I finally found a bit of time to get the newsletter together after a crazy week last week.  Hope everyones holiday weekend was filled with fun and enjoyable camping experiences.

We decided to hit a new campground, which as seasoned camping veterans, would be considered a rookie mistake.  Lucky for us it was pretty close to home and the reason we have not stayed before, since I need to be at least an hour away to break the home umbilical cord.   With over 400 campsites I knew check in would get crazy and little did I know just how crazy it would get.  Being close we got there early on Friday and since they include the word resort in the campground name (shouldn't their be some sort of criteria a campground must meet to include the word resort in their name) they wanted us to sign up for a time to consider a membership.  Why would they do this on such a busy weekend with campers stacking up onto a busy two lane 55 mph road is beyond me?   I am not a membership kinda guy  so I told them "not interested" and headed back to the RV.  They were not happy with me and I thought to myself it's a good thing they weren't serving food or I think they would have spit in it.  With the entrance stacking up I got lucky and the one and only escort on duty was available, (just one??) but not so lucky they did not know were my site was and took me on the scenic route and we ended up on the wrong side of the pull through site.  She said I could park backwards (really??),  I thanked her and she headed back for the next poor soul and we negotiated our way around and entered the site correctly.  Thankful to be parked, I jumped out and quickly noticed they had not cut the grass throughout the whole place for at least a week and half and even longer in outlying areas, there were dueling stereos in the ever growing tent city across from us and the large lake in the center of the place was close to being completely covered over in plant life.  I was getting more and more critical and after a quick pep talk from Michelle and remembering that it's all in the attitude, the weekend turned around from there.  The tent city was interesting to watch, the puppies loved the long walks around the campground, tons of kids were catching fish in the lake, for the most part it was a dry weekend so the tall grass was not an issue and we were camping with friends.  Although I sometimes forget, I have learned a life filled with gratitude, acceptance, love and joy can turn what seems like a disaster into some of the most memorable life experiences.  Oh and being out camping doesn't hurt either!