FL - Disney's Fort Wilderness

We had a great Christmas at Fort Wilderness!

The whole place was decorated for Christmas, and lots and lots of sites were decorated as well, some of them were very elaborate!  We did our part with an inflatable Minnie and Mickey and some Bliss Lights.  

We were on site #415 in a premium loop.  Great location for getting to the Settlement area (restaurants, boats, etc) and pretty easy access to the dog park as well, the boys loved that, lots of new friends to meet!

My parents met up with us and stayed in the 1600 loop, so not too far, especially on bikes.  

Once again we loved having bikes at the Fort and didn't at all wish for a golf cart.  Theo enjoyed a bit of independence in going to the arcade or to Grandma and Grandpa's by himself on his bike.

Of course boat transportation to the Magic Kingdom is wonderful: 

Here are some morning shots of and from the boat: 

And of course, the running at the Fort is the best on WDW property, with a nice path between Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge.  We also clocked the distance of all of the campsite loops: 7 miles (this doesn't include the cabin loops)

Some pics around the Fort: 

My cousin Cristina works at Disney World, so we got to spend time with her and her boyfriend Chris on their days off.  First we went resort hopping to look at the decorations and gingerbread:

Then we headed back to the Fort for dinner at my parents RV, then took a walk around a couple of the loops.  One site had cool hologram glasses to look through, along with dog cookies for the fur babies!

And here are some random some park pictures:  

 

The beautiful Candlelight Processional at Epcot:

Gingerbread Capitol:

Mod: New Upholstery

When we hit the Hershey RV show in the fall, really the only thing that I wished for was an updated interior so I decided that an upholstery facelift would go a long way.  Not that I hated the original fabric (which was wearing like iron) but I like some of the more subtle solid colors. I'd really like a synthetic "pleather" for easy cleaning, so I checked around and got a quote from a local upholstery place - $950 for the dinette and jacknife sofa...so off I went to the fabric store to see what I could do myself!  About $150 in fabric and notions and a few hours time and we're good!  Not quite professional and not my coveted pleather, but I think it turned out well and it held up nicely through a 2 week trip already.  I simply covered the original since it is in good shape and you never know if we or someone else will want it back down the road.

The jacknife sofa came off of the frame in two pieces, and was simply bolted on with four bolts per section:

The jackknife was all sewn by hand (I had the bruised fingers to prove it) and the dinette cushions were done by machine.  I had plenty of help from the fur brothers, then the human one thought it was funny so got into the game...oy!

Here are the notions I used - the twist pins were good for holding the fabric into place while I stitched, then I left a few of them in place in areas with larger gathers of fabric.

Old fabric: 

And the final product: 

I also covered the accent strip in the window toppers to match the new fabric. Now I just need to replace the cabover privacy curtain and the little side window curtains up there as well, since they are still in blue tones.

GA - Country Oaks Campground

In the past we've stayed at the KOA at the same exit just north of the GA/FL border, but the Good Sam trip planning program showed me Country Oaks as another option and the rate was a bit lower with a Good Sam membership so we decided to try it. I called while we were on the road and the owner I spoke with couldn't have been nicer.  We arrived after the office was closed and left before it opened in the morning so we never met.

The campground is small and nice, and great for an overnight since it isn't very far off of I-95.  A little older so the interior turn on the loop might be tough with a big rig, but we made it just fine.  No dog park, but plenty of space to walk the puppies, with lots of spanish moss and palmetto plants for that cool southern ambiance that I like :)

It would be a toss up next time between this campground and the KOA.  If it is pool season and we were getting in early enough, I'd choose the KOA for the pool.  But in the cooler season and later arrival, I'd choose this one because they are so nice and I like to support the indy guy when I can...plus they are about $5-10 less than the KOA and have a little more ambiance.

Visit: Meadows Village Restaurant - Benson, NC

The Meadows Village is a great classic southern buffet restaurant.  Literally the best fried chicken I've ever had!  And save room for the dessert buffet with gorgeous made-from-scratch cakes and pies!

We had a great Sunday lunch with Kevin's sister and brother in law, and Yoda too :)  I love our crazy family :)

NC - RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads

The RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads is such an ideal stopover spot on our way down to Florida. They have an "express" program where you pull in after 6pm and pay $30 in an envelope and pull into one of the designated spots with full hook ups (sans cable, but whatever).  They have a really nice bathroom and showers and a fenced dog park.  Since we remembered that their showers are so nice we didn't bother firing up the water heater...they are that clean and nice!

The boys enjoying the dog park:

One of the standard showers, very nice and clean: 

And the really nice handicap access shower: 

They also have a nice looking pool for summer stops: 

NY - Corning area - Camp Bell Campground

It was my turn this year to run the Wineglass Half Marathon, so off we went to Corning, NY.  Beautiful drive on the way out - the leaves were spectacular, not quite peak but beautiful!

Look at this happy driver ;)

Last year we stayed at a campground in Bath, about 25 miles west of Corning - nice campground but a little far for convenience of back and forth to Corning.  So this year we tried Camp Bell Campground in Campbell, which is around 10 miles west of Corning.  It was much more convenient for hopping back and forth!  Nice little campground that is at least half seasonal and really packed in, but we weren't there to sit around and relax.  We had a pull through site right near the entrance and facing the playground:

And someone is still not too old to enjoy a playground: 

There was also a great little hiking trail on site.  A lot of times when a small private campground says it has a "hiking trail" or "nature trail" it is maybe a 1/4 mile tops...I think this one is a good mile loop :)

Corning is such an great little town:

Trying to get a nice picture by the clock tower with my goofball proved to be pretty fruitless, but funny. 

There is a great pedestrian bridge that just (re?) opened from the Corning Museum of Glass area to the downtown Market Street/Gaffer District - it has a maze on it and I think we maybe saw only one or two people NOT do the maze on the several times we walked over it!

And Theo made a glass sculpture at Corning Museum of Glass: 

Check out this race swag: 

Theo and Kevin volunteered at the finish line - they got assigned the mylar blankets like T and I did last year: 

And I had a great race, a little chilly, but a great course and a great day!

I finished before the boys finished their shift, so I went back to the Winnie that was parked in the ample parking at CMOG and took my shower and walked the puppy boys - so nice to have the Winnie and be able to have the boys along on trips like this with us...and nice to have a nice hot shower waiting after the race!