Frozen Out!

Well, the government shut-down has all but killed our vacation plans. As if I needed one more reason to hate Republicans.

We were hoping to stay at a National Forest campground that had been very high on our list for some years. It doesn't have hookups for power or water, so we were going to depend on our on-board water tank and our 2000-watt Honda generator. We actually love those kinds of campgrounds because they are generally a lot less crowded. However, all National Park and National Forest campgrounds are locked up tight because of our crazed right wing office holders in the House of Representatives. Maybe they'll relent in time for me to book campsites, but I rather doubt it. The neo-Fascist group we now have to deal with in Congress are a virulently hateful and destructive bunch of scum.

We might still go somewhere. We're not sure.

Pisgah National Forest. Can't go camping there.

Waterfall in a National Forest. I could possible hike in, but Carole can't go because she doesn't hike.

In Pisgah National Forest. Nope. Can't go there.

Can't go here. National Forest site.

This is in a state park. We could go there, but we visited it recently.

Definitely can't go here, because it's administered by the National Forest.

Little Trailer, Big Fun

The single biggest change in the vacations that Carole and I take was due to the purchase of our Casita trailer in 2005. A lot of RV folk make fun of our little trailer, but it's perfect for the kinds of camping that we do. It's only 17 feet long and is very lightweight, being constructed of a body of fiberglass. Because of the way it's built (two pieces) it never leaks. And I mean NEVER. And it's so small that we can take it into the most out of the way campsites in our National Forests, which is where we prefer to camp.

And despite the size of the trailer, it has everything we need to remain comfortable. When we have electric hookup capability, it has a powerful air conditioner. When we don't have electric hookups, we can exist for several days on battery power, but we also have a Honda 2000-watt generator that we use from time to time. The generator will even run the air conditioner, but we don't use it for that.

Another thing that always surprises people who go inside our little trailer is that it has a full bathroom. It has what would be called a "marine head". In the bathroom there is a toilet, a sink, and a shower.

There's also a two-burner gas stove in the trailer, a sink, and a two-person dinette. We leave our bed permanently as a bed, but it can also be made up to serve as a four-person dining table with benches. In brief, the trailer is perfect for our jaunts to isolated campgrounds around the country.

Vacation season is coming up for us, so we're looking around and planning our warm-weather itinerary.

Our typical set-up.

The Smith Casita household on a summer evening in the middle of nowhere.

I like this photo because it shows the small size of our little trailer. This was taken at the Salt Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest in Florida. This campground was originally a private concern, but the National Forest Service bought it and now it's a public campground. We stayed there while exploring the first-magnitude springs of the Ocala. We enjoyed this campground because it had complete hookups, which we almost never encounter in our National Forest journeys. It had electric, water, and sewer hookups. We're thinking of heading there again for another stay.