…mean cold, and snow, and the end of the camping season for those of us in the northern half of the US. Along with the dropping thermometer comes the task of winterizing the camper and preparing to wait out the cold winter months till spring brings another season of outdoor activities.
Now that November winds have brought our second – count ’em, TWO – snows already, it’s time to get caught up on all the blogging I promised myself I’d do this summer and didn’t get around to. Although I didn’t get to do as much camping as I wanted, it was still a busy summer. I managed to get a wonderful trip in at Glacier National Park just two short weeks before lightening strikes from a passing thunderstorm set fire to the east side of the park. And I organized a small camping outing in Springfield, Illinois, for members of Sisters on the Fly (SOTF), but that trip was cut short by a family emergency and I had to leave Saturday morning and head home. I closed out the season by joining other Sisters on a trip to south-central Indiana for the Brown County Humane Society Chocolate Walk, held in Nashville, IN, although y “camping” this trip was done in a hotel room.
I also visited Mt. Rushmore for the first time while on a trip out to meet my sister and pick up two nice Hurricane Santee Sport 126 kayaks I’d purchased from an outdoors outfitter in Coeur d’Alene, ID. Rapid City, SD, is the halfway point between CdA and Chicago, so it was the perfect place to meet – except the crossbar rack on my Jeep Grand Cherokee decided not to cooperate, and refused to stay attached to the roof rails, and I had to let them go back to CdA for the winter. Again, we stayed in hotels instead of in a travel trailer.
All I want to do is go camping, and I can’t seem to manage to do that in my own camper, despite having owned it for three plus years now. She’s over in Grand Rapids, MI, getting a complete rebuild done for her 50th birthday, courtesy of Vintage Travel Trailer Restoration by Joel (you can find him on Facebook). When I finally do get to go on the road with her this coming spring, it will be worth the wait. I’ve got pictures on my phone that I’ll upload soon so you can see how purty she looks!
So here I sit, listening to the wind make the windows sing in our 100+ year old house, dreaming about what I’m going to do next spring. So far I have just two big events on my radar: The SOTF Northwest Gathering in Union Gap, WA, in June, and another SOTF Event, Trippin’ with Teddy at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota later in the summer. North Dakota is one of the few US states I have never been to, so my to-visit list will shrink to 8: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, North Dakota, Oregon and Vermont are currently the only ones I haven’t made it to (changing planes in the airport don’t count). In the meantime, I can research all the great places I want to go visit and the camping gadgets I want to get for my (new) old trailer. Suggestions are welcome!