Summer Fun and Canoeing

Last weekend we went on our last camp out with our Good Sam's Club - Freedom Travelers.  We sure had a great time with all our friends. We have been camping with most of these members for many years. At first we had a pop up and then "upgraded"  to our travel trailer and recently  to our motor home.  They have been excited about us going on our full time adventure and have offered lots of advice and encouragement.  

This camp out was held at our favorite local campground-White River (see previous postings for more information). Most of the sites are along the White River and several of our camping friends also love to canoe. John and I love to canoe and have struggled with how to best continue to do this on the road.

Our RV-Dreams friend Howard and Linda offered a great solution.  There is an inflatable kayak called the Sea Eagle that will work out just great.  They demonstrated it @ the Kerrville RV-Dreams Rally.  We purchased one a few weeks ago and wanted to try it out here on it's maiden voyage.  

The kayak, air pump, and paddles conveniently all fit in this bag. This bag could easily fit in one of our bins underneath the coach or in our Jeep.  It sure will be a lot easier to take along than the canoe.  

There is an included  foot pump that will blow it up very quickly.  We used it along with an electric pump that we also owned.

Here it is being  inflated.  It did not take very long to do.  We had practiced this procedure a few days earlier at the campground. 

Ready, set, go!

We were a little nervous at first because this is a kayak and maneuvers differently than  our canoe.  It is much more responsive but also feels more unstable.  It also took us awhile to coordinate the paddling.  I'm not sure we have completely figures all that out yet.  :) But, we managed to stay dry and had a great time. 

Our friends Jerry and Marcia went along with us in our canoe.  They like our canoe so much that they decided to buy it from us.  This is a picture of a trip the next day with Marcia  as my partner. 

Here is a little video that my friend Carol made of us.  We are approaching the boat launch at the campsite.  There was a very good current for this time of year.  If you listen very closely near the end you can hear all the cicadas!. 

I also put together a scrapbook of our camp out.  We will miss camping with them each month but hope our paths will cross often in the future.  Some of the members are talking about coming out to meet us next summer in Colorado.  

Personalize a photo album

July 4th Camping Trip with Freedom Travelers

We spent three nights camping with our Good Sam's chapter over the July 4th holiday @ Johnson County Park. It was a great time. Beautiful fireworks and a concert were the highlight on Friday. Saturday was a big adventure where our group rented four canoes and one kayak and traveled down the Blue River. There were a few spills, a tangles with a tree, one very muddy dog, and lots of laughs.

We also shared some really delicious meals. Jerry surprised all of us with some delouse hickory smoked ribs and "mystery meat". This turned out to be deer meat marinated in wine and herbs. It was very tasty.

Spending time with our friends was such a great way to spend the 4th of July.

Canoeing Adventure @ White River Campground

We spent a great weekend camping and canoeing with our friends Carol & Jerry. The weather was perfect and lots of great times were spent on the river. This campground is owned by the county and is very well run. We have made friends with the hosts and always enjoy our times out there along the river. This time we brought our canoe and tried two of the new public ramps. We only had to haul our canoe to the put in and could end at our campground. Perfect!

Jimmy showed off his new life vest. He wasn't too sure about it, but it gave me some piece of mind. The breeder told us this kind of dog does not like to swim. I think it's because they are so lazy and would rather be napping.

This was Jerry's second time canoeing and he did great. Carol gained some confidence in her abilities. The White River is very calm and easy to navigate. It will get us all ready for next weekend. We are traveling to Johnson County for the 4th of July and plan on canoeing the Blue River. It will be much more of a challenge, and I'm not sure everyone will stay dry.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend. Check out Jimmy looking out of the window of the Jeep. John summed it all up at the end when I asked him how he liked his weekend. "Fantastic" ...the smile on his face made my heart sing.

We saw a great "rig" for sale at the campground. It was a Newmar fifth wheel, pulled by a custom painted small semi truck. I thought it was perfect, but John was not convinced. He would rather that I didn't have to follow in another vehicle that would be used to get around. There is plenty of time to work it all out. But, it sure is fun to dream.

Brown County State Park & Log Cabin Tour

We spent a wonderful weekend camping at Brown County State Park. It is a lovely park located outside of Nashville Indiana. There is so much to do and see. During our visit we took out our bicycles and enjoyed the spectacular vista's overlooking the mountainside. We were lucky enough to be there during a full moon.

Brown County offers a Log Cabin Tour the first weekend of June each year arranged by the Psi Iota Xi Sorority. You can purchase a ticket for $15 and drive the back roads of Brown County to visit five different log cabin and country homes. This was our fifth visit and we had a great time visiting the cabins and enjoying a wonderful picnic lunch on the lawn beside a small country church.

One of our favorite homes was a spectacular log pole pine cabin. It had breathtaking views of the forest and a lovely pond. We were so surprised to find that one of the other cabins on the tour was built by someone I had worked with 30 years ago. It was once a one bedroom cabin that had been expanded now to a beautiful home. The house and most of the furniture has been built by the couple.

We were camping this weekend with our Good Sam's camping club-Freedom Travelers. We enjoyed some great meals and fellowship together. The highlight of each evening was sitting around the camp fire. Our next camp out will be over July 4th at Johnson County Park.