Our first trips in the HodgePod

When we all started talking about getting a camper, our favorite travel buddies, Valerie and Darren, didn't let the grass grow for long. The found their travel trailer and did an amazing overhaul on it to make it their own.  Their adventures in Auld Scrumpy, got us moving to find our own.  We love you guys!

Our first trip out in our HodgePod was a meet-up with Auld Scrumpy at Clifty Falls State Park, near Madison, Indiana last November. We started out with snow Friday and Saturday morning, got lovely sun and temps into the 60s Saturday and Sunday.  It was fantastic!

Just a peek of Auld Scrumpy on the next site. Please note the snow in the firepit.

We were 2 of the 3 campsites occupied in the whole campground.

Yay! Fall/Winter camping!!

Last weekend, we had our second trip out. We removed HodgePod's winter cocoon two weeks ago and finally got on the road in time to celebrate Doug's 40th birthday with a long weekend trip.

We reveled in the ease we had getting our pod out of the back yard. Last fall we had to detach and reattach fence panels, and sneak through a just wide enough gap between fence posts. This year, we have a several extra feet between posts and an actual gate! We'd still love to get the gravel pad covered in cement and the slope down into the alley smoothed out...but progress!

Adding a little extra weight to the tongue to get hooked up

We headed about 2 hours southwest of Indianapolis to the Greene-Sullivan State Forest. We dry-camped this time (no electricity or water hookups). This state forest is a restored natural area on old strip mines.  This means lots of weird little lakes. The campsites were lovely, wooded, and mostly right on the lakesides. Our friend Chad made it out to join us for fishing and one night. We were incredibly thankful for his assistance in changing a flat on our truck--our first on the pickup.

This was the first time we got to set up our amazing and ridiculous awning on the pod--the rDome. It's essentially a tent that doubles the size of our trailer. We've definitely upgraded to glamping!

All set up!

The ridiculously awesome awning/tent.

Please note, Doug is anxious to start fishing!

Fiona is perfectly happy to hang out and read!

While the numbers of fish caught were not numerous, a fine time was had by all. A fantastic way to celebrate the 40 crazy years that my husband has been entertaining all who know him.