And finally the trip back home, we had three stops as we sprinted back west. We planned for 4 stops but cut out Wisconsin Dells after the slide on our camper broke and everyone had enough fun for this year. Marcus of course still wanted to go but got out voted. I usually don't get sick of being on the road but with the broken camper and tempers starting to flare I was done this year and all for driving the 14 hours (it took 16 hours with stops) back from Cedar Point. But before Cedar Point we first had a stop at Lake Champlain, we stayed at Grand Isle State Park in Vermont. It was in the middle of the lake and seemed like a very popular campground. The first night there with everyone tired we decided to get a movie in and drove back to the main land and went to MIB International. The movie was good enough. The next day we tried to find a beach we could swim in, our campground beach was pretty nasty, the lake was up quite a bit so likely ate up all the beach front. We went north to another state park and it was a little better but still not much of a beach so we kept heading north and found a nice sandy beach at Arbor Dunes State Park. It was cold but better than the ocean and Becky, Luke, Marc, and I got some swimming in. The last day there we drove into Burlington and checked out the Church Street area which was a pretty cool little place to go shopping.
Our next stop was Sampson State Park in the Finger Lakes area of New York. It was a nice state park located on a former military base. It's right on Seneca Lake and we spent some time checking out the lake and drove down through all the wineries to the southern tip of the lake and checked out Watkins Glen State Park. We took the gorge trail which is aptly named that leads you up a gorge along a raging river. It was pretty awesome with a couple waterfalls you could walk behind, tunnels in the rock face and a ton of stairs taking you up and down along the river. This was the stop where the slide on the camper broke and we were pulled in awkwardly so didn't have a fire pit or anything outside. It is really tight in there without anywhere to sit so ramped it up a notch with everyone getting on each others nerves.
After Sampson State Park we got to our final stop this year at Cedar Point. We went to Cedar Point our second year trip around the great lakes and we thought it would be something exciting to look forward to and keep everyone interested on the way home which historically is a bit rough. Also it was right on the way so seemed like a great idea. Turned out it was just an ok idea. Samus and Luke only went on a couple of rides and I'm not sure we really got our cedar point money's worth this time around. But we rode some rides and Luke, Marc and I checked out the water park which was better than I expected it to be. In the evening they had good internet so we streamed some movies and tried to chill out as we all crammed onto Becky and my bed. So it was fun but we were ready to get home.
The ride home took 16 hours with stops which makes it the 2nd longest drive we ever did right behind our planned drive coming from Arkansas on our South East Adventure a couple years ago. That we vowed never to do again but it wasn't that bad this time. That time we got home at like 2am this year we got up early and had the time change on our side so got home in the daylight at about 9pm. So we're home a couple days early and everyone is sore from the long drive. Now we have to unpack the camper and hopefully we'll be able to get it fixed up without too much trouble. That's about all for this year, thanks for reading.
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| Luke and Marc getting in the Lake Champlain water at Arbor Dunes State Park |
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| Church Street, Burlington, VT |
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| Becky Skipping rocks at Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake |
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| Marc and Luke walking a trail to the beach at Sampson State Park |
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| Marina at Sampson State Park it wasn't open yet but looked pretty good if you have a boat. Now that sounds sort of fun, like camping on water. |
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| Swimming area at Lake Sampson, we didn't swim the beach was only open during the day with signs posted no swimming without a lifeguard present. I couldn't talk the boys into breaking the rules. |
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| Museum at Sampson State park, we were there Monday and Tuesday and It's closed Monday and Tuesdays so we only checked out the exterior. |
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| Shot of the broken camper. So we had to turtle without the slide the last two stops which got a little tight. It's our bed that slides out the back and we don't have a couch or the dining area when the slide is in. The only place to sit is on the bed. |
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| Ok, moron is here... |
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| On the trail |
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| Lilly pond |
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| We assume he's the king of the pond. Isn't he huge. |
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| First water fall you walk under |
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| Under the falls |
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| Second Falls, Rainbow falls I think. |
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| fam on a bridge |
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| Kids skipping stones at the beach area |
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| Our campsite at Cedar Point, pretty small but have everything. Since we were just leaving right away and slide wasn't working we left it hooked up to the truckster for a quick getaway. |
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| Gateway, Becky went on it by herself after Marcus backed out on her. She said it was the worst. |
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| This is the Wicked Twister, I went with Becky on it she loves it and I thought it was terrifying. I took this picture waiting for the Farris Wheel which was also terrifying. |
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| I parked the camper and walked into this about 10 minutes after we got home. |
And what we've all be waiting for, the family truckster update:
Miles Driven: 5014
Gallons of Gas: 474
Time in car: 118 hours
