Trip 11 - Ponca State Park

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.

Trip 6 - Louisville State Recreation Area

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...

Trip 5 - Ponca State Park

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