SailingKnitter

CAR CAMPING the easy way

We made it - all the way from the sunny, humid and hot Atlantic Coast of Georgia to the foggy and downright cold Pacific Coast of Oregon! Our new (used) Dodge Caravan and driver performed flawlessly over the 2-lane by-ways and mountain passes. I knit.

We traveled through 13 states, stayed in 5 National Parks, 3 Forest Service campgrounds, 5 State Parks, 1 BLM campground and 1 private campsite. Total cost for overnight stays and park access was a grand total of $356 (28 nights).

We slept comfortably in our van with our new "tent" attached and on our V-berth cushions from the boat. Our new camp stove and pop-up rain/shade cover worked great.
Our "Deluxe Chairs ($9 each and purchased by our son Brett for the Sebring 12-hour race earlier this year) are still going strong many hours of use. That's Jonesy reading in one of them at our campsite in Fort Mountain, Georgia. This photo was taken before the black bear walked through our site.

Bear? Yep. I was just sitting in my Deluxe Chair reading when I glanced up and saw a bear walking slowly by me. I froze. He came up onto the gravel of our site, looked at me casually, and kept walking. Slowly, slowly, I stood and backed up towards the car. Then I threw myself in the car and started yelling "BEAR!, Bear! Bear!" and honking the horn. Jonesy was just walking up to our site from the bathrooms and he clapped his hands. The bear trotted away - not in a real hurry. Heck, there were lots of kids camped near us!

We notified the park staff and they sent out a guy with a Paint Gun which they use just to scare the bears and discourage them from hanging out at the campgrounds. Turns out this bear was what they call a "yearling". He/she was one of the cubs born last year when they had a population explosion. He was a littler larger than a Bernise Mountain Dog/St. Bernard and much heavier looking. I actually got to about 6 feet of him and could see the beautiful shiny black fur. So that's our bear story.

As I can knit simple socks without having to look at my hands, that's what I did whenever we were underway. Jonesy did all the driving, in fact, I haven't driven our car yet. I make a great "rider" and a mediocre road navigator. But at least I got some socks done. Here's one pair for the teenagers at the orphanages in Kazakhstan. These are simple socks from Regia Ringel Color wool yarn donated by a fellow knitting camper.

More to come! We have bison and Tetons and visits to fiber studios!