Crystal Beach is on the Bolivar Peninsula, which is northeast of Galveston. We actually had to take a ferry to get there, but it was really fun, and free! You just drive onto the boat, and then you can get out if you want while it’s taking you across. The seagulls know what’s up and they’re all over it.
We’d like to interrupt our regular programming and give a shout out to the zip tie. We’d like to thank the person who invented them. And maybe hug them for a little while.
We were fortunate to find a campground very close to where we had broken down. Actually, the kids ended up liking the place. There were a lot of lawn decorations to take in. We affectionately referred to it as “Shanty Town”. There were some cool flea markets nearby, though not much else.
We left New York with me feeling like maybe I had the whole bus thing finally down. Traveling on the weekends, setting up camp, planning our next stop. In other words, feeling good! What could go wrong?
Cooperstown is home to Cooperstown Dreams Park, a huge Little League mecca. We’re not all that into baseball, but we like it enough, and we had fun walking around the park one evening.
After Hershey Park, we were ready to be on the road again.
We didn’t plan it, but we found ourselves smack in the middle of Amish country. Horses and buggies! Amazing butter! And good grief, the ice cream!
It was a relatively quick drive from New Market to Salem, and we were grateful (especially the birthday-boy bus driver). Dixie Caverns was smack in the middle between the shop where we had to get the hitch work done and my brother’s house, fifteen minutes away from each. It could not have been more convenient. (I will add that the location is about all it had going for it, the creep factor was high.) To add to the awesomeness, my parents drove down for part of the weekend.
Mid-week jumps are not ideal. Since Billy records all day long, not only does he have to stop working, but it’s kind of a pain to pack everything up. Most things in the bus are permanently secure, but there is still a fair amount of stuff that needs adjusting before we take off each time.
So technically every weekend is camping weekend for us now, but I’m referring to an annual tradition we have to camp at Pocahontas State Park with three other families. It was definitely different this year since we weren’t tent camping! We couldn’t get sites that were right next to each other, so we had to settle for being on the opposite side of the camp store from the others. It was wonderful to see our friends!!!
