The kids and I are enjoying a visit to Grandma’s chateau in her final weeks of occupancy. But on our way here we enjoyed a little adventure courtesy of the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds. If you are Aimee, you take this ball and run with it right to some stunningly beautiful national park in Utah.
If you are me, you go visit Yogi Bear at a Jellystone Park in Indiana! True story. It’s Great Outdoors Month, which the association observes with a promo called Go Camping America. Through June 25, stays at participating campgrounds and RV parks are 20% off, and you can get 15% off camping gear at Coleman.
Now, we are not what you would call “campers” in any sense of the word. We don’t own a tent, for starters. So to get in on this Go Camping action, we needed a campground that was a) on the way to Grandma’s house, and b) equipped with cabins for those of us who have lived to the ripe old age of 40 without acquiring any camping gear except the sleeping bag/”tent” combos for little kids that you get at Target.
So, Yogi to the rescue! At Jellystone Park, we could get a teeny little cabin (with electricity, without plumbing–but the bathroom was very close by and clean) that smelled totally piney fresh. It had a cute front porch and a sleeping loft that my children were almost brave enough to sleep in, and some sweet Yogi curtains. See:
(Also pictured: green bear from the skil-crane machine at Denny’s! Score!!)
In order to get to the campground, we had to drive through a pretty sketchy stretch of road (abandoned buildings, the occasional fast-food joint, and a trailer park), but the campground itself felt safe. It was pretty packed with RVs–some visitors own their lots and keep their campers there all the time, adding landscaping, decks, lawn ornaments, road signs, and other goodies–and I think our favorite activity was just walking around and looking at them all.
That, and observing the small family of skunks we noticed doing some spring nest cleaning under someone’s shed. Luckily, they did not seem to mind the attention. I don’t think the piney fresh scent of our cabin would have been up to the task of competing with skunk stink.
We also played mini golf and panned for “jewels” at the Old Faceful Mining Co. What my kids really wanted was to rent and drive a golf cart. See, we’re so outdoorsy! I said no. If we hadn’t needed to keep going towards Grandma’s house, we would have checked out the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which was just a few miles away. Maybe next time.
The ARVC comped our stay at Jellystone (just $65 for the night for the cabin we had–more on weekends and holidays) and helped fill our gas tank too. Thanks!
