2018 Glamping Trip!

Glamping trip 2018 was a beautiful trip to McCormick's Creek State Park.

After some meticulous planning of the only dates available for our preferred glamp site, we booked the second weekend in October for our trip.

We had high hopes that the leaves would be turning 

and the weather cooling at this point in the fall season.  

We each had to do some work on Friday, so Emily ended up picking Ashley up from the Riley garage at about 3:30 PM and loading the Kia there.  The Prius was left in the safety of the free garage.

As we set out on our way, the rain was coming down.  

What went unspoken was our respective trepidation in seeing a few pieces of sleet on the windshield.

We stopped in Belleville for supplies (firewood, gas, and snacks) and arrived at our site around 5 PM.

We opened a bottle of wine and took breaks from the rain inside the car as we set up the tent.

Ashley brought fire starter logs and so we had a fire even in the cold and rain.  

We watched the flames lap the torrents of rain as we bundled under beautiful throw blankets in the comfort of our tent.  

We drank wine and found our way into our comfortable new queen airbed cot.  Wonderful!

We snacked on autumn pasta salad (butternut squash, mushrooms, spinach, pasta, shredded cheese with parmesan garlic dressing) and pumpkin butter with biscoff cookies before bed.

The next morning, we awoke to frigid temperatures (37 degrees) and couldn't convince each other to get out of bed until it was at least over 40.  At about 11:30, we begrudgingly arose to make hot coffee and go to the bathroom!

After some hot coffee (thanks to coffee concentrate and our new kettle), pumpkin bread, a bathroom break, some lovely face wipes, and brushing our teeth, we were ready to face the day!

We finished decorating our site with pennant banners, candles, flowers and lanterns.

It was an beautiful glamp site!

The sun came out and the woods began to warm up so we opted to go on our typical hike of trail 5.

It takes you to the twin bridges and through some beautiful waterways, woods and rock faces.

Our moderate 2 mile hike brought us back to our site with renewed energy.  

Ashley set up our charcuterie and we lit a witches brew candle to prepare to read 

Witches of BlackBrook.

It was a really witchy fun book and we read from about 3 - 8 PM.  We finished just as it was dark enough to need a reading lamp so that was spooky perfection.

Our fire burned perfectly thanks to an added log from the nearby woods.

We had some noisy neighbors, but for the most part things were calm and quiet.

We stayed up until midnight talking, eating pumpkins spice marshmallows 

and enjoying the heat of the fire and the votive luminaries around our site.

It began to rain heavily later that night and we did have some dripping into the tent.

For the most part we stayed dry, but it was desperately cold and we did not get to see any changing leaves.  Although our hike was beautiful, our goal was to see the foliage.  We had to pack up glamp in the rain again Sunday morning, but we did enjoy hot coffee and pumpkin bread by the fire before departing.

We had a great time alone together, enjoying catching up and looking ahead.

We talked about our jobs and houses and family.

We discussed changes we wish to make and what is really working for us.

Although the weather did not hold up as we had hoped, the trip was a success.  We listened to witchy music, laughed, cried, hoped and dreamed together in the torrential rain and the peaceful days.

Great glamp trip!