November - moving to a new spot - The Cabin

Well, another move in Prince William Park, this time to the Cabin camp. It took a while for us to move, because I went up to New Jersey on November 4th through the 6th. We celebrated my nephew's birthday (Brenden turned 7 years old!) My sister and I went up with the kiddies, to help my parents as well.

They listed their house in Westfield, NJ and sold it in 10 days. And we all thought the market was tanking! Well, I guess in that area they do not have to worry as much.

So my sister and I went through the things that we wanted to keep - me not much, and said goodbye to the house. My parents were very excited and a little nervous, because they were planning to ultimately move down to Williamsburg. But first, while the house was under contract, they got an apartment to live in down by the Jersey shore - in Avon-by-the-Sea. They got a year lease, which makes sense as they can spend the summer there too. This picture is my parents and the kiddies in front of the old house.

While I was up in New Jersey, Sasha was down at the cabin and his parents came over to see him and the cabin. So here are some pictures of that.

Here is Sasha with the Mule and the Cabin.

Here is the Pavilion with the big fireplace. I do not know what was on the lens that made this look so spotty. At the time, there was a fire ban going on, and so the people that weekend could not use the fireplace. The ban was lifted a couple of days later as we had gotten some much needed rain.

This is the Dining Hall of the cabin camp. This building was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) back in ~ 1936 and so it is a historical building. The benches were also built around that time too. This fireplace could be used during the fire ban as it was indoors.

Here is Sasha and his dad checking out something on Sasha's computer in our cabin. The walls are that wood paneling and the floors are tile. The couches are like a suede fabric, very comfy.

I especially like this picture, as Sasha is driving the mule and his Dad is going for a ride. Sasha said that he also got his mom on this mule as well, but we did not get a picture for that.

I came back on November 6th and we had inspectors look over the house on the 7th, I guess it is to check the cabin for any defects so that the National Park could get money to fix it. But the house is pretty good.

We fully moved in before the second weekend and made the cabin our home. How this deal works is that people come during the weekend (usually - although we had a few that came on Thursdays) and I check them in on Friday, and check them out on Sunday. Sunday is usually a longer day, because I have to make sure the place is looking the way it is supposed to look. So if they did not clean up properly, I have to tell them to redo or I have to do it myself.

So most days during the week, I go in with Sasha to the library or his work, and on the weekends I work. We do not have to go to the Laundromat anymore as there is a washer and dryer at the camp. We went to the doctors in the middle of the month, to get checked out (Sasha hadn't gone for over three years so it was definitely time for him!) We got a clean bill of health with a few things that both of us have to do in the new year.

For Thanksgiving, Sasha's sister and brother-in-law invited us down to Topsail, NC. We decided to make this the last hurrah of a camper trip and so got a full week off. Before heading to the beach, we went to  Uwharrie National Forest.  The National Forest has some good trails, but most of them are rocky (Sasha says welcome to the East Coast!) And quite a few of them are very hard to do. I tried to take a picture or two of one trail, but the pictures do not do it justice.

 There was a cross at the top of the trail, we spoke to a regular and he said that a Jeep was doing the trail, overturned and everyone was killed. We decided NOT to do that trail. But we did do several others. Sasha is getting quite good on his motorbike. Me, I am most happy with non-rock situations, because when I go over the rock or hit them wrong, I can feel my thumb jamming. But that does not happen too often, and I like the trails. The picture above shows where Sasha is down at the almost bottom of the hill.

We stayed one night and rode again the next morning. Here is the site that we stayed in. As you can see, no one else around. of course, this is during the week so I guess no one would be around, but on the weekends, this place gets packed.

From Uwharrie, we went to a winery, so that we could bring some wine for Sasha's sister and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving. We went to Uwharrie Vineyard and tried out their wines - some were good, some were ok, and some were icky. Why is it that Virginia and North Carolina wineries are asking people to pay just to taste the wine. I would have thought that they would take out the tasting if we bought, but no such luck. At that rate, it is almost better to just go to a grocery store and buy some wine. Cheaper anyway. But, we went, we tasted and we bought.

Check out Thanksgiving and Busco Beach ATV park. (I split the November page in two, because there were so many pictures, I did not want there to be too long a load time.) As it is, it will take about 1 minute to load with 56 K modem. For those with DSL and other speeds - well, you won't have to worry.

Check out December 2007 - Holidays with Laura's Parents,