Nomad exploring life wherever I am
One thing you learn quickly as a full-timer is to make sure you’ve got a solid plan for each of the big summer holidays. Memorial Day kicks off the summer camping for many people, so it’s not the weekend to wing it. I’d reserved at Black Moshannon almost six months out because that’s about how fast campgrounds are filling up for the holiday weekends in 2021. And sure, enough, the campground was completely booked, except for one sweet spot. Which wasn’t where I landed when I arrived…
Some days I end up feeling like the Fairy of Good Fortune has been sitting on my shoulder, making things work out. You can call it serendipity or good luck, I call it the Fairy of Good Fortune. And Thursday, she was riding with me all day long. I was looking for something to do in Somerset County that was indoors since it was raining (yet again in PA). Google Maps showed the Guild of American Papercutters National Museum was about 9 miles from where I was staying. That sounded promising; I’m not a papercutter but I admire the form…
The formal name is Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, but that’s obviously a mouthful, so most people just call it Gold Head, from what I was told. There’s a deep ravine that splits the park in two, with trails on either side of it, and that ravine is Gold Head Branch.
Ah, Lake Wateree State Park, full of trees and squirrels mating all over the place. Yes, my timing was absolutely perfect to see squirrel mating habits in the wild, from chasing each other all over the fallen leaves to scampering up and down trees in very, uh, creative ways. I actually never got tired of watching them bound all over the place, they’re quite entertaining little critters.
Sometimes the Facebook memories are just too good to ignore. Today, it had entries for the last five years which was a study in contrasts. Too good not to share a snapshot of one day across five years, so here it is. 2016 My first camping spot as a full-time vagabond after giving up my West Seattle apartment. I found a spot at Larabee State Park, still available a week before Memorial Day weekend…