Sunday, July 1, 2012 - Move to Bear Springs Mountain near the Catskills, NY

Woke up just before 8:00, decided to have breakfast at Dennys up the road, so we didn’t even take the time to make coffee. Got everything packed up very quickly, and we were heading out the driveway by 8:45. Stopped for diesel while Hubby got our table, had a nice breakfast before heading out toward the Catskills. Forgot to get gas in the containers for the generator, so we stopped again at the exit, just in time for a friend’s phone call regarding an upcoming job in August. After a 30 minute conversation, we moved on, arriving at the campground shortly thereafter. We missed the first entrance to the campground, and the second entrance was too shart a corner for my big rig coming from that direction, so we had to back up and turn into the day parking area across the street in order to reconnoiter the campground. Many sites were taken, none by horse campers. In fact, it doesn’t actually look like there’s much in the way of horse use at all, even though there are many covered stalls here. The only real sign of activity was that there was some manure in the manure bin, but that could have been there awhile. Nevertheless, it was a reserved spot (though there wasn’t any indication of that on the site post, which they usually do in the more expensive parks), and it’s not large enough to be too crowded over the 4th of July week, which we figured it would be at all the free horse camps around. Of course, originally we were going to be going to Rhode Island from here, so it was on the way, but plans have changed again, we’re heading to Syracuse, then Rochester after that. It’s not too far out of the way, though, and it was prepaid, so we decided to do it anyway. We knew we were a novelty here when all of the many kids in the campground wanted to come up and meet the horses, so our load-in took a lot longer than usual, as we took the time to let the kids acquaint themselves with the horses, letting them feed them munchies and take lots of pictures. Eventually we got the horses settled in and all the kids and moms got their horse fix, and we got back to setting up. The site really wasn’t long enough for us, so we had to shift around a bit to find a level spot that would work, and that took some time. Then Hubby tried to get a satellite signal, and that took hours, and he still only ended up getting one signal, rather than both, so we won’t be getting any news or networks, but we will be able to record some movies. The female ranger came by, and despite the fact that I had paid for the reservation, and filled out and sent in the prepaid registration form, I was informed I still had to drive 3.5 miles to the ranger station to complete some MORE forms, which she couldn’t do sitting in her vehicle, so I had to run up there during the afternoon as well. Also sorry to report I don’t have a cell phone signal here at all, though I had a tiny one at the ranger station. When I asked, I was told there was a signal at the top of the mountain about a mile away, so I headed up there to scope it out. Indeed, once I got to the top, I had a full signa, and I even found a parking area next to a forest maintenance building, so I checked on everything I needed to do before heading back to camp. We settled in for the evening, feeling exhausted since we hadn’t had a day off after our training camp like we usually do. Watched a disturbing English film before taking a quick shower and going to bed.