Kamping with KOA
Clean kitchen, clean bath, air conditioning and swept floors.
Yeah! Let’s go camping! A weekend trip to Gettysburg proved to be too short. By the time I got used to all the other campers saying “hello” and "where are you from?" the weekend was over.
Many times my neighbors would brag how they take their RV out for an inexpensive time away. They drive a converted van and tend to spend weekends at some historical or recreational spot. This time, it is my time to brag. I went better than camping. I went Kamping! Kampgrounds of America (KOA) is a campground franchise with national availability. I took the family to the Gettysburg KOA since the Civil War is a hobby. It is about 4 hours away and I decided to rent a cabin with 1 bedroom, bath and small kitchen.
When we arrived and checked in at the office, we found that on Fridays we could get a take-out dinner delivered to the cabin by the on-site breakfast room at no extra charge. This gave us more time to unpack the sleeping bags and set up the fire pit for the dessert smores. This was my daughter’s first experience in a sleeping bag and she was certainly thrilled being on the lower bunk bed feeling all snuggled up. The bedroom in this cabin has a queen bed and built-in bunk beds. The room is small but I’m not staying forever and it has all the shelves and storage we need.
The bath is “contemporary style” with a linoleum floor, wood walls and molded shower unit, again just what we needed. The sink was a good size for me to shave and keeping daddy happy is what it’s all about.
The dinner came on time as promised, the fire pit worked great and the smores found a home. After dinner, there was a children’s movie in the meeting room. That night we entered the sleeping bags to the sound of the cicadas doing the woodland symphony outside the windows.
The next morning, I woke up early, took my shower and left for an early walk. I thought 8am was early but the other folks were already up and some were out. What a variety of vehicles and camping equipment!
Some were converted vans like my neighbor back home, others were large recreational trailers and still others were huge moving vehicles on their own. Right in the woods… with patches and decals from all the destinations they went. The tent section had several families and even a scout troop who was visiting the Gettysburg battlefield.
Saturday we would be visiting some of the Civil War museums, seeing little horses, and stopping by a supermarket for fixings for the planned Great Foil Cooked Chicken Dinner. The Gettysburg KOA allows room on each rental spot for a car and a fire pit. The RVs get waste disposal, electric and water lines. This evening we would use our fire pit for the intent of its design: cooking dinner.
My wife designed each of the packets with a portion of chicken parts, seasonings and vegetables. The detailed recipe is a family secret from the hills of Sicily so let’s just say it was the best I ever tasted.
Later that night, we went to a talk by a snake handler of some local and exotic snakes.
Sunday, we had breakfast in the KOA breakfast room, quick check out, packed and returned home. Now we had adventures to talk of and we went KOA Kamping.