Helmsey......Todd

Here is the recipe for that casserole:

Wait a minute....this report is over and I just now found it??  How the heck did that happen?

 

In any case, thanks for sharing it!  I am intrigued by the breakfast casserole, or at least what is left of it.  Did you put the casserole in those tortillas and make breakfast burritos?  Did you have tabasco?  I am getting hungry. 

 

All those babies are cuter than can be, but I don't let my wife around babies anymore.  So sadly you will not be allowed to the Defeated Creek gathering.  I can't afford any more children.  I'm sure you understand. 

The casserole was fantastic, and even better in the tortilla shells in the picture, with some Texas Pete on them :)

If we end up making the trip to DC this year, we will be sure to keep our distance from your camper. Don't want to cause any more financial strain on you  :rofl2:

Thanks for sharing.

Both girls are adorable.

Hoping you will be able to make it to the Defeated Creek GG.

I think I have DW talked in to the defeated creek GG.... I checked today and there are sites near the fiends...this just might happen :)

Great Report! Looks like you all had fun! Thanks for sharing

 

:thewave1:

We had a blast!

Awesome report!!!!

Thank you :)

Thanks for sharing, even if I did have to look at that ugly cake!

I think we need to have some sort of fiendly wager, to be settled October 5th... 

Mason jar?  I guess there is no question now that you are a ut fan.

 

Enjoyed the TR.  Looks like a fun time.  I'm totally jealous of your camping group.  I need to be nicer and make more friends.

There is rarely a trip where there isn't a mason jar or 3 around, depends on the flavors requested that weekend. I actually chuckled to myself that weekend as I was drinking some "apple pie" wondering if that would tickle Lou's fancy.

Great job on the trip report. The photo of your DH reading in the stroller is priceless :)

She is a ham!

I do an annual check usually around the beginning of our camping season that includes bearings, brake check/adjust, and other preventative maintenance. I try to keep the running gear in tip top shape for the safety of my family and the other families on the road. I am also that guy in the campground that checks air pressure in the tires and has his torque wrench out checking lug nuts before hitting the road.

Stay dry, looks like the wet is going to keep coming.

Ok, lets go ahead and finish this TR off...

All but one other couple had to leave this morning (Sunday) to head back to the real world, but we had one more day.

Sisters make cute pictures

It was an easy breakfast kind of day. I whipped up some biscuits, gravy, and bacon.

Camping friends stopped by before going to the playground

DD1 and I doing a little swinging at the playground. She was upset they didn’t have any swings that she could get in by herself but this seemed to be ok for her.

Dd1 reading again

A little more camper time visiting other camping friends

2 babies 1 stroller, time for a walk

It worked, stroller time tends to lead to this

Dd1 hamming it up, again (as usual)

Rain, so we have to dream about being outside

That concludes our pictures for Sunday. There was more man time spent outside after dinner, but nothing that needed pictures. The fellas hung out in the chairs and watched the people move around the park while consuming a cold beverage and took a few sips from a mason jar. We called  it a night fairly early, tomorrow is departure day and I like to get a good night sleep before heading out, even if it is only an hour(ish) drive home.

From this point, I don’t have any pictures of the last day. It was just a wake up and have a bowl of cereal kinda morning and get moving with the packing up. As usual I did all the outside stuff getting ready to go and Julie somehow is able to juggle two kids AND packing up the inside of the camper…. I’m not real sure how she does it… So I guess that officially closes my first TR here, thanks to all that stopped by to check it out and read a little about our weekend.

Loved the cake! Check out Defeated Creek grand gathering in September. You can find the details in the grand gathering forum. Join us if you can. You can also read last year's report.

Cumberland is a favorite with the pool,lake,and golf it has it all. Fall colors are amazing.

I am trying to figure out a way to make that GG, I just checked and there is a site or two open right around the other folks that will be there... The problem is we have a long weekend planned for the following weekend already. Not sure that we can pull off a trip 2 weekends in a row.

We haven't been to CMSP in the fall to see the colors but I can see that being nice there. The last time we were there was in December of 2009. We woke up on Saturday morning to 3" of snow on the ground, that was unexpected, but it was nice!

Nice update.

That was a pretty awesome cake.

The shrimp boil looked good!

The stars of the show of course were the younglings though.

I am pretty fond of the little ones :)

Definitely Fiend Style camping!!!  You'll fit right in!!!  Hope you can make it to one of the Grand Gatherings around the Southeast soon!!!

I hope to do it sooner than later. I am working on DW to see about changing our Memorial Day weekend plans for next year since the GG is in our backyard.

Camping with friends is the best!

 

I love a low country boil! Yum.

 

That sure is an ugly cake. I fee bad for your friend.

I enjoyed the food, it was good. 

I think you need to get your eyes checked, that cake is a piece of art :D

I was okay with this TR until we got to this picture.

 

I will be reading the rest of this under protest.

 

 

And I'm bummed about the kayak.

Protest noted, you may proceed.

I was bummed about it as well, but kiddie time at the pool won between the two.

Wow- that campground is nice!  I like the picnic tables, grills and even the lantern posts they provide.  And a pool too!

 

Don't listen to the Dawg hate- that cake is awesome! 

 

TCD

It is one of our favorite CG's, it is close and $25 per night.

And thanks for understanding how fantastic the cake is.

We have the expensive version of that margarita maker with extra ice holder.  It was one of the freebies from a HouseParty party.  Makes great smoothies.

 

Nice pool and great camping baby photos.

Thank you!

I don't care about college sports so I won't harass your friend's cake.

That's a bummer the boat didn't get any action.

And what makes a low boil? Is there a high boil? We don't boil up here.

I honestly don't know why they call it that, it's just what they were calling it while cooking it.

The low country boil was quite appropriate,  the Vols stadium cake was impressively crafted,  but the stars were your children !   DD and Mason in the pool was adorable as was DD asleep !   Nice.... 

Those kiddos are cute. He is about a year older than her and we are convinced that they are either going to be running off in the woods together at some point while we are camping....or they are going to hate each other since they spend so much time together.

The Carolinas are called the "low country", so that's where the name of the boil comes from.

Hey lookie there, I learned something today :)

Ok, lets move on to Saturday and start with some breakfast. One of the camping friends whipped up a breakfast casserole and it was fantastic. I did not think to get any pictures until it had a nice dent put in it, buy you can see it here.

Add in a side of bacon and you officially have breakfast

Shortly after breakfast DD2 decided it was nap time. She found her favorite place to lay and sacked out for a while

Of course DD1 is hamming it up (it's what she does)

After riding her "truck" it is time for a little light reading

We had to sit for a bit to digest the breakfast. It wasn't that heavy, we all just ate too much. Plus, the pool is coming up and we need that bit of rest before we swim.

Here is a look at the kiddie pool, and the main pool at the state park. 

And here is DD1 ready to get in the water

And yet another of DD1 with her buddy Mason

All that swimming worked up an appetite, so off to the snack bar for some nachos to keep us going.

At this point, DD1 is wondering why we aren't back in the water

A couple of camping babies (ohhh, ahhh)

The weather started looking less pool friendly so it was back to camp. One of our camping friends was celebrating another year on the earth and they were planning a meal for everyone. A low country boil seemed like a nice easy thing for everyone.

The cook station

Food to get all boiled up and yummy

And finally, the finished product

Then this showed up, the Margaritaville Margarita maker. I have never made one with something this fancy. Turns out they were good, real good. 

After that, the pics started to go down hill, I only have a couple more to share from the evening.

A little social hour (evening) around the campsite

And finally, will finish this post off with the birthday cake for the birthday fella

That pretty much wraps up Saturday. We had plans to take the kayaks over to the lake and paddle around a bit, but sadly that didn't happen. The poor kayak spent the entire trip upside down on the top of my truck, sorry CKCK. I promise our next trip in 2 weeks will have kayak pictures in it.

I will do my final install of this TR Friday morning. From my notes, it will have less pictures, but I promise to have more DD pictures in it.

Haha! I was eating cucumbers and tomatoes when I was reading this! See?

 

Ok, you are excused 

That is the crappiest attempt at a TR I've ever read. 

 

That was my attempt at being gentle.

 

I'm not very good at it.

 

If you want me to be honest, I'll say that I'm totally intrigued by the canoe on top of your truck and can't wait to see what you do with it.  I'm hoping it has something to do with floating.  I've tried to get my wife to let me buy a canoe/kayak but she isn't totally on board yet.  

 

I'm also intrigued with the number of camping friends you have.  That has to be fun to have that large of a group to camp with.

 

I don't have any friends.

Hmm, not sure if I should disappoint you now or later about the kayak, I think I'll wait.

It is handy to keep camping friends, we rarely camp alone. We have 9 couples that usually camp together so we always have someone to hang out with.

Great to see another Tennessean on these boards!  Welcome!  We love Cumberland Mountain and can't wait to read your report.

Thanks!

Great start!

I remember having that same mom pose when mine were little.

Can't wait to see DD2's precious face. DD1 is adorable.

You should see DD2 in this next update, coming up in just a minute or two.

Great start!  Can't wait to read more!

Thanks!

Count me in!

 

Looking forward to more.

I should have an update tomorrow morning :)

You're off to a great start. 

 

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

TCD

Thanks sir!

Yeah! Trip reports! Now I need to google what state cucumber mountain is in.

If you find cucumber mountain let me know  :rofl2:

Cumberland Mountain State Park is near Crossville, TN. Just a few minute off the interstate so easy in and out.

cool!  i can't wait for more!

Will have to wait until the AM

I'm in !

Welcome!

Great start to your first TR!

Thank you!

Great pics and a great start on your first TR.  :)

 

Looks like a nice site!

Thanks! It turned out to be a pretty good site. We normally won't book a site without seeing it but took a chance with this one and it worked out.

Cool, a new TR.

Yep.

I actually have this entire trip report typed up, so all I have to do is paste in the info for the next day :)

This will actually be a short TR as it is already 1/3 done. Tomorrow there will be more pictures, a lot of DD1 (Harper) as she is my partner in crime while Julie is taking care of DD2 (Bailey). This was only a 3 day trip so I'm doing what I can to make it interesting, and learn as I go.

As the title states, we took a trip to Cumberland Mountain State Park this weekend. I decided I was going to document a little more of our trip with pictures with hopes of having enough to do a TR here. This is my first attempt at a TR so please be gentle  :rofl3:

Start things off Friday morning, I had to work a half day. So, this left Julie at home with DD1 and DD2 trying to get thing finished up before we left. Luckily my mother (who keeps our girls) offered to stop by the house for a bit in the morning and watch the girls so Julie could get stuff done. Once I got to the house, I lugged a few last minute things in the the camper, loaded the kids up and we were on the road by 1:15.

Here we are just before departure in the church parking lot (our condo is too small to get the camper in so we use this, just across our driveway) fueled up and ready to go:

Once we got on the interstate, traffic was not bad

Here are the girls all strapped in the back seat, only DD1 visiable however

Julie being mom

Me driving

We finally arrived about 2:30, I could have sworn I had a pic of the entrance, but I can't find the stupid thing. So, imagine a brown sign that says Cumberland Mountain State Park.... easy peasy.

we just pretend that the parents dress the kids up...

 

really we just never mention it

Sadly half my battle is getting DW to not be so excited about us parting ways with our money for this. She can't wait for the girls to be old enough to take them in there. 

As a father of 2 girls (too young to do this right now) I think I'll have to end up getting all too familiar with this boutique and their ways of taking my money.

I checked out a couple posts of his on RV.net today. Is it normal to get out of breath when reading his posts?

Love it!!

That's so cute!!!

Nice.

How cute!

That is really cute.

:waycool:

Thanks all!!

Can you tell your mother in law we are planning a trip in 2016 and I'd love a jar (and the few bills she would be oh so kind to include )

I will let her know, but unless you have a couple of the cutest grand kids for her I'm not sure how that will work out for you :) Besides, she has to start something like this for our beach trip in 2016.

Oh, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only planning fool that starts thinking about trips a couple years before we do them.

Mother in law came by the house today to see our 2 daughters and brought them a gift. She knows how excited we are about our planned trip to Disney and the Fort in 2015 so she made this for the girls. She was even nice enough to throw a couple bills in there for them  :partythree:

Just to be sure, and you know we have to ask this because, well safety is first, you're not some kind of ax murderer are you?

I have checked with all my personalities and they all say no.

 

Of course, the high holy Fiend holiday is Halloween at Fort Wilderness!!!

We are planning that, looks to be 2015 at this point. I would leave tomorrow if we could  :clint:

and you should also make reservations and join us for the weekend!!!!!  You don't have a long drive as an excuse not to!!

I was just about to type the same thing! Great minds, Carol. 

 

We would love to have you join us Helmsey

If we didn't already have plans for that weekend we would be there, with bells on...

Don't do it, Helmsey.  You'll get sucked in, and end up eating a bunch of delicious food and sit up half the night talking and laughing so hard your sides will ache. 

 

Don't say I didn't warn you. 

I'm still waiting for you to tell me the downside :)

Perhaps a trial run here would be a good idea.

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/8716-2013-defeated-creek-gg/

We will be in Virginia that weekend with our little group. I wonder if I could get them to cancel and make the trip here....hmmm.

We tend to plan trips a ways out, especially for holiday weekends when things can get busy.

For what it's worth I do plan on getting some camping time in with this group as soon as possible. I am actually going to talk to DW about making this trip next Memorial Day.

One of our top CG's is in Hot Springs, NC. It is a rather small town that the Appalachian Trail runs through, with a few outfitter stores, a couple places to eat and a nice Spa for the ladies. This is a picture of our site from our annual gathering there this year. Right behind the trees is the French Broad River, and there is not much better than sitting outside in the evening with beverage in hand, listening to the flowing river.

EDIT:

Thought I'd add a river shot :)

Howdy folks, just ran across this topic. 
Since I am local to this I wanted to offer my services if anyone needs info and or pics of the CG. I can run up there and get any info that is needed within a day or two notice and would be glad to help any way I can with whatever info is needed.

Dang, I just realized I should log in and participate more, I'm browsing here almost daily but kinda lack in the posting department..