Today was the last full day of our trip, and we just stayed around the campground relaxing, packing, enjoying and getting ready for our long drive back home tomorrow.
I woke up before 7 on my own, and started working on things in the computer. I posted some pictures on social media, played around with a new posting tool I got, called Heropost, which is a bit finicky so far… and took care of some emails and did my writing. Bella woke up around 7:30, came next to me and said “Dad, I just realized today is our last day here and we go home tomorrow, I’m so excited!!”, and gave me a super tight hug. Then she told me what we needed to do today to be all ready to go tomorrow so we can leave by 7am. She’s definitely excited to be going back home.
As I continued working on stuff on the computer, Bella was playing games on her phone, then Carol and Bia slowly woke up. We were all just taking our time doing whatever we wanted as we didn’t have any major plans today, and were just going to stay at the campground and do whatever we wanted. After Bia finished her breakfast, she also went on her phone. I got done with what I wanted to do and got ready to go for a run. Carol had woken up and was quiet, and visibly not ok. She was outside with Maggie when I was about to leave, so I sat by her and we chatted about what was going on. She was upset about some things that happened and how she was feeling, and the more we talked I could see she was feeling better, so I decided we were going for a walk around the campground, as a family. I told the girls to get ready, Carol got ready and we left for our walk.
We first went to the left of our campsite and towards the exit. It’s an uphill which passes right in front of the pool. The pool was pretty full already. We then passed the pavilion, and the water slide, which was closed. As we got close to the exit gate, we heard some bird chirping loud as if it was mad, then we found it, and wow…. It was a momma bird, right by us but on the side of the road, on the pile of rocks. She was all feathers up and big, chirping loud and mean, protecting the 3 little eggs under her. That was cool and cute to see, and for sure caught us all by surprise. I took a picture, but it didn’t turn out great as I didn’t want to get too close. By this time, Carol was already feeling better, so I’m glad we did that walk all together.
From there, we were kind of out of the campground already, so we continued going left towards the entrance, and got back in from there. As we enter, the big water park was on the left, behind the office. Carol went in to ask if the park would open, and they said only next week. We kept going and there’s a playground on the right, with many activities, bounce pillows, pedal carts, etc. The girls wanted to go there and ride the pedal carts, so I went with them. My dad had bought my brother and I each a pedal cart when we were in our early teens, and I remember that was super awesome. We’d ride down the street and around and had a lot of fun with those, so this had some special memories. I had fun riding around with the girls, got some pictures and videos and sent to my family with a “remember these” note. :).
The kid that was taking care of the area came by riding one and he pulled the brakes hard and made the tires squeal, then said his was better and if I wanted I could ride that one, so I did. That was fun, catching enough speed then just hitting the brakes while turning the wheels. While we were riding, Carol was talking to a lady who is full time RVing and was working there as well. They were sharing stories and such. When we were done, and while we waited for Carol, Bella and I were just kicking a ball around. Bella is kind of into soccer now, so we were playing around, passing the ball, etc.
Carol was talking to the lady for quite a bit, and I started walking slowly with the girls, and then she got the hint and wrapped up. We continued on our walk around the campground, went all the way down and then started heading uphill again towards our site. We had a great walk, we all chatted, talked about going home, talked about what else to do today, and everyone was feeling good. Carol was all back by then, and was in a much better spot. After we got back to our campsite, we stayed outside a bit, then left to go eat at a nearby local place.
The restaurant we went to had a buffet, which was pretty decent, but regular comfort food buffet. We all ate good, some a little too much (me), the girls had ice cream for dessert, and we went to fill up the truck and get some beers for the rest of the day. We also stopped to get a bundle of firewood, and Carol got a few sparklers for the girls for later.
When we got back, I started putting some things away, and getting the truck bed ready to go. Carol was doing some things inside, and the girls were outside too. I played some more soccer with Bella, and soon the campground people started setting some tables near us. They were having a free food for heroes day, so police, firefighters, etc were coming in for some free food and drinks. Not only did we have Fire Trucks and Police cars there, at one point a helicopter landed right behind our trailer. That was pretty cool. This was the first time the girls got to see a helicopter that close, feel the wind it creates as it lands, and we got to go right to it later and take some pictures. They didn’t want to go inside, but could have. After the helicopter left, the party cleared out.
I had finished as much as I wanted to do so Carol and I played some friesbee, then Bella came and we played more soccer. Then Bella and Bia played a bit while I got the fire going.
Once I had the fire going, we stayed out all together, enjoying the day and hanging out. The girls were playing with sticks in the fire, doing dances, etc. Bia loves lighting up a stick, then blowing it off, and making dance moves with the smoke, it’s cool to watch. As it got dark, I gave them 2 boxes of sparklers and they had a lot of fun with those. As the fire was ending, we started going for showers at the campground. Carol had washed the bathroom and didn’t want anyone taking showers there. We finished more cleanups, everyone got ready, I put the rest of the things in the truck, we pulled the slideout inside before going to bed, and we called it a night. I left as much ready to go as we could, so we can leave as early as possible tomorrow.
We had a great day enjoying the last day of our trip, and we are all ready for our long drive back home tomorrow.