to tell all his buddies what a dumb human he just saw. :-) We even had a couple of other visitors as Eric and Rocky stopped by and went exploring with Alyssa and I.

We took off Sunday morning for Easter services and lunch at SIL's house and simply locked up the TT and left the dogs there with the heat set at 65. 8 Hours later we made it back and it was just like coming home from the office for the dogs. Everything was fine and we were back at this thing we call camping.

We worked out butts off for a bit of the time stocking the trailer and putting everything in its place. The first time always is the hardest, heck now the trailer is stocked so it will be more like; grab you fresh undies, lets go... (or maybe not quite like that for Val and Alyssa BUT, it will be easier and quicker).

One thing I underestimated was the amount of time it took to get ready to leave once we decided we needed to head out, part of that's our first trip newness and part of that is not having running water and part of that is that we brought the KITCHEN SINK for this first trip. We'll learn...

BACK to my initial statement about everything going well ONCE we got to the trailer. I backed out of our drive way and MASHED the neighbor boys car on the way to pick up the trailer. Lots of "closeness" on our street and cars on both sides of my driveway and HIS directly behind my driveway BUT none the less I absolutely didn't see his for some reason. OH well, you live and hopefully you learn something every single day.

The two main things I learned are that this is going to be a GREAT and WONDERFULLY fun time for me and my family (heck we spent more QT together this weekend than we had in quite some time) and friends AND I need to pick up some EAR PLUGS for Valerie and Alyssa just in case I MASH my neighbors car again.

B

The Adventure Begins

2008-03-21T00:32:00.001-05:00

We took delivery of our new Travel Trailer from AC Nelson RV in Omaha the third weekend in February of 2008. It is a 30 foot Cherokee Grey Wolf 28BH manufactured by Forest River. (pics on here from http://www.acnrv.com/)

We chose it for a number of reasons;

They had a good winter sale on it
Large enough to include family and friends in our outings
It is big enough to sleep 9 depending on the size of the person
It also has a slide out which really makes it feel roomy inside
Light enough to be pulled with my current Silverado 1500

Some I have talked to say we wouldn't want to get any bigger without a bigger tow vehicle (TV). Its rated at just over 5000lbs dry weight with a MAX weight of 7500. My truck's max towing weight is 8200lbs so I think we'll be fine as long as we don't try to bring the kitchen sink with us.

It was a big decision but something we had been contemplating for several years. I had bought an old used '73 13 Ft CorsAir from a buddy of mine in 2004 and the first time we took it out we KNEW we had to somehow expand and it was something we BOTH really knew we'd look forward to.

The CorsAir (I think that was the brand :-) )was pretty rickety and dangerous so we kept it to VERY local areas and only had it out 3 or 4 times but we loved it. Never ran the propane or the plumbing because they were very old and didn't appear to work anyhow. It had had a fire inside a small area in the front storage and basically was a firetrap but hey, it was better than sleeping in the tent. It worked to keep us off the ground and dry (barely). I sold it to a buddy and he's using it as a deer hunting "cabin" now. Its probably best that it's used in a stationary manner such as this moving forward. I'll post some pictures of it on here sometime.

It's really kind of intimidating getting into this hobby but I am looking forward to the challenge and realize that it is definitely kind of like "on the job training" and you learn as you go. I've spent a lot of time the last few weeks reading up on things and asking questions on a couple of forums. There are a lot of VERY helpful people out there and I feel as though I somewhat know what I am doing now. We WILL See.

We are actually off on our MAIDEN VOYAGE tomorrow (err today) to Mahoney State park for two nights of fun. It wont be the brightest or warmest trip but we've been "jonesing" so bad to get out that we're going regardless of the weather. Its a close and quick trip and that's what most people recommend on you first trip to work out all the "kinks". We'll let you know how it goes... BC