Friday, May 18, 2018

April 2018 - Trip 1 - Colonial Woods, A family Favorite!

Finally, the weather in Pennsylvania decided to act like spring for at least a week and we were fortunate enough to have it be our camping weekend at our favorite local campground, Colonial Woods in Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County.

We worked at trying to pack during the week, but, kids activities and work running late made it quite a challenge.  So, no better than the last minute to complete packing and loading the truck and off to the campground!
First Camp Setup of the Season
Of course, since it is a new camping season we had a few hiccups in the setup and remembering where we placed some items.  I didn't get the chance to use the Anderson Levelers as this campsite was nice and level already.  I did install the new X-Chocks though, and I do believe they made a good difference in the camper movement.   Whenever we camp on stone lots I often have to go out after the first night of setup and reset the corner stabilizers because of the camper wiggle that develops from everyone in the camper and the shifting stones.  This time, it remained solid and didn't require a readjustment during our weekend.
The Rules of the Weekend, and we did most of them!

The Conversation Chair, .... aka,... SOFA!

Ribbon Dancer!
Colonial Woods has been one of our favorite camping resorts since we first got our popup camper.  We still walk past our first site and say, "Remember that time when we first came here...."  (If you want you can look way back on my block archive on the right).  One time we were here, Becky took the photo below with the three girls on the bridge by Site R6.  So, now each time we go back and get that site, we re-create the photo and look how much they have grown up!
Colonial Woods is our Favorite Place to have our kids grow up!
Saturday was a fun filled day of activities where the kids made crafts at the main lodge, went on a campground scavenger hunt, and even got some fishing in.  The fish weren't biting though no matter what we tried and we were out there for a few hours throughout Saturday and Sunday.  No matter if we catch fish or not, it is still a good time to go fishing together and drown some worms in the lake.

Someone planned her outfit just for this occasion!
Saturday night the weather wasn't looking all that good so we cleaned up some of the outdoor items before the rain moved in for the evening just after dinner.  The interior U-shaped dinette table is great for nights like this because we can all it around the table and play games.  This time, it was a new one called "Toasted or Roasted", a card style game with a theme of making toasted s'mores.  We had some laughs and a lot of fun, even though the game became very long........
Sometimes it rains, so we play Toasted or Roasted!



Nothing biting,..... 
Our first camp trip is over before we know it and it is time to get back home and back to the work week.  As much as we don't want to, we still agreed to pack up.  It will be a little bit of time before our next trip in June because of the kids activities and my work schedule, although I really need to begin taking more vacation days just to relax.

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Spring Preparations,.... another words, Spending Money!

Well, as you have probably noticed on this blog we try to be proactive with our planning and maintenance on our camper and vehicles, and unfortunately this time one big item snuck up on us.  This winter I had the truck worked on preparing for the camping season which included new brake rotors, brake pads, and front brake calipers.  We had hoped that would be good for this year since the truck has been running well.  That is, till I went out to get the camper ready and was checking all the tires on the camper and then the truck.  This is what I found......
Cracking side walls and beginnings of dry-rot

The aged Bridgestones
 So, with two weeks to go before our first outing I made some phone calls to get some pricing and some recommendations from friends who have bigger trucks on what tire brands to consider.  Of course, we want something with good load rating and reviews too, so we ended up going with the Cooper Discover AT/3 tires,.... All FOUR of them.  Yea, felt that money getting sucked out of my wallet that is for sure!
The new Coopers!
Opening the camper and stocking it for our first trip went well and our camper survived the winter really well.  A few little odds and ends to clean and we were de-winterized and ready to plan our camping trip.  I'll have another post soon about some of our new camper goodies for this season.