Last night at Square Pond...

This is our last day at Square Pond Friends & Family RV Park near Gander NL. We head off to the west coast of the island in the morning. Our stay here has been near perfect, the staff and owners of this park are gracious hosts indeed. The only thing they couldn't provide was better weather. We endured through the poor weather for 3 days and 4 nights only to end our stay with a warmer and sunnier day today. BBQ'd steak for supper and an evening campfire almost erases the memories of the rain and cold. If you are ever RV'ing near here I highly recommend this park.

Our next stop is Pasadena, NL. My Dad turns 80 on Friday this week and we will be there to help him celebrate. We will park the Pop-up in their driveway and camp there for a few days. Depending on the weather forecast we may decide to overnight in a park somewhere along the way back to the East Coast on Saturday.

Next post from "Camp Driveway" in Pasadena.

Update from the camper.....

It's been 2 campgrounds and 5 nights of camping so far and we have seen weather rangeing from a warm spring day to near frost levels at night to snow squalls on one morning but through it all we are still having a wonderful trip. With a comfortable camper in which to ride out the poor weather and great surroundings to enjoy when the the weather allows we feel we do have it pretty good. We look forward to the rest of our trip and we're not looking forward to going back to work at all.

Camping May 2-4, 2010

Our first camping trip at Droghedea RV Park was great way to celebrate our 29th Anniversary on May 23rd. We had a very nice time spending the weekend with our 10 year old granddaughter Kaitlyn. Our daughter Robin and her husband and our other grandchildren Morgan and Alexis came for a visit on Saturday afternoon. Our son Richard and his girlfriend Keshia came in the evening for a fire. There was fireworks at the park as well for May 24th. We were invited to Richard's and Keshia's for breakfast the following morning. Even though it rained on our final day, we are ready to go and find another nice park to spend our time.

May 24

Well we are back safe and sound after an awesome weekend of camping. The weather was pretty good for a May 24 weekend in this area. We had clear sky's for most of the weekend and although it got quite cold at night we were dressed for it so it didn't dampen our spirits. Rain came during our last night, I think the camping God's wanted to give us a little taste of packing up a wet pop-up. By the time we got home in the afternoon the skies had cleared and we popped the camper up in the driveway to dry out.


Here is a shot of our weekend getaway.

It was also our 29th anniversary on Sunday. A little celebrating was bound to happen.

Our Granddaughter Kaitlyn wanted to get in on the celebrating as well.

First night camping and .............

....nobody got hurt.

Well it was pretty good I guess except for the towing experience. We had more tongue weight than we should have (first time so we expected a few mistakes to learn from) and as we slowly passed over the dip at the end of our driveway the leg of the lift on the pop-up starts to bottom out against the pavement. The grinding sound sent chills through me. After some careful calculations(GUESSES) we attacked from an alternate angle and successfully navigated out of the driveway and onto public streets. Now for the scary drive to the campsite worrying about every bump in the road. This is spring in Newfoundland so there are lot's of bumps in the road trust me. The last part of the drive is the gravel road into and around the campground. Driving slowly and listening carefully as we make our way to #39. Backing in wasn't too bad so there we are carefully parked in our very first campsite I was so relieved.

The set up started well and with Sandy & Kaitlyn unpacking inside the camper I decided to tackle the awning. I had the instructions in front of me and nothing made sense until I realized the dealer had installed the awning upside down!!!!!! Now I had to remove the darn thing and flip it while the camper was set up, not exactly the best way to do this. With some help from Sandy I finally managed to get the awning properly installed and up. We were cold and it was getting dark so we went inside turned on the furnace and poured a drink.

We had a snack, listened to some music and talked for a couple of hours before calling it a night. The sound of a light rain against the camper roof brought back memories of camping with my parents in their Bellvue popup many years ago.

Life is good.

Getting ready.

In less than a week we will be setting up at Droghedea RV Park for the Victoria Day long weekend. The Pop-Up has been de-winterized and much of the necessary camping gear has been pulled out of storage or repurchased. Sandy is looking after the weekend menu and making the grocery shopping list. Sandy, Granddaughter Kaitlyn, and I are hoping for better weather than we have been having but we are preparing for all possibilities. Sure we had snow this past Friday just a week before we will be camping! As long as we are well prepared we will have a great time I'm sure.

Victoria Day or "May TwoFour" as it is more commonly called here in Newfoundland is traditionally the beginning of the camping season. Sandy and I generally waited for a few weeks later as we were tenting in the past. The campgrounds, RV parks, and Gravel Pits are packed with campers and tents for May 24 weekend every year regardless of the weather. Gravel Pit Camping or Boondocking as it is called in other areas is another Newfoundland tradition. Sandy and I have never done gravel pit camping but may try it for a weekend sometime this summer if we find the right spot.

If we can get a connection you may even see a post from the park this coming weekend.

Dan