Archives for October 2012

Woke up to a changed forecast, now 70% rain, which it started to do as we were getting up. It didn’t start to let up until nearly 2:00, and the sun didn’t come out until 3:00, so it was too late to go for a ride, though I did take the horses for a little walk and let them graze on some fresh grass for awhile. We decided a rest day was a good idea anyway, as we have a very long drive tomorrow and need to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Since we didn’t have a cell phone or internet signal here, and I had to run into town to the post office and grocery store anyway, I found a wi-fi signal at Friendly’s and did some computer work. Unfortunately, what started out as an effort to get a few simple confirmations of my planned route turned into a nightmare. Everywhere I called it was No, No, No! Even publicly designated Pa Game Land prohibited overnight camping of any kind! I never heard of such a thing! Anyway, I ended up spending hours there trying to solve the problem, and in the end, didn’t really solve it, except to find one tiny spot along the side of a highway that didn’t have any trails. Time to rethink the whole thing, so I came back to camp frustrated that it was now too late to ride, and we had more logistics problems than we had before I went to town. After considerable discussion, and a slew of alternatives, we finally settled on driving straight through to the Michaux State Forest (if it could be confirmed, though all indications are they welcome horse camping-I even had previously downloaded a brochure about it), which is just a little west of Gettysburg. There are no fees, though no facilities, but knowing that, we can arrive prepared. Too late to ride, so we just settled in, though I had several conversations with the two hunters that keep coming back, Nick and Dominic. Dominic even brought a couple of ladies who live nearby and have horses to visit with us, so we had a nice chat for a while. He also gave us some apples, a loaf of hefty bread, which we discovered later with soup was a nic sun-dried tomato bread, and a bag of nice Italian rolls, very thoughtful of them. Forecast calls for just a 20-30 percent chance of rain for tomorrow, hope it doesn’t, I’d sure like to get at least ONE ride in while we’re here!

As predicted, it rained much of the day today, and we started the day with housekeeping and chores, then reading and me working on the computer making plans. Got most everything packed away as we prepare for our departure tomorrow.

Hubby discovered the regulator for our propane tanks is about to give up the ghost, so I took a drive into town to go to an RV place I found that had a replacement. I also stopped at the post office on the off chance my packaged had arrived, but it didn’t, and I also went to a Verizon store to buy a car charge for my new smart phone (it really is an energy pig) and to adjust my plan. I’ve decided to keep my USB aircard for the time being, it really proved to me over the last few weeks that it is better for getting online than the built-in hotspot on my phone, and considering how much time we spend in fringe areas, I need to keep it for now. The sales guy tried to talk me into a jetpack, but no one there could say for sure if it worked in an extended network area, so I passed. Finished running errands and headed back to camp, stopping once more at the Walmart to buy an earbud for my smartphone so I could listen to radio on it. Despite forecasts to the contrary, it hardly rained at all today, though it was cloudy and threatening most of the day. Got back to camp and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Rained all day, everything soggy, but the trees are starting to turn gorgeous colors. Spent the day working on the computer and making phone calls, trying to settle on a floorplan and manufacturer of our next RV. Couldn’t do much else, a really wet day out there!

After a fitful night sleep, still trying to relax after yesterday’s debacle, we were in the middle of breakfast when a old ranger showed up. He proceed to walk around the vehicles, taking down information, before he finally managed to find our patio door, which I opened. He said in a miserable tone, good morning, and I responded, “not necessarily.” The next words out of his mouth were, “Well, if you don’t like it here, you should just leave.” Just like that. I guess he had had a conversation with the young man I had railed at last night, and he came loaded for bear. So I opened the patio door, and Hubby said, “What’s going on?” And I said, “We’re leaving.” His jaw dropped, but he knew better than to question me when I use “that tone,” so he just stood and listened awhile. The ranger then said, fine, that will be $24. I had Hubby get the cash while I just stood there shaking my head. Finally I said, “You know, if you were a private business and I walked in the door unhappy, the manager would do their best to find out what was wrong in order to help me. Obviously you’re not the least bit interested in trying to make your customers happy.” I tried to explain about the misinformation, and he wasn’t interested. He claimed he didn’t know what I was talking about, but a minute later he said he had heard the several messages I had left on the answering machine the afternoon before (they closed at 4:00), so I knew he was lying. He kept asking me for my name so he could put it on the receipt, but I refused to give it to him. He didn’t deserve to know who we were, because he obviously didn’t give one whit about us, so to hell with him. We finally exchanged cash for receipt and he left, instructing us that “checkout time was at noon.” We couldn’t get out of that placed fast enough. We packed up faster than I think we have ever done, and in about 45 minutes, we were rolling out the gate. Funny, we had noticed yesterday in our search for water that there was very little evidence that the campground had had any horses in it for a long time, and now we could certainly understand why. We’d had bad vibes since we got there, and they were confirmed every step of the way. What a waste! But, like so many things that happen to us, it all worked out for the best. We had clear skies, gradually getting more cloudy, as we traveled the hour to the next camp, the Lost Silvermine Horse Camp in Nautchaug State Forest. When we arrived at the ranger station there, we were warmly greeted by a ranger there (glad to know not everyone in CT is a jerk like the last guy), who let us top off our tanks with their easily accessible outside spigot, gave us a bunch of maps and directions to the horse camp, just a mile up an excellent gravel and dirt road. We arrived shortly thereafter, pulling into a completely wooded area, no landscaped grass, just lots of woods, with lots of privacy between sites, a CENTRAL water pump (which we already knew was a pump, so we came prepared), and just a gorgeous selection of sites. Hubby picked one nearest the pump, and, knowing we couldn’t get a satellite signal because of the woods, got set up fairly quickly, just in time before the rain hit. If we had left Frog Hollow any later, we would have really gotten caught in the rain, so, once again, everything worked out for the best. This is MUCH more to our liking, and the best part, it’s FREE!! We decided we’d stay here until next Monday, so I called the Post Office at home and arranged to have my mail forwarded to General Delivery at the nearest local branch. It then proceed to rain all day, and because it was going to get cold tonight, we bundled the horses in their winter blankets on a nice long highline, had an extra brandy (or two) to settle our jangled nerves, and proceeded to try to unwind from all the recent aggravation! Good news! I have a GREAT cell phone signal here, 2-3 bars, so all around, this is going to be a MUCH better place to stay!

Still cloudy when we headed out, a little later than usual to miss the rain, and, thankfully, the rain held off, and it became progressively more clear as we headed south. Found a hay stop on craigslist, FABULOUS smelling hay the horses are going to LOVE! The bales were kind of light for $6, but they were worth it. Grateful for the clearing skies, kept the hay dry! Made several stops along the way, which delayed us longer than we hoped, but after several stops to confirm with maps and GPS that we were on the right track, (there were no signs on the road to the horse camp at all!), we finally arrived at Frog Hollow Horse Camp in the Pauchaug State Forest. There are two choices of horse camps in Connecticut, this one and the Lost Silvermine Camp in Nautchaug State Forest about 20 miles away. We chose Frog Hollow because we thought they would have more amenities, as they charge $24/night for out-of-staters ($14 for residents), while Silvermine was free. Normally, I like free better, but we were pretty tired from all the rain and chores we had done over the weekend, and thought the amenities would make it nicer. So, after having spoken with them on the phone about water, checked their website, and listened to their answering machine state over and over again that each campsite had a fire ring, a picnic table, and access to spigot water, we arrived at the horse camp (having had to get directions from a neighbor again) which had quite a narrow gate, which opened up into a fairly open loop. The inside of the circle was meticulous lawn, and the outside were the campsites. We spent 15 minutes walking around the camping area looking for “spigot” water, and finally, at the edge of Site 1 we found an old handpump! Apparently that was their idea of a spigot!! Well, we were pissed. For $24 a night we figured on a bit more than that! No corrals, no highline posts, no amenities for the horses whatsover. The pump wasn’t even centrally located, which meant if anyone parked in Site 1, it blocked the pump from everyone else in the campground! (not that there was anyone, but if there were). Anyway, since we had been told there was a spigot, we hadn’t filled up the RV either, so we had no water at all. After some discussion, we finally decided I should run back out with the trailer and try to find a spigot and fill up the RV and the 55 gallon drum we have for the horses, which usually gets us through 3 days. Because the gate was so narrow and the angle was so bad, I scraped the side of my truck on the metal post, the first boo-boo I’ve caused in the two years I’ve had my truck : -( , which did NOT improve my already pissed off mood. I headed down to where the map said there was a ranger station, and when I turned in to a poorly marked driveway, it seemed it was only a tiny parking area with a kiosk. I didn’t the nearly invisible sign that apparently indicated the ranger station was further down the road, but I don’t like going down roads I’m not sure I can turn around on, so I VERY slowly and carefully maneuvered around the tiny parking area and turned around, heading back up the road again, thinking I’d missed it, or maybe I would find someplace else I could fill up. No luck. I finally reached the road back to the horse camp, and had to turn around and try again. This time, I finally saw the tiny sign for the ranger station on the same road I had turned into before, so I bravely headed forth hoping I’d find it. Eventually I did, but naturally, by the time I got there, it was closed. I started looking around for an outdoor spigot I could use, but no luck there either. Just before I was really ready to go ballistic, a young man arrived, and after a few questions, learned he worked there, but had already quit for the day, and was about to go running. I pleaded with him to let me fill my tanks, and after a bit of reluctance, he finally opened up the garage and ran a hose out. Naturally, the water was a trickle, and took an eternity to fill up, so much so that when it came to the horse barrel, I only filled it about 2/3, because at the rate I was going it was going to be dark by the time I got back to the campground. All during that time I was trying to explain to the young man why I was so upset, that I had been lied to repeatedly about the water, that all of the information said it was a spigot, and that there were amenities. He tried to tell me that a pump was a spigot. He also tried to tell me the reason the signs for the ranger station were so hard to see is because they wanted to keep it looking “natural.” He also tried to tell me a bunch of other crap, until I finally had to just put up my hand and explain that CT was our 39th state of horse camping, and that this was the worse case of misinformation that I could remember, and he might as well just give up trying to convince me that they were right and I was wrong. Finally I headed back out to the campground, where Hubby had put up the highline and set things up as best he could. I quickly put the trailer back in place, and he managed to get a satellite signal just before dark. Bad news, there was no cell phone signal here at all, not enough to make a call or get online. Not happy campers here at all today! Why do they lie? If they had just told us the truth, we could have done all of this before we got here and things would have been fine! Grrrrr!