This weekend we set out in the RV for our second music festival of the season. This was a small event up in the Ice House area, about an hour from our house. It was far enough up in the mountains to be quite a bit cooler than home, but it was still plenty hot. The good news was it cooled way down in the evenings, around 7:00. By 9:00, we were putting light jackets on. This event made up our entire weekend, so I guess I’ll toss out a good/bad list from my perspective.
Good: Location. Great campground, and the entire area is very scenic. We visited a nearby lake to float around and cool off one day, hit a historical place called Uncle Tom’s Cabin another, and did some driving around just to enjoy it in general.
Good: Menu. We ate great all weekend, that was pretty well planned out this trip. Three meals a day, which is more than we eat at home but there wasn’t really anything else to do.
Good: Nap time. We met up with some friends at the campground who are roughly our age, and the daily itinerary always included a few hours of nap time. Just like at home. This should be a staple in all trips.
Bad: The RV had a few issues. Before we even left, we clicked the fridge on to cool down and it threw an error code. Bummer. Very nearly ended the whole trip before it started, but Donette came up with the rather genius idea of putting dry ice in the fridge to cool it off. This plan worked pretty well, it got us through the weekend. Only bad part was all our food froze… Oops. Better than spoiling I suppose. We also ran out of water our last day there, which was a bit of an inconvenience. It was our first time dry camping in the RV and I guess we didn’t fill the tank quite enough. Lesson learned.
Bad: No hookups at the campground. No power, no water, no nuthin. I guess this doesn’t really belong in the “bad” category, they just don’t have hookups. That also meant no a/c and no coffee maker. OK, full disclosure, we turned on the generator for coffee and a few hours of a/c in the afternoon.
Bad: The music. The bands were, in a word, bad. Now it’s up for debate if this is really a “bad” also. The bands were bad for me. Two nights were southern rock cover bands, and one night was an AC/DC & Judas Priest cover band. Not my kind of music, to put it mildly. I knew the lineup when we bought the tickets though, so I pretty much knew I wasn’t going to like it before they ever started playing. We went because some friends did, and the tickets were cheap anyway.
Indifferent: No cell service or wi-fi. Not sure how I feel on this one. The area was quite remote and there wasn’t any service at all, even within convenient driving distance. It was kind of nice to be disconnected for a few days, but it got a little unsettling now and then also. Just not something I’m used to. They actually had wi-fi at the campground, but it didn’t work very well, if at all. Maybe it’s better when the crowd isn’t quite so big.
Overall, I had a great weekend. I’d go back, although the rest of the group came in as undecided. We’ll see when the date rolls around next year and go from there!
