Smith Mountain Lake Campground

I have failed miserably at being a blogger!!  Another lesson learned!!  I think this is a great way to photo dump and give all our fans a look at our lives.  It has been so long since I started this draft that I may have forgotten what the pictures area all about!!  We have been here at Smith Mountain Campground 3 months and have 2 more months to go.  We have had visit from all the kids and grandkids and even our dear friends Kenny and Ruby from Kentucky came to spend a week.  We are super blessed to have any visit from family and friends.  I better get on to captioning all these pictures before I forget even more what we were doing!!  Some pictures need no explanation, and you can make up what every you want.  Yes, there will always be nature, disc golf and breweries.  If this isn't your jam..... get over it!!

  

We arrived and were starved to death, so we headed to the nearest Mexican restaurant for margaritas and some food too!!  So many cool places around the lake to eat and live music is totally a thing here and it is everywhere.

Smith Mountain Lake is HUGE, but it has only two public beaches and they are both about 45 minutes from camp so needless to say, we didn't spend any time thus far at the beaches swimming.  We are water bugs and love the water, pool or sprinkler so next destination will have water closer to the camp if not at camp so we can wash off all the sweatiness of retirement.

The next couple of pictures was a recon mission for our future houseboat adventure.  We went to the area of the lake and investigated the Plaza across the street for things to do while we were at the dock picking/dropping off family at different times of the week.  It is and awesome plaza with so many shops, food options and things for kids and adults to do.  More on houseboat adventure later in this super lengthy blog.  Go get a drink and set yourself in for a bit!!

Funyuns have always been my favorite salty snack since they were invented!!  I normally do not like chips but hold the phone.....WHAT the!!!  HOOKED!!

Contemplating his next beer!!

Got myself hooked on making these Gods eyes that I learn how to make way back at Girl Scout camp!! Now they are hanging all over the place at camp!!

Anglee and Tom are our fearless campground owners are amazing people.  They took us out on their pontoon boat shortly after we arrived for a grand tour and cocktails at one of the marinas. It has been my mission to eat/have a drink at every marina on the lake!  There are not that many so CALM down!

A couple days after our pontoon tour we went on a tour boat called the Virginia Dare. This vessel was made in La Crosse, WI.  Kind of cool it came from our home state!!  It was a Taco Tuesday cruise, so we got food too.  It was a pretty cool boat with some lake history told on board and a great way to see more of the lake.  We were interviewed by a guy that was on board doing a piece on the captain for a magazine. We didn't make the cut for the article though.  Maybe we just are not the most interesting people in the world!  We should probably drink Dos Equis!!

Charley, Ana, Roni, Dan & Harriet came to visit for a weekend and we had some family fun! They rented an Airbnb close by and it had some farm animals that were fun to watch.  Kids had fun together and the sheep were crazy funny!!  Stared at us like we were on display!!

Charley is only 2 hours away so we visited for what I am not sure but this girl sure knows how to make a mess to take a nap!!

This is Ruby in case you didn't know.  We had fun when her and Kenny camp to visit!  Lots of cards and fires and food!!  Always a good time when we hang out with them!! Nobody can drink a bucket of crushers like this lady!!

I made another Rock tree for Glenn Gogin.  Hopefully we will see him before it falls apart.  OK it will not fall apart!  I used Gorilla glue!!

This is our lovely campsite for the summer and a map of the camp below. It is a small quiet camp close to lake so when people come, they load up their boats and leave.  We hardly ever see the guests because they are out adventuring on the lake.

I kind of got carried away pruning trees one day so Dick had to take a picture to prove that I really do actually do something!

        

Big fishes at the dock.  They sell popcorn and peanut butter to feed them.  You throw in the popcorn and you put the peanut butter on your toes for them to suck off. NOT ME! 

These are a couple guests that were fishing in the little pond that is on the property. 

Pizza and margaritas!!

Took a small hike and posed by one of the many LOVE signs in VA.  Love must be a thing here cause they are all over.  Then I saw sticks in the water!!  OH the HORROR!! Got over this shock by going to the brewery!

Dick was out on a bike ride and almost died when this fast moving shelled creature darted out in front of him. 

Just another crazy thing I have been making and giving away!!  Who doesn't like fake ice cream cones??

Dicks sister Barb is a soccoraholic and we love to watch when ever she is in tournaments close by.  She lives in TX but this was in Greensboro which is only 2 hours away. It was hot day but fun.  Of course beer was invoved afterwards!!

A walk in the woods with Charley and Ana pre houseboat trip.  Booker T Washington park was pretty awesome.  I love history and some day I will be history!

On to a week on the water!!  The whole family came down at one point or another for this trip and it was amazing. There was great weather, so we had lots of water time.  Angelee and Tom let us use the kayak, the paddle board and the floating mat from the campground so we had extra fun!!  We parked each night and ate and swam.  The was a bit of fishing too.  Andy caught a snapping turtle, and a catfish & Dick caught a big mouth bass.  We even had a spa night on the upper deck.  Alex brought face masks for everyone, and we all put them on.  We looked like serial houseboat killers.  Every time Stephen got on the slide, he had to make it look like he was peeing using the water that was at the top of the slide.  I hope he never grows up too much and keeps this silly side.  Kids (and adults) loved jumping off the top deck and a couple of splash competitions were also had.  Beautiful weather, great food, & awesome family equal a great time.  

All good things must come to an end!  Back to the campground duties!!  We love our life!!  

Bathrooms all cleaned so now it is on to making more crazy things.  I painted a ton of rocks that we hid around the little hiking trail at camp.

That concluded our VA trip thus far!!  More to come as the summer progresses!  MAYBE!