It’s funny how time passes. Too quickly when you are enjoying something, too slowly when things are miserable. Time just never seems to cooperate and travel at the speed we want.
In many ways, our time at West Haven RV Park has been way too fast. It’s been an amazing home base, one that feels like my favorite pair of slippers. They are my favorites because my toes can always find a way inside them in the dark, they are soft, and they have a nice grip on the bottom so I never feel like I’m falling down stairs or the hallway walking in them. West Haven feels safe, like we have traction, and the unknown is ... well, the unknown.
When we first pulled in, there was still enough sunlight left to appreciate the beautiful pond and our spacious campsite. There is a little extra room between our campsite and the one in front of us because of the sewer access point (which actually had to be opened during our stay, something that rarely ever happens) and a huge field between us and the road. Every morning, the kids start their day by running with the dog around the field and the pond. It’s their magical playground throughout the day, one where they’ve created secret spy missions, played doggy daycare, and enjoyed the creatures in the pond. On the first evening, they found a frog who they named Neville and they’ve continued to have a long-term relationship with him during our stay. At some point, there was also a dead snake found by Ginny, but since I wasn’t there, I’m pretending that never happened.
The campground keeps the pond stocked, so the girls had their first fishing experience here, each successfully catching a fish. There are lily pads and beautiful accompanying flowers that have bloomed and died, and bloomed again during our stay.
The only downside to being out by the field and the lake is the heat during the day. If it is a hot day, both bedrooms roast even with the air conditioning on. We keep the shades down which helps, but not enough. We have been researching tinting and have plans to better insulate the RV to keep down our cooling costs (you do pay electrical when renting by the month), our moods in check, and us all comfortable. The master bedroom often becomes a boiling point by early afternoon. Once you lay down on the bed, it’s hard to find the energy in the heat to stand back up to do anything. For a few days, we hung the outdoor tablecloth across the back window to insulate it better, but the first night of winds and rain and a mad dash to take it down before it blew into a neighbor’s RV has caused us to reconsider that temporary fix. Tinting is definitely our next project. We also play a game with the air conditioner — it’s either on full blast and we feel like it’s winter, or we are roasting. It’s hard to get a happy medium right now. Of course, I am a bit of a Goldilocks when it comes to the thermostat. John has always joked (correctly) that I only have a 4 degree window. Whenever the temperature in our house went even a degree outside of the set parameters, I could tell. I’d love to tell you the whole story about how my body truly does have difficulty adjusting and regulating temperature; however, there’s no time, and I honestly might be persnipity about temperature without it.
The majority of the campground is long-term residents. There are over 160 sites in the entire campground, plus tent sites; however, only 20 sites are non-seasonal. Within those, there are several long term campers, ourselves included, on the non-seasonal sites. The front loop near the pond is separated a bit from the rest of the campground, particularly with the playground and swimming pool still closed. There are only 24 campsites here with a little over half of those being transient campers. According to the owners, only one resident in the entire campground stays year-round with everyone else leaving at some point during the winter. The owners travel south during the winter, too. Upon arrival, we learned that the owners were not only from Maryland, but the same city we had just moved from. It was neat to be able to say actual street names and have them recognize them, although they had moved away over 20 years prior. They are extremely friendly, helpful, and relaxed.
The girls and I took a walk through the back of the campground into the woods the first day. The woods were okay, but not really spectacular and we ended up in a side field somewhere, hurrying back to our bathroom, and never really explored it again. There is a nice laundry house, and since it is limited to one person at a time right now, we are able to do all of our laundry across the multiple washers and dryers at once. One resident near the Laundry House has a great sign that reads, “Camping: Where you pay a small fortune to live like you are homeless.” I can definitely see this. There is a wide variety of options within camping and living on the road, some of them being an extravagant lifestyle, while others are an economical option for second vacation homes (or even for living long term).
There are some annual guests with large, fabulous looking Class A motorhomes in several of the pull through sites. The direct neighbors behind us are weekenders, who get a view directly into our dining table when they are here, enjoying their freshly grilled fish. At first, we wondered if it was just a man cave/fishing retreat, but we’ve since seen the wives arrive, fix up the flowers, etc. We lucked into this site; it’s not technically a long-term site yet (they are thinking of converting it next year), but we had requested to be further away from other campers when we first called. It’s really the perfect spot and I doubt we will have anything quite like it again on our journey.
