Once again it came time for the first outing of the year; the first weekend in April.  As in past years, we chose Pilot Knob State Park in North Central Iowa.  While the weather was a bit cooler than last year, it still proved to be a wonderful weekend.  We also scouted out a couple of lakes in the area for canoeing later this summer, but unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of them yet.

I would also like to point out the wall hanging in the last picture.  This was a Christmas gift from one of my older sisters.  She also designed and made the red, white, and blue quilt on the bed.  I like the design and I am currently working on something similar for a campsite sign that we can leave outside while camping.

I am still trying to get that perfect night shot of the Scamp.  While I am getting good focus and clear photos, I am still not getting the perfect mix of light and dark.  I still like these shots, although.

This was our second outing with the Scamp, but it was not what you would call a traditional camping outing.  As I have mentioned before, we participate in the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA, and our local group was putting on a regional event involving Arts and Sciences.  When we work at these type of events, we usually forego our Medieval Covered Wagon, which is much more time consuming to put up and take down, and just use the Scamp.  That way we can focus more on the event and the setup and take down of the event site.

The first picture is one I took of Lisa's new car, a Mini Cooper, and the Scamp.  No, the Mini did not pull the Scamp, but I thought it would make a good picture.  Turns out this was a good before picture.  Just a few hours after this picture was taken, a Severe Thunderstorm moved into the area and dropped nickel and quarter size hail on our site.  While the Scamp held up with no damage, the spare tire cover took quite a beating and had to be replaced.  While my initial assessment of both of our vehicles seemed to reveal little damage to the cars, upon further examination, under better lighting conditions, it was discovered that both cars had received a good pounding.

This was our first trip back to Dolliver State Park in Iowa since the summer of 2010.  The weather was beautiful and it was great for hiking; not too hot and not too buggy. 

Our fourth outing of the year turned out to be a pretty nice weekend.  We stayed in Backbone State Park down by Strawberry Point, Iowa.  We attended an SCA event not too far away and stayed in the campground Friday and Saturday nights.  The surprising thing about the weekend was the temperature.  I actually had the air conditioning on most of the day and part of the night.  On Saturday it reached nearly ninety degrees.  Not quite ready for that in the last half of May.

Memorial Day this year was spent at our favorite camping site, just as in previous years.  This year the campground seemed to be more occupied that in previous years.  We started with just the Scamp, and by Saturday evening, it had become complete surrounded.  That was fine since we were joined by good friends and family. 

This was the first trip back to Merrick State Park for 2012.  We originally had chosen our usual site, but due to extreme rainfall north of the park, the Mississippi River was up.  Our site had been changed to one on a little higher ground.     

I would also like to point out the new way I have for flying the flags.  I began to feel a bit uncomfortable displaying the flags by using the hangers for the gravel shield.  I found a suction cup flag mount online and decided to give it a try.  It works really good for these types of flags.  They stay up, even in the strongest of wind, and they are easy to put out and take down.  I would also like to mention that since the holder is mounted by suction cups, you do need to take it down and store it for travel.      

For the Forth of July, we decided to try a new park.  Since the holiday was in the middle of the week, we decided to start our trip on the Forth and camp through the weekend after.  Since we had a bit more time, this gave us the opportunity to go a little farther away from home.  We chose to stay at Brunet Island State Park in Wisconsin.  There are two different campgrounds and we reserved a spot in the North Campground since a good portion of the sites were along the water.  Despite a couple of problems with an aging battery, we managed to run off grid for the whole trip.      

We returned to Lake Wissota State Park in mid July while attending a family reunion in nearby Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.  I like the visiting the park because of the variety of trees in the park.  My favorites are the tall pine trees that line the two ends of the park.

There is one feature of our trailer that I would like to point out; the air conditioner.  If you are considering purchasing an RV or travel trailer, especially if you are buying new, seriously consider getting one with an air conditioning unit.  Most of our camping has been either non-electric or during the cooler times of the year, and we have found that we have not had much of a need for air conditioning.  However, as we predicted when we purchased the Scamp, there are those times it comes in handy.  This year we are finding that the temperatures  have been a bit higher than in previous years, and from time to time we do find a campsite that does not have good shade.  This has made the air conditioner a very nice addition to our camping unit.

While there are those that would claim that the use of air conditioning is not camping, I feel that it actually adds to the enjoyment of camping because you have a place to escape those extremely hot portions of the day.  It also aids in getting a good nights sleep for the days activities.  Not to mention, for the pet lovers amongst us, it helps them cope with the camping environment as well, especially if you have to leave them behind for a few hours.

Our third trip back to Ledges State Park in Iowa was a warm one as usual.  However, this year we were able to reserve an electric site and make full use of the air conditioning.  While it did not get as warm on the second day, the third day it got into the mid 90s and the AC was a welcomed feature. 

We finally made it back to the first park we camped in with the Scamp; Myre-Big Island State Park in Minnesota.  We were headed there the year before for the Fourth of July, but due to the shutdown, we were unable to use our reservation.  This year, we had a wonderful time at this park.  We enjoyed the weather and were able to get out on the lake in our canoe for a few hours.  Albert Lea Lake was a bit larger than we originally thought and we did not get to go to a few other places that we would have like to.

We also two other sets of campers using a Scamp.  The first one was a 13 foot Scamp the White Fox Campground, and the second, a 16 foot Scamp, arrived the day we were leaving.  The pictures above are of the second one in the Big Island Campground and was owned by the Campground Host who had just arrived to take over the duty.  It turned out his was a 2009 model and we believe that ours and his may have been on the factory lot at the same time.  They are identical in most ways except for his has a bathroom in the front of the trailer, and we have a couch.  

We made it back to the campground in Howard County were we had camped over the Forth of July the previous year.  This time it was a bit cooler, and even though it looks a little sunny, in the afternoon, the shade appeared just when we needed it.  Again, this is campground offers water and electric hookup.  That is really nice not having to worry about how much water is in the tank.

This was another trip to Backbone State Park in Iowa.  The shade was nice and we did not need the air conditioning at all on this trip.  We did have someone stop by and ask us how well the camper tows behind the car.  They were trying to find something to pull behind their smaller vehicle.  Even after four years of pulling the trailer, our car still does a wonderful job in all types of road conditions.  Well, except snow.  We have not tried snow...yet.

Our anniversary trip this year was to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  We started on Friday night, September 21st and drove to the Spoon River Valley rest stop in Illinois.  I cannot believe how much I like the trailer when traveling long distance.  It comes in really handy when you want to take a little time to rest along the road. 

The first picture above on the left is from the rest stop about 7 AM Saturday morning.  It reminded me of the game "One of these things is not quite like the other..."  The other picture is the same day, only about 9:30 PM and still a half an hour away from Gettysburg.   

We finally made the campground in Gettysburg.  We stayed at the Artillery Ridge Campground, which was located east of the southern portion of the battlefield.  We had water and electric hookup at this site, and the rest room facilities were not that far away.  (Visible in the background of the first picture on the left.)  It is always a good idea to have a spare tank of gas as well.  I ended up switching the tanks on the second day. 

Since we have a new flag holder, we thought it would be fun to add yet another flag to the mix.  This flag, the one on the left, is a US Flag from the Civil War.  Our plans in the future is to start collecting state flags and fly not only the US Flag, but our state flag, as well as the flag of the state we are camping in. 

This was a late fall camping trip to Backbone State Park.  The heater came in really handy this trip, and although I know the propane tank was mostly fully, I was still concerned about running out of gas.  However, it takes quite a bit of use to empty a twenty-five pound tank of propane.

I also wanted to point out the sign in the front window of the camper.  While camping in Gettysburg, a couple weeks prior to this trip, we decided to print out the design we are going to use for a camp sign, and post it in the window.  We like the design and will hopefully have an outdoor one for next year.  So if you happen to see it, do not be afraid to stop and say hello.