Monday, July 16, 2018

North Bend Park


We had done camp on 23rd June 2018. It is located in Virginia State.

Camp Location
Name: North Bend Park.
Distance: 208 miles from Herndon(approx)
Site type: Non-Electric
Camp Team: me and my wife.
Camp Items: Camp Stove, Gas, Charcoal, Lighter, Food items, Table Cloth, fire wood, tent, Sleeping bag, Cutlery, Trays, Water, Torches, Lantern, Small fan, Small table, Two beds, Projector, Projector Screen, Laptop, Pillows.

Camping Experience: We started around 10:40 am. First we went to Walmart and Indian store to purchase some items. Around  12:30  am we ordered food for lunch while we were on the way to campsite. We picked our food and continue to campsite.
We got stuck in the traffic and had our lunch around 1:00 pm in the car. We entered to Boydton city ,that was very pleasant and next we entered into North Bend Park area. Before reaching the camp site we saw John H Kerr dam and reservoir then we entered into our campsite. We registered and bought firewood in gas station which is near to our camp site. We reached our camp ground around 5 pm.The camp ground was so beautiful. There we have large trees. One of the best thing was there is beach on the back side of our camp ground. The weather was pleasant and sunny. There were so many mosquitoes also at the camp ground. Camp ground has clean area for tent. Entire camp ground was fully covered with small stones. There were Wooden picnic table, fire pit and grill on top of it for barbecue and place for car parking at the camp ground. First we pitched our tent in the designated area. This time we bought many new things for camping. We bought two folding beds, pillows, one small table,one small fan, projector, projector screen. We arranged the two beds in the tent and set the table in front of the beds.
On that table we kept laptop and projector and kept screen in front of projector. While I was doing all these set up in the tent, my wife arranged all the things for food. We kept all cooking items in the car and went to the beach. The river was so beautiful. The entire view was excellent. The river water was very cold. We spent more than one hour at the river. Then we came back from river to our camp ground. The marination was ready for cooking. Then took the coal and firewood for panneer tikka. Lighted the coal and firewood using the lighter fuel.Covered the grill with aluminium foil. Once the grill was heated enough, placed panneer tikka sticks(skewers having veggies along with panneer) on the grill. In between added coal to have the consistency of heat. Meanwhile we cooked rice in pressure cooker for rice wraps. After the panneer tikka we placed the rice wraps in between the heated charcoal. Our food was ready to eat. We packed all the items used for food and kept in the car. We took the food and went into the tent. We had our dinner around 11:00 pm . We watched a movie in the tent.
Felt like watching the movie in theater except for the fact that we were watching while leaning on bed. Then we slept around 1:30 am. We woke up in the morning around 6:30 am.We done our morning chores. Then we went to the river to play in the river water.Around 10 am we had bornvita and curd rice for breakfast. Then we were decided to pack the tent and get back to home because it's getting hot and no wind as well. We dumped our trash. Next we parked our car in tree shadow place and went to the river. We spend nearly one hour time there then we came back to the car. we freshened ourselves in the campground restrooms. Then we started to home around 1 pm. We had our lunch around 2:00 pm in subway. We reached home around  5:30 pm. This time we very much enjoyed the camping (near river, arranged projector, screen and watching movie in the tent). It was a wonderful experience to us. It was a beautiful and memorable experience. All is Well.
Photos

Friday, June 22, 2018

Lake Fairfax Park



We had done camp on 9th June 2018. It is located in Virginia State near Reston.

Camp Location
Name: Lake fairfax Park
Distance: 6.6 miles from Herndon(approx)
Camp Team: me, my wife and our cousin sisters.
Camp Items: Camp Stove, Gas, Charcoal, Lighter, Food items, Table Cloth, fire wood, tent, Sleeping bag, Cutlery, Trays, Water, Torches, Lantern, Cards.

Camping Experience: We started around 10:40 am. We picked up our cousins and started from their home around 11:20 am. Actually, we first booked a campsite at sherando lake. We started to that camp site knowing that it was not going to rain with thunder storms until evening. While we are about to reach the campground in 10 minutes it started pouring heavily. But still we went and waited at our camp site around 1:48 pm to see if the rain will pass away soon. We planned to go any other campground so we returned from sherando lake. On our way we searched online for more campsites. Luckily we got one site, Lake Fairfax Park which is located in Reston. We had our lunch at TacoBell (drive through) on our way around 3:15 pm. We reached lake fairfax. The climate was sunny and as per the prediction there is no rain until the next 3 hours. There we saw a water park having some rides and swimming pools. Many people were there, they were enjoying their time in the summer. We went to the camp office and booked a non electric campsite. We reached our campsite around 5:40 pm. The campsite was pretty good. There are some large trees surrounding the campsite,those are good for hammock. Campsite has a clean area for tent, two wooden picnic tables(having place to sit as well as place food items on it), firepit and grill on top of it for barbecue and place for car parking. As it is going to rain later in the evening we immediately pitched up our tent in the designated area in ground which was fully covered with smooth grass. This time we bought a new big tent.
Then we hung hammock to the trees. Meanwhile my sister and brother in law also came to our campsite to spend some time with us. Then we covered the picnic table with cloth and then arranged all the items we brought on the table. After that we started cutting the needed vegetables for pannneer tikka along with that we unpacked all the the necessary stuff for marination and we prepared it. Actual time for marination is 1.5 hours.But this time we don't have that much time. We just waited only for 20 mins and then took the coal and firewood for paneer tikka. Lighted the coal and firewood using the lighter fuel. Covered the grill with aluminium foil. Once the grill is heated enough,first we placed corn for BBQ, after that placed paneer tikka sticks(skewers having veggies along with paneer) on the grill. Then suddenly it started raining. We started shifting all our items to the tent and car before they get soaked in rain. One was cleaning the ground, one was taking out the unwanted stuff from table, one was skewing the veggies to skewers and one was cooking the panneer tikka at grill. And finally we made panneer tikka and we went to tent along with all needed things. There we started playing UNO and Rummikub. Along with that we were having panneer tikka ,BBQ corn and some chips. We enjoyed a lot while playing the games. Rain stopped but we have not noticed it until we were almost done with our games. It was around 10:30 pm then my sister and brother in law were planning to going home and they left. After that we just hung around near our tent for sometime.
Around 11:30 pm we prepared maggie with the small stove and by 11:50 pm we were done with our dinner. Having hot maggie in dark jungle with just the light of the burning firewood and little cold weather was very thrilling. we took the warmth of the campfire. It was getting late and went inside our tent and dozed off. We got up around 6:20 am in the morning and freshened up. Then slowly cleaned our campsite, packed our tent and placed all the things in the car. We packed trash and dumped it in the large metal container. Around 8:30 am we left the campsite. We went to our cousin's home and dropped them. We spent there sometime and had our lunch around 1:30 pm. Then we started around 2:45 pm to our home. We reached home by 3:30 pm. We enjoyed the camp experience(cooking in woods, walking in dark and playing cards in tent in the jungle). We had so much fun because of the crazy rain and it was very memorable.          All is Well.

Photos