camp accommodations

i love going camping. i love the smell of campfire and eating outdoors and taking a morning stroll with coffee in hand. some people wouldn't be caught dead in a tent- they prefer a hotel. i can understand but hotels aren't all their cracked up to be either. with doors slamming from your neighbors, thin walls, weird smells and a blanket that how many people have used? right- I'll share my sleeping bag and air mattress with a few spiders- no problem.

now, we do camp in a tent. no trailer or rv for us. and i don't "hike in" with a load of stuff on my back. that is not fun for me. the car is an essential part of our set up. i also require some type of facilities- preferably a bathhouse with running water, and campgrounds that have actual showers get an A+ rating in my book. (i also seem to require an obscene amount of junk food).

we stayed at sewall campground in acadia national park last week while we were on mt. desert island. it was perfect, quiet, private, wooded and across the street from the ocean. this meant that the entire property smelled like both camp fire and sea breeze- how summery is that?

early on in the spring i had checked the web to figure out where we could stay and what type of accomodations each camp ground had. the national park website said something to the effect of "showers close by for a fee". i figured this meant that the showers were located at a park rangers' station or at another campground in the park. no- it was much more literal than that. the showers were close by (around the corner from the campground entrance) and for a fee ($1 in quarters per min). however they were located here:

let me give you a close up on some of the signage here:

upon our arrival, i was a little skeeved out about the prospect of showering in a camp supply store. i've been in these places before, and they aren't exactly welcoming. they usually sell things like propane tanks, bundles of wood, dry matches, and generic cigarettes and are manned by a hill-billy looking who smokes inside and wears flannel year round. also, this one appeared to have an eatery. can you really shower and get a lobster roll at the same place? well, i am here to tell you that downeast you most certainly can. if you look closer at the signs you can also get both coke and pepsi signs on your store front- which is also weird.

i was a tad disappointed when i read the big sign at the camp ranger station that explained that his was the store to get your shower on. but in keeping with my resolve to "go with the flow" we went to the store to shower and i just smiled. it wasn't exactly luxurious, it got the job done, was plenty private, clean, and had warm water. as much warm water as you had quarters for.

i was proud of myself for not letting this (or the need for a new air mattress pump) spoil my mood. last year this would not have went so well. oh and now i can say i showered at a lobster pound.

we drove all the way to nh and all i got was this relaxation

we drove to nh on thursday in the pt cruiser (which was good because according to the locals they plow the streets with hand grenades and the gti never would have made it). we got there and pretty much did nothing. well, thats not entirely true. the husband ate a lot of candy and fell asleep at 8pm. i bought some post cards and ate a black & white cookie. we visited two mountains but didn't ski. we lounged in the hot tub instead of taking a late afternoon nap and before leaving we ate some vegan pancakes...but pretty much nothing got done. i don't even think i took pictures of anything. we just drove and laughed and slept and admired the potholes and the 800 feet of snow up in the mountains. all 3 day work weeks should end like that.

best drives

with the price of gas and the green the planet bandwagon- long driving vacations aren't exactly en vogue. but a girl can dream can't she? there is an overwhelming amount of country and continent here that i have never seen. i would love to be one of those people that gets paid to reenact jack keruak's route across the country or be one of those sociologists who are traverse the country by car to stop in small towns and big cities along the way to talk to people about some obscure (or not so) subject to gather information for a book.

i don't really know where the rest of this is going except that perhaps i need a vacation? and after browsing these links here, here, and here i realize i have a lot of ground to cover.

that movie in my head

right- so i was thinking again about the movie in my head that i never really get anywhere with. it would really help my daydreaming if i had a destination in my mind for these road-trippers in my movie.

i've had ideas but i can't decide.... should they be on a vacation? spiritual journey? important job interview? see long lost relatives? run away from home? destined to visit all NYC television landmarks? attend the funeral of their estranged father? on their way to meet the president?

and i realize that at this point your thinking that shouldn't my reoccurring daydream have some sort of focus? shouldn't you at least have what resembles a plot? how do you dream without any sort of focus? thats just it- dreams like this don't necessarily need a focus. this is not a dream that i want to become a goal- this is not a pick your passion sort of dream that will one day lead me to my destiny as a screenwriter.

this is just a way to pass the time while i sit in traffic.

of course i should just chose a destination and take it from there. i can always change it later and you never know when i might be summoned to start writing in hollywood, right?

before & after

the dogs just getting ready to go. they are bright-eyed and alert. ready to get to our destination.


and after our weekend....not so bright-eyed, barely alert, ready to nap for hours......

really tall surprises

On the camping trip this weekend, my mother in law kept talking about this “surprise” she had for everyone. after our hike we drove up the winding country highway from the campground to visit fort knox. At first I thought the “surprise” was that we all got there. We had to travel caravan style taking all 3 cars. This would be fine except papa murph was leading the way with his heavy foot. Fortunately it was a pretty straight shot and no one got lost. 40 mins later the signs for the state park started to pop up. As the road winds around you take a pretty sharp corner and on the other side are met with the sight of a massive newly constructed bridge (and the remnants of the old bridge).

The “surprise” was that we got to go up to the observatory on the top of the bridge tower. Some in our group were a bit wary of this surprise but I was psyched. The husband was a tad nervous but was glad it was enclosed in glass. He still has flashbacks to our trip to the Eiffel tower where I kept hanging the camera out the side of the fence in order to photograph the structure. I didn’t get to do that here.
One of the most fascinating things about this was that the new bridge was built right along side the old bridge for something like $1.2 Million, however it is going to cost many millions ($5M, $10M I can’t recall) to take the old bridge down. This is due to the lead paint covering the old bridge and the environmental hazard it poses when dismantling it. It will have to be taken down piece by piece. This was wild to me.

set ups

this weekend we took to the great outdoors for a little r&r- it ended up being more like w&t (wet & tired) but we managed to have a pretty good time. as we walked the dogs around the camp ground i was struck by the different set ups available for camp sites. it seems there is one for everyone.

there was a good representation of huge tour-bus like rv's complete with satellite dishes and flat screen tv's. it was to be expected, i suppose, seeing that we were in the tourist friendly area of camden and it is october. however there were also plenty of pull-behind trailers and tent-cities. there was even a smattering of hard-core campers including a super tough guy who slept in a lean to despite the serious rain storm both nights. i didn't take his picture for fear that such an action would upset him. can you blame me? here are my favorites:

space ship

vw
rain gear

awesomely new

a little old school completely jealously producing

In case you were wondering- we are tent city types thanks to my ll bean working father in law. he rules!

things on my mind

I have a few things on my mind. I'll start the weekend off by listing them. This weekend and next promise several weekend road trips so look forward to more fascinating posts than those of late.

1. iced venti americano from starbucks- I missed you. with the spring like weather I simply had to run out at lunch and grab one! excitement!

2. after a glowing progress report from my chiropractor after 6 months of regular visits I woke up a day later unable to move my neck. this has got to stop.

3. email at work is very important. no access to email is a super drag. and email servers that drag are worse.

4. Bono has received an honorary knighthood from merry old england. I think this is great. I am very glad for him. I suggest that he focus all efforts on his humanitarian work. it is noble and worthwhile and I really dislike any "new" U2 that is played on the radio. perhaps congress could give him an award as well and slyly pass some sort of bill that bars radio stations from playing anything U2 after Achtung Baby. I'm sure John Stewart would be behind this.

5. In a similar vein I feel the same way about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. you are no longer subversive when you can be overplayed on every genre of radio station every time you release a single about california.

6. I will be traveling to cali next month and I am way excited.

7. Don't worry! my movie soundtrack will include both U2 and RedHotChiliPeppers songs as they are integral parts of daily driving- despite the fact that I am personally over it.

Tomorrow we drive to Troy, NY

daydream

one of my longest running day dreams is the one where I direct a movie. this movie in my head- while it has never fully developed into anything- has always been a road trip movie. always. sometimes I hear a song on the ipod, and I think "oh, that'd be great in my movie". or I'm driving with the husband and I think, "this conversation could be in my movie". I was thinking about this today and while contemplating the use of Queen songs in my soundtrack when I started thinking- there have been tons of road trip movies already. its a genre thats been done and done again. there is no way I could do it better (especially considering that I don't know the plot yet).

and then it hit me...duh..."Little Miss Sunshine".

This movie was fantastic. It was funny, witty and generally worth watching. i may be biased because the driving takes place in a beat up v-dub, or that the colors are ultra vibrant, or because that little abigail was so darn good but I loved it. a road trip movie about a dysfunctional but loving family trying to keep it together while falling apart could go either way but this movie does it right. there is the right amount of yelling, fighting, humor, drug use and references to nietzsche to bring a movie home. the best character, while you think its going to be steve carell- is actually the older brother. I could go on and on but no need to reinvent the wheel. the reviews are generally glowing.

who knows if i'll ever get to make my movie- or even write my movie, but at least the professionals are still doing it right.