Our Camping Memories

Introduction

We love Camping!!! As far as I can remember our family "went camping". This section might be BORING and uninteresting to many! I put it here to prove the point that Camping is memorable!

His Experiences: 2/25/2000

Camping as a kid

In the 70s and early 80s our family (Mom, Dad, me and little brother) did several camping trips at Maidstone State Park in Vermont. Being a kid it seemed like a long boring drive (4+ hours) but I always enjoyed camping there. I remember getting an arm full of wood at the wood pile for a quarter. (Don't you wish that was the prices now). I remember canoeing and the beavers at Maidstone lake. The showers were a quarter and at many campgrounds still are (however I think the campground fees make up for this). At Maidstone, we always stayed in a leanto. Each leanto had a different name of a tree. I love staying in those leantos. Of course I remember seeing more cows than people in VT. At the state parks they had a real fire places with a real iron grill that mom use to cook on. Dad would light up the gas coleman laterns. Do they still make those? I remember fond time with my parents. I knew they had a great time there also. Hey, it was the 70s, they were young and don't think they had a care in the world. Taking the nature walks were also fun especially try to keep up with the path and see where it led.
During the mid to late 70s we did a lot of camping in my grandparents backyward in Casco, ME. My grandparents owned 38+ acres in Maine. We camped with my aunts, uncles, and cousins out in the field behind my grandparents summer cottage in our tents with aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was an outhouse in the barn or the boys "would find a tree". I remember the campfire and having a GREAT time with my extended family. We however still visited Maidstone on occasion.
GRUBS- After my grandfather had kicked us out of the backyard (my aunts, uncles, parents were too loud) we picked up the shovel and started to head down in the deep woods of Casco, ME. I was about 6 or 7 years old then. My family created a road. I remember chain saws, the Cherry Bomb pully stumps, gravel. The result was a primative road that lead down the woods where we set up camp in the deep forrest of Maine.
The first years there we stayed in a tent. This was truly primitive camping!
Then my father dug a well and we had running well water that you pumped by hand.
During the primitive years, one night in our tent I remember as a child hearing some animal in the woods making an awful sound. I guess it some mother dear calling for her fawn.
Also during this time (when I was about 10) I had to rushed to the hospital (25+ miles) for hand poisoning.
Later we had an outhouse.
Slowly my father built a house (by hand)... no electricity.. no power tools in the Maine woods... (Similar to the way I'm creating these web pages ... trying minimize use of Web tools).
Today the house is pretty small but still standing and is now seeing grandchildren! The foundation has rocks from the stone wall that about 75-100 years ago was part of the wall that would keep the horses in.
Its a nice house but water is still hand pumped and electricity comes from a Honda electric generator.
Mid 80s Along with camping in Maine, when I was a teenager in the Mid 80s we started hiking up the White Mountains. Totally awesome! We camped in the state campgrounds near Mt. Chocura (our first trip) and then camped at Dolly Cop and climbed Mt. Washington (the largest mountain in the Eastern US).

Travel Trailer Camping

Our Church Youth Group went "camping" at Point Sebago at Casco Maine. Our youth group rented trailers (5 kids per trailer). No campfires but there was planned activities. I was a teen and had a great time. Point Sebago was fun.

Her Experiences:

My wife is the youngest child of 5 children... She has lots of memories... some are sad though. She lost a cat and a dog at the campground. Keep your pets tied up for their own good. We leave our cats at home.

Our Experiences:

Tent Camping

We started going to Eastern Slope Campground in N. Conway, NH. We went here at least a 1/2 dozen times in the early and mid 90s. My wife liked the wooden canopy (which kept our stuff dry when it rained) and we had to have electricity. We used the electricity for our radio, hair dryer, and curling iron, and electric light back then. We don't go there now because they only allow pets in the summer.
We love visitors!
Our father visited us at 9pm during campfire & smores on his motorcycle.

Pop-tent Camping

Free Camping Weekends

May/June 1999

When we bought our Jayco pop-up where were given 3 free weekends at some great campgrounds.

Each of these 9 days were rain free!

Trip One

Our first trip was to Acres of Wildlife in Steep Falls, ME. This was the break-in weekend. I was a nervous wreck driving the pop-up camper for the first time. The mosquitos were awful when we got there but bug spray took care of them.

I didn't position the camper correctly. The fire place was on one side and the picnic table on the other side. This was also my baby's 1st camping trip. We had an awesome lake view site.

I learned everything about my pop-up from the hot water heater to the the furnace (we needed it that weekend).

Trip Two

Yogi Bear Campground in Ashland, NH. The campsite that we had was one of the biggest. Everyone enjoyed this so much that we made plans to visit this campground in August.

Trip Three

We went to the Cape during the end of June. It was HOT and HUMID. We slept with several of the camp windows down.

We stayed at Peters Pond Park. Had the potential to be a great campground but we really missed having a campfire. I could of done without the cable TV. The campsite that we were at was one of the smallest.

Ocean Paradise

July 1999

It was a long drive to Bar Harbor but everything was wonderful.

We stayed there with relatives from Virginia. Didn't get much sleep because we were up chatting quietly with

Yogi Bear Nightmare!

August 1999

This vacation didn't start off on the right foot.

At the last minute I realized I needed awning pole tip replacement. Trying to get parts from our Jayco dealer is difficult because they are rather a small operation and you have to be there at the right time to talk to this 1 person. So we stopped at the Starcraft dealership (Campers Inn in Nashua, NH) and bought a Starcraft awning pole. Their parts store had 2 staff and appeared to be more of a real store. However with Starcraft they don't just sell the tips just the poles (the pole looked very similar to the Jayco one so I took my chances). WRONG - it was a foot longer. So we used 2 awning poles the first night.

When we reserved the campsite in June we had asked if Yogi, Boo Boo, or Cindy could deliver a baloon boquet to our campsite for my daughters b-day party on Saturday. At that time we registered they said "sure no problem". However when we arrived they said there is NO way that any of the bears could show up at our site because of the busy Activitiy schedule. We were very upset about this! We had invited about 15 guests up and told them that a bear would be there.

Then we were near a site of rude and obnoxious "partiers". As the night went on they became louder and more cruder. Every sentence spoken was laced with profanity. OK where was the Yogi Bear staff to enforce quiet time? Finally the staff did show up (at 2am - 4hrs past quiet time started) and tried to quiet them down but that didn't do any good. It took the police at 4am to get them to bed. I finally fell asleep around 5am and my toodler was up at 6am bright and early for her nap. The campground cheered as these idiots were police escorted out the next day. These are the people that give Massachusetts campers a bad name. BTW- I got bought a hack saw and shortened the Starcraft awning pole to work with my Jayco. Works great!

During the week there were several more incidents of people breaking the "quiet time" rules and I'm not talking about 15 minutes after or before quiet time. I talking like a couple of hours before or after.

It was all bad though! We really enjoyed Yogi or Boo Boos nightly site visits (Too bad he could come on Saturday afternoon too). They did this Monday-Thursday. We really wanted to see Cindy but she didn't show up on our part of the campground. We had fun at Candy bar bingo and the hayrides. The scavenger hunt was rather lame. There was maybe all of 10 things on the list. The face painting was a hit with all our kids. Cermanics was a HUGE hit with my wife. They had a great live band on Saturday evening with nachos, salsa, cookies, and punch. The snack bar had GREAT fried dough and french fries but the pizza was less than average. Prices there were good too. The pool had a greenish glow and didn't look too inviting. All of the staff were very polite and friendly. There was cedar wood available for purchase at the camp store which made the whole campground smell nice.

Also it seems like the Backstreet Boys was the musac for the week. I think just about everyone was playing their new Millenium CD. I guess that is a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

Due to the lack of sleep we were GLAD to be going home after 7 nights.

We will most-likely go back to this campground but request another camp site.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Send me E-Mail if you have questions on Anything related to camping or just to say hello: rconnellii@aol.com

Page Last Updated: 2 December 1999

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