We arrived at Jellystone where Bob backed the rig into a tight spot seemingly effortlessly. While we started setting up, Bob packed up to leave for a few days, since he was going to stay at Matt’s apartment during his writing conference. Matt’s apartment was only 25 minutes from the conference, while Jellystone was about 1 hour 15 minutes. Initially, the children were disappointed to find out that we had come during off season, so many of the attractions were not open yet. However, with it being off season, we got half price. And this is one of the few campground in the country that doesn’t charge extra for more than 2 or 3 people. The children didn’t care about the pricing as much as I did, but Ian did perk up when I told him we could build a campfire.
Over the air reception for the TV was nonexistent, so I broke down and bought a cable to attach to the campsite’s cable connection. Then I spent the next several hours trying to get it working! Thank goodness for Forest River forums. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything we could do about the lack of cell phone reception.
Although we battled the rain all weekend, we did manage to get some bike riding, fishing, and a couple of bonfires in. On Friday, when Matt came to visit, since we got in too late to go see him on Wednesday, we were going to have a bonfire and S’mores after dinner. Well, Matt needed to leave to finish packing for a trip, so we started the bonfire early. Then, I allowed the children to start making S’mores as soon as they finished eating dinner, hoping to beat the rain. We almost did. We discovered that night that if you have a good, strong fire going, even a downpour won’t put it out very quickly. Thankfully, it wasn’t very windy, so some of us sat under the awning watching the others play in the rain.
There were some weekend activities, and I think my children managed to do every free activity the campground offered, from hay wagon rides to carousel rides to mini golf with Yogi Bear. The highlight of the weekend was waking up the bears from their hibernation. The interesting thing is that we were at the Jellystone in Cherokee, North Carolina when the bears went into hibernation in the fall of 2010. Naturally, on this weekend, when there were three wagons and the campground’s altered fire truck full of people ready to wake up the bears, the sky opened up and it poured on us! Despite the rain, though, Yogi, Cindy and Boo Boo are awake and ready for another season. And we have moved on to flatter land in Kentucky.