Camping

I was waiting to post so I could post some pictures but it's been crazy busy here and Jeff hasn't been able to take them off his camera yet. I can do that with "our" camera but I don't feel comfortable doing that with "his" camera. Hopefully, I can post some soon.

We had a wonderful weekend camping last week. Jeff took Thursday and Friday off so we left about noon on Thursday for New Salem State Park near Springfield. What great camping weather we had. Most of the time, it was a bit cool (upper 60's, low 70's) and we had to wear long sleeves, jeans and sometimes sweaters. It made for nice, cozy evenings around the fire.

We finally got to Springfield and go to the Lincoln Presidential Museum. What a cool place! Hard to describe but definately worth a stop. We didn't visit the Lincoln Presidential Library which was across the street but I would love to do that sometime when I don't have a 7 year old with me, lol.

We also went to New Salem. I love that place! It is literally around the corner from the campground so we went a few times. It's a village taken right out of the early 1800's with re creators there tending crops, making rag rugs, knitting, cooking and telling all about the families and residents of the village. I usually come back with new ideas for crafts and this time wasn't an exception. I'm fascinated by the rag rug loom.

I also collect cook books on vacation and came home with a Lincoln Trail cookbook and a couple of others. The kind of cookbooks I collect tell stories and share insights from the time. One big thing from the Lincoln Trail cookbook, I think I found the vanity cakes from ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK. There is a recipe for Queen cakes, I think they are called. Anyway, they are just cream puff pastry that's fried. Ha! That sounds just like what Laura described. No sugar, just a puff of air. We are so trying them!

The girls had plenty of fun too. They both bought sling shots at New Salem and practiced shooting rocks into the woods. Emma is awesome at it. She was hitting the tikki torch sticks from across the site. She also got into my charcoal and drew many pictures around the campground on empty pads. Mary Rose found many new friends. The second night, she found friends from Groveland. They had a power scooter that they let her ride. The last night, she found a friend from Jacksonville and they spent a good part of the evening catching fireflies. They ended up catching 32 with the help of a darling little girl from Wisconsin.

I love camping. The first night, we were invited to a potluck but we were tired and didn't have anything good to take so we declined. Our next door neighbors took us for a tour of their renovated vintage camper. That was fun too. I've never in my life before seen as many huge Fifth Wheel Campers before though. Our neighbor with the vintage camper was talking to Jeff and mentioned all the "old people with little dogs". LOL, true. These people, you could tell, lived in their campers for a significant amount of time if not always. Also a first for me, I saw a lady sewing in her motor home. On a sewing machine. Later, I saw her hand sewing by the fire. She is a quilter.