We got this new travel trailer in December of 2000.  There had been a couple feet of snow blocking its exit from the driveway for what seems like months.  A coworker, who knew I have been wishing to take it out on a trip, said, "The weather forecast for this weekend is great. You should go camping in your trailer."  Their advice was good.  Their weather forecasting ability was bad.

 

            Thursday night, Ann and I talked it over, and decided let's try it, just an over-night stay somewhere close, but far enough away to keep us from thinking we had not gone anywhere.  We picked Gambrill State Park, just west of Frederick.  The MD State Parks web page said they were open year round.  We also considered going to a KOA in Harpers Ferry, but decided that they were too expensive at $32/night vs. only $10 (or $15 with electric) in the State Park.

 

            So Friday night we got a change of clothes, food and entertainment items together, as we watched the weekend weather forecast change to dreary.  Saturday morning, with gray clouds filling the sky and a mist in the air, we kept getting ready.  In the process of testing the water system, I discovered that the RV dealer had left out the drain plug to the hot water heater when they winterized the plumbing, and I did not have anything that fit the hole.  We decided that we would stop by the dealer, on Route 15 north of Frederick, on the way to Gambrill, since that would only be about ten miles out of the way. 

 

            The 50-mile drive north to the dealership took us into fog and light rain.  The dealership quickly gave us a drain plug replacement, no problems, and we headed to Gambrill.  My map indicated that we should head west on Interstate 70 to exit 48 which would be within a mile or two from the campground.  The highway signs, however, had different plans for us.  Exit 49 proclaimed access to Washington Monument State Park, which has no campground, but failed to mention Gambrill State Park.  We drove on.  There was no Exit 48.  Then nothing until Exit 42 where signs said get off here for Greenbrier and Gambrill State Parks.

 

            OK, we followed the signs north on Route 17 to Route 40, then east about eight miles to the entrance to Gambrill State Park.  Why did they take us an extra six miles West on I70 then six miles back East, parallel to I70, to get there.  That prolonged the time it took us to discover that the Gambrill State Park Campground had a barricade across the entrance with a big sign saying, "Closed for the Season".  We stopped in the day use parking area, and Ann walked over to the covered bulletin board and read the informative bulletin that the campground was open year round.  Something does not compute here.

 

            A passing hiker told us that the campground closed in the fall. We discussed the possibility that the state had a budget cut and called the campground staff and said there was no money, go home.  Then we discussed alternative places to go camping, including Cunningham Falls, another State Park, and Crows Nest in Thurmont, a private campground that we camped at when we only had two kids.  Wow!  That was a long time ago.  I think that was the place where Judy and I went on a hike up the mountain and got caught in a sudden gully washer.  Moreover, since the trail was a gully, there was no place that Judy could walk without being washed away.  Therefore, I carried her on my shoulders back down the mountain. 

 

            We mentioned to the hiker that we had also considered the KOA in Harpers Ferry, and he proclaimed that was our best bet.  The KOA would certainly be open.  So taking the advice of a total stranger, we headed back east toward Frederick so we could pick up Route 340 west to Harpers Ferry.  We passed through the same complex intersection of I 270, I70, US40 and State 340 for the third time today, each time from a different direction and going out in a different direction. 

 

            Peanut Butter crackers from the glove box fed us and reminded Ann that we had not packed bread, or peanut butter, or jelly.  We decided that we would cook a can of soup for lunch if we ever found a campground. 

 

            The directions for the KOA said, “From junction of Route 340 and Harpers Ferry Park entrance: Go 25 feet S on Harpers Ferry entrance rd, then ¼ mi W on Campground Road. Entrance at end.”  I was so amazed at instructions to go 25 feet between turns, that I turned east and followed the narrow sub development road a quarter mile to a dead end with no campground, with little space to turn around a car with a travel trailer.  But we managed the backing up to a sharp bend and turning around there, then headed back to the park entrance.  Sitting there trying to figure where we had gone wrong, we could see a KOA sign in plain view where either one of us should have seen it. We assume they put that sign up after we made our wrong turn.

 

            Finally, going west this time, we reached the Harpers Ferry KOA, situated on an actual Civil War Battlefield.  Of course, most of the land within a five-mile radius of the historic town was at one time or another was a place of Blue/Grey conflict.  Signs said Proceed to Registration Building ahead.  We got to the Registration Building, and found the door locked.

 

            Then Ann spotted the hours of operation.  They close up between one and two in the afternoon, presumably to go get lunch.  There was a late registration box with campground maps and indications of which sites were open in the winter, less than a half the total sites, but favoring those with hookups.  OK by us.  We picked a site that did not have adjacent neighbors and parked the trailer in it, but did not start to set up right away.  Instead, we took a short walk around to find what was there.  Eventually, we returned and so had the operator, so we registered and went back to set up in our first ever campsite with the new trailer. 

 

            As you know, I am a checklist freak, and had made checklists for setup and takedown to make sure we never forget something like lowering the TV antenna before leaving a campground.  We made a few modifications to the setup list as we proceeded.  We have concluded that, even though we got a real Travel Trailer to replace the old Coleman Pop-up Trailer to make life easier, there is now more to be done.  It is just easier to do it.  In addition, you really do not have to wait until you crank up the top before you can get to anything inside.  If you want to grab a cookie from the galley, or a sweater from your stashed clothes, just walk right in and get it.

 

            We finished the check list of tasks without feeling exhausted and actually felt quite comfortable as we experimented with the various devices, and storage areas, made the beds with sheets and pillows, and all kinds of nice at home touches.  Then we both wondered if it was lunchtime yet.  Hmm!  Three o’clock already and we have not eaten, so Ann put a pot of soup on the stove and we were eating shortly after that.  The stove sits inside on the galley, or outside mounted on the side of the trailer for outdoor cooking, so we have banished the old green Coleman Stove to the shed.  We cook with propane now.  It is easier, and faster.  I may never go back to the white gas burning Coleman that takes vigorous pumping and constant tending.

 

            After lunch we took a walk through the sections of the campground that were only open in summer.  A remnant Civil War trench used as an artillery fort runs through the middle of the campground. They have posted informative plaques at intervals along the top.  We then visited the game room where Ann tried a couple quarters worth of Ms Pac-man, then went back to the trailer to keep exploring how to live in it.  That was, as we have said, the whole purpose of this trip.  So do not ask us if we visited the historic Harpers Ferry.  We did not. 

 

            That evening we played a game of Skip Bo.  We hooked up the tiny television to the trailers built-in rotating, booster amplified antenna, and watched programming from Baltimore.  Not bad reception, either. We read books, and played with the over bed lights to make reading in bed achievable.  That night, we both slept well, the furnace providing a comfortable sleeping temperature, and truly enjoyed the comfort of not having to go out and walk a couple hundred yards in the rain to the campground rest rooms to perform natural biological functions.  The trailer has its own bathroom.  Actually, there has to be a shorter word to describe it, like privy, or WC, because the word bathroom takes up more space on this page than there is in our bathroom.

 

            In the morning, the weather had not improved much, still foggy and damp.  We listened to the forecast and there were thunderstorms on the way for the afternoon.  We did not really want to have to break camp or be trying to back the trailer up our driveway in a thunderstorm, so we used the takedown list to break camp right after breakfast. We made a short stop at the Harpers Ferry National Park Visitor Center to gather information for planning another visit some day, but did not take the shuttle into town.

 

            Other than a bit of trouble getting the trailer’s brakes to behave, the trip home through the fog was uneventful.  In addition, you guessed it; we passed through that same complex intersection at Frederick in yet a fourth direction.

 

                                    --  Bob Kuhns