Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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.

Greenbrier Sign

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.

Greenbrier_A013

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

Greenbrier_C009

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

Greenbrier_C011

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

Two beach areas.

Greenbrier Beach 1

Greenbrier Beach 2

A concession stand with a nearby picnic area.

Greenbrier Concession Stand

Greenbrier Picnic Area

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

Greenbrier Volleyball

Fancy.

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

Taco Dinner 

Houck Area Sign

There are two camping areas here. Houck and Manor.

Houck has 149 sites while Manor only 31.

I camped at Houck 18.

Houck_018

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.

Houck_033

Houck_143

The Houck area also has the lake.

Cunningham Falls Lake

With a nice beach area and snack bar.

Cunningham Falls Beach 1

Cunningham Falls Beach 2

Cunningham Falls Snack Bar

Along with a lakeside picnic area and boat rentals.

Cunningham Falls Picnic Area

Cunningham Falls Boat Rental

The Manor camping area is about four miles away.

Manor Area Sign

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.

Manor_015

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

Can you spot the clue in the photo below?

Camp David Museum

Yeah that one. Camp David.

It’s in this place.

Catoctin Mountain Sign

So I went to check it out.

But it wasn’t very accessible.

Warning Sign

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

Camp David 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 Sign

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.

Owens Creek_028

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

Owens Creek View 1

Owens Creek View 2

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.

Taco Dinner (2)

Wednesday morning I crossed the line.

Mason Dixon Line

Literally. Into the North.

I passed by an interesting hot dog emporium.

Hot Dog

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

Codorus Sign

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.

Codorus_028

The campground is half shaded, half open.

Site 108 was huge.

Codorus_108

135 and 177 were prime sunny spots.

Codorus_135

Codorus_177

They bordered a big grassy field.

Codorus Play Area

The lake is a focal point here.

Cordorus Lake

There was a huge marina along with boat rentals.

Cordorus Marina

Cordorus Boat Rental

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

Cordorus Pontoon Rentals

Along with a marina store and gas pump.

Cordorus Marina Store

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…

Cordorus Pool

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.

Cordorus Campsite

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

Codorus_028

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

Trees with Clothes

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

East Berlin

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.

Pork Meat

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

Pork Cooking

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

The smallest Bluegill I have ever seen.

Bluegill

And an only slightly larger catfish.

Catfish

Finally it was dinner time.

Making Tacos

And there was much rejoicing.

Pork Dinner

Yummy!

I spent the weekend doing camp chores.

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

Seal 1

Seal 2

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.

Grommet 1

Grommet 2

Perfect. And very easy to do.

California Room

I think my “California Room” is complete.

Then it was swapping time.

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

Inside Carpet

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

Stove Mat

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

Chair

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

Packing Grease

New Tacos 1

New Tacos 2

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

TT Site 2

Seriously.

TT Site 1

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

Gifford Pinchot Sign

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.

Gifford Pinchot Goat Sign

Gifford Pinchot Gardener

Yep. That is neat.

Many of the sites are lakeside, some with power and some without.

Gifford Pinchot Lake

I liked number 107 in the former category and numbers 114 and 116 in the latter.

Gifford Pinchot_107

Gifford Pinchot_114

Gifford Pinchot_116

They are also in the process of putting full hookups in several sites. 266-270 are being done right now.

Gifford Pinchot_268

Then there are several nice off-lake sites near the playground, such as 244.

Gifford Pinchot_244

I took a quick peek at the beach before leaving.

Gifford Pinchot Beach

One thing I have noticed in my short time in the Keystone State is that they have weird looking cows.

Cow 1

Cow 4

I passed by several on my way back to camp. It looks like they have been bred with giraffes.

Cow 5

I was looking at this one thinking about the taco possibilities.

Cow 3

I guess they can read minds too.

Cow 2

Tuesday, yesterday, I drove 23 miles south to The Burg.

Gettysburg Sign

The visitor center was jam-packed so I wandered over to this place. It was surprisingly empty. Except for the ghosts.

Cemetery Sign

Over 50,000 soldiers lost their lives in the bloodiest civil war battle during the span of just three days.

Cemetery 1

Cemetery 2

Abe said some words here.

Lincoln Sign

Lincoln Memorial

Actually, here.

Monument 1

It was this sign that really got to me.

Camp Sign

“ON FAME’S ETERNAL CAMPING-GROUND,

THEIR SILENT TENTS ARE SPREAD,

AND GLORY GUARDS WITH SOLEMN ROUND

THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD.”

Cannon 1

Regards,

Greg