WATKINS MILL STATE PARK - APRIL 25TH/26TH

[WarPony]

What time does everyone arrive on Friday? I have to work 24 hours on Saturday, but would like to visit and see everyone's trailers if thats okay.. My options are Friday afternoon/evening or Sunday after I get off work at 8:00 am. Not sure when you pack up and leave.

Thanks, Lorn (and Cyndy)

I don't know about everyone else but we won't arrive until about 7:30 Friday night. We will probably split about 9 or 9:30 Sunday morning. Hope you guys can come up and see the group.

Jeff

[RAYVILLIAN]

Gary and I plan on being there Friday night about 7:00 pm ... leaving Sunday about noon.

Em and I are trying to arrange a potluck for Saturday night and, of course, Gary and I are making DO cinnamon rolls and DO mountain man breakfast for everyone. Em is making Beef Stroganoff with noodles for Saturday night and I am making a DO chocolate/cherry cake.

Everyone is welcome to join us.

Looking forward to seeing everyone ... looks like beautiful weather.
Trudy

[exminnesotaboy]

What time does everyone arrive on Friday? I have to work 24 hours on Saturday, but would like to visit and see everyone's trailers if thats okay.. My options are Friday afternoon/evening or Sunday after I get off work at 8:00 am. Not sure when you pack up and leave.

Thanks, Lorn (and Cyndy)

It might be getting dark on Friday when everyone gets there. Best bet is probably Sunday morning

[WarPony]

Sorry we had to split so soon. The whole trip was pretty much a disaster from the get go. It started with the trailer plug-in on the Jim Dandy not being the same as the Jeep so a trip to the hardware store for a jumper was in line. Got that fixed, gassed up and on the road........ only 45 minutes late, not bad.
Got almost to KC and remembered that I forgot to pack the ceramic heater ........ Anna was not pleased. I thought, "Ehh, I'll just stop at a WalMart and pick one up on the way and return it on Sunday." Bingo, there's one right off the highway in Liberty!! Went in, they were all gone..... uh, oh. No problem, there's a Lowe's on the other side of the highway....... nada. Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond......... nothing. All the heaters had been clearanced out two months ago and the AC's were in stock. All that running took an hour so off to the park to "rough it" without a heater. Found the park after overshooting the entrance, got settled in, met Lorn (chief5) on his way out and started a fire in the soaking wet fire pit.
After I visited with you guys around the fire for awhile we made it back to camp and knocked back a cool one, we hit the hay. I did a very good seal job on the doors and hatch because I woke up around 5 and could hardly breathe!!!!!! Yikes, I opened the door a bit to let some fresh air in but couldn't go back to sleep after that so I went to the restroom and when I returned, Anna was in the Jeep with the heater on. I asked her if she wanted to go home and she said yes. We packed up, caught Gary outside with his doggie and told him about the cold camper and he said he had a heater that he wasn't using. Ahhhhh, the final blow................

I chalk this up to a trip that wasn't meant to be. It was good to see all you guys again, though. Beautiful park, we'll be back there again.

P.S. Man, two people and two dogs sure can use up alot of air in an enclosed space!!!!

Jeff and Anna

[pete.wilson]

Hey

I wanted to say thank for the hospitality extended to myself and whole family. We had arrived about 1:30pm but didn't find anyone arround so we kept walking the park which was avery nice place. We then drove around and checked out more of the park since still no body was around but then at 3:30pm we made contact and had a good time meeting everyone and allowing me to ask a bunch of questions and showing us their rigs. My wife seemed to pretty much enjoy the day; the two older boys (9,8) had fun running around and well our youngest (3) never made it home without falling asleep. Looking forward to the next camp outing and meeting more people. it was a good day!

Pete Wilson


P.S. Anthony, You got a nice Jeep there buddy!

[Joseph]

Kate was out there Saturday - three camps but nobody home at any of 'em.

Anyway, her pictures are up in her Flickr album so let us know which one's yours. Well, I do recognize RayVillian's Winter Warrior and Anthony's tongue box is pretty distinctive so I guess that means the other one is Bills?

This time next year (God willin' an' the creek don't rise) I'll be all settled in Missouri and we'll be able to attend!

Joseph

[WarPony]

Joseph, the one with the red EZ up belongs to Mark and Emalee (AuntiMofKS). Looks like the weather turned out nice. I wonder if everone loaded up and went to eat somewhere .

Jeff

[Miriam C.]

Hey all:

Sorry we missed the gathering - we're in the midst of a C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E gut and remodel of our 1890's warehouse on Route 66 in Galena. Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried to line up contractors can tell you, when one shows up to work, you can't leave!

Hopefully, there will be another chance soon to meet and greet you all. See you sooner than later!

Dan & Cyndy Imming
Galena, KS

The problem seems to be a shortage of really good contractors in the area. If you find one they are booked solid.

[RAYVILLIAN]

I hate to admit that the 1:30-3:30 timeframe when no one could find us ... we were all taking naps!!! Sorry missed out on meeting Kate! Next time, just knock on the door ... we are probably being lazy. It was a great weekend, a little cooler than we had planned but the rain confined itself to a couple of hours Saturday night. Was our first camping outing with our little dachsund that someone dumped at our place about a month ago and he was great.

Hopefully we will get to see everyone again at Petit Jean in June. Know it will be warmer then.

Trudy

[exminnesotaboy]

wow, were we all lazy! as Gary said, we all took naps and missed our visitors - bummer.....

For those who missed this weekend, you missed really good weather and good food. We had nice fire going the entire time for the cooler times.

It was great meeting the new folks that stopped by, and of course, it is always good camping with all our friends!

[chief5]

Thanks for the hospitality that everyone showed us. We enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing the trailers. It really got Cyndy in the mood to go camping.

Warpony, sorry you had so much difficulty. Glad we met you and would still like to see the other trailer. We still go to Powhatten every couple of weeks. I will PM you next time were out.

Thanks again everyone.

Lorn & Cyndy.