For quite a number of years, we have had a tradition of closing out the summer by going camping at Jamaica State Park in Jamaica, Vermont. In late years, we have missed a few times due to illness or bad weather, but this year we were able to go again, thank the Lord.
Columbus Day came a week later than usual this year, so while it looked to be cold, the forecast otherwise was for a beautiful weekend.
Day 1: Saturday.
We got the camper loaded and headed down to pick up two of the grandchildren - an hour later than we planned but that was as usual! The leaves were beautiful on the drive up. We drove by way of Rt. 7 from Bennington to Manchester, then up the mountain on Rt. 11 and down Rt. 30 to Jamaica, arriving well before the time we were supposed to arrive in spite of leaving late, but as usual they let us in anyway!
The campsite I had hastily picked out and reserved from a map without thinking was set well up from the others and required some tricky backing to get the camper onto it. It was primarily for tents! With the oldest grandson's help, we got backed in and set up. It helped that our Dodge van weighs 2 tons and has all-wheel drive.
We also had his younger brother with us as well as Lucy the 78 lb. dog, so the oldest (now 17) set up a tent and slept with the dog! My wife and I and the younger grandson took the 2 man 1967 camper (that my wife and I spent our honeymoon in 50 years ago last June).
The first afternoon we took the younger grandson down to the nice playground where he spent quite a bit of time! Then the older one and I went and got some firewood for the evening. It gets dark early now, so the afternoon seemed really short. We sat around the fire, made s'mores, etc. The oldest had brought Monopoly (Cheater's Edition!) so we played that into the evening but never got far enough to cheat!
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| Ted, Kathy, and Lucy on the River Trail |
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| Grandson on the Slide |
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| One Grandson Pushing the Other |
Getting everyone settled for the night, we three in the camper managed to get a good night's sleep. It was cold, but not too bad. Lucy had never slept in a tent and kept trying to get out, keeping the older grandson awake!
Day 2: Sunday.
Sunday morning we got up as soon as the sun was high enough to see and get breakfast by. When that was over and things cleaned up, the two grandsons, Lucy, and I headed out for a hike. As the younger one hadn't done this before, we took a shorter one, hiking up Little Ball Mountain from the campsite, then down the other side and back to the Campground by the River Trail (old railroad bed). It was a steep climb but the younger did just fine. So did I, though I am obviously getting old and overweight!
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| The Boys on the Trail |
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| At the Fork |
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| Lucy Looking Down at Jamaica |
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| Oldest Grandson with Lucy |
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| Cave Man! |
There was a great view of the village of Jamaica to the southwest, several mountains to the south, and Ball Mountain across the West River Valley. The colors were nice and I took a number of photos. The younger grandson was "getting tired" on the way down, but when we hit the flat "River Trail" both of them left me in the dust!
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| Jamaica from Little Ball Mountain |
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| Garter Snake in the Leaves |
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| The Boys Hit the River Trail |
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| The Dumplings |
In the early afternoon our daughter and son-in-law showed up with the youngest grandson for us to watch while they attended an Indigo Girls concert at Stratton.
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| All Three Grandsons on Swings, Ted Pushing the Youngest |
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| Kathy - Taken by the Youngest! |
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| Middle Grandson, Lucy, Ted |
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We amused him at the playground for much of the remainder of the day. In the evening we got some more firewood and sat around the fire as before. It got colder than the night before, so we crammed into our respective lodgings and went to bed early. It was a cram, with four people now in the camper with all their stuff! The two younger brothers didn't want to share the shelf bed and gave us a hard time! Finally we got them settled, but neither got under the bedding and stayed as far apart as possible!
Around midnight I woke up and it was down to 30 deg. F (-1.1 deg C) outside and very cold inside, so I got dressed, turned on the gas, and lit the heater. A number of years ago it hit 28 deg while we were camped there, and the campground water froze up. This year nothing froze, but at least the heater was working well which it wasn't in the 28 deg. weather! With that running, we managed to get the camper up to 62 deg. inside. I managed to get some covers over the boys, who were now cuddled together!
Day 3: Monday.
We got up later because of the cold, and I went outside and started breakfast. It was a long process as people kept getting up and coming out as the morning went on. I cooked eggs and bacon, so it wasn't as bad for me as the morning before when I tried pancakes and found the mix was bad and didn't rise.
My wife and the younger two ate inside, for some reason!
We then started packing up, a frustrating and laborious process. Trying to find and sort everything out was frustrating. The two younger ones began running around the woods with the awning poles and stakes, losing them and forcing me to hunt for them. They also managed to get into dog poop at a neighboring campsite and had to be cleaned up. Sometime after 10 am our daughter and son-in-law showed up and pitched in and we got everything sorted and stowed away, and the camper hooked up and off the campsite. They took the two younger ones home with their stuff, and we kept the older one and the dog. They said the concert had been outside and they froze during it!
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| Ball Mountain Reservoir |
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| Panorama taken in 2016 |
On the way home we drove into Ball Mountain Reservoir so my wife could see it. The oldest grandson and I had hiked in back in 2016 and found it a nice place.
I took a number of new photos. My photos from 2016 got lost in the computer crash, though I was able to recover some low resolution versions from Facebook.
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| Ball Mountain Tower |
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| Kathy on the Ball Mountain Control Tower |
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| The Ball Mountain Dam and Spillway |
After that we came straight home, though we got off Rt. 7 at Arlington and took Rt. 313 and Rt. 22 the rest of the way to avoid all the people doing well over the speed limit and passing the camper in dangerous places. We dropped off the grandson and his stuff, came home, and started unpacking and cleaning up. The camper is unhooked and parked, but there is still a lot to do before I store it for the winter.
All in all we had a good time. Met some Christian acquaintances we hadn't seen in several years who had also always camped there. They had sold their camper and given up camping, but were up visiting friends on a day trip. We got to pray with them before we parted company.
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