Our Second Month this Summer at McCormick’s Creek

The first weekend back at the park was a busy time.

A Tear Jerkers Rally was set for the weekend.  Teardrop trailers are tiny RVs that look like a teardrop laid on its side. The Tear Jerkers have an open policy, allowing anyone with a small RV to join.  Most of the sites in Loop A (where we were located) were rented for the rally.  27 states, plus Canada, were represented.  There were all sizes, shapes and colors from expensive toys to homemade ones.  I couldn’t resist taking several photos.  If you’d like to see them, click on the logo pictured here:

The official site for the Tear Jerkers Rally can be found here.

Ron enjoyed joking with the owners of the tear drops that our 5th wheel started out the same size as theirs until he began adding Miracle Gro to the water each time he washed it.  :-)

McCormick’s Creek 95th Birthday Celebration was held on the same weekend.  A free concert was presented by the Bloomington Community Band.  Attendance  was good, considering the temperature was 90+ degrees.   Birthday cake was served to all following the concert.  We helped serve the cake.

We made a day trip with granddaughter, Chelsey, to Shakamak State Park in western Indiana.   

 

Chelsey has worked for the McCormick Creek Stables this summer as trail leader.  Grandpa joined her for one of the trail rides.

Fortunately, the weather cooled considerably a little later in our month’s stay, and we were able to hike once again.  If you don’t mind the 150 steps plus going down (and what goes down must come up), Trail 10 is very scenic, running alongside and crossing the creek.

                 

Later in the month we enjoyed celebrating two birthdays, that of our coordinator, Connie McCain, and her husband, David’s.  Including ourselves, 4 sets of camp hosts were on hand for the party. 

            

          

We also enjoyed several family visits during the month.  It’s been a great summer, spent in a great place surrounded by great friends and family.

June at McCormick’s Creek

This was our 4th year to host at McCormick’s Creek. In 2007, June was great; each of the years since, the weather has been less than perfect, either rainy or oppressively hot and humid.

One of the activities we enjoy most when at McCormick’s is hiking the many wooded trails. With the wet weather though, the trails stayed muddy much of the month.

There’s always a few interesting incidents when camphosting. Perhaps the neatest one this year was the couple who unwittingly brought 3 baby kitties with them. Shortly after arriving, they began to hear the mewing and several hours later had found all three kittens. They began feeding the little ones (who barely had their eyes open) with an eye dropper. The most unique part of the story is that this had happened to Carolyn and Ron once before, different camper, different mama cat.

Our granddaughters really enjoyed meeting the couple and their kittens (I failed to get pictures) as did camphosts, Benny and Mabel (pictured).

With all the hot weather, much of our time was spent indoors.  Several afternoons, I curled up in a chair with my needlework and Ron enjoyed playing computer games with a grandchild during their visits.

We cooked out with Dania and the girls and Chris and Jeanne a few times (again, I’ve gotten lazy…no pictures).  Dakota enjoyed a romp in the creek.

Throughout the month, the storms just wouldn’t let up.  There was one stretch of 5 days when the warning siren at Spencer went off each day.  The first of those storms brought a tornado 5 miles west of here, and topped one of the tall locust trees in our front yard.  It just barely grazed the 5th wheel on the way down, not even scratching it.  I snapped this photo through the rain after Ron had already removed the larger part touching the trailer. A real treat came on Father’s Day when we got to hold our first great grandchild for the first time, Grace Elizabeth.

Arts in the Park is an annual event at McCormick’s.  Many local artists display their work while local entertainers provide music.  I always enjoy browsing the booths to see the new ideas is crafts.  The one that intrigued me this year was ornaments covered with polymer clay squiggles. Very unique, and something I’d like to try someday.

Benny and Mabel invited us down for a special treat the night before we left McCormick’s.  Benny cooked beans over the open fire for us, and Mabel made cornbread and fried potatoes.  I contributed apple cobbler, and we had a feast.  What a great way to end our stay. 

We moved back to Chris and Jeanne’s the next day, but returned to McCormick’s on July 1 for a visit.  Benny and Mabel picked up a new fifth-wheel the day we left.  We wanted to see it, and Diann and Rick Pickard, also McCormick’s camphosts (May), who were in the area.  We had a great visit while enjoying cherry pie with coffee.  The weather may have been less than perfect during June, but the companionship of the Smiths, Pickards, and Connie McCain, our coordinator, more than made up for the weather.

Fort Worth to Bloomington

  Although there were several stormy days and nights, the rest of the trip back to Indiana was uneventful.  We spent a couple of nights at Heyburn Lake C.O.E. in Oklahoma.   Despite the beautiful location, we spent our time indoors as the wind was too strong to take walks.

The weather cleared up by the time we reached Carlyle Lake C.O.E. in Illinois.  We had spent time here a few years ago.  This time we parked one of its smaller camping areas;  the second night, we were the only campers there.

We felt like we’d arrived home when we reached McCormick’s Creek State Park in Indiana.  We spent 2 nights at the park, visiting with friends, Diann and Rick.  We will return to McCormick's in June to camp host for a month, as we have for the past 3 summers.