My Long Weekend in the Valley - Evangeline Beach Campground

July 22nd to July 25th

What a great weekend!  Look Kelly, I now have a bathroom..... .  Not really, although it is a portable bathroom or shower house, I am using it as a change room.  Love Kijiji.  Great deal!!   Anyway, fine tuning with every trip.   Also got my garden hose and nozzle along with a hook for the side of the camper so I now have water right by the Galley :-).

 This little camper was just down the road from where I was.  It is completely fiber glass.  The owners are from Quebec.  They said they were looking for a Boler but could not find one when they came across this one.  Really a neat unit, has a queen bed in the front that is permanent, does not convert to a table and nice large counter to work on, stove, fridge and fairly large dining area.  Even has a small porta potty in a closet!

 The end of the road past the campground road is a series of Dykes that you can look across at wolfville.  There is also a large brick house at the end of that road on a sizeable farm.  The folks who live there were acquaintances of mine years ago!  Love the way the ivy has grown up the side of the house.  This is so typically Dutch!

Wolfville's main street still looks the same.  On Saturdays they have the Wolfville Farmers Market and this Saturday they had Taste of NS.  For $3.00 a ticket, you could taste what the vendors specialties are, kinda like the multicultural festival in Halifax.  

 Of course there is no trip to the Valley without going to the lookoff. 

All the years I lived in the valley, I never went to Blomidon!  What a great place!  Really nice beech.  Took a walk thru the provincial camping park at the top of the hill.  Impressed with the beach but not with the campground.  The vault toilets were disgusting by provincial standards and some of the camp sites had a fair amount of debris around them.  Not us to seeing that at a provincial site.  I have to say that the staff did not seem to be too friendly either when I asked if I could go around and look?  I don't think I would consider camping there.

 

These are the stairs that lead you down to the beech.  The first flight is not so bad, but the second flight is a little scary.  The thought that you have to climb them to come back up is the scary part, hehehe, it was a workout!

 

 Great beach!  A little rocky here but as you head to the water, you get some nice firm red mud but you do not sink in it!

 Love the zoom on my Camera!  Neat hole in the side of the bank.

 The tide started coming in and man was it fast!

Checkout how fast the it was coming in!  The video is a little slow running but it is worth waiting to see how fast it moves!

As far as campgrounds go, I have to say that Evangeline beach is great!  The price is comparable to any other campground, the washroom and shower facilities are kept very clean and the owners take pride in their property.  Also, it has a lot to offer if you have kids.  There is a huge play area and a pool even though it is a little small.  Across the road is an arcade and mini golf.  There is a beach there too but you will sink in the mud if you try to walk out too far. 

Fee:  for a 2 way site = $ 32.75 + tax

Weather:  Friday and Saturday the Temp was around 28 and did not drop too low at night.  Saturday night was warm but we got an outrageous wind storm that lasted for about 20 minutes.  Really weird, I was a bit afraid that the gazebo was going to blow over but all was good.  Sunday was a much more moderate Temp, I think around 22.  A little wind.  Sunday night it got a little nippy, dropped down to 11.  brrr  By the time I packed up the camper on Monday, it was up too 28 degrees again.

Lauri Park - What a great job they did!

July 8th and 9th - Lauri Park with Ethan

 Originally I only planned on 1 night with Ethan but changed it 2 on Friday morning.  Friday night was great but woke up on Saturday to pouring down rain!  Yuk!!  Since we were so close to home, decided to go there for day.  It was nice to be dry and warm but I would have rather been at the campground in the sunshine.  Oh well, when we got back to the campground it was all clear and the skies were blue!  Had a great fire with some friends who were camping just up the way at site 54.  Ethan was not really into the campfire.  He really enjoyed just staying in the camper and watched a movie?  My friend's son Jeffrey(9) is an expert smores maker!  They make them with Champion(?) milk chocolate cookies.  They were yummy!!  Ethan finally came out of the camper around 10:30, pulled up a chair right close to me and promptly fell asleep!  He slept really well and did not wake up until 8:30.  The sun was shinning and you could tell it was going to be a large day.  Decided to walk around the campground after breakfast.  Ethan wanted to go swimming but it was a little too rough.  Although it was sunny and warm, the wind was blowing pretty strong.  Below are pics of the camper and of the park:

Ethan in his favorite spot.

The building has the new washrooms, showers and laundry facilities.  Nice, clean and new.  I did not take a shower but talked to a few ladies that did and they said there was not enough hot water.  Jason took a shower in the afternoon and said there was all kinds of hot water when he had his shower.

Although the sites are nice, they are a little small and some are on top of each other.  I had a decent site but Jason and Loris was a little small for their camper.  They made it work for them though!

 

Jason and Lori's setup. 

 
A lot of provincial parks now have what they call Hosts.  These are people who you can go and get information or help if you need it.  The Host at Lauri park when were were there was Emile.  He is doing 2 weeks here and then taking a few weeks off, and after that he is going to Smiley's for a few weeks.

All the roads are paved and all the camp sites have new crusher dust and new grass.

There were 2 of these little fibre glass campers, this was a Trillium and the other was a boler.

Tjis and I are taking Kees and Ben camping one weekend in the near future and were scoping some sites here.  We found the perfect site that will fit both my camper and their 10' X 14' tent.  We will have to see what weekend we can go and if the site is open? 

 

There is a really nice path that leads to the dock above and the lookoff.  Very pretty place!

Cost:  $24.48 + $ 9.00 booking free for Saturday night.  Decided to go on Friday night too, $24.48 + $ 7.00 change in booking fee.  A little ridiculous!

Weather:  Friday night clear and 14 degrees.  Saturday morning/afternoon poured rain but was around 16 degrees. Saturday evening, rain stopped, skys got clear and temp was around 15 degrees.  Sunday, not a cloud in the sky and it was around 25 degrees when we left the campground but the wind was blowing to moderate the temperature.

3rd Trip - Guysborough County

June 29th to July 3rd -  Salsman's Provincial Campground

Wednesday night it was spitting light rain and foggy, apart from that, the rest of the weekend was beautiful.  This was the furthest and longest trip yet with the camper.  Got a site with cover over the picnic table so therefore I could use the gazebo for the side door instead of the tarp I usually use.

 

I set the solar panel up to keep the battery charged.  I kept the cooler plugged in all day thinking the solar panel would keep the battery charged.  Wrong, should not have done it.  Oh well, I have to get a regulator for it and then there should be no issue?  Will have to test it more.

Got up Thursday morning and it was dead calm!  Thought this would make a great pic.

I was gone most of the day on Friday at the Canada Day Celebrations at the interpretive center in Goldboro and when I got back, this was setup right across from me :-)))

Spend Friday night with Annie and Barry, the owners of this wonderful CampInn Teardrop.  When I was building mine, I looked at all the manufactures of Teardrops and CampInn's are one of the finest makes I saw.  Lots of bells and whistles available.
 Unfortunately the cost of these units reflects the bells and whistles but also the quality!  I really like the screen tent they have for the back and maybe next year I will get something like that as well.  We will see?  Hoping I run into them again!  Apparently there is another fellow in Pictou who owns a CampInn as well.  Maybe I will see him this summer too?

Weather:  Mostly sunny the whole trip except Wednesday night.  Had a fire every night but Wednesday.  Temp: day time 18 to 25 degrees.  night time: 10 to 15 degrees

Cost: $24.48 per night includes taxes. Unfortunately there is a $9.00 booking fee.  Not so bad for booking 3 nights but if you are only booking for 1 night, it brings the cost up to $33.48 for an unserviced site.  a little steep!!