We went cold weather camping this weekend. I had so much fun!

He said

One of the things I was most excited about when we got the new trailer was that with the modern accoutrements it had, we would be able to extend our camping season. The latest camping we ever did in Wolfie was on Thanksgiving weekend one year, and without a working furnace onboard, it was frigid the entire weekend. Its success can be best described as something we did once, but not again. Usually by this month, the trailer would be away in storage.

When we got Wolfie Too with its working furnace, Danielle and I both agreed on giving late-saeason camping another try. The trip was booked some time ago, and we were both excited that it was a full two weeks later than we’d ever attempted ever before. The good news is that The Pinery – the park we started our season at this summer – in addition to being 45 minutes away, is also open year-round for camping. With the space we had inside the trailer and being able to make it cozy with the furnace, we knew at the worst if we were trapped inside the trailer the entire weekend, we’d be happy as heck.

Friday during the day Emelia and I got the trailer down to the park and situated on our site, in time to turn around and head back to London to get Danielle once the daycare day was done. We made a few pit stops and were back at the trailer enjoying a BBQ hot dog, beer and each other’s company shortly after the sun set at 6:30pm. With the temps colder, and the forecasted rain coming in, we settled in for the evening, cozied up around the TV to watch ET for our movie night.

As we approached this weekend trip, Danielle got a call from The Pinery on Thursday letting us know that the site we had reserved because there was a trailer that had a tree branch come down on it in a storm a week or so ago and it couldn’t leave until the insurance company completed what it needed to do. We adjusted our site to a different one and on Saturday morning, after our breakfast we took a hike around the campground and went by to take a peek at the trailer. Having a branch come down on us in a storm is a pretty common fear most campers have, but to see the kind of damage it did, certainly cemented that fear. Thankfully our weekend was much less eventful than this poor family.

The weather we had on Saturday and Sunday – while cool and seasonal – was sunny and without rain. After we picked up a couple bags of firewood Saturday morning I got a fire going that pretty much ran non stop until after the sun set and we settled in, inside again for the night. We had another movie night together. This time we let Emelia have a double bill of Bruce Almighty & Evan Almighty. And as anticipated within seconds of her crawling into her bunk, Emelia was out for the night sawing logs. Danielle and I started watching a couple episodes of season two of Stranger Things, before hitting the sheets ourselves. I had an amazing sleep. Danielle however who’s been battling a kinked neck muscle didn’t get as restful of a sleep.

Today when we got up we knew it was the day to pack up and head home, and that was a little heavier because this also meant we were packing up our camping season too. And while normally this moment might have felt a little more somber, it so wasn’t. Especially given how much we got in this season, as well as that we started the season with Wolfie – our beloved 37 year old 13’ Trillium trailer and that we ended the season with Wolfie Too – our brand new 22’ Apex Nano Bunk House with slideout dinette.

So as we put a cap on this camping season, we’re all a little overwhelmed by just how awesome it was. There was more trips than we’ve ever had. We’ve made new camp friends as well as finally got out with other friends who we’ve been trying to since getting Wolfie 4 years ago. There was a brand new trailer to our lives and it gave us the opportunity camp late into fall. As we look back on this camping season, we say so long to another great camping season! In fact so long to the best one yet!

She said

This weekend was anticipated since the day we upgraded our trailer in July. In the past we had attempted fall camping but with fall camping comes with extremely cold sleeping conditions. We had added a portable space heater the second year we had our old trailer but it was never really enough. The old trailer meant that even an efficient space heater blew the breakers constantly.

When we bought this new trailer we knew there was a lot more fall camping in our future. We not only had a 4 day weekend over Thanksgiving we managed to get a two night camping trip at the end of October. We could handle even later but we think this year that this will be the last of our camping for the season. After an amazing weekend away, lots of time enjoying the fall colours, the sunshine and lots of time together.

In the past, John and I had always accepted and embraced the bare bones trailer we used to own. We made the most of the extra steps it took to do the basic tasks of camping. This season we moved up in modernization by almost 40 years and with this we added things like a bathroom, hot water heater, larger refrigerator, heater, AC. Add in things like adding a small TV and DVD player we have really moved from basic camping to small luxuries. We had in the past thought these were luxuries we didn’t need. Now that we have them we love it, it takes our enjoyment of camping to a whole new level.

With our camping season coming to an end we are taking this week to get the trailer ready for its winter storage. The trailer will be winterized soon and we can dream and plan for the spring and another amazing camping season. Until then!