Memorial Weekend camping

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Part of me wanted to call this camp “our” camp. At a little over $100 a night to rent, it's a fraction of the cost of owning our own. Very recently we had reason to want this and part of me was looking the past couple years. But I'm not sure staying in a cabin in this state is an option anymore. I've tried a couple possibilities.







I really didn't want to spend Memorial day weekend at home so I hunted and found a camping franchise I've used before, KOA. The last time we used one was 2001. We had our own accommodations, a Winnebago, to come across the country.







I booked it clear back in November 2016 so they might have been turning people away. There was a “no vacancy” sign out front, like you might see in a hotel that was booked solid. There were a couple issues with it, a couple of which could be corrected.







1. This is the last camp with our teenagers. They've grown and they're ready to be with their friends instead of their parents.



2. This is the first big camping weekend of the year. Under different conditions, it might not be as crowded.



3. The cabin we were in did indeed sleep four. It might have been a better arrangement to remove the bunk beds and call it sleeping two. Quarters were a little cramped.



4. In the northeast, the weather can be unpredictable so you try to be ready for most anything. The cabin had air conditioning and heat. Heat worked, AC didn't. Both my teenagers had trouble sleeping from the heat. When sleep is affected, your experience declines. So we may have to stick with hotels and AirBNBs for accommodations on our travels.







There were a couple other things that irritated but we just chalked it up to tourist trap/marketing.







Visiting area attractions was relatively relaxed and based on interests. We've been to VINS as well as the Montshire Museum before. Each time brings new and interesting things to learn about, play with. I need to consider a membership to the Montshire and maybe visit every quarter. I'm glad I trekked down to the bottom of the Quechee Gorge. It's one thing to marvel at it from the top, another to experience the formation from the water.







It was neat to be on the edge of VT, the edge of the CT River and be able to see NH at the Montshire. Both my youngest and I wanted to do some hiking. Ironically, the section of a trail marked “the Bluff” as a lookout had so much foliage you couldn't see the water. We walked along further and found better places.







I wondered if the Billings Farm & Museum was something we'd have any interest in so we stopped there. Since we're around horses and cows locally, we didn't think it was worth the price so we just watched a 30 minute video about the history of the farm.







And last was our history trip, visiting the Calvin Coolidge homestead. It seems there's a local camp, straight up for about a mile. We stumbled over it while looking for the homestead, looked it up later. Although it says they have an RV dump site, there are no hookups. I can't imagine bringing an RV up there. I might consider revisiting the homestead at a later time. We got there with only an hour left of the day. The receptionist was great and let us squeeze into the last tour of the day even though it might have been full. I was grabbing pictures and videos as quickly as I could around the crowd. Only a 30 minute tour and I could have spent hours there.







Everything was close enough so we were able to finish an attraction and go back to our cabin for lunch, eliminating the dining out expense. We found a great gas station that doubled as a general store just down the street, shopped for groceries there, great employees there too.

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Photos

The place that memories were made
This is the same picnic table and they sat at the same place their grandparents would always bring lunch to

music section
The Montshire had a whole section devoted to music

NH/VT
The CT river and NH from the top of Montshire

NH/VT
Chrissy and I sitting on the edge of VT, the edge of the CT river, looking out toward NH

Peeper!
On one of the trails, Chrissy spotted a tiny peeper

CT river
The CT river from the Montshire

Spin table
We all had a ton of fun playing with objects getting spun all over

Calvin Coolidge
A barn that had a number of old machines

Ladder
The guide said something about the special apple picking ladder overhead

Horsepower
The guide mentioned about this was how horsepower was originally measured. One person asked how the horses were encouraged to move forward, somebody else mentioned food?

general info
About Coolidge in this barn

barn
This is the barn with all the old machinery, the apple picking ladder, the horsepower measure

birthplace
I think this was Coolidge's birthplace

sofa
Made from horsehair

birthplace
section of the birthplace

birthplace
Another section. I don't know if somebody (the guide?) took down the small chain because people were coming out of there to the point of where I thought it was ok to go in. He didn't want people stepping on the rug

Barn
Another shot of that barn

worship
Where Coolidge worshipped

homestead
The homestead. I've learned homes were built a section at a time, depending on need. Sometimes, like where wood was chopped, there was a room devoted to that so you could do it without freezing in the winter

old equpment
So much amazing old equipment, well cared for and made sturdily enough so they can be viewed today