We recently purchased a toy with a price tag that involves a comma.
We bought a new camper. Our intention was to buy a used one, but the cost of the used ones wasn’t very far off from just getting a new one. We also had a very specific layout we were looking for.
Its been a generally positive experience so far.
Pros:
I’ve slept better camping than I ever have before. I’m able to sleep to 9am most days.
Its awesome having a place to brush your teeth and wash your face at night.
It doesn’t ruin a camping trip if it rains.
Cons:
It scrapes going up and down the driveway unless a specific angle is taken. Flipping the hitch over gave us a few extra inches and that has made a world of difference.
It doesn’t pull behind my SUV as well as I would like. You feel every little bump in the road… twice.
We don’t really have a place to put it.
We took it out to Rice Lake State Park last weekend… just outside of Owatonna. Thus begins a new category of my blog called simply “camping” where I will review the places we camp at.
Cousin Greg had emailed us prior to going to Rice Lake warning us that the mosquitos were “brutal”. Oh my. That doesn’t even begin to describe it. I knew we were screwed when we pulled into the park and approximately 20 mosquitos were beating themselves against the SUV windows trying to get in. As I checked-in, the park ranger warned me to “not be shy” about applying bug spray. I should have predicted this would happen. Rice Lake only gets about 3 feet deep. It gets its name because the Minnesota wild rice once grew there. Needless to say, we got the camper up in record time. Fortunately, the camper did keep the majority of the mosquitos out.
If you can get passed the flying insects, the park is great. I thought it was one of the best planned parks I’ve ever been to. Its only about an hour and 15 minutes away from the Twin Cities so it doesn’t require taking a day off of work in order to get there and get everything set up before it gets dark.
Desirable sites: B5, B19. Plenty of space and some good trees for shade. Not as close to the water so hopefully mosquitos will be better. A17 was a nice site but it wasn’t reservable.
Undesirable sites: B9 and B11. B9 is not reservable… but it is RIGHT ON TOP of site B11. Can’t believe they tried fitting two sites that close together. Most of the A loop should be used for tent camping only.
Nice state park… canoeing, water access, plenty of trees, hiking, playground, etc. But, it goes down as a big fat “never again” in my book.
Which reminds me… I also became a member of the Minnesota State Parks Passport Club. For about $16, you receive a nice pouch containing a passport, a Minnesota map, and a Travel log. It comes with some perks after visiting different parks. If you are able to visit all of the MN State Parks, you receive a plaque. You don’t actually have to stay overnight at each park… just visit it and receive a stamp in your passport.
On our last full day in Hawaii, we signed up for a shore excursion called “Jungle Falls by kayak”. I enjoyed the smooth-as-glass water. Once again I had my digital camera in its snazzy DiCaPac case.
We had been told to wear closed toe shoes. I assumed we would be kayaking by a waterfall which was not the case. The kayaking lasted about an hour and then was followed with a hike to the waterfall and a return hike where a sack lunch was provided.
Then we got back on the ship which sailed by the Na Pali coastline during the daylight hours. It was a little hazy due to fog/rain… but still beautiful.
And finally, aa couple of sunset shots to end our day.
During the overnight hours, our ship traveled to the port of Nawiliwili Kauai. We rented a car and decided to do the Waimea Canyon. Its basically Hawaii’s version of the Grand Canyon. This was the only day we had rain to contend with… which makes sense since Kauai is one of the wettest spots on the entire planet. We also traveled from sea level to an elevation somewhere between 3000 and 4000 feet.
I had been warned about the red dirt but didn’t quite believe it. They use one pail of Kauai red dirt to dye 500 Red Dirt shirts. Our socks had to be bleached when we got home due to the new pink color they obtained.
Waimea Canyon
Chickens in Kauai
We finished the day off with a couple of waterfalls.
We woke up on Wednesday in Kona, Hawaii. We didn’t have anything planned for this day, but quickly signed up for another snorkeling adventure since we enjoyed it so much the first time. This experience was entirely different and was chartered through Captain Zodiac. We were with about 13 other people on a small raft. We bonded with first mate Katie because she was from Blaine, MN and took good care of us as fellow Minnesotans.
For the tech nerds, the word wiki is Hawaiian for fast. The Zodiac raft travels wiki-wiki. As it travels, you place your foot under a rope on the bottom of the raft and hang on to a rope on the side of the raft. This is a photo of the next group that went out after we got back.
The Alaskan humpback whales were just returning from Alaska and we were fortunate to spot two of them while we were heading to our snorkeling destination. In general, whale watching is a little boring because it means getting super excited for 1 minute and then scanning the horizon for the next 20 minutes waiting for them to come up for another breath.
We also saw adorable spinner dolphins. When they are born, they are the size of a football.
We spent an hour snorkeling at Kealakekua Bay which is the site of Captain Cook’s monument. I got up enough courage to ditch the noodle and had better luck with the camera because I wasn’t bobbing up and down so much.
Kristopher’s photos are here. We shared my camera again. Here is about 10 seconds worth of video.
The ship traveled to Hilo, Hawaii in the overnight hours. As usual, we got up early, had breakfast buffet, and then waited in line for the free shuttle that would take us to our rental car. I remember the lady handing the keys for our mid-size rental to Kristopher and telling us to go pick it up under number 11. As we walked across the parking lot towards number eleven, all I can remember blurting out was “NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY!”.
This was our car.
A Dodge Challenger. In Red. A muscle car. 92% owner satisfaction rating (higher than Prius). GOD BLESS AMERICA. It even had this awesome feature where it would automatically lower the windows of the car one inch when you opened the door and would raise the windows back up when you closed the door.
We drove 45 minutes to Volcanoes National Park. First stop was the visitor center where a wonderful park ranger helped us plan out our next five hours in the park.
At the steam vents, my camera took a pretty good blast of steam when I wasn’t paying attention and leaned over the edge with it on my arm. No harm done.
On to the Jagger Museum to view the Halema’uma’u Crater. The air quality was very poor. Lots of visitors coughing.
Then we traveled the Chain of Craters road. Its 45 minutes one-way… but takes a lot longer because you constantly pull over to check out the lava formations. The lava is no longer actively flowing in the park. It has made its way outside the park onto private property.
See the little plume of steam off on the far right? That’s America’s maternity ward flowing out into the sea. We would float by it later that evening on the cruise ship.
Took this picture for Ranger Nathan. The Hawaiian Nene goose. I thought it was endangered but Wikipedia tells me its “vulnerable”. At one point, there were only 30 in existence.
The shot I waited for all day long. Where lava flowed over the road and closed it. It was a long, warm, hike to get to this spot.
Two videos. A 360 pan of lava from a look out point and flowing lava from the cruise ship.
