Last Minute Decisions

Chattanooga Bound

We love camping. No really, I mean we L-O-V-E camping! Actually, we just love living life. We tell people all the time. Don’t invite us unless you want us to show up. It’s just how we roll.

Anyway, we often decide last minute to go to that concert, fly to see friends who live out of state, get married, or just go camping. We’ve gotten into a small habit of taking a weekend trip and not wanting to go home, then feverishly booking a campsite at a campground close enough to home that Cathy can drive to work.

That’s exactly what we did this past weekend. We normally book something at Chester Frost. However, this time we couldn’t get a site we liked so we decide to try Harrison Bay State Park and drove straight here after leaving Fall Creek Falls.

There’s something freeing about leaving one campground and knowing you’re heading to another. Cathy and I are hoping this is our life sooner than later. I’ve camped at Harrison Bay a good bit over the years but not in the last five or so. Cathy has never camped here. One thing that I like about their reservation system is that it tells you how popular the site is within it’s loop. So, if the site is the 41st most popular site out of 41…well that tells you something.

While we didn’t get a premium spot, booking one day before arrival we did manage to get the 11th most popular lot in B loop. Not bad for a late booking. B-15 is a pull through with a nice sized front yard. You don’t feel like your right up against your neighbor and you can see the lake and marina pretty well. I consider finding a site this nice on such short notice a total win. In B Loop the best sites are probably B-29 & B-30.

This is not the first time we have done this since we upgraded to the travel trailer. It’s actually becoming the norm and just reinforces our need to become full time RV’ers. I want to take a few minutes here and share some personal thoughts.

YOLO!

For years, I lived my life to what I thought was expected of me. I might have admired people who lived life their way but I couldn’t seem to do it myself. I wasted 20+ years of amazing experiences because I put up false obstacles or listened to the wrong people. There are only two things that keep you from living the life you want to live. Fear and a lack of executing a plan.

Most people are afraid to step outside the norm of societies expectations. You can do anything and live any way you choose if you make a plan and execute it. Yes, it may take months or even years but all you have to do is list out the obstacles and start overcoming them. The internet is a great resource to figure out how to achieve the life you desire. You’re not the first one to want to move to the beach, travel the world or just live the gypsy life in an RV.

We have friends who moved to Florida last year after years of planning and laying foundations. We visited in January and it’s so nice to see them living their dream and loving it. Moral of the story. Grab life by the balls and do it your way! Don’t waste it.

Arrival

I have to give Cathy credit. She is becoming quite adept at setting up and tearing down camp. Prior to us buying the pop up she had been camping once in her life and it wasn’t a good experience. Now she pushes me to book the next site. So with the excellent aide of my trusty sidekick we were setup in 3-2-1. B-15 is a pull through site, asphalt with nice graveled front yard, concrete pad under the picnic table and a nice fire pit with swinging grill. We had a little chill-laxing by the campfire before returning to work the next day. Well, Cathy returned to work. I just logged in.

B-15 also sits about 10 feet from the Wi-Fi access point. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi at the park in this loop is down. It’s been a nice week working here at the campground. I sat outside today. It was 56 degrees and sunny. I actually got my bald head sunburned. This is going to peel.

As the week rocks on. Disaster struck… Middle of workday and tethering data cap has been exceeded. @#%&#&!!! More on this later. Probably a whole separate post.

Snowpocolypse

Soooooo…… The Greywolf is not a cold weather equipped camper. We were scheduled to leave on Sunday but I need to re-winterize the camper and I don’t look forward to de-camping in 32 degrees. What should we do. Impulse time again! We booked through to our next weekend trip on the 25th. We will have to move twice but we are staying.

After work on Friday I grabbed a siphon pump and Cathy grabbed RV antifreeze. I emptied the tanks and pumped the lines full of antifreeze. It’s going to get down to 17 degrees.

We got asked to keep the grandkids, well three of them, not the baby. She decided with it so cold she would keep them at home. My grandson came up and spent Saturday night with me at the campground. We played chess and watched it snow. I will add that the bathhouses are not heated. At least not the one in B loop. When it’s below 20 outside it makes for some quick visits.

We camped in some cold weather, mid to low 30’s in November last year. We found that the electric fireplace was mostly sufficient to heat the camper. We turned on the gas heat a couple of times when we had failed to set the fireplace correctly and it had turned off. We just used the gas heat for a few minutes to quickly warm the camper up.

This weekend was not like that. The gas heat was required. I still ran the electric fireplace to limit my use of gas since I wasn’t sure how much we have used and I didn’t have time to get one filled. I simply set the thermostat so the gas heat would come on as needed. This turned out to be very efficient.

We ended up with about 2 inches on the cars, table & grass. Our first snow in our camper and Cathy missed it.

Tastings And More

We always try to find some fun. One of the days I had to work away from the camper for a few hours found me at our favorite tap house, Sigler’s. I will be honest. Starbucks was just loud and I knew there would mostly only be people coming in to pick up items to take home. I also knew the owners well enough that they would not mind me taking up a table without purchasing anything. Well, at least not until my work hours ended…lol. We have lots of friends we have met at Sigler’s so it wasn’t long till a few wandered in. So I had a couple and took some home. Let’s review

I’m not going to do individual reviews on each. I’ll show my ratings and tell you some highlights. Some of these were draft and some in the can taken back for later consumption. These were enjoyed over a week not all at once.

The cream of the crop was definitely the Pasty Archy Irish Cream by Duclaw. I prefer milk and oatmeal stouts as they are normally creamy but not overly sweet. This beer walks a fine line of not being too sweet. This is one I will pick up some more of in case it’s a one off in the Pastry Archy lineup.

The Pineapple Papaya Lime Sour by Untitled Art was also very good. It’s a slightly different flavor but if you like tart and sour this one is worth a try. I also liked the 1664 Blanc by Kronenbourg Brewery. The Yosemite from Living Waters gets an honorable mention.

We also managed to get in a little St Paddy’s Day fun. We hit up Cambridge Square for some green beer at Hoptown. They had the roads closed off and you could walk around with your drinks. Vendors were setup and there was live music. The weather was perfect and you should check it out next year. The restaurants were packed so we decided to hit up Beef O’Bradys. The place was packed but only a 10 minute wait. The food was average. the band was to loud and I still am not a Guinness fan, but I have one every St. Paddy’s Day. Recommendation is next year stay at Cambridge Square where pretty much all the food is good.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

We were able to stay on B-15 all week. Friday was moving day. We have done this several times and I usually move it by myself during my lunch time. If you’re camping, weather apps are important. I prefer Dark Skies which Apple bought so I will go away soon. Luckily, they are migrating the best features into Apple Weather. I planned so I would have it done ahead of the rain. Well, when I checked again Friday morning the rain was coming in sooner than planned and I had meetings on the books. Long and short is that I managed to get packed up and hooked up but the rain came as I was getting in the truck. Thunderstorm actually. Nothing like setting up in a downpour with lightning and booming thunder. Oh well, life is an adventure right? At least we had fun for St. Patrick’s Day the night before. Still not a Guinness fan but I keep trying!

B-31 is, according to the website, Harrison Bays 6 most popular site in B loop. It’s a smile shaped pull through and it was very easy to setup on, thank goodness. Did I mention the storm? B-31 has a small front yard that faces the marina. If offers more privacy as there are no campsites in front of you and really only one to your left that you can see. The down side is the back of you camper is maybe 3 feet from the loop road. We have had lots of rain and snow but the standing water concerns me. I think this will be a mosquito breeding ground unless it dries up. Other than that the site is really nice and private.

I’ve been leaving all week to work from Starbucks, Sigler’s or home. but today the new hotspot arrived so I will get to enjoy working from here again. Yay!

The weather this weekend has been decent and Sunday is turning out to be gorgeous. Friends are coming to cookout later. That’s the fun part of camping close to home. We usually see a rotation of our friends coming by. Tomorrow we move to A-9. I will update the post later in the week with photos and thoughts on the site.

Update

Moving to A-9 was a breeze and Cathy made it just in time to help me setup at the new site. A-9 is paved and fairly level. It has a nice view of the woods facing the tent camping loop which has been totally empty since we got here. This is a power and water only site which is true of most of the campground. I would say it is also a good size and you don’t feel like you are right up on your neighbor.

This site has been more active with birds and squirrels. We have seen Cardinals on every site but I’ve seen two at the same time here plus a female. There are at least 20 squirrels here also. We have seen a hawk and a crane.

The weather has been great. Hitting the 70’s the last couple of days. I’ve been able to work outside the last couple of days which is always fabulous. You know what is also fabulous about camping. Meeting nice people we have been extra blessed on this trip. Our neighbors behind us have the sweetest dog I’ve ever met, Aristotle. He actually wants to be hugged and he is pushy about it. They also had baby goats, Cathy is going to blog more about that. They also shared their dump cake with us and some good Bourbon. We also cooked up some good shish-ka-bobs.