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It is always sad to leave a beautiful campsite especially one that has dock diving but our camp ground angels have teamed up with our weather angels and they just keep giving us both, great sites and great weather! We are so thankful! Wait till you see what is next!
We left Lake Catherine and headed to my Aunt Nancy’s house in Memphis. I got to see where my namesake, my Grandpa Jack, canoed down the Mississippi River when he was 70! His trip finished in Memphis when he got sick after canoeing from Minnesota. I can see where my mommy gets her sense of adventure!
We got to my Aunt Nancy’s house just in time to pick up her son from Kindergarten in the RV! You should have seen his face when he saw us sitting in the line of cars in our big, yellow RV. It was pretty cute. He had a smile from ear to ear! He was so excited to ride in Spirit.
Then we go to Nancy’s house and guess what my Aunt Nancy has? 3 cats! I was excited until I found out one of them is like a dog and wasn’t afraid of me, actually I was a little afraid of her! One stayed hiding the entire time so I only go to chase one of them and by the end of the weekend, she wasn’t afraid of me anymore! I needed a rest anyhow, mommy has been keeping me busy so I was pretty low key the entire weekend.
Mommy had fun with her cousin and her kids. She was excited because my cousin Brandi had pull-up bars so mommy finally got to do her pull-ups! She was so happy! We even got to see a thunderstorm! That was pretty fun to watch. The bad part was Spirit had a leak so Uncle Bill and mommy figured out where it was and hopefully they fixed it. It was a team effort to clean Spirit both inside and out! Aunt Nancy washed all of our clothes and packed us with some food so we are good to go! It was a fun weekend! That is one of the many fun parts of this journey, visiting our friends along the way!
We decided to leave Mississippi on Sunday to beat the city traffic since we had to travel through Memphis and Nashville. Everyone keeps asking how we find the camps that we are staying in. Well, there are 2 ways: 1/ Mommy looks for green and water on the map within a 6 hour drive and finds a State park nearby. We don’t like fancy RV parks. We like trees, plus State Parks are cheaper. 2/ We ask people at the campground where we should go next. That is how we found the campground in Virginia but you have to stay tuned for that one!
We arrived at Douglas Dam at 7:20 p.m., we forgot about the time change, we are now in Eastern Time. We have now traveled 2,536 miles. I had no idea where mommy was taking me. We were on all of these windy back roads and then all of a sudden, there was WATER!
The park host was kind of grumpy but mommy gave him a big hug when he gave her the best spot in the entire park (#34). It was overlooking the beautiful lake with lots of grass for me to play in and easy lake access. We were so happy AGAIN! Mommy had to back down a steep gravel hill. The grumpy guy watched her and then said “pretty good for a girl”! It was the best compliment ever coming from him!
We met so many nice people at this park. There were 6 camp hosts and we became friends will all of them (except Mr. Grumpy). We also became friends with our neighbors, Susan and Sonny who have been traveling for 14 years so they gave mommy lots of resources and advice (see the end of the blog for some tips). That is another thing that we want to inspire you to do, go meet some new people and broaden your friend base! They will help you to learn new things!
There was one little hike at the park so we ran that and then walked the entire park. There are 3 sections to this park and we got the best part! Once again our campsite angels were with us! While walking the park we stopped and chatted with many of the campers. We love to meet new people and most people want to know what we are doing so it is a good ice breaker!
The best part was the Stand Up Paddle Boarding that we did. We love our inflatable SUP! We highly encourage you to get one especially if you are traveling because we have explored so many cool places. (you can use Leash 75 for a $75. discount & free shipping at ISLE!) We paddled 3 miles one day up the coast of the lake. It was fun seeing all kinds of really cool homes and a campground with a big bouncy thing on the water. Since I didn’t have a dock at this campground, I practiced my diving from the SUP! I made a new sport “SUP diving”!
Another day we paddled 2.5 round trip to an island that was really cool to swim from. Actually the water is really warm here and mommy and I both swam quite a lot! This is the first time that I actually swam with my mom. Usually I just stand on the shore when she swims. Lots of firsts on this trip!
The best part was when mommy got to show her new friends out to SUP! It was so fun watching their excitement at trying something new and loving it! We hope that we have inspired them to get an inflatable SUP, they are so easy to travel with!
We were so sad to leave this campground. We made some really fun friends and the site was so beautiful and perfect but Susan sat down with us and went over our options for our next stop on the way to Annapolis and we think that we are going to like it. Stay tuned…….
Thanks to Susan, our next stop was a great find.
Check out where we went in Virginia here!!
Camping Resources:
BoondockersWelcome.com: A membership site where other campers will host you at their place of residence for free.
Roadtrippers.com: A free map system. Type in where you want to go and it will guide you to what is in the area and the route to take.
Escapees.com: A membership site for support, discounts on RV parks, and a lot more.
Days End: A membership site that has low cost or free places to stay all over the country. They also have a listing of what is near each stop.
Microsoft Streets and Trips: Program that you can purchase that doesn’t require internet. You can put in your destinations and it shows you the distance, what is around the area, routes to take, etc.
Go Pet Friendly.com: A free blog site that has tons of information on where to go with your dog. You can map out your trip, look up campgrounds and other places in the area and find fun things to do with your dog!
Good Sam Club: A membership site that offers discounts on camping, gas, insurance, Camping World store purchases and other requirements for camping.
