Base Camp to Space Camp: Our U-haul camper goes back to Huntsville

Base Camp!

After our trip to Huntsville, Alabama in April during Spring break, my son begged us to go to Space Camp. The traditional Space Camp is not cheap and I thought he might be a little young to spend that much time away from us. Fortunately, there was another option: Day Camp!  The rocket center does a day camp version of Space Camp during the summer for local elementary age kids. It's called the Rocket Explorer Experience. It's 8am-5pm Central time, and they get to do a lot of fun stuff. With this in mind, we took the camper to Monte Sano State Park again and became locals for a week!

The camp is less than $300/week at the time of this writing. There are 3 options: Space, Aviation, and Rockets. We opted for the Space one which was an all around focus. We may try this again and opt for a different one next time. You will need to plan early and sign them up in advance of summer to ensure a spot. They did a lot of simulators and rides and exhibits at the center. The fee includes lunch and afternoon snack. All I had to provide was a water bottle and morning snack. On one day they have a water day and go swimming. They also build rockets though my son didn't get to launch his that week. It was still a neat souvenir to bring home. (We will likely build and launch rockets at the park now that he's into it.) 

So my daughter was not into the space camp idea (though after hearing "bubba" talk about it she may want to go). So the rest of the time, we set out to explore the city, just the two of us. The first day we spent setting up camp and relaxing in the hammocks. We picked up my son from camp and met up with my cousin, who happens to live there, for dinner. The second day we began our exploring. The first stop was the Huntsville Botanical Garden which was a real treat. They have a large series of gardens to explore and this summer had a mythological scavenger hunt throughout the gardens. The scavenger hunt was really fun and they had all these various sized sculptures of mythological creatures scattered around the park. The botanical gardens is also home to the Purdy Butterfly House. My daughter really enjoyed that. They also have a children's garden area that's complete with playground, sandbox, sprinkler/misting stations and all themed for kids. For the adults, among some of the highlights are a vegetable garden, birding trail, and water garden.  Definitely worth a visit.

After three hours at the botanical gardens in the morning, we had lunch and found a splash pad at one of the local parks. There are 3 parks in Huntsville that have splash pads. We visited Brahan Spring Park which wasn't far from the gardens and had a splash pad. It also has playground and a small lake for fishing.

Many folks don't know this, but you can go to the space center and check out one of their IMAX or other movies without buying a pass to the entire center. Tickets are around $7/8 (kid/adult). We've done this a couple times and it's a great way to get into some air conditioning out of the summer heat for an hour. My daughter and I watched one this time about Saturn with great pics from the Cassini space craft mission. So if you've done the space center before but are still looking for something to do, you may want to check out what they're showing and catch a film.

On the fourth day, we stumbled onto two of my daughter's top 3 favorite things from the trip. First we found the EarlyWorks Childrens History Museum.  Over the years we've visited a lot of children's museums. Some of them, like the one in Greenville, SC, are amazing. Others, like the one in Atlanta, are not great. This was one of the better ones and we spent 3 hours in the morning there. The museum has various historical (Alabama history focused) locations like a log cabin, keel boat, and, my daughter's favorite, the old general store. There's a story telling tree, activities everywhere, and a nice Helen Keller area (she was from Alabama). Everything is hands on, from dressing up to selling supplies in the general store to setting the table in the log cabin and even hoisting the flag on the keel boat. It's very well done and I highly recommend it. Alabama is celebrating their bicentennial next year so I expect they'll have lots of special programs in 2019 there. This was my daughter's favorite thing we did all week.

Big Spring Park

A couple of blocks from the EarlyWorks museum is Big Spring Park. This is a nicely laid out park with a large lake that feeds into a canal like system. There's lots of green space, walking/running paths and literally thousands of fish in the lake. I've never seen so many fish and school (herd) of them will follow you as you walk around the lake. We really enjoyed this place and feeding the fish and ducks and visited a couple times during our stay there. If for nothing else, you have to go just to see all the fish!

Look at all those fish!

We really enjoyed staying at Monte Sano SP again. We camped at a site with an overlook of the valley, and it was generally cooler by 7-10 degrees up there in the trees than down in the city. The park staff was very pleasant, and I've made this our go to park if we plan to be in the area again. The trails and atmosphere is great there. I can't recommend it enough.

Overall, we had a great trip. It's a bit unusual for us to stay in a place for a whole week. We did enjoy ourselves and exploring a lot of what Huntsville had to offer. I also really enjoyed the one-on-one time with my daughter. Oh and my daughter's other item on her favorite top 3 things we did this week was breakfast with me at Galen's Restaurant (which we wrote about in our first Huntsville trip). If that doesn't melt your heart, then I don't know what would. Not sure where the road will take us next or when, but always looking forward to the next adventure.

A Trip out of this World in our U-haul Camper

With the wife in nursing school full-time this year, we don't have many options for traveling. We did manage to squeeze in a spring trip thanks to her and the kids being on spring break at the time. My son has gotten really into space recently so as an early birthday present, we planned a trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This would be a 4 day trip.

Little River Falls

We left out on Tuesday with the goal of stopping by the Little River Canyon National Preserve. After a few hours behind the wheel, we made it and got the kids setup with the Jr. Ranger program (we're big fans of the NPS Jr. Ranger program). Little River Canyon is an incredible area along the Little River in Northeast Alabama. It's a great place for hiking and outdoor adventure. Little River Falls is close to the visitor center and the views are amazing. The park staff at the visitor's center were really great and friendly. On the way home, we would come back through the park and take part of a scenic drive as our last little adventure before heading home.

With potential storms and rain heading from Mississippi towards Huntsville, we pushed on after our brief stop to try to get into to our camping destination before the rain. We rolled into Monte Sano State Park around 6:30 pm and setup camp. With the rain expected to blow in that night, I opted not to setup everything (camp chairs and screen room included) until the next morning. I had packed most of the gear in the car or in the waterproof action packers on the roof. Monte Sano SP is located on top of Monte Sano Mountain and overlooks Huntsville from the east. It has lots of trails for hiking and mountain biking and even has an planetarium and observatory that's open on Saturday nights (unfortunately we left Friday so didn't get a chance to check it out). The campground and bathhouses are nice. Though our first campsite, (#18) was on a curve and had someone directly across from us in a much larger rig. The layout of the entrances to these sites made it impossible for even us to get our tiny camper backed in due to the sharpness of the turn. The camp hosts at check-in had even warned me to feel free to come back if I couldn't squeeze in. (So I'd avoid #18 unless you're setting up a tent.) We were moved over to #21 which proved to be a better site. After being at the campground, I'd actually recommend sites in the #44-61 range as many of those are on the ridge with great views of the valley. I'll definitely be looking to book there next time.

After unhooking the camper, we decided to grab some dinner. After driving all day, I wanted something quick; so we headed down the mountain into Huntsville. We lucked out and found a Ted's Bar-B-Q at the bottom of the mountain. I had been introduced to Alabama white Bar-B-Q sauce a decade or more ago close by in Decatur, Alabama at Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q. White barbecue sauce is pretty awesome and different from many places you go. So if you're ever in Huntsville area, try out Ted's (or Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama) and grab the white barbecue sauce.

Bedding down in the bathhouse during the storm.

After dinner, we bedded down for the night and I listened to the weather radio. If you've seen my post on being prepared for bad weather, you know I always carry a weather radio. The storms were getting bad, and we were on top of the mountain so I prepared to move us to the bathhouse if things got bad. They did. I've grown up around thunderstorms all my life so they don't really bother me. But I know when they can get out of hand too. When the reports rolled in of the Huntsville airport seeing 70 mph winds, I woke up the wife and kids and moved us to the bathhouse. The NOAA weather radio broadcast antenna on top of the mountain went offline as the front edge of the storm hit the mountain with wind, hail, and rain knocking out the power. Several other campers joined us to weather the storm. As with most southern storms, they blow by pretty quickly. After about 30 mins to wait out the worst, the weather had settled into a calm rain on the back end of the front. No major damage was detected to campers other than a few that didn't get their awnings up and they tore in the gusts. Lots of limbs had come down but power was restored within mins. We moved back to the camper and slept calmly the rest of the night.

The cold front rolled in behind rain dropping the temperature to the 30F's. So we put on our warm clothes the next morning and prepared to spend the day at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. This was my third time there and it was still as much fun as I recall from my childhood. The kids had a blast and we had a picnic in the car for lunch (because it was still cold and windy). We watched an IMAX movie about the space station that was incredible. The kids wanted to see another 3D movie so we were able to get a discounted ticket for one the next morning. Yes, you can buy tickets for the movies without buying admission, they'll escort you to the theater when you arrive for your movie. So if you're going to be there for a couple days, you may want to buy admission for one day and the movie ticket for the next day.

While we were in Huntsville, we also were able to meet up with my cousin that had moved there several years back. It's always good to see family. We also discovered a great market/grocery at the bottom of the mountain called the Star Supermarket. I wish we had one of these in our town. The people were so friendly and they really have a lot to offer. This is what a small town market should be. They even sell firewood bundles for about half what the state park does. On our final day, we packed up early. We left the campground and drove back down the mountain into Huntsville for breakfast. I love finding a good breakfast place for the last morning. We stumbled on Galen's. It's got plenty of parking room for a camper and the staff are really friendly. The breakfast was excellent!

With full belly's, we started the trek home. Cathedral Caverns was on our way so we made a stop so the kids could get their first cave experience! The downside to this park, like most caves, is that you can't do anything without a guide. You can see the mouth of the cave and the gift shop, but beyond that you have to pay to get into the cave on a guided tour. The cave tour is about a 1.5 mile (round trip) in and out hike that takes around 1.5 hrs. It has some really beautiful views. We enjoyed it and our guide was great. At about $20/adult and almost $10/child (under 13), it's not the most economical way to spend a couple of hours. However, it is comparable to Desoto Caverns and Ruby Falls tour prices. Check Cathedral Caverns website for tour times and rates before you go.

Even with the ranging weather conditions on the trip, we had a great time. I'd like to go back and spend more time with family and we'll definitely camp at Monte Sano SP again. It was good for us to get away and break up the monotony of our daily life. Adventure always seems to me to be a way to refill your cup. It puts excitement back in your life after the daily grind. Knowing how busy this year is and the minimal opportunities we'll have as a family to get away until next year, I'm thankful for the opportunity to get out and go. Hopefully, I can squeeze another trip in this summer between some renovations I want to focus on. More about those to come.

Wheeling

I was lucky when I bought the trailer as it came with 3 wheels. All of them were original U-haul wheels with the nubs to mount baby moon hubcaps. (though I wasn't lucky enough to score a set of the U-haul stamped baby moons)  The rims were in rough shape so I painted them black as the easiest way to get them with some uniform look. When I was looking to put the second spare tire mount on my tongue, I needed to get a 4th wheel. Fortunately, you can order them from U-haul truck parts Ebay shop (here).

The wheels are a nice clean white which match the new paint job well. (The newer wheels do not have the bumps to hold baby moon hubcaps though. So if you're looking for that style you'll need to find original wheels.) I opted to buy 2 new wheels and make them my main wheels and use the originals on the spare tires. I took the wheels and tires to my tire shop and had them swap them around. A new spare tire went on one of the old black rims after the tires from them had been moved to the new white rims. When I got back home I put the new white wheels on the camper and mounted the black rims on the 2 spare mounts. Having 2 spares for our 4000 mile journey was a huge comfort, especially since we'd be leaving the US on this trip.

Just for information, I use Carlisle Radial Trail (the existing tires were RH and the new spare is an HD) tires for the camper. Greenball is another highly recommended brand. Don't just buy the cheapest brand that you would normally throw on a small utility trailer that you don't use everyday. While you may not be using the camper everyday, you want something more dependable due to the number of miles you will drive when you are using it and the weight, heat impacts and bounce.  After all, it's better to not have to use your spare. For more info on tires see my earlier post.

The old lugs and lug nuts were very rusty. The old lug nuts were open-faced which allowed more rust issues on the lugs than a closed-faced lug nut. I bought some new chrome 12x1.5 close-faced lug nuts to put with my shiny new wheels. Next I tackled the rusty lugs with a wire brush to clean them up. (You can see my video on removing rust from the lugs if you need to do this.)

I like the new look. It's very clean and fresh looking. I'm currently on the search for chrome center caps to install to finish the look. I'll update when I find some that fit. Everything held up well on our big trip this summer and thankfully we didn't need to even use one of the spares.

Epic Adventure 2: The Sun Sets... (Part 6 of 6)

(This is a continuation of a series of posts on our second long distance trip, see the first post if you want to start at the beginning.)

Sunset. It happens every single day. Many days we don't even think about it. Some days we look forward to it; others we complain we need more time. Some sunsets are uneventful, some are memorable. On this trip, we saw many sunsets that were memorable in many different places. It's hard to say which was the best. All were embraced for the fleeting moments they existed.

As we packed up to leave Acadia, we felt that we were nearing the sunset of our great adventure. We had a few more days till it was over, but the long haul home would begin when we pulled out of that amazingly beautiful place. We packed up the camper and hooked up prepared to leave. The ranger came by and stopped to check me out while I was finishing up so I wouldn't have to go by the office on the way out. We met a nice lady with 3 huskies who was also packing up and had been camping across from us. After a brief chat, we hit the road and pulled out of the Schoodic Penninsula headed down US Rt 1. After winding down Rt. 1 for a while we stopped for lunch and gas. A great little seafood joint, Carrier's Mainely Lobster, served us our last batch of fried clams from the northeast. This little place had a wall with buoys memorializing local fishermen who had died. It was quite a beautiful display.

Further south we routed over to I95 to pick up some speed. We were targeting Rhode Island for the evening which was over 300 miles away with Boston traffic and plenty of road construction between us and there it was going to take a while. When we hit the bypass around Boston, I noticed the sign for the Minute Man National Park. While this had not been on the list of places to go, I could not pass up seeing where our nation was born. The bridges in Boston were all decorated with American flags from 4th of July just a couple days before. It was a beautiful sight. It was after the park visitor center had closed but I did get to the Minute Man Statue as the sun was setting.

We pressed on and found our second hotel stay in Rhode Island. Since Acadia didn't have a bath house, we were all in need of a good warm shower and more spacious quarters always are a treat after days in the camper. We crashed another Comfort Inn, this one had a nicer breakfast but the room smelled like a sweaty locker room. We also took the opportunity to use the coin laundry there to do a load to refresh our range of outfits.

The next day we made a brief stop at the Roger Williams National Memorial. This is a quick stop that educates you on Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. He's also considered the father of the separation of church and state movement.

We then visited a friend of my son's whose family was summering in Rhode Island. It was a rainy day but always fun for the kids to have playmates for a few hours. We went down to the beach and drove around looking at some of the New England countryside.

We pressed on south skirting around NYC area and taking the Tappan Zee bridge further inland. We routed on south and made Delaware late that night to stay with my wife's best friend. We had a great visit and stayed through lunch the next day. The further south we drove the warmer it was getting. Then it was off again to the south crossing the Bay Bridge and navigating around D.C. down through Virginia and back to my cousin's in North Carolina. It was great to stop back in with the whole family. My kids getting so see their cousins they had not seen in a few years. I watched the kids pair up based on personalities. We went for a walk around their lake that is at the back of their neighborhood around to a local park. It had a new obstacle (read American Ninja Warrior) course. My son is a big fan of these and it had just opened.

After lunch we again hit the road for the last leg home. Coming home is always bittersweet. There's the enjoyment of sleeping in your own bed and getting to spread out after days of living in a tiny camper. The fun of seeing friends and family and coworkers. The comfort of life returning to normal. There also is some sadness that the adventure has come to a close. Our 16 day, 4000-mile journey had involved 2 countries and brought us lots of memories along the way. So as the sun set that evening, we crawled into our beds ready to get back to the normal life, but vowing to take another great adventure. And we'll continue to make taking adventures a regular part of our life.

Epic Adventure 2: Carved out (Part 5 of 6)

(This is a continuation of a series of posts on our second long distance trip, see the first post if you want to start at the beginning.)

With another dream stop on the way home and limited time, we pulled out of Prince Edward Island the next morning. We began to retrace our steps back to the Maine border. As we crossed New Brunswick, we stopped off at St. Johns again now that it was clear and were able to take in Reversing Falls. It's an interesting site and there's plenty of rapids and whirlpools. We went to a little park on the north side of the Reversing Falls Bridge. It's a nice area and there are 3 islands in the middle of the river upstream. Unfortunately, there's a giant paper mill on the opposite bank that kills the natural beauty of the area.

We headed back on the road and made the border crossing later than anticipated but without any issues. Back in the US we made a detour to St. Croix Island International Historic Site. The site is maintained by both Canada and the US as the actual island sits in the middle of the river on the border. You would need a boat to access it but on the U.S. side there is a visitors center. While it was closed when we were there, they have a self-guided tour with character sculptures that is quite good. It tells the story of how the French landed and began to build a settlement there. One of the first French settlements. A harsh winter killed about half of the men and while they did make some friends with local tribes, they eventually packed up and moved on to start another settlement that is now Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

After the brief stop we headed south winding through two-lane highways until we reached the coast. We ended up on US1 and stopped in Machias where we grabbed some dinner. We happened into town as the sun was setting and lots of folks were milling around. As we climbed back into the car to try to reach our campground destination, we heard pop, pop, pop. It dawned on us that we had just arrived back in the U.S. on the 4th of July after spending Canada Day in Canada. We had seen lots of little New England towns with their American Flags decorating the towns on the way north and thought about how nice it was to see the flag everywhere you looked. But it hadn't settled in that we would be returning on the 4th of July. The kids watched the fireworks out the window as I drove south trying to get to our destination for the evening.

Our destination was the new campground on the Schoodic Peninsula of Acadia National Park. We pulled in late and found our reservation information on the bulletin board. We found our site and proceeded to setup the minimal essentials to get everyone to bed. It had been a long day of driving from PEI to Acadia, about 360 miles. As I was getting stuff setup a couple of park rangers pulled up to check on us. They were the friendliest rangers I've ever run into. They asked if we needed any help setting up since it was so late and told us to swing by the office in the morning and they would give us some keys to the best spots to visit and how to get around since there was apparently a lot of road construction going on around Bar Harbor. We laid our heads down for some much needed rest with the anticipation bubbling inside to see what Acadia had to offer the next day (well at least my excitement was bubbling!).

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed over to the office. We picked up Jr. Ranger books for the kids which is a must at any park. I strongly recommend the Jr. Ranger program. It's free and it really gets the kids deeper into the history and science of the parks. After getting the low down on the constructions and hints on what to check out, we disconnected from the camper and climbed in the car to explore the Schoodic Peninsula. Schoodic is about 45mins north of the main part of the park, Mt. Desert Island. As such it's quieter and the campground is super nice since it is only a couple years old. The campground is very wooded and secluded with lots of trees between sites. There are no showers at any campgrounds in Acadia but Schoodic has nice restrooms and electricity and water hookups for campers. The Schoodic Peninsula has a loop road that you can drive around and eventually wind your way out to the point. the views are amazing. the rocks are incredible and while we were out there at the point the crab/lobster boats were pulling in pots not more than 100 yards offshore.


After a wonderful morning on Schoodic, we headed down to Mt. Desert Island. This is the main area of Acadia National Park. Scientists believe that diversity in landscapes were caused by a glacier carving it out, moving and depositing rocks and boulders from further inland. Thanks to the rangers we were able to by pass traffic and construction and move along fairly easy to the loop road. We enjoyed all the stops along the loop. Jordan Pond is simply gorgeous though this was busy season and the wait to get into the Jordan Pond House (at 2pm) was almost an hour. We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain and had a great time. We ran into a NASA volunteer who had his telescope setup to view the sun. The kids really enjoyed looking through it with it's special filter and learning about what they were seeing. It was an incredibly clear day and you could see for miles from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Back down off the mountain,we left the park and wound our way to see some more of the coast and the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. The kids did complete their Jr Ranger program and got their badges. Over all it was an incredible day. I want to go back and spend some time doing hiking and fishing. Maine in the summertime is a wonderful experience.

That night we slept at the campsite and I was a little sad that we would be leaving the next day for the long trek home.

The adventure continues with Epic Adventure 2: The Sun Sets.