Day 7: Staying at Millersylvania

What a nice day we spent at Millersylvania, today. 

Last night, I was playing music so I didn’t notice when the rain stopped. But when I shut down for bed, I noticed that there was no rain falling on the roof. It was blissfully quiet and dark. 

In the morning, I was surprised to see some blue in the sky and to see that it still wasn’t raining. So we rolled out of bed and went on our morning walk. We only walked for a little while when we came to a place where the sun was streaming in through the trees. Most of the park is pretty well protected under giant trees, but we stopped in that spot and I took off my shirt and got some sunshine on my skin. Fortunately, I had brought River’s training pouch full of kibble, so I was able to entertain him as I stood in that spot for literally twenty minutes soaking up the rays.  

It was then I realized that I didn’t have my waterproof shoes on. I had worn my vans instead, which I had been basically using as my indoor shoes. I suddenly felt like I was standing outside in my slippers, so after my sunbath, we headed back to the camper to change shoes. 

Then, as if by magic, as soon as we were inside, the rain started again. It lasted for a few hours so I took that opportunity to make my lunch.  

I thought to myself, “Millersylvania” must be an Indian word for “covered with poison oak,” because it was everywhere. Of course I noticed it was all over the place at Harmony Lakeside RV Park, too, so maybe I’m just becoming more sensitized to it now that I’ve noticed it. River loves to explore and he’s been in heaven with all of the different places we’ve been going so he has had new stuff to sniff every day. But I felt bad, because today I didn’t let him go into most of the bushes for fear of the prevalence of poison oak. I figured he would get the oils on his fur and then later, when I hugged him or he crawled into my bed or sat on my lap, he’d pass the oils onto me. And I’m very sensitive to it and break out like crazy. So I’ve been on my guard. 

After lunch, in another case of perfect timing, the rain had stopped. So we went out again. This time we explored Deep Lake and the hiking trails. We found some open grassy, picnic areas and did some running. At one point on our walk, we happened upon a group camping section, with a big covered picnic and fireplace area. And as we were exploring the surroundings of that area, I noticed that the lake was showing signs of raindrops. And yet none were reaching us. We were dry under the cover of the giant pine trees. 

Eventually, the rain grew in intensity and finally started to find its way through the trees, so we ran for cover in the picnic area. We ended up hanging out in there, waiting for the shower to pass.  At one point, the sun broke through, but the rain hadn’t let up, so we go to enjoy a gorgeous glistening sun shower from the dry safety of the group camping spot. Once the rain let up enough so as not to soak us, we finished our jaunt. 

It was late in the afternoon by the time we finally got back to the camper. River cleaned himself and then curled up for his afternoon nap and I started writing. Soon I’ll start dinner.

I am getting up early tomorrow and emptying the tanks so we can hit the road between eight and eight thirty. I have to refill the gas tank and be at the rental center to return the vehicle by 10am, so depending on how long the check out process is, we should be back home before noon tomorrow. 

Our camper tucked into the trees

Our shelter from the showers

Watching a sun shower

River is fascinated by things that stick up out of the water. Luckily he didn't make a jump for it.

It’s been an incredible week. I have experienced and learned so much, and we’ll definitely be doing this again. It’s not over yet, though. I’ll write one more entry tomorrow about the process of getting home and maybe some final thoughts about the whole week.