NET Hop 6
69 miles via NH 43, NH 101, I-93, I-495 (around Boston) and MA 3A. Cumulative tow miles: 431. Truck miles: 545. Cumulative truck miles: 2575.
This was a very easy, quick hop. I actually expected the traffic to be brutal as I thought many people would have been ending a week-long 4th of July vacation on Sunday. But traffic was, if anything, light. No stop-and-go stretches at all. I barely had to use the brakes. A pleasure.
Our home for 9 nights in NH was the Saddleback Campground – the campground where we started our RV lifestyle 5 years ago in the summer of 2012. Then, as now, we chose the campground because it was very near the summer cottage of Jett’s sister. It was a very adequate first campground, but we had nothing to compare it to. We now can compare it to dozens of other campgrounds.
It has changed very little in 5 years. The things we liked then – the solitude, the cute pond, the friendly hosts (even though the hosts are different now than they were then) – are still the things we like now. The things we didn’t like much then – the difficult, sometimes cramped, sites, the lack of sewer service on most sites and very limited TV antenna reception – are still the things we don’t like much now. In 2012 we paid for cable TV, but that wasn’t an option this time, so we survived mostly by watching DVDs.
Unlike our 2012 site which had limited a sewer hookup (gray water only), we had no sewer hookup at all this time. We survived quite well without it, getting a pumpout just before we departed. The pumpout extracted over 100 gallons of sewage, but as our total tank capacity is 200 gallons, we weren’t pushing it. This was a surprise as I really thought a week would be our limit, but we made it 9 days without difficulty.
The weather, while not perfect, was better than we have seen for any week so far this summer. Several downpours and thunder interrupted the otherwise sunny and warm weather (though I still had to don a jacket most mornings). Spending time with Jett’s family on Lucas Pond was a joy, as always. I will post those photos separately.
As usual, the campground put on a private fireworks show on July 2. We didn’t see it because Rusty is not much of a fan (he just about jumps out of his skin, like most dogs), so we left. But I am sure it was a very nice show.
They also showed Ice Age on the beach at dusk another night. With free popcorn. I am a sucker for free movies and free popcorn.
The campground, in association with other NH campgrounds, sponsored a Make-a-Wish event on the day we arrived. The Make-a-Wish Foundation bought a small trailer for a mother and her two children, the younger one having a terminal illness. The camper is welcome, free of charge, at a number of campgrounds in southern NH this summer, to satisfy the mother’s wish of giving her daughter a summer of camping. It was a touching ceremony and a great opportunity to meet the hosts, the mother and her family and the other campers.
Our site, across the pond
Ice Age showing on the beach
The pond
The donated trailer
Cutting the Make-a-Wish cake