15 States in 25 Days - Day 3 Learning to Use Our Camping Gear

Day One of our trip across the east coast was spent packing and planning and buying lots of things we thought we would need. Day Two and Three were spent just getting across the Midwest to our first Eastern state of New York. Then, we had to figure out how to use all the cool gear we'd brought along for our life on the road.

 We arrived at our chosen campground, “Niagara County Camping Resort” – it was $58 for a tent site, not our best bargain, but more reasonable than the hotels in the area. The tent sites are on a loop around a small pond which does have a playground and swimming beach. We were late in the day when we arrived, so we did not give the beach a try. The bath houses were just down the road a bit in the center of the RV sites, and they were clean and had everything we needed.

This was the first time we saw any Covid signs. They looked old and just reminded people to stay six feet apart and asking them not to loiter in the bathrooms.

Our big Coho cooler that we had bought at Costco – the one with the rubber bear locks, was doing a great job of keeping food cold. The little drink cooler we had bought for the front of the van was not doing so great. The ice was all melted and the drinks were only “sorta” cold. That little one is really not a long-haul cooler, but more of an afternoon picnic basket.

We got our tent set up and we also took the time to fully set up the canopy we had brought along and even opened up the mosquito netting that we had bought to add to it. The four-wallmosquito netting to add to a 10x10 canopy is excellent. We had a little trouble with it at first, but then we realized that our canopy was actually a 12x12 and we were trying to add accessories made for a 10x10. After some adjustments, we got it figured out and it worked well for us. We did poke a hole in it by the end of the trip, but it certainly saved us money in the gallons of bug spray we would have been buying if we hadn’t had it.

We also purchased sheetsof mosquito netting, approximately three feet by eight feet, and some strong magnets. We used these to cover the doors of the van so we could leave the windows open at night. These also worked out very well.

After a lot of trial and error, we got a pretty luxurious tent site up and running, we got showered for the night, and we cooked over our camp stove again. We were learning and improving our skills all the time, and our kids were learning right along with us. Most importantly, they were learning from our example as we faced each frustration and worked together to solve problems that came up. 

To read all about our 25 day adventure, see our budget, and planning and follow us along on our journey, you can follow this blog, or purchase my Travel Logue, exclusively on Kindle, titled 15 States in 25 Days

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