Wompatuck State Park - #37

 We were so pleasantly surprised by the wonderful camping at Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, MA.

Firstly, it was very inexpensive.  For residents (only) the cost for a site is $17; if you opt for electricity, it's an additional $6 per day - so for $23 this was by far the least expensive campsite we have rented to date.

The campsites are extremely spacious and far enough apart from one another to give plenty of privacy.  The electric campsites each have a cute electrical box that lights up at night like your own personal night light. Campsites also include a picnic table and firepit/grill for outdoor cooking.  The roads through the camping areas are all paved (there are over 250 sites) great for walking, biking or skateboarding. There was a good mixture of tent and RV campers.  Bathhouses are spaced out on every other road; they are fairly clean (could use a good bleaching) but the water pressure is excellent, nice and hot and both times I used them, I was the only one there.  Trash and recycle bins are situated by the bathhouses as well.  Each road has a water spigot available to fill your RV tank or just a bottle, need be. 

The only down side to our whole adventure was mosquitos.  Hey - you sort of have to expect this, being in the middle of the woods! Lucky for us - we set up our screen tent, right over our picnic table.  It was a life saver, particularly for Charlie who, like cats and kids, the mosquitos love him too!  In the future, we will definitely bring a good supply of bug spray and citronella candles.  

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We did get to do some bike riding and walking.  It was very hot and humid most of the days. Charlie pointed out to me many storage bunkers that have been covered over and sealed. 25 years ago, he had taken me on a walk through this park and showed me where he had worked (25 years before that) for Atlantic Research located in Wompatuck. They produced bombs for the government, bombs which had been stored in those bunkers. Thick foliage has grown over these many years and disguised most of them from view; they are only recognizable by a heaving mound of earth and a vent sticking out of the top still visible if you know where to look.

                                                                                                                                                             I spent a bit of time crocheting and doing puzzles. Time just goes by.  It was peaceful, relaxing and stress-free.

How I Get It All Done - #36

 We are leaving tomorrow (Monday) for 4 days of camping at Wompatuck State Park. Our campsite will  have electricity but it's B.Y.O. water and sewage will be contained and emptied at a dump station on the day we exit the park. I am excited about this trip as the plan is to stay in the park the whole time and do all kinds of outdoor activities! We'll see how it goes!

I've previously written about how I prepare for a trip.  All of that still applies but I wanted to show how I actually get it all done - simply, organized - rarely ever forgetting anything and leaving our home neat and clean.  While I do keep a bunch of stuff - food, clothes, bath items - in the trailer, I usually remove most stuff to wash or use up especially if it will be a few weeks in between outings.

I like to refer to packing the camper as "shopping".  I keep a bunch of canvas and reusable shopping bags just for this purpose.  I take a bag into the closet - and fill with undergarments, socks -  based on how many days we will be away. Then I move onto clothes - depending on where we are going and this trip is easy - all casual, nothing dressy - strictly a sneakers week - I pull out t-shirts for both of us - some sleeveless, jeans, shorts - sweatshirts and an extra pair of sneakers each,  Easy peasey.  Sometimes I will just leave the clothes in the bags and put them into the camper to put away later - but this time I opted to put everything away in our "wardrobes" - one less thing to do when we arrive at our destination.

For bathroom items - meds, etc... I use a basket to accumulate stuff we need to take. If I leave it on the counter a couple of days before we go - I toss stuff in I want to take and it makes it easy for Charlie to add what he needs. He always waits until the last minute to pack! When we are getting ready to leave - I just take the whole basket which goes inside our trailer's bathroom cabinet.

Food is also shopped.  First, the non-perishables. I go through the pantry and bag canned goods, peanut butter, olive oil - anything I might need. I usually have a pretty good idea of the meals I will be preparing and I'd rather have more than I will actually use; gives us some options. Once the bag is filled I transfer the contents to the camper's pantry.  I also bring paper towels, toilet tissue - if needed and also bags.  Since plastic grocery bags are fast becoming obsolete, I bring whatever bags I have and can use for trash; I don't buy trash bags.  I may have to do that one day, but for now, I use whatever I can scrounge up. Perishable foods are the last thing I pack just before leaving.  We don't keep the refrigerators on in between trips but they start as soon as we are plugged into the truck and on the road. To make it easy, I pack up all my frozen in a bag and refrigerated items as shown in photo  Makes it easy just to grab and go - plus I've already thought out what I am bringing and not just taking things in the eleventh hour, and I've purchased fill in items at the store to make sure we have all we need.

Water is another essential, even if a campground does supply a water hookup,  I just don't like to drink the water than runs through the hose and our tank. I'm sure it's fine and I will use it sometimes in cooking, but I like to bring our own. I have 4 gallons that I fill and use for drinking, coffee... in boondocking situations or if our water tank is not filled, we will use them for the toilet, washing up and washing dishes as well and try to keep them refilled when I can. For this trip because it was so close to home, we did fill the tank. But I actually find that if we are boondocking for a night or two a distance away, I prefer not to carry a tank full of water which greatly increases our towing weight and reduces our already low gas mileage. It has been my experience that we only use a small fraction of the tank water when boondocking; using the gallons I bring and wet wipes for cleaning ourselves in between does a good temporary job.  The boondocking is always followed up with a stay at a full service campground to empty our tanks and get a good shower!

For this trip, we also took our bicycles.  The weather looks promising, Here we go!

A Camping We Shall Go! A Camping We Shall Go! Hi Ho ..... #35

 It seems we're only home a short while before I get the urge to get out into the woods again!

I didn't want to go very far or for more than a few nights as this campout would be sandwiched in between a bunch of other fun plans we have already made.  

We are going someplace new and a bit more rustic. Wompatuck State Park in Hingham is the destination!  Charlie actually brought me here almost 25 years ago, showing me the site where he used to work. This park gets high marks for outdoor activity - biking, hiking, fishing.  We will definitely be bringing our bicycles and our most casual outdoor wear.  The site we reserved only supplies electricity; we will have to supply our own water - although there are bathhouses available for showering.  A dump station is also on site which will allow us to empty our black and grey water tanks upon departure. There will be no cable TV or WiFi.  This is roughing it in the 21st Century! Hopefully, the weather will be great and we can even do some fishing! I also understand there is a natural spring at the park and allows free fill ups of spring water! And at $23 a night (including electric) it's a bargain price!

I'm excited we'll be off again in less than a week! This is what summer should be all about!

Camping Down in Plymouth # 34

 If you've never had the opportunity to visit Plymouth, Massachusetts - it's a neat "little" town to put on your list.  I always hesitate to say little because Plymouth is actually the largest city in Massachusetts, distance-wise. There is a lot of history, beautiful beaches, delicious lobster; the downtown area is chock full of new independent and unique eateries. Home building in this area is off the wall! Everywhere you look, new residential buildings are being constructed on the most obscure lots and the prices are off the charts. In 1980, the population of Plymouth was about 35,000; in 2021 it has almost doubled at 65,000.  It's just not the same Plymouth when I moved to the area in 1979. But then, what is.

The weather since we arrived on Sunday at Pinewood Lodge has run from sunny and hot, to cool and rainy. At first glance, the campsite we were assigned (D11) seemed strange.  As we settled in, we realized it was quite spacious for all the equipment we wanted to set up, including our new tent. 

This particular camping trip has definitely been a visiting trip.  We met up with friends and family everyday this week. It was so great to catch up with everyone! Monday I met Linda G. at Panera; she had just retired and we had some good girl talk, Tuesday we met up with Sherri and Ed at the Roll Street Tavern; unique menu, pleasant atmosphere -  enjoyed the food and of course the company.  Wednesday, Myra hung out with us at Pinewood Lodge; we had lunch, walked the trails and sat in a couple of comfy Adirondack chairs overlooking the lake and chatted about life. Thursday we went to dinner with Liz and Nick at the Red Tea Room in Carver - Liz seems to age backwards; she barely looks old enough to be Nick's mom! Last but not least, on Friday we finally got together with Donna and Jeff at the Oysterman in Duxbury. The weather was perfect that night and it was good to hear how well they are doing. This was actually more eating out than we've done all year combined!

During the week, Minnie also had her vet appointment, Charlie got a haircut at Nanci's, we did a little shopping at Savers and Walmart - and poof - the week was over!

It is now August 5th and less than two months before we leave for Texas! Still hoping to get a couple more local camping trips in. We hope to meet up with Ellen and Yori in CT the latter part of this month.

Both Deena and Wally's birthdays will be celebrated on August 14th (their birthdates are 8 days apart). A fun cookout party has been planned at the house.  I have been asked to do face painting! 

And speaking of the house, it is actually in the final stages! It is looking fantastic!