We were so excited about our plans and how things just fell into place we were not expecting what happened once we arrived at our campsite. Each campsite was squished next to the other campsite. It was located at a park where people come to recreate during the day and see Eagle Gate Falls. The park was okay, but being so close to our neighbors was interesting to say the least. We were maybe 10 feet away from one of our neighbor's tents and not much further away from the other one. On one side of us the campers had blaring music coming from their vehicle that EVERYONE could hear. Unfortunately, it wasn't church music. Apparently these campers were having a big family reunion and they were kind enough to share their crazy music with everyone on site. To the other side of us was a group of young adults having a good time for the weekend. When we arrived these kids were nice enough to let us use their lantern so we didn't have to set up our tent in the dark. Once our tent was set up we went for a walk to check out the shower situation and then tried to get situated for the evening. Once in our tent the people having the family reunion turned down their music, but the kids on the other side of us decided it was time to turn on their music. Yikes! Richard and I like peace and quiet not only when we sleep, but we expect peace and quiet when we go sleep in the so-called woods (I have to say so-called woods because it was a campsite and not "real" camping). It was frustrating to say the least. Then as the night grew later, more and more friends started to arrive for the Saturday night festivities, which involved lots of beer games and music. Well, before 3 a.m., Richard and I fell asleep for about an hour and a half, but that's about it. Then he said to me, "I'm going to ask them to turn their music off." At this point we could hear that everyone was really drunk. I was scared to death that if Richard went and asked the kids to turn down their music he was going to get beaten up and so I begged him not to go. But he went anyway. Thankfully, the people were nice enough and turned off their music. Then he came back to the tent, unharmed. Within the half hour some police showed up. At this time the 19-year-old kids were told to hide in the tents. We chuckled at that. After the police left everyone got in their tents and quieted down. I was so grateful for whomever called the police, even though our neighbors thought it was us and I was not looking forward to what they said they were going to do to us for calling the cops.:) Nevertheless, they did not carry through with their threat. Then Richard fell asleep and I layed awake for most of the morning. At least most people in the camp were sleeping when we got up and took a shower, ate our bowl of cereal and headed out to find the church, but I secretly wanted to wake up the camp next to us. Church was good. We often forget what it's like to attend the family ward, especially now that we attend church on Penn State's campus, so being around families of varying ages opposed to just young adults is always fun. However, it made me grateful for the little branch we attend.
 |
 |
| This scrapbook personalized with Smilebox |
After church we went back to our campsite and ate lunch. Richard barbecued a hotdog on the grill and I had a sandwich. We would have like to have hung out for a couple hours at the campsite enjoying a nice peaceful afternoon before going to Palmyra, but the environment wasn't conducive to a peaceful Sunday afternoon. While we were at the campsite the family next to us turned up their music and made sure they were sharing some of the most vulgar music I have ever heard with everyone at the park. Therefore, we ate and rushed out of there as quickly as possible. Once out of the park things were peaceful again. We had a nice drive through the vineyards growing next to Seneca Lake and then we hit Palmyra. We first pulled up to the Hill Cumorah and took a brief nap in the car. Then we milled around for a time and made our way to the Sacred Grove, one of my most favorite places on earth. It's so beautiful and peaceful there. After walking through the grove we sat down at some picnic tables near the parking lot--and a turtle--and then pulled out our portable grill. We had hotdogs and grilled corn on the cob. Yum! After eating we drove back to the top of Seneca Lake, stopped to walk along the lake and then headed back down to Watkins Glen. On our drive down Richard decided that there was no way we were going to "attempt" to sleep at that campsite again, and I didn’t protest. Needless to say we slept at a hotel along the lake that evening. We left our tent, blow-up mattress, and sleeping bags at our campsite and took them down Monday morning. Then we spent Monday afternoon hiking up and down Watkins Glen. Despite the lack of sleep, it turned out to be a magnificent weekend getaway.
