Tedda's first weekend camping: Dry River Campground (NH)
After spending the first weekend of our Travato ownership “camping” in the dealership parking lot and then, the next night, in my mom’s driveway, G and I decided we’d spend our second weekend actually camping. And with a few New Hampshire state parks still open, we snagged a reservation at Dry River Campground in Crawford Notch State Park in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Given the choice between the ocean and the mountains, I’ll always choose the ocean. Luckily, in New Hampshire, I have the best of both worlds, living just short walk from the beach and a few hours from mountains. And whileI love the coast, I’m always awed by New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the snow-capped, 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak.
Dry River Campground is a small campground, with only 36 sites. The sites are wooded, but as it’s early November, most of the leaves have already fallen, resulting in a more open feel. There’s plenty of space between the sites, and I’m guessing that the trees provide much more seclusion/privacy in the summer months. We chose site #17, and we weren’t disappointed; the site was pretty large and had plenty of hammock-worthy trees (a priority for us!).
We pulled into our site, and voila, we were set up. No top to pop or pee tent to set up—just pull in and park. As I started snapping shots of Tedda and the campsite on my iPhone, G was the lucky one to find a dead mouse in our toilet. We’re still not totally sure how the mouse got in, but G doesn’t think he closed the back doors securely during the week (yikes) and the mouse must have crawled in and squeezed between the toilet lid and seat. I’m going to try to not think about that any more than I already have. After that bit of “excitement,” we were ready to settle in for the evening.
This weekend was our first chance to try cooking in the Travato. Even though the weather was fantastic and we did end up sitting outside by the fire, it was dark by 5p (damn you, end of daylight saving time). Not sure if we’d want to cook in the dark over the fire, I had planned on two meals I prepped at home ahead of time: the first was baked tortellini tossed with spinach, bacon, Alfredo sauce, and mozzarella; for the next meal, I packed shredded chicken (that I had made ahead of time in the InstantPot), shredded cheese, and a black bean/jalapeño/black olive mixture. I packed chips, tortillas, and hard taco shells (figuring we’d use one of more of the options) and sour cream, salsa, and a small container of guacamole. The first night, we had the tortellini, which I warmed up in the microwave. The second night, G and I each did something a little different: I spread a few chips on my plate and made chicken/bean nachos, while G made soft tacos. We used the microwave again that night, so we’re two for two! The microwave is also a convection oven, but I figured we’d start easy and go with the microwave for our first attempts. So far, so good! With a little planning, the meals were pretty easy and required very little prep time in the coach. In the summer months, I’m sure we’ll continue to cook over a campfire, but having the ability to cook inside (or at least heat up food) is pretty awesome!
Back in March when the pandemic and our stay-at-home orders were in place, G and I got into the habit of playing games every night after dinner—more as a distraction and something to make us forget, for a little while at least, everything that was going on. We’ve been playing just about every night since. And our favorite game, by far, is Ticket to Ride. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t come in a travel edition (and playing on an iPad just isn't the same), so we’ve never taken the game camping with us, instead opting for more portable games. Would we be able to play in the Travato? Perhaps, but here’s the rub: there’s a narrow table in the Travato that can be set up for eating or working or for allowing the two twin beds to be made into a larger, king-ish-sized bed. At 54” long and16” wide, the table is plenty long but too narrow for the gameboard. I had packed the board and pieces last weekend, but we soon realized the board was too big for the table and the entire game would be an elbow’s bump away from being a mess of pieces and cards. Enter G’s resourcefulness. During the early days of the pandemic, when we were using our main dining table for my workspace, our game playing, and our puzzle-making space, G cut a piece of hardboard so that we could put puzzles together on the board and then be able to move the board (and puzzle) to free up table space. G thought the board could be our solution in the van, so we packed the board, set it atop the long table, and Ticket to Ride fit perfectly…so much so that we bought another game set—one to live permanently at home and the other in the van. Honestly, these days, it’s the little things, right??
The next morning, we cheated a bit. I had planned to make coffee and breakfast in the van, but we were itching to check the news, so we decided to head toward town where we could a) get cell service and b) grab coffee. Not having cell service or wi-fi would ordinarily be a minor inconvenience and not a big deal. But this particular weekend, with the US election still not officially called, was a tough one to be without access to the news (feel free to judge us). Needless to say, as soon as G drove within range, I logged on to just about every news site and social media platform to check for updates. Still no decision. We decided to head back to the campground, but first we stopped at the scenic overlook along Route 302—the same place where we had taken our first selfie when we bought our Eurovan almost exactly two years ago to the day (we purchased it in North Country, just a short drive from where we were this weekend). This time, it was Tedda’s turn to take the spotlight.
By the time we got back to the campsite, shortly after 11a (and damn, had we known the news would break shortly after, we would have waited!!), we took advantage of the fantastic November weather (sunny and in the 70s!!) and relaxed in our hammocks. Well, I relaxed and listened to two podcast episodes and G spent some time organizing the storage inside the coach. Yup, that’s us in a nutshell; we were both in our elements. Then, we meandered down to the river, following a short trail from the campground. Even though we’re well past peak foliage season, everything was still beautiful—and we even saw a frog on the trail; luckily, I heard it before I spotted it—thankfully!
By this point, a few hours had passed since we had returned from our morning drive, and our curiosity and news-addictions got the better of us; we decided to head out of the park to where we could get service and again check the news. We pulled into a parking lot and quickly absorbed what were, for us at least, incredibly positive updates. We got back to the campground, enjoyed some time by the fire, made dinner, played a few rounds of Ticket to Ride, read (I finished a great biography of writer John Steinbeck, Mad at the World, and settled in for a peaceful and a more relaxed night’s sleep than I had had in days…
This weekend was our first visit to Dry River Campground, and it probably won’t be our last! I’ll be interested to visit in the summer to see how camping in peak season compares, as we were definitely spoiled. So that’s a wrap…our first camping trip with Tedda was a success, and we’ll be taking her camping again this next weekend, so stay tuned…and coming soon—a photo tour of the interior!