2023 #6: End of season

We wrapped up our 2023 season with our usual trip to Aces High campground in East Lyme, CT. We've been going there for many years (since they opened, actually). It's a nice place with large, level, full-hookup pull-through sites. It's close to home and a convenient place to give the tanks a good flushing before winterizing. It's usually an older, more mellow crowd there, too, and we enjoy that. Lately, they've been making improvements to the property. They're experimenting with paved pads and they've got a sauna going in. That's all good, but the price has been climbing, too. As we approach retirement, we're going to Aces less and less. It's becoming hard to justify when holiday weekends are $125 a night. Not sure if we'll return in the spring, but we'll probably still go next fall to start winterizing. Maybe just not on holiday weekends. We'll see.

Before Aces, we went up to Central New York to visit our son and new daughter-in-law. Here's a couple of photos. He's a squadron commander in the Civil Air Patrol (the volunteer civilian branch of the Air Force). They have 2 dogs and a cat in their house now, with a baby on the way. We're going to be grandparents! 



A quick summary of our 2023 camping season:

  • 10 trips
  • 3,888 miles
  • 51 nights in the trailer/56 days camped
  • Trailer out of the yard: 69 days
That last number is because of construction at our house that kept the trailer out of the back yard for a while. When finished, the new garage will hold our trailer and our truck, as well as the bikes, kayaks, and assorted camping gear. It's been a long, drawn out (and expensive) project. We had to beach the trailer in state parks a few times to get it out of the yard, but we couldn't camp those days because we had to work. That'll change soon...



We'll post more garage photos and information when the project's done. Next season we'll both be RETIRED and GRANDPARENTS! How amazing is that? We're hoping to do a lot more shoulder season (spring and fall) camping once we're not tied to our work schedules anymore. And lots of trips to NY to see the baby!

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