This year’s unbutton your rig rally was held once again at Pine Hill Campground in Kutztown PA.  I drove up on Friday morning without any trouble.  When I arrived I found that my site was on the end closest to the entrance.  One of the first things anyone driving into the campground would see was my shiny Airstream.

Not long after parking and setting up I found friends at the camp fire.

That night the temperatures fell to the low 40’s.  But, I had an electric heater and a down comforter to keep me warm.

The next morning I made my coffee and had some breakfast.  I can’t describe how satisfying it is to roll right out of bed and use that old stove that I spent so much time refurbishing.

After breakfast I went for a bike ride on the Lehigh canal from Northampton and Bowmanstown, north of Bethlehem.  The trail is very well maintained along that stretch.  It was a little chilly and grey that day, but it didn’t rain and the ride was a real pleasure.

Along the trail a “graveyard” theme emerged.  Here is a graveyard for Cessna airplanes.  Old fuselages were lined up for 1/4 mile along the edge of the local air field.

And then there was the graveyard for old Willy’s in Bowmanstown.

And then I came across a few skeletons riding bikes.

But not everything was macabre.  There were also some nice views along the way.

Back at the campground I had to start preparing my contribution to the potluck dinner.  How do crockpot enchiladas sound?  They actually turned out pretty good.

On the final day I had a nice lunch with good friends at the Krumsville Inn, a local roadhouse.  And then it was time to pack up and drive home through light rain.

Until next time …

A few weeks ago we camped with fellow Airstreamers in Center Hall, Pennsylvania.  As the name suggests, Center Hall is right in the center of Pennsylvania, not far from State College.

Several members of our club joined in a caravan to Center Hall.  We met up at a rest stop near Delaware Water Gap.  Can you tell that I re-polished the trailer just a couple of days before?

And then made our own convoy along I-80.  Our shiny trailers caught the attention of many other drivers.  I even noticed one driver making a video with his smartphone as he passed us.

After exiting I-80 we entered Amish country.  We saw many amish farmers working the fields with horse drawn equipment and driving their buggies on the local roads.  You can see from the picture below that I tried to give a very wide berth when passing.  The scenery along this part of the drive was just gorgeous.

This rally included all Airstream clubs from our Region which extends from Ontario to Maryland and from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.  The rally was held at a large county fair grounds.  There were between 20 and 30 campers all parked in one small section of the sprawling and lovely fair grounds.

During the weekend I hiked to the top of Mt Nittany.  Here is a view from near the top looking over the valley.

Fabulous dinner.

I finally saw an Airstream “Bubble” trailer.  It’s even smaller than our Bambi!

Before leaving for home we toured Penn’s Cave by boat.  The tour was very cool, … literally!

Next we will be heading to Germany for two weeks vacation.  I will post some pictures from our trip, even though we won’t be in the Bambi.

Until then …

This past weekend was the Watchung Airstream Unit’s “Unbutton Your Rig” rally.  By my count around 12 trailers attended.  This year’s rally was held at Panther Lake Campground near Andover, NJ.  It’s a large campground with pool, hot tub, tennis courts, playground, and lake.  It’s too bad that the pool and hot tub were not open yet.

We had a wonderful dinner at Sheridan’s Lodge.  The dinner was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Watchung WBCCI Unit.

Earlier that day I went on a solo hike in the Delaware Water Gap.  I hiked from Buttermilk Falls to Crater Lake, which was, I think, about 7 miles round trip.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, not to mention the scenery.  This was definitely one of the top 3 best hikes I have taken in NJ.  Here are some pictures from the hike.

View from the first ridge

After returning to the campground I had just enough time to clean up before heading to the Watchung 50th Anniversary dinner.  I ate A LOT of food to make up for all of the calories that I had burned on the hike.  It was a good thing that it was a buffet.

After dinner we had a band play for us at the campground.  What a great time we had.  I only wish the weekend could have lasted a little longer.

Two years ago we camped at Jersey Shore Haven (JSH) over the July 4th holiday.  That was the first time that we saw fireworks on the beach.  It was impressive.  We decided to do it again this year.

The day before going we had a pig roast at our house with around sixty guests.  We were lucky to have good friends who helped us set up and clean up from the party.  Without them we wouldn’t have been able to head to Jersey Shore Haven the very next day.

Once we arrived and set up it was time to relax with a nice glass of wine.  One of my favorites:  Peterson Winery’s Mendo Blendo.

In the morning of our second day I took a 10 mile bike ride around the neighborhood.  Along the route a man in a pickup truck pointed out this juvenile fox standing under a tree eating mulberries.  The fox didn’t seem to have any problem dining as we watched from maybe 50 yards away.

As I turned into the driveway of the campground, I caught a glimpse of a wild turkey.

Later that day we went to the beach for a few hours.  On the way back we stopped by Mike’s Fish Market in Sea Isle City.  We grilled grouper, swordfish, and scallops for dinner.  All subsequent seafood dinners will be compared to this one.  It was absolutely delicious.

A couple of days later I took a longer bike ride.  My plan was to ride to the East Point Lighthouse on the Delaware Bay about 15 miles from JSH.  Now, I had heard about greenhead flies.  I had seen the boxes scattered about that were supposedly there to control them.  But, I hadn’t really experienced them.  I did on this ride!  About half way to the lighthouse they began to pursue me.  They bit me a few times even through my shorts and shirt.  They provided plenty of motivation for me to keep up my pace.  Otherwise they would swarm around me.

With the encouragement of the flies I kept up a good pace and made it to the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was built to guide fisherman to the mouth of the Maurice River.

Here is a picture of the Delaware Bay facing away from the lighthouse.

And here is a picture of one of the salt marshes I rode through along the way.

I thought this old house was interesting.  Not a lick of paint on it and yet it looks like it has stood on that corner for a long, long time.

Later in the week we had a visit from hurricane Arthur.  The blue dot on the radar map shows our location.  The storm was moving north east so the map shows the worst of the storm for us.

During the storm we read our books, played games and watched videos on our iPads.  The wind and rain was no problem for the camper.  Much better than being in a tent!  I only worried that one of the trees near the camper might lose a limb or fall over on us due to the wind.  Luckily that didn’t happen.

Most firework displays were rescheduled due to the storm.  We planned to see the fireworks in Stone Harbor on Saturday.  When we tried to drive into Stone Harbor there was a line of traffic backed up all the way past the NJ Turnpike.  We turned around and decided to head back to the campground, but then I had the idea of driving into Avalon and then, once on the island, seeing how far south we could drive back toward Stone Harbor.  It turned out that we were able to park at the south end of Avalon and walk down to Stone Harbor to see the show there.  We had front row seats.

This was a vacation to remember.  Very relaxing.  A chance to spend time with some of our Airstream friends and an opportunity to meet new ones.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are now on the waiting list for an opportunity to purchase a share at JSH.  We are looking forward to many return visits.

With the floor back in the trailer I was itching to go camping.  I didn’t do all that work so that Allie Airstream could just sit in the driveway!

John had a two-day soccer tournament in Neptune, NJ near the shore which is about an hour away from our house.  We decided to take camp at Turkey Swamp Park, which is only about 20 minutes away from the tournament.  Because of the tournament the only time we spent at the campground was sleeping and eating breakfast.  But it was a good trial run.  We learned at least one thing:  Never forget to bring the stabilizing jacks!  Without them, the trailer wobbles around when you move inside.

Turkey Swamp is a nice campground.  All of the sites are pull-through with water and electric.  No sewer unfortunately, but the bathhouse was not far away.

We enjoyed beautiful weather that weekend.  We picked up some clams at Woolley’s Fish Market for the tailgate with the soccer team.  I grilled the clams and lots of hotdogs for the boys.  Both the boys and the parents seemed to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, the boys record was 0 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie in the tournament.  But as they say, every opportunity to play is good practice, no matter whether you when or lose.

Our next trip would be our planned trip to Jersey Shore Haven next weekend.  Stay tuned from another update from the Jersey Shore.

Last weekend we met our fellow Airstream club members at Pine Hill Campground in Krumsville, PA.  I nearly forgot how much I enjoy spending time with all those nice folks.

The campground was extremely well maintained.  The sites were level with fresh gravel.  The grass between each site was kept like a well manicured lawn.  The view was wonderful with colorful rolling hills and mountains in the background.  The campsite is conveniently located off of I-78, but the drawback is that you can see and hear all of the highway traffic.  On that particular weekend we spent time watching cars sit at an idle on the road waiting for roadwork to be completed.  We were glad we were not in that traffic snarl.

On the first evening we stayed at the campsite enjoying delicious chili made by one of the club members and finger foods contributed by everyone else.  The campground had WiFi so Angie and I were able to watch a couple of episodes of the BBC television program “The Paradise” on our iPad before going to bed.  We love that show.  Can’t wait until we can see the next season.

We didn’t run our little electric heater in the camper overnight, but we did have 2 down comforters to sleep under.  Most of me was very warm, but my nose was cold from the 45 degree overnight temperatures.  When we woke up in the morning we turned the little heater on which kept the camper comfortable until it was time to get up and go outside.

The next morning we made coffee with our little Coleman burner and our Chemex coffee maker.  We had continental breakfast and then hit the road for some exploring.  First we went to Renninger’s Antique Market in Kutztown.  Some interesting stuff there.  We walked only through the building with free admission.  I bought a small graduated measuring cup that I plan to use to make the perfect margarita.

Next we drove to Hellertown to have lunch at a Hungarian restaurant named “Paprika’s”.  My friend and I came across this restaurant last fall on our bike ride from Bryn Mawr to Bethlehem. Service was very slow this time, but the food was still good.  We had chicken paprikash, goulash soup, and a crepe filled with strawberry filling for dessert.

We drove on lovely country roads making our way back to the campground.  By the time we arrived it was almost time for the camp-wide potluck dinner.  We contributed grilled sausages and homemade sauerkraut.  After dinner one of the club members gave a slide show presentation on the history of drive-in theaters.  That brought back a few memories!  It turned out that there was a drive-in still operating just a few miles from the campground.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go.  Maybe next time.

On our final day we stopped by Dietrich’s Meats to purchase a few items to take home.  You will find almost every part of a pig on display at Dietrich’s including feet, skin, snouts, trachea, and ears.  We bought porterhouse steaks that we planned to grill at home.  (They turned out to be absolutely delicious.  I would almost considering driving the two hours from our home to Dietrich’s just to stock up on meats for our deep freezer!)  We bought some hot sticks for snacking on, clear birch beer, bologna, liverwurst, bread, and a pie.  We also bought a smoked pig’s head for a friend who said that she wanted to cook it.  Dietrich’s put the head in a box for us to take home.  I haven’t yet heard how our friend prepared it, but I will be sure to ask the next time I see her.

Last weekend we attended an AirStream rally at the Don Laine Campground in Palmerton PA.  The campground was only a two hour drive from our house.  Sections of I-78 were a busy with traffic, but we arrived without any problems, … or so we thought.

After setting up the camper we had lunch at a diner not far from the campground.  I had a giant plate of honey dipped fried chicken.  While in the diner we saw summer thunderstorms moving through and hoped that our camper handled the rain without any issues.

After stopping in the world’s largest ShopRite grocery store for supplies, we returned to the campground for happy hour.  When we stepped in the trailer we found a puddle of water right in the middle of the floor.  Now where did that come from?  When we looked on the roof we saw that the roof vent was cocked backwards a little.  When I went inside to have a look I reached up to check the vent and found that my arm went all the way through where the plexiglass used to be.  Ugh!  While we were on the road the wind must have gotten under the roof vent and blown out the plexiglass.  As a temporary solution Angie stuck an umbrella through the vent and opened it up outside.  That kept the rain out until I could fasten a tire cover over the hole with bungie cords.  You have to be resourceful when camping.

It was great to see the members of our Airstream club again.  I learned that a few of the members have Quaker connections.  It would appear that we have more in common than just an interest in aluminum campers.  The weekend was filled with good food and good conversation. The scenery around the campground was beautiful.  I especially enjoyed the views of mist settled in the valleys below us.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough light to get a good picture of that with my camera phone.  Here is a picture of our silver campers all in a row at the camp ground. On Saturday we went to the Carbon County Fair.  We ate funnel cakes and watched the 4-H kids show their animals.  That brought back memories of when I showed my horse and Angie showed steers at our county fairs growing up.  John didn’t realize that we knew so much about showing farm animals.

After visiting the fair we rode a ski lift to the top of a nearby mountain.  At the top we decide to walk rather than ride the lift back down the mountain.  The walk was a little strenuous, but gave us plenty of time to enjoy the views on a beautiful sunny day. Before leaving we stopped at a polish pub for lunch.  When parking, I made sure to leave space between our truck and John’s new Lamborghini (if only!).  Here he is posing beside his dream car.  When you get up close to one of these you realize that this car is basically a giant engine with two tiny seats attached in front.  I bet it flies!

Thankfully we had sunny weather on the drive home so there was no danger of rain coming through that windowless roof vent.  Guess what I will be working on in the next post …

This weekend we made a quick trip to the Jersey Shore Haven campground in South Seaville, NJ.  We planned to stay only two nights, but I was bound and determined to make the trip.  I’m glad we did.  We’ve thoroughly enjoyed both of our visits here.

On this visit we decided to park in the parade field.  The new awning made a HUGE difference.  It was so nice to have some shade right outside our door.

 As soon as we were finished setting up we jumped in the large, clean, heated pool.  I thought the pool looked a little different from last year.  That’s because they installed a new liner.

We concluded the evening with a trip to Carole’s Custard which John says has the best pretzels and custard.

The next morning Angie made breakfast on our little Weber Q grill.  Now that I have the cold water plumbing working in the trailer, we were able to wash vegetables and dishes for our meal.

We found a giant Imperial Moth at the bathhouse.

Of course we went to the beach.  We like Strathmere beach because:  there is no entry fee, we can bring a cooler, and the sand slopes gently well out into the water making for a much gentler surf.  There were a few dogs on the beach.  I wish that our dog Rocky were still with us and could have spent the day at the beach.

On the way back to the campground we swing by Mike’s Seafood to pick up some swordfish, little neck clams, and scallops for the grill.  Delicious.

There was only time left for one more quick dip in the pool before we packed up and hit the road.  Fortunately the traffic wasn’t bad going home.  Along the way we got three enthusiastic thumbs up from motorists who liked our shiny trailer.

We hope to visit JSH again soon.  The sooner the better.