You call THIS a vacation?

We arrived at our camp late Tuesday morning, only to discover that my brain had left on vacation several hours earlier.

“Did you bring the camper keys?” Hubby asked me.

“No,” I replied.

I’ve been known to joke around about such things, so he asked me again, “Seriously. Did you bring the camper keys?”

“I’m not kidding. No. I didn’t.”

Did I mention that our camp is a two hour drive from home?

Thankfully, Hubby had made a duplicate set and hid them. I scoffed at him at the time. Guess I won’t do that again. For a while anyhow. Unfortunately, while those keys may have gotten us into the camper and unlocked the storage bin, they did not include the keys to the shower house. This meant Hubby might have to share MY shower in the camper.

We unloaded the car, opened the windows, rolled out the awning, and swept the floor. By lunchtime, we were settled in.



After we had sandwiches, Hubby set up shop under our awning and tied some flies. (For those city folks out there, this has something to do with fishing.) I did a bit of editing on my manuscript. Then we decided to venture into to town to buy some groceries. As we rode our bikes past the bicycle shop, I thought I spotted a sign in the window that said, “Internet Inside.” Could it be?

Granted the library has high speed Internet, but it’s only open a few hours, a few days a week. And I have to use their computer. I’ve been hoping to stumble across a Wi-Fi hot spot somewhere.

Of course, I’ve been hoping to find cell service so I can check on things at home, too. I had reached the conclusion that I needed the technology fairy to pay me a visit and the little bugger couldn’t find Confluence on the map.

We stocked up on supplies at the grocery store and headed back toward camp. With a stop at that “Internet Inside” bike shop. Sure enough, the owner informed me they had wi-fi. FREE wi-fi. We did a little browsing and found a nice rack for my bike. The thing that attaches to the back of the bike to carry stuff. Hubby mentioned that my birthday is coming up, but he didn’t have any money with him.

No problem. I intended on becoming a frequent visitor to this little shop.

Back at camp, I decided to attempt to make our site look a bit more cozy. I had brought a couple of lavender plants and some geranium type plants I’d dug up from Mom’s overgrown garden. I also brought some cheap border fencing I’d picked up at Wal-Mart and a decorative garden marker that had been gathering cobwebs in the basement back home.

Digging was a major chore. We’re in the mountains. Under an inch of soil is rock. But I managed to get a start on my new flower bed.



The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a shower and some relaxing.

After supper, Hubby took off for the river and I settled in to do a little writing. I also took a stroll around camp and stopped at the resident manager’s trailer where a little groveling scored a new key for the shower house.

Overnight, vivid lightning and loud thunder accompanied driving rain storms. Skye must have sneaked into my coffee stash because she prowled the camper all night long. I know because every lap she made involved stepping on my head.

Wednesday, we saw a little sun, a little rain, and a lot of gray skies. The threat of showers never really left. Instead of biking or fishing, we climbed in the car and went for a drive. First stop, the church that has earned the local nickname of Church of the Immaculate Reception since it’s one of the few spots around where you can get cell service. I phoned home to check in with Mom. All was well there, so we went exploring.

I should have taken pictures, but the weather was so ugly I left my camera back at camp. Suffice it to say, the scenery around here is spectacular. If I weren’t in love with this area already, I am now.

We returned to camp for lunch. Then we headed into town on our bikes. First stop was Confluence Cyclery where I checked email while Brad, the proprietor, installed my new bike rack. Then we cruised around town, getting a better sense of the lay of the land. We discovered a little produce store that closed at 1PM on Wednesdays. Made a note to return and check it out Thursday.

Drizzle drove us back to camp for napping and reading. Skye finally wore herself out and crashed.

I hoped this didn’t mean she’d be rested for more midnight marauding.

It did. She wasn’t quite as active, but she still spent a good part of the nighttime hours playing and chatting. I have no idea who she was talking to.

The keyword for Thursday was RAIN. All. Day. Long. I never did make it back into town to check out the produce store. Nor did I get back to the Cyclery to check email. It was so cold and gray and wet that I didn’t care.

We did drive to the top of the mountain and the church to phone home. I spent the rest of the day writing. Not only did I meet my word count goal for the week, I carved out a good start on next week’s goal, too.

We wandered over to the ice cream place next to the campground during a lull in the rain and ordered supper. Fried chicken for Hubby, mushroom pizza for me. Afterward, I needed to do SOMETHING. I’m just not used to sitting around for hours on end. After all, a large part of the appeal of this area to me is the bike trails. Instead of biking, however, we took a hike to the Youghiogheny Dam, about a half mile from camp. Halfway there, it started drizzling again.

Rain be damned. I did manage to snap some photos from the dam. The view up there is nothing short of spectacular.

This is the lake.

And this looks down toward our camp. We’re through those trees to the left of the river.

This is a shot looking across the dam toward the other side.

Originally, we were supposed to stay through Saturday afternoon, but rain continued all Thursday night into Friday with no break in sight. I was burnt out on sitting around and I finished reading the phenomenal book I’d taken with me. (Thanks, Joyce, for introducing me to Julia Spencer-Fleming!) So we decided to blow off the rest of our vacation and head home.

It stopped raining as we pulled out.