Spring Break, Part 1

Unless the governor changes his mind, this is the final spring break that is six school-days long. (Next year it's only four.) Given the length, we split it up into three parts: camping, relaxing at home, NYC (for me and Rhett, at least).

Because of Sunday responsibilities, we couldn't start camping on Saturday. We couldn't even start camping right after church due to meetings. So at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, we finally headed out for Rocky Gap State Park. It was only a two-hour drive, which meant we arrived at 6. I was nervous that we wouldn't find a spot (Shenandoah and the Smokies have really soured me on first-come, first-served policies), but I shouldn't have been: there was only one other camper in the 278-site campground. Ha. So we got the best campsite in the entire campground and were completely happy. A quick fire was lit and soon enough we were roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.


Some of us had nine marshmallows.


In the morning we hiked around the lake, a total of 5.3 miles. It was an easy (if not muddy and snowy in places) but long way to spend the cold time.




By the time we got back to our campsite, we were all ready to sit and relax. So we did! We lit a fire and hung around it for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I have a few burn holes in my pants, sweatshirt, and hat as evidence of the fire. We also had a game of pine cone baseball. Oh, and plenty of tree climbing happened.






Tuesday morning we took a short nature walk and then headed home to five loads of smoke-stained laundry! Only one more state park to go!

Note #1 about off-season camping: For some dumb reason, our spring break was the week before Easter this year, and therefore earlier than most other counties in Maryland. Dumb. It meant that most of Maryland's state parks were not camping-ready until the end of the week. But, we got lucky in that one of the two (!) parks that we've yet to visit was the only one with year-round camping. What they failed to make clear is that during the "off-season," there are few amenities. Yes, we had electricity, so that was good. But the bathrooms in each camp loop? Closed! I had to drive to the (closed) camp store and use the (NOT LIT) bathrooms. The first night, I didn't bring any lights and it was pretty much the scariest thing that ever happened to me, so I drove back and made Chuck come with me. After that I got smarter.

Note #2 about off-season camping: Because Mother Nature must be sleeping or very angry, spring has yet to come. It was COLD. But it's exactly why I love having the Scamp! There's no way I would have camped with two boys in that weather (down to the 30s at night). Each night we cooked dinner on the fire, but then retreated to the Scamp for reading and sleeping. In the mornings before the sun warmed the earth, we ate breakfast and got ready inside the warm Scamp. Hiking in 40-degree temps was fine because we were prepared (jackets, hats, and gloves!). But I'm so grateful to be inside with a heater. Even if it means we're cheating or just plain babies.