Camping at Rocky Gap

I'm back! So many things to share so I decided to start with the past week and work backwards. We had a wonderful week at Rocky Gap State Park. We decided that this is our favorite place to camp--during the week. We understand it is pretty busy on the weekend. There is a beautiful lake and lots of wooded campsites. Even though there were several campsites occupied around us, we still felt sufficiently secluded. Our only blot in the trip was the family across from us the first two days. The mother was very loud, it seems like she couldn't talk in a normal conversational voice! Happily, they weren't at their campsite much during the day! We had wanted to get a campsite right on the lake but there were none available for the whole time we were there. Next time we know to reserve a spot ahead of time!
This was our first time using our kayaks in almost three years and the first time we had ever taken them with us camping. It was wonderful! We had a site across from the lake with a view of it when no one was camping in that site. We were able to leave our kayaks tied on a little bit of land and were relieved that we didn't have to carry them back and forth or load them on the car to put into the lake. We went out on the lake every day, sometimes several times. We put in and paddled to the camp store to pick up milk, across the lake to the day use area where there was a snack bar that had delicious ice cream in waffle cones (we tried a different flavor every day--my favorite was muddy sneakers!), to the beach to swim, dry off and then paddle some more, or just to explore around the lake. I was afraid I would drop my camera in the lake so didn't usually take it with me and missed an adorable shot of a mama duck with her three little goslings, their little legs paddling like crazy trying to keep up with mama who was trying to move them away from the danger (me!). Bill missed a good shot (he said) of me as he followed me along the shore and I passed under a hanging branch. So you just have to imagine those. The last day I did take my camera in a plastic bag and got this shot of Bill from my kayak.

We did a lot of relaxing, too. It was wonderful to just sit and read. I loved sitting in my folding chair in the quiet morning and read my Bible and pray. But I also took several other books with me. I am reading a book on Abigail Adams and also reading The Count of Monte Christo and loved sitting in the fresh air reading those or working in a book of puzzles (I have become addicted to Suduku!). Bill also enjoyed reading his Bible and having his dear Washington Times--although he had to read it for several days as we had no access to that paper. Every night he used a part that he had already read to start the evening fire. He will be really happy on Sunday to finally get a fresh copy (The Washington Times no longer prints a Saturday edition.)


I love cooking when we are camping. We usually only had a campfire in the evening and cooked our meal over it. Usually we ate a late big breakfast and then our big meal early so then in the evening we sometimes made grilled cheese sandwiches in our hobo pie makers in the fire (with no dish cleanup in the dark!) But the last morning Bill made a fire and I cooked pancakes and bacon over the fire, which is my favorite way of cooking when camping. I had my trusty dutch oven with us (always!) and the first night baked potatoes in it (with an extra one so I could slice and fry it for breakfast). Then another night we cooked our meal and then I let the fire burn to beautiful coals and used the dutch oven to make a peach cobbler. It made enough to feed eight--which shows that I still don't have the knack of camp cooking for two!

On Thursday we decided to drive into Cumberland. I have never been there before although we have driven over the city numerous times on trip further west. It was a nice day and we enjoyed especially visiting the museum about the C&O canal (pictured at right). But, of course, we picked the hottest day of our trip. It was fun to wander through unique shops. There was a book store which sold new and old books and although we resisted the urge to buy a lot of old books, it was fun to peruse them from the comfortable chairs scattered through the store. We spent a good deal of time in a store called Social Studies and talking with the interesting proprietors. I am not going to reveal what this store carried. I would like to give everyone a chance to guess what they think they sold. (I want to hear especially from Tara et al, since she likes to run contests as well.) When I have received enough guesses I will post pictures of some things I purchased there and tell the interesting stories we heard.

On our last day we kayaked in the morning and then Bill decided to do a little snorkeling where we had our kayaks moored. I sat on the shore and watched and relaxed snapping this picture as he emerged from the aquatic underbrush. We then sadly carried our kayaks back to camp to load on the car. We had a final sandwich at our picnic table before heading to the day use area. We had planned to take a short hike on a trail that was supposed to lead to a canyon view. However, it turned out to be a long walk from the parking area along the road to the trail head. It was a very hot day and after walking for about 15 minutes, consulted the map which showed us we weren't even halfway. However, we did see a sign to the Scales & Tales aviary and decided to take a look at it. But, although according to their literature, it should have been open, it was not. We were able to walk around the outside and look through the fence but were disappointed not to meet the naturalist and chat about how Scales & Tales was doing in the west. We decided to walk back to our car and visit the snack shop for one last ice cream before heading home. It turned out that our timing for that was about perfect as we were told that there had been a power shortage requiring them to move all the ice cream and that it had just been returned. While eating our ice cream, the park manager came in. He recognized Bill and joined us for a little chat. He was disappointed that we were leaving and that he hadn't been informed that we were there. He gave us his card and said to let him know the next time we were coming and he would arrange for free camping. He was surprised that we didn't have a pass and said he would like into getting us one. So that was a nice ending to our trip. We planned to stop in Hancock at an antique mall and followed the signs but never could find it. But that allowed us to arrive home early enough to pick up pizza and enjoy that with Ryan (Shawn had made other plans that didn't include mom and dad for some reason.) I am including one last picture that I took from the opposite shore from our campsite. You can see the day use beach. The camping beach is at the opposite end and isn't visible.

A wonderful week--now to get back into the real world mentality!