Category: RV’ing

We’re continuing to have a ball at Brook-N-Wood. The summers in the valley can get a little hot but the pool definitely helps to cool you down.

It’s in these summer months where I started to really get the itch to buy our own RV. We’re still staying with in my in-laws in their trailer when we come up to BNW but seeing how much my children enjoyed it got me to start investigating our options into ownership. Out of these experiences came one of my now known famous quotes:

“Camping makes me cry.”

Just talking about how the kids enjoy camping so much led me to rekindle some of my own family camping memories and let’s just say I got a bit emotional. I wasn’t bawling or anything, maybe someone was cutting onions nearby….

Another thought: If and when you consider buying an RV, don’t depend on your convertible dinette to be a permanent bunk for anything but children. Most dinettes are advertised as drop down bunks when in fact they only  make out to be about 60 inches long. This is something you just discover, you take for granted being able to straighten your legs until the day/night comes that you can’t.

“Bookends” Ava

Stay tuned for the last of the 2013 season, thanks for stopping by!

We bought our trailer in the early fall of 2013, I drove down to Kentucky to pick it up with the help of Linda’s cousin, Stephen. The Rubicon had no problems towing it back to New York. The Smoky Mountains were the most challenging part of the trip and at the worst I found myself climbing up a steep upgrade at 45 mph in third gear.

Thanks to Tony at Summit RV, http://www.summitrv.com, for helping us out and facilitating the purchase. We got a great price and everything was delivered as promised. They even helped us hitch up the Jeep and wire our 7 pin trailer connection.

Now we had the RV, where should we keep it? We have a small driveway and could keep it temporarily but it would block our garage and other things so we knew it wasn’t going to stay with us at our house for too long.

We actually did think ahead of time and made arrangements to be seasonal campers with Brook-N-Wood Campground up in Elizaville, New York. I know… this is a travel site, right?  I should mention that at this time we had two toddlers and a baby on the way. My in-laws were already seasonal there so it would be a great way to vacation together (read: babysitting and much needed help) while getting all  our feet wet in this camping experience.

Brook-N-Wood is a great little family run campground in the Hudson Valley area of upstate New York. It’s about two hours from our house and believe me, that’s about enough time to spend in the car with very small children! When they’re not sleeping, they can be quite needy. I’m also suspicious that my middle child, Ava, might be prone to motion sickness.

BNW has a lot of things to keep small children busy. They have a beautiful heated in ground pool, a small playground that we can see from our campsite, a small brook that the kids love to play near, hayrides and some small kid-friendly trails. They also have the usual rec. center and mini golf that you see at many campgrounds.

Check their site out at:  www.brooknwood.com

My in-laws have the site right behind ours.We’re fortunate to have so much family around us and the kid’s love having them around and often visit their grandparents, Noni and Poppi.

Check out the BNW campground map below:

So, BNW is where we’ve hung our hats for the two and a quarter seasons. We joined early fall of 2013 and previous that summer had stayed as guests in Poppi’s trailer.

I’m planning on posting on our first few seasons here and getting some pics up so stay tuned for that. Thanks for dropping by!