Firefly Camping

Trip 12, our first trip of 2024, was a road trip that culminated with a visit to Shenandoah National Park during school vacation week.  This was the first big road trip with the new van and were eager to see how it all would go.   Day 1 We left our home in Massachusetts around 9:30, Friday, and began our drive south.  Our overly ambitious goal for day 1 was to make it down to Susquehanna State Park in Maryland which was 372 miles away. With the rain and traffic, we ended up calling an audible and stayed at the Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City instead (just on the other side of the Holland tunnel).   This ended up being a blessing in disguise as it was really cool staying just outside of NYC with great views of the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty, things my children had only seen in text books.  The other thing we learned here is that don't be overly ambitious on day 1.  The kids need to ease their way into it are more motivated to come home then head out.   D

Trip 11 (Night 15) for the year took us to the middle of Cape Cod for the Ocean Cup soccer tournament that Neil's club team played in on Indigenous People's Day weekend. The tournament consisted of a game Saturday, 2 Sunday, a play in final on Monday.   We headed down to Harwich shortly after lunch on Saturday and were greeted with off and on downpours on route.  After a quick check in at the Shady Knoll Campground , we headed directly to the field.  The first game was a wet one.  Neil scored his first goal of the season and his team finished the game with a 4-4 tie.  The wet field made it a bit unpredictable.  Next up, we headed to the Hot Stove , and old school sports pub, for dinner, a place we hadn't been to since before the kids were born.  We made it back to the campground shortly after 8pm.  The next morning, I met Lisa, who was also in the Cape for a soccer tournament, for a run.  Our first game wasn't until 2pm so we had plenty of time to kill.   After breakfas

Every year since 2016 (minus the pandemic year of 2020) we have participated in the Coast to Cure NF charity bike event (and run, at least for me) in honor of our son Nat who has Neurofibromatosis. It is one of the main fundraisers for NF Northeast and is sort of a homecoming every year where we see our NF family.  Living with NF can be tough as the range issues associated with it can vary so wildly.  Being involved with an organization like NF Northeast really is life saver.  They provide a phenomenal support network and are behind major innovations in the drive to cure and get better treatment for those suffering from NF.   This year our friends Becca and Joe came to the bike ride as well.  Becca biked 70 miles for the first time while Joe got in a 4 mile run followed by a 24 mile bike ride.    Amy and the kids ran a rest stop on the 66 mile ride and I ran 27 miles.  We camped up at the Cape Ann Campsite both Friday and Saturday night.  In addition to visiting Stage Fort Park wher

For camping nights 11 and 12 on the year, we stayed at George Washington State Park in Chepachet, RI.  This is the third state we have visited with the new van.   The campground is right off route 44 and on the Bowdish reservoir.  The sites were pretty large, there was a nice little beach on the reservoir, a nature center that had fun kids activities, including making origami sailboats, a plenty of fish to catch.   We arrived at the campground around 6pm on a Thursday evening and quickly got a fire going.  There was large down tree behind the site and kids gravitated to it immediately.  Around 8pm the rain came and we moved to the van.   On Friday, it rained on and off throughout the day. I was able to get a short trail run in and then fished with the kids.  Neil caught 7 or 8 fish in total. On Saturday, it was still pretty wet out, so we packed up and hit a diner for breakfast on the way home. Neil and Scot in the Van Nat with a bacon pancake sandwich

Amy and I had (or mostly) the 4th week in August off.  With a family vacation that fell through, we decided to take the van out for some more nights camping.   We headed back to Harold Parker State Park in Andover, MA for a quick night away from home.  Neil met up with one of his new classmates, Trevor, and his father, Rob and did some biking and fishing while Nat enjoyed the playground.  For this trip, we put the top bunk back in the back and were successfully able to get one kid up front on the cab bunk and then one on the upper bunk.  Still somewhere around 5am, we ended up with everyone crammed into one bed :).  Enjoying My Coffee Watching the Sun Rise

This weekend we took the van down across the canal and into Cape Cod and stayed at Shawme Crowell State Park in Sandwich.  While only 90 minutes from our house, the Cape can be tricky as bridge and coastal traffic can easily double that time.   For this trip, we opted to leave on a Saturday morning letting the kids sleep in their own beds on Friday.  Neil had just done an overnight at the Hale reservation and definitely needed the extra sleep.   We also finally got a chance to camp with our friends, Leigh, John, and their two kids, Owen and Jack, after a few aborted attempts over the last year due to sickness.   On Saturday morning we went straight to the beach (Town Neck Beach) where we relaxed and climbed on rocks for a few hours.  Mid afternoon we headed over the the campground and after we got setup, I made a beer run, literally.   We had a relaxing evening and relaxing morning before leaving to come home mid day.  I got a couple short runs in while there and relay enjoyed the low

Our friend Sue, and her boyfriend Geoff, own 100+ acres in Twin Mountain, NH.  On the side of their property they have awesome private campsite that abuts Little River.  Every year we try to get up and camp here at least once or twice and the last few years we have been able to get this trip to coincide with camping with our friends Erin and Kevin, their four daughters, and their dog Ruby.   For this trip we left home Friday evening, stopped in Nashua for dinner, and arrived in Twin Mountain just before 10pm.  This was our first truly off grid camping trip with the new van.  We were eager to see how our features held up. The Battery After a really hot and humid summer last year, we decided to go all in off grid AC.  This meant also tripling the battery capacity as well as adding a second inverter to charge it faster.  We were happy to see that after running the AC from 10pm to 7am, we only used about 20% of the battery.  Furthermore, running a lot of appliances over two days and the ce