First time out!

The whole time we were working on Lucy, we had a date in mind.  Early on, we had found out about a Scotty Rally in western PA and we decided that it would be our first big camping trip.  My original plan was to have her complete by May 1st but that date came and went before she had her aluminum skins on.  Since we had a deadline, there was a flurry of activity at the end to get Lucy ready for camping. We finished her on July 4th and headed out on July 6th.

Headed out

Our destination was Harecreek Campground in Corry, PA.  It ended up taking 7 hours to get there but we had fun along the way.  Harecreek is a nice little campground.  About half of the sites are full time campers.  Sheriff Shirley checked us in and took us on a tour of available sites on her golf cart. We ended up with site 42. It is a deep site with one little shade tree.  All the sites at Harecreek are full hookup.  It took us about an hour to unhook and set up. Once we were done, we took a dip in the really nice pool.

Like I said, this was a Scotty Rally.  We spent 4 nights with some really great people.  There was a campfire every night at Dave and Beth's. We were initiated into the group with Oreo's.  On the first night there were at least 10 types of Oreo's passed around.  The kids loved this. 

Oreo's!

We went to Erie, PA on our first full day of camping.  We ended up at Dobbins Landing.  This is a pier that stretches into the bay.  The views are wonderful.  Many boat tours depart from here.  We had lunch bay side at the Bayfront Grill. After, we drove out to Presque Isle to play on the beach and swim in the lake.  It was really nice with lots of nice sand and clean bath houses. 

Sleeping in

Lake Erie at Presque Isle

Our Scotty group had an Elegant Wine and Cheese dinner one evening.  Everyone dressed up to some extent and we had some excellent food and company.  Thanks to our organizer Gail, I had a tie. The next day we drove to Jamestown, NY and went to the Lucile Ball Museum.  We had a lot of fun learning about Lucy and Desi. We even had lunch at Babilu's.  We ended our stay at Harecreek with a camper open house and Yankee Swap with the group.  The Serro Scotty Camping Enthusiasts are a great group of people and we look forward to camping with them again soon.

We had a few mishaps.  It rained all four nights in Corry and we sprung a leak on the second morning.  I am not sure where the leak originated from exactly but I apparently fixed it because we never saw another drop of water inside. The rain also wrecked our canopy the third morning.  Too much rain collected on the canopy and it collapsed the frame overnight.  Oh well, we will be searching for a different canopy design that won't hold water for next time. 

Elegant Wine & Cheese with the Serro Scotty Enthusiasts

Emily playing Lucy

We pulled out Sunday morning after saying good byes to all of the other Scotty fans.  We drove to Niagara Falls, NY and to Four Mile Creek State Park.  We knew that we had a water front site but were amazed by it's size and view. We were able to see sunsets on Lake Ontario and Toronto in the distance.

Moving on down the road

Site 224.  What a view!

Site decorations

Over the next 2 days, ate well, enjoyed the view and went to the Falls.  It was the first time the kids has seen the Niagara Falls.  Jill and I were there once before 17 years earlier.  We went to the Power Plant on the American side.  It has a really nice visitors center that is free.  Mississippi Mud, in Tonawanda, is a great place for lunch.  They have a variety of sandwiches and an ice cream shop.  Plus the view of the river from the roof is pretty good. The Maid of the Mist was a lot of fun.  It was less wet, but much louder than I expected.  Fort Niagara State Park has a great pool with slides for a minimal cost and is a very nice place to relax in the late afternoon. The Falls at night are very pretty and the parking is free after 8 or so.  

Testing our new hammock

Lake Ontario @ Wilson Tuscarora State Park

Cooking dinner

Sunset on Lake Ontario

We had a great time in the Niagara Falls region.  We wish that we could have stayed another day or two to explore the area, but we had to get back home.  On our way out of town, we stopped at one of the more than 25 winery's in the region. We picked Niagara Landing Wine Cellars because it was the only one with Niagara in the name.  Jill and I did a quick but thorough wine tasting for 10:30 in the morning and departed with 4 nice bottles of wine. 

To break up the drive home, Jill's college roommate, Diane let us camp in her driveway for a night.  Of course this was the hottest day of our trip, but with 2 fans we all still slept comfortably. You may not know this but the movie Shawshank Redemption was shot at a prison in Mansfield, OH.  It is was on our way home so we stopped to have lunch and get a few pictures.  We did not do the tour but I am told it is worth every penny.

Lucy @ Shawshank

Till next time.  Cheers!