We planned to be at Horseshoe Lakes for three weeks, and then move on to Pennsylvania. But, as the move day drew closer, we started hearing about some bugs and things being at the park we were heading to. Also, I was going to be gone for 2 weeks of the time at that park, and Diane and Molly would need to deal with the bugs themselves. We investigated what it would take, and then decided to just go ahead and stay at Horseshoe Lakes for an additional 3 weeks. This meant paying for one week, where we should be out of the park, and then two more weeks of our normal Thousand Trails reservations. For this post, we’ll cover some of the activities and scenes from the first three weeks.
First, I grew up (age 5 to 18) about a quarter mile from the RV park. I had only been in the park twice before. Once before it became Thousand Trails, and the second for my 10 year class reunion. I was pretty excited at the idea to be able to ride bikes with Molly, up and down the streets that I spent so much time on. I had a paper route for something like 5-7 years, and put some serious seat time delivering the paper 5 days a week.
Upon arrival, there were some differences here. Most notable was that you don’t check in at the gate, but rather at the office, which is on a side road before you enter the gate. Ok, no problem. We got in, got a basic briefing of what all the site groups had to offer, and we headed out to pick a spot. The biggest “issue” was the number of tree’s, and how low on the horizon the satellites are here in this part of the country. We found one site, but couldn’t get the dish to latch on, so we moved a couple sites over, and got a lock. Another interesting thing about this park, is the number of Seasonal Sites that are occupied. With the price they charge, and the fact you could stay there from park open to close (April to end of October), there are several people in the program. Some parents of one of my classmates have their camper there in a spot as well. It made for a nice community, and likely the park would be a ghost town without them. I also saw how they basically ran the facility. Some of them officially, and others unofficially. It wouldn’t be as nice a place without them.
Now, all the visiting and fun.
We had a visits from family of course, and also another Fulltime Family came to stay at the park. We had met this other family (The Pickett’s) in California at Wilderness Lakes. They have three younger kids, but they all enjoyed spending time with Molly whenever we’d go over for a campfire. It was great to catch up with John and Mary, and do some in-person smack talk for our Fantasy Football league. John was starting one at the beginning of Football season, and I was able to join. It was my first, and it has been a lot of fun.
During this first three weeks, we got to go over and see the great Pumpkin Works that we’d heard so much about over the years. This is a pig farm turned Halloween extravaganza, near Paris, IL. The farm is owned by my Aunt’s family. They started Pumpkin Works 20 years ago, and it is even on the map! My Aunt and Uncle have also started their own horse carriage company, offering carriage’s for weddings, parades, and such, and they also give horse wagon rides at Pumpkin Works. So, we got to go see them as well as the great Pumpkin Works.
Not sure if it has been mentioned before, but Molly is a great fan of horses. She’s had several lessons while we lived in Orange County, and she was very happy to be able to get a ride with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Cathy’s horses. Even better, she got to DRIVE! And even better than that, she went back and worked as “Uncle Jeff the Great” (a name he recommended) assistant on several days. The J&C horses were only there on the weekends, but Molly spent as much time as possible working with them.
Also during this time, we got some Woopie Pie’s from the Amish, took lot’s of fall color photo’s, rode bikes in the old neighborhood, took care of my Mom’s “honey do list”, installed a new bike rack on the back of the RV, and got a “Stay-a-while” gas line kit so we can use portable tanks and attach them to the RV Propane system. A very productive few weeks. More on the next three weeks in a later post.
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