6/23/09 - Down Day in Newport, TN

6/23 - We took this day off of driving around and sight seeing. The kids and I swam at the pool for almost 4 hours (sorry no pics - not taking the camera to the pool!) with a short break in the middle to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, crackers, and as a super treat, ice cold grape soda from the vending machine near the pool deck.

Here are some pics of our campsite at Newport. In this one you can see that I was finally able to make a fire. I tried the night before but the air and ground were just too moist and it wouldn't stay lit. It was very discouraging. But on this night we made hamburgers and veggie packets over the fire.


You can see the campsite slope and the mud, sticks and rocks. We did try to clear our spot before we set the tarp down and put the tent up, but it's just impossible and the mud was thick and gooey. It slopes down into this open grassy area where the kids loved to play and catch butterflies and fireflies, and to watch all of the bunnies in the mornings.


Becky is a firefly magnet. At one point she had caught about 10 of them and they were crawling up and down her arms. I remember that I used to love fireflies when I was a kid, too. My mom used to give us empty spice jars to put them in. They were perfect since they had the plastic lids with the sprinkle holes in them so the poor things could breathe.


Again - not the ideal campsite but we made it through 3 nights and were no worse for the wear. I won't even guess how many Daddy Long Leg spiders we brought back with us from this one - I did my best to shake them all off the rainfly and the tent before folding it all up. There were a lot of them, though - so maybe we'll be in for a surprise the next time we get the tent out.

The moisture and heat, the slant of the site, the mud, and the extremely rocky and uncomfortable ground made for a rough 3 nights at this campground. We were all glad to pack up our tent when it was time to leave.