when we tried to book a spot, no luck.
The colors are starting to pop out in the mountains. We have had beautiful weather and it has been
cool at night and warm during the days. I imagine we will see more color going to Charlottesville. We haven't traveled much this summer, what with my back surgery and then Terry's hernia surgery, and we had totally forgotten about the "other" three-day holiday. . . Columbus Day. We used to always consider Labor Day to be the last hurrah of the camping season, but now this holiday sneaks up and the state park was completely booked. So in looking through the area, we found this camp, just two miles up the road.
I really don't have any complaints about this little camp, other than it is a bit pricey. There is no wi-fi and no cable, but our satellite is working. But there are no "locals" to be had so that is a bit of an inconvenience for Terry. . . not much for me. We have a nice, level spot and we were the only campers in the "travel" section. There are seasonals here galore, but they are on another loop and many are hidden by trees, which is nice. We haven't inspected the showers, but the owner himself told us they weren't very good. He bought the camp about a year and a half ago and is slowly working at making improvements and he said the bath house will be the next big project. He is very nice and stops to chat, remembering our names even! We decided to stay here for four nights since it IS a holiday weekend and the chances of getting in anywhere else between here and Charlottesville on Sunday would be quite slim. So we are kickin' back and relaxing.
Today we drove over to the state park. Rocky Gap State Park has a casino. . . how cool is that? We went by it on our way to our camp and the parking lot was full. I thought that might be a good sign. So we went in this morning. It was busy, but lots of machines were empty. I did well on everything I played and walked away with more money than I spent. It was fun because I was actually entertained for a bit. Terry didn't do as well, so combined we were just about $12 to the good. But, hey, we were entertained for about 90 minutes and paid money to do it! Nothing wrong with that.
We came back and let Duchess out and then took off again. This time we inspected the state park campground. There were a lot of sites there that we could get Phaeton Place in. We were wondering in the event we are ever in the area again. Then we drove on in to Cumberland, Maryland. Terry wanted to visit the C & O Canal museum and site. They have a very small parking lot and we drove through, but it was completely full. So we motored on to Frostburg, Maryland. There was a fiber shop there I wanted to peruse, so we went a few miles up the road to that. The shop was very interesting, but I didn't buy anything. I'm just learning to crochet and I don't really want to invest in really expensive yarns until I get really good at it.
On the way back, we stopped at
the only remaining toll house in Maryland along the historic National road. It was constructed in 1811 and 
made Cumberland the Gateway to the West establishing mile marker one. It is in the town of LaVale and is seven sided. There were placards on the sides to indicate the costs of passage 
through the gates on the road. Very interested. We have seen a couple others along the National Road in Pennsylvania.
Coming on down into Cumberland, we were able to find a parking place and visited the C & O Canal Museum and visitor center. We read about the importance of the canal boats in moving coal and other goods along the canal which ran from Cumberland to Georgetown. We have visited the Georgetown canal area when Jocelyn was in school there. Families often lived and worked together on the boats up and down the canals. There was an area for their mules to rest on the boat as well as the family quarters.Once we got back to camp, we found that many more campers had arrived. Last night there were only two of us, but tonight there are about a dozen more. This must be a popular place.
Till next time. . .
Dale
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