Ramblings from the Road: The Burg

I think I left off about 10 days ago when I arrived at Greenbrier State Park in Maryland.

But first, here is the answer to the punctuation riddle from my last post.

John, where Paul had had “had”, had had “had had”; “had had” had had the teacher’s approval.

Sorry, it won’t happen again. It was just stuck in my head for some reason and would not go away until I wrote it down.

Anyway.

The are two big state parks near Frederick, Maryland.

Greenbrier has 158 sites in four loops, with only loop C having electricity. It was still a tad chilly so I opted for power which set me back a tidy $33 per night.

Loop A had several sites close by the lake, like number 13.

I stayed in C9, surrounded by still mostly naked trees.

In the C loop, number 11 was my favorite. It’s on the outside and has a little creek flowing past it.

The creek flowed into a small lake that had all sorts of stuff going on along it’s shores.

Two beach areas.

A concession stand with a nearby picnic area.

And one of the most picturesque volleyball courts you will find.

Fancy.

I enjoyed a delicious dinner last Sunday night before leaving on Monday for Cunningham Falls State Park.

There are two camping areas here. Houck and Manor.

Houck has 149 sites while Manor only 31.

I camped at Houck 18.

Some of my favorites there were 33, which had a cool rock for climbing, and 143 which was massive. Some of the sites here also have electricity. Mine did to the tune of, again, $33 per night.

The Houck area also has the lake.

With a nice beach area and snack bar.

Along with a lakeside picnic area and boat rentals.

The Manor camping area is about four miles away.

Unfortunately it is close to highway 15 and the traffic noise was apparent as I walked the campground.

Site 15 was one of the farthest from the highway and the nearby creek was loud enough to overcome the sound of engines and tires.

There is another camp nearby that is probably the toughest one in world to visit.

Can you spot the clue in the photo below?

Yeah that one. Camp David.

It’s in this place.

So I went to check it out.

But it wasn’t very accessible.

OK. The overland route won’t work. I looked for a gate.

It was plastered with warning signs. One said “No Stopping. No Standing. No Pictures.” Oops.

Well, I didn’t stand, and my car was still rolling very slowly, and I don’t actually remember pressing the shutter button. Plausible Deniability. Works for the politicians.

There actually is a campground you can stay at in Catoctin Mountain Park.

Owens Creek has 51 sites and you MUST make a reservation. If you just show up there is a sign telling you to call Rec.Gov before setting up camp.

Several sites are alongside the creek like number 28.

It looked like the trees were starting to get dressed as well.

Finally.

Thus ended a very long Tuesday. All three of the Maryland campgrounds I visited are within an hour or so of the DC Metro area and get pretty packed during the summer. So plan accordingly.

Back at camp I finished off the last of my tacos and hit the sack.

Wednesday morning I crossed the line.

Literally. Into the North.

I passed by an interesting hot dog emporium.

And wound up at Codorus State Park in Pennsylvania for two nights.

I forgo electricity here, paying only $21 instead of $27 per night.

There are 184 sites here (I normally count just the standard sites, not the walk-ins or host ones) and I was in number 28.

The campground is half shaded, half open.

Site 108 was huge.

135 and 177 were prime sunny spots.

They bordered a big grassy field.

The lake is a focal point here.

There was a huge marina along with boat rentals.

If you want something a little larger they have that covered.

Along with a marina store and gas pump.

Pretty much everything you need. And the town of Hanover is only four miles away for everything else.

I almost forgot the swimming pool. They have one, but it’s kinda small…

Back at camp I watched in fascination as leaves starting popping out on the tree branches. Reminded me of Jiffy Pop. I keep looking around for it but cannot find it anywhere. Would be perfect over a campfire.

anyway, compare that to the previous day’s photo again.

When I left on Friday morning all was good and green.

My GPS has taken me on strange routes before, but not back in time.

I thought that wall was torn down a while ago. Turns out that I was still in Pennsylvania. Which was good because I was going to stay at a Thousand Trails campground for a few nights and use it as base camp. It was only 18 miles from Codorus State Park in the heart of York County, which is the number one tourist destination in the state.

I stopped along the way to stock up on taco fixings. Along with the usual beef I found a good price on pork stew meat so I gave that a go.

I covered the pan and let it simmer for awhile in some habanero sauce.

While that was going on one of my new neighbors was catching some fish.

The smallest Bluegill I have ever seen.

And an only slightly larger catfish.

Finally it was dinner time.

And there was much rejoicing.

Yummy!

I spent the weekend doing camp chores.

You know, like putting an extra seal around the trailer door.

I just added to the old one which was not in too bad of a shape. I had picked up a cheap carpet to put under the awning and it needed some grommets put in the corners. So I whipped out my handy kit.

Perfect. And very easy to do.

I think my “California Room” is complete.

Then it was swapping time.

The small green rug I had outside was trimmed to fit inside.

The little inside mat was trimmed to fit under the outside stove. I cut up the excess to make leveling pads.

A couple of holes drilled and some zip ties replaced the duct tape on a broken chair arm.

I finished up the weekend chores with a bit of bearing greasing and a new batch of taco meat.

The weather was perfect. I was in my own little outdoor world.

Seriously.

Monday I headed 10 miles northeast to visit Gifford Pinchot State Park for the day.

This is a big park. The site numbers go up to 340 but 49-98 have been turned into several group areas so I took pics of only 287. I think the price is the same as Codorus. Less than Maryland and I figured out why. They save money on invasive vegetation removal.