And, The Winner Is..............

It was a very long weekend and my computer was down. I would have posted this sooner. I just know that you all are at the edge of your seats, heady with anticipation! I encouraged all my overnighters to drive or walk through the park and give me a vote. I actually said it was a part of the check-out process and was required. Some people obeyed my command and the ballot jar was filling. Along with your votes, I finally had something to count! I waited until after closing Thursday night and counted. Site N was definitely winning in the land of blog. Out of 18 votes Sweet Miss Nan got 11 and site 28 got 7. I emptied my jar and counted 2 votes for N and 7 votes for 28. Not a landslide victory, but 28 won by one vote!

Marcy didn't get here until Saturday and found her site like this! Really appropriate, since it was 4th of July weekend and her theme is red, white and blue! Thanks to husband Rusty for the picture, since I never got out of the office on Sunday. Congrats to Marcy............ she did all the work and gets all the credit! Rusty came out on Friday and kept the secret so that she could be surprised. He also jumped right in and helped he who repairs picnic tables get them ready for our big BBQ. This family is truly an asset to our little community of seasonal campers and I think I speak for everyone when I say we are happy they decided to plant their camper here!

Time to Vote!

Okay, the time is here. I had a couple more sites, but they haven't had a chance to make any changes, so I will add them to next month's competition. I have about 6 ballots in the jar and I will add those to your votes and see who wins. This is so exciting!! I will post a picture of the winner.

Busy weekend ahead. we are having a parade, cook-out, and a fireworks display on Saturday. I am off to get all the supplies necessary for the event. I am figuring about 150 people. We are providing the hotdogs and hamburgers, buns and condiments. All you need is a side dish, beverage, plate and utensils. I like to troll the side dishes. All the cooks will try to out-do one another. The parade will be golf carts and bicycles all decked out in patriotic gaudiness! If you don't have wheels, you can decorate your dog and walk. That should work up your appetite for the cook-out. After the cook-out everyone will have time to put the food away and then grab a lawn chair and stake out your spot in the grass to watch the fireworks display. The forecast for Sunday is rain and that will be perfection! Rain means a day off for me. I can lounge in front of the TV and read in the land of blog.

Now, go vote!!!

Even More Sites.............

It was a wonderful weekend here. Very busy and very few problems. No bathroom tales to tell. A few of you have asked questions and I would appear to have ignored them. Sorry about that, but I get interrupted a lot and then lose my train of thought. One question was about our pool and if we allowed folks other than campers to swim. We do. The nearest town is very small and there is not a lot for families to do. We open our pool daily from 11 am until 7 pm for "day swimmers" to pay and swim. My competitor across the interstate does also. Her pool is deeper, while mine has a huge shallow area great for small kids. We each appeal to different ages. It is a friendly competition and if someone doesn't find my park to their liking or I am full I am more than happy to call over and get a space from her and she does likewise. We also share information about problem campers and swimmers to warn each other. It is a win-win situation. The state park is just down the road from my park and they have a camping area also, but no full hook-ups. They don't have a pool and will send their campers here to swim and shop in my camp store. They do have beautiful hiking and biking trails, though.

Another question was about recommending other parks that I might know or be affiliated with in other parts of the country. Since we are privately owned and not under a franchise of any kind, I really don't have any basis on which to recommend a park. I would say to do a little research for the area you will be stopping at. There are RV review sites. Just keep in mind that some reviews might be written in anger or by someone with unreasonable expectations. Not all my reviews are good. One in particular was written by a man who got stuck and had to be pulled out by a tow-truck. He got stuck because he turned way short. I had warned him to stay on the gravel road because we had had so much rain and my husband even offered to guide him in the site. He was, shall we say, disinclined to follow the suggestions of others........ and he got stuck. His efforts to get himself out only made it worse and he who got more than a little annoyed with the man and expressed himself. We paid for the tow truck, but the customer felt that we should have also comped his stay. I have good reviews, too; but, I admit that I don't like seeing the negative in print. I guess I am saying to keep a good perspective while reading the reviews. Some of my followers are full-timers and would no doubt have a better idea of good parks than me.

Not the best picture here of this really cute bench. This is the area between sites 24 and 26. This is shady and they always have the leaves cleaned up. The white rock looks almost like a beach if you walk over at dusk.

The little areas of plants add a nice pop of color, too.


Sites 24 and 26 are hard to even think of separately, as the tend to hang out between the two in this little oases. Good thing they are close friends! Actually, they are related by marriage.


Now, on to the land of garden gnomes! This will be site N. The sweet little lady here loves her statuary in her gardens.

Looks different when occupied, but I never have time to get out on the weekend. I need to go mow this site, too. When it cools down and the pool is empty.....

Site N is on the end of the row and boasts a bigger area in the woods.


Always know the temp and what time it is on site N!


Just chillin ............ on site N.

Always ready for a crowd on site N. I have been treated to a small feast more than once here myself.

Site N is so far back in the park .......... they have transportation. This was the very first golf cart to make its appearance in our park.


Pots of flowers adorn every nook and cranny on site N.


This site 29. This site is situated at the end of a row and boasts a nice shady odd shaped lot. They have raked and cleaned it up. Check out how neatly they stacked the wood!
Site 29, different angle. Big fire pit.


This little garden is from site 34 ....... totally out of sequence here. I will be adding to this garden tonight, since right next to it is the water hydrant that has been hit three times in two weeks. I am adding another BIG rock and some nice dirt and flowers. Now if someone cuts too close the damage won't be mine.

Pink flamingos will welcome you to site 37.


The fire pit at site 37 is a favorite gathering place for those inclined to listen to tall tales from Crazy Tom! I was going to call him Tommy Boy, but Crazy Tom just suits him!


Long shot of site 37. We refer to sites 30-37 as "the hill". They are all out in the open with no pesky trees to block satellite reception. We had intended these to be the only sites we kept open year round and I was a little surprised that my seasonal campers didn't all want shade. This does eliminate any worries of a limb falling on your camper in a storm, though.

Site 36 is also a good place to get a free meal from time to time. I put in a little garden there last year and now they have enhanced it and even added a small tree. Competitive bunch there on "the hill". I must confess that I stopped for a moment from my photo shoot and dead headed the marigolds and even pulled a weed or two.


Site 35 also boasts a garden due to the generous efforts of a nice man who will soon make an appearance on my blog.


Long shot of site 35. That is the infamous barn of he who tinkers there-in in the back ground.

This is site 34. The grass is lusher here. They did indeed sow a little seed!



Site 34 is on "the hill", but this is the only site with a couple of trees. Still gets an open sky for satellites, though.


I mow all these sites, so if they would all decide to eliminate any hard to get to areas I would be sooooo happy! Site 34 concludes my tour for today and I have but a few sites left to post tomorrow, maybe tonight if I can leave the office on time. I would love to have the plaque on a site by next weekend for all to see and one proud site holder to gush over.

More Sites To See

Went on a little ride with my camera yesterday. Some of the sites aren't numbered since they aren't rented out nightly, so I will give them a letter for voting purposes.

This will be known as site K. This is one of the newer sites that we put in when we started to expand with our seasonal campers. Neat and clean. This site is located in the woods part of the campground. Bugs are more prevalent back here, note the screen room. When winter is over there is a heavy cover of leaves in this section.

The next two photos are different views of site M. Located next to site K. Everybody loves the bolt ends for landscaping. That and lots of rock filler for patios. Screen room here, too.

Here we have site B. Notice the table base is a tree stump. I just love using what is there. I think that may have been a tree that was cut down and the stump was not removed. I am often unaware of what exactly is going on, since I am the one designated to man the office/store.

Now this is a fire pit big enough to keep you warm! No grass to speak of back here and that makes me extremely happy as I would no doubt be the one to mow it. This is site S.

Site S has a concrete pad to sit on and they just moved in this season. They have been busy planting and trying to find what will grow in all that shade.

The perennials should start to really grow next season.

Front view of site S.

Site G below. They put a lot of work into all that rock and those bolt ends. They are heavy ........... I know from experience.

Oops, same shot. Hey I was helping a kid count change for ice cream!

The next site is site V. All of these sites are in the woods and the clean up is tedious in the spring. The sound of leaf blowers is a welcome sound every spring.

Site V from the back. Looks peaceful, doesn't it?

Next is site 17. Still in the shady part, but on an established row. This was one of the original sites here when we purchased the park. Used to have different seasonal campers and they built the patio area.

Site 8 is next. This area had to be excavated when we replace part of the sewer system. No grass to mow here.

I got a little distracted by the rabbits on site 1B.

I drove my golf cart right up to them ............. I think they thought I was the intruder!

Site 1B planted trees to hide the ugly electric boxes.

Site 1B also sits on a concrete pad and boasts a little garden area in the back that I put there a couple of seasons ago. This is one of the first sites you see when you enter the park.

Tomorrow I will try to post the remainder of the seasonal sites for your consideration. My camera battery ran out of power, so I stopped and watered a few gardens while He Who watched the store for me.

Please Vote ................

Me again with the stumps and the frogs. I sent out an e-mail to all my seasonal campers and proposed a little competition. I was riding through the park on my trusty golf cart and liking all the changes I was seeing. We have quite a few new seasonal campers and they have been busy cleaning and planting their sites that are their home away from home. I have been known to throw down a garden or two in an attempt to make my mowing a little easier ........ but, these folks were doing it on their own. That got me thinking ................. what if I set out some ballots and decided to give a little incentive to sweeten the deal. I can't vote, of course, but anybody coming through can and I encourage them to do so.

The lucky winner will get to display this sign on their site and have bragging rights for an entire month until a new site is chosen. There are only 7 days left in the month and I only have a few ballots in the cookie jar (a Coca Cola cookie jar, of course ........... frogs and Coke, people). I do not want to choose a site myself. That would be wrong and way too hard for me!

This is site 28. New to our kampground this year, Marcy is a flower lover.

She is using what was already there and adding her own touch with annuals and perennials.

Patriotic, too! Rusty will no doubt be on the other side of the pond with he who plays with fireworks on the weekend of the 4th. You will remember that Rusty installed my head lamps allowing me to roam the park at night.

I will try to feature a different site as often as I can for the remainder of the month. I need my followers to vote, since the campers aren't doing this for me!!

If you are my camper and you are reading this blog .............. I happened to have the camera with me when I stopped and took these few shots. This isn't my favorite ....... just one of my many favorites. Stay tuned, more are coming, yours is in there, I promise!!

Kiley's Garden

There is a certain young lady who comes to camp quite often that I have become very fond of. She reminds me of my granddaughter Layla. She is sweet and sensitive like my Layla. She likes to help me with the price gun and putting merchandise in the store. She is also great with hugs...........

With this in mind, along with my love for tree stumps, I asked he who handles the chainsaw to fashion a sort of chair for Miss Kiley. He did, it is very rustic, but perfect for what I have in mind. I drew her name on it ..........

then with my handy dandy Dremel did a little carving. I think this particular font captures her fun loving personality. I was going to paint the letters, but have decided that Kiley can do it herself. This morning I spent my outside time at Kiley's Gramma's site doing a little digging.

This will be known as Kiley's Garden. I long to be outside spreading dirt and planting flowers. I can just see it in my mind's eye. We have what is known as bolt ends from the stave mill (they make the "staves" that create the barrels that hold wine, etc.). This the the part of the tree that is cut off before they begin ripping the boards or "staves". We use them to landscape. Not only are they inexpensive, but they maintain that rustic look that I like.

Very versatile, these bolt ends. I used the half rounds to create the border and then the round ones for stepping stones. This garden will be my most ambitious project so far. I plan to use lots of hostas and day lilies, plus some periwinkle as a ground cover. I changed it a little after the picture and created a patio of sorts in front of the chair. It may need a table and another "chair"........... in case there is a need for a tea party.

I absolutely love to play in the dirt! I would be out there right now if I weren't sitting here checking in campers and swimmers. I like watching it evolve as I go, sometimes I don't end up with what I had in mind when I started ....... but that's what is so fun.