Summer Vacation Day 7: Hiking, Time With Friends And A Broken RV (Of Course)

Thanks for stopping by to see how our family camping trip is going.  I haven’t sold the RV yet or left the keys in the pickup truck to see if someone would take it off my hands, so I guess we’ll call that a win.  The kids are having an incredible time, which, at the end of the day, is 99% of what matters.  If you want to read about the first six days of our trip, I’ve included those links below:

• 9 Hours of Driving
• Gilmore The Merrier
• One of The Greatest Roller Coasters I’ve Ever Ridden
• Moving Our “House On Wheels” To New Hampshire
• Mount Washington Auto Road
• Cog Railway To The Peak of Mount Washington

The first week of our vacation has me running on fumes, frankly.  I was on a dead sprint to get prepared for the trip and wrap up work projects.  As we sprinted out the door on our trip, I’ve found myself up late working and getting up early as well so that the middle of the day is reserved for time with the family.  We haven’t had a “hang around the campsite” day just yet, but I’m certainly hoping we’ll find one soon.  Yesterday started approaching that.

The kids painted ceramics in the morning and went for a “Hey, Hey” ride with Boo-Boo.  If you’re a family camping, Camp Jellystone will definitely entertain with a ton of included activities.  The Camp Jellystone we’re at right now in Glen Ellis, NH seems to be a fairly new addition, though the campsite has been here for a long time.  They’re in the process of building a big waterpark and they’re adding brand new cottages at a pretty decent clip.

The campsite is pretty big, but there are still nooks and crannies where you can park a trailer and not feel like you’re packed in like sardines, a phenomenon we’ve seen in way too many campsites we visited.  We managed to find a spot nestled on the end of a small row with some trees for shade.  The end of a row is key for not walking out in the morning to someone else’s sewer pipe.  Those spots are also generally a bit bigger for the family to spread out and enjoy themselves.

This park is flanked by two rivers which allows for rafting and a makeshift beach for play time.  The campsite also has plenty of rafts to enjoy the rivers with.

We headed out for a short hike today at Diana’s Baths.  If you’re in the North Conway area, I’d recommend this hike for smaller kids.  It’s only about a 20-minute hike without many hills.  Kids will be rewarded with natural pools, small waterfalls and plenty of rocks to climb on.  While the water was a bit chilly, we could have easily spent a few hours here.

After Diana’s Baths we took a quick trip to North Conway for a visit to an old-fashioned “five and dime” for penny candy.

We wrapped up the day back at our campsite spending time with friends. Our kids enjoyed ice cream with Yogi and had the privilege of showing some new friends exactly who Yogi and friends are.

My friend and fellow travel blogger Jen from Deals We Like swung by so our families could hang out for the evening.  The kids ate pizza, “mined for gems” hung out on the playground and ended the evening with some sparklers.  As much as a camping trip can be a LOT of work, seeing our kids so easily make friends with other kids makes the extra effort worth it.

The RV Breaks (Again)

It wouldn’t be a camping trip if something didn’t go wrong with the virtually new RV.  I had to run to the store last night to grab a few things.  When I got back my wife noted that water had been seeping under the wall in between the bathroom and the kitchen.  I thought maybe the gray tank was full so I went and drained it. But, even with the gray tank empty and the valve wide open any time we run water in the shower more water starts to seep under the wall into the kitchen. A quick search for mobile RV repair places seems to indicate we’re kinda screwed.

The Final Two Pennies

I suspect we’ll be showering in bath houses for the rest of the trip, which will pretty much suck.  I spent 45 minutes walking around the campsite last night with my daughter, shining our flashlight in the showers at the various shower houses.  She deals with anxiety and germs/dirt are one of her triggers.  The shower houses were not……clean, nor did they smell particularly pleasant.  We eventually found one that worked for her and got everyone to bed.  Another late night, but we’re up and ready to tackle another day on the road.

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