Alone in the Campground

When our arrival date was established, our employer decided to have us on site before the campground opened. This would allow them to utilize us to prep the facility for opening. We were told Artur, in maintenance, would have quite a few tasks to keep him occupied. I, on the other hand – working in the ‘”Welcome Center”, would have limited work to do before the campground opened. However, the sister campground (the ‘north’ to our ‘south’) was already opened, so I would be able to get some hands-on training and exposure to dealing with the campers. So far, this has been very accurate.

What we never really considered in deciding our arrival date, was that we would be staying in a campground that was virtually empty. I don’t know why this thought never occurred to me, but it didn’t. And, honestly, I’m not quite certain what my opinion of that would’ve been before we arrived. But after about a week of being here, it is true peace and solitude staying in an empty campground!

Without the other campers, the deer freely roam the grounds day and night. They are usually in groups of three or four, and always include at least one young. They don’t seem to care about us – even daring to get as close as 30 or 40 feet from us and our dog. We’ve seen wild turkey on the road, but not in the campground. I don’t expect to see that. We’ve heard rumors about a black bear, but have been advised that he won’t show up until August. As terrifying as it might be to see a black bear, I think I would feel jipped if we leave this area without a sighting….

As there are no other campers to mind, Artur has taken the liberty to gather downed branches from around the grounds – we won’t need to buy firewood all season! And seeing the stars at night over our campfire is beautiful – although we haven’t made it to night’s darkest yet, not until the nights warm up a bit! I wonder if the stars will be as bright when all the other campers have their fires lit.

One of our goals on the road is to be social with the people around us (a more difficult task for me, than for Artur!) because many of them will be individuals we wouldn’t have come into contact with in our old lifestyle. We want to appreciate their differences, and learn from the people who share our adventures. So for now, we will soak up as much of the calm and serenity as we can, and look forward to the next “vacant” stop on our route!

Just for fun, here is a photo of the tree I love by our site – it reminds me of a giant Japanese bonsai tree! (No laughing, I know nothing about trees!) Hopefully soon I will have some pictures of the deer!