Sanborn County Park

What a perfect Labor Day weekend. All weekends should really be three days long, don’t you think?

This pick was intended as a less crowded way to go Dorying on the holiday weekend that was relatively close by and had hookups. It delivered on all counts. I won’t say this is a spectacularly scenic park or anything. It is just a nice county park that happens to have some RV campsites as well as some walk in tent sites. Very pleasant, though lots of partiers. We pulled in Saturday around noon, after a very short drive, and settled in for a lovely, lazy afternoon. We gave a few tours, had a bit of lunch, and I basked in zero gravity chair heaven. I need a name for the chair I think. Since we are now “Game of Thrones” people, I decided to lay out my never-been-used LL Bean fuzzy throw to make it look regal and imposing. I don’t know if it carries the same level of gravitas as the sword throne, but I may ask people to bow as they approach, just because. And the sword throne is clearly inferior anyway, as it lacks a cup holder.

I was woken from my zero gravity dozing by a highly amplified “Everybody Wang Chung tonight”. Then came The Bangles, then Bon Jovi. Finding it odd that I would be familiar with songs played at this volume, I sat up and saw that there was some kind of retro 80s party happening a few sites over. Parents and couples way younger than I were dressed in shiny, skin tight pink pants, leg warmers and tutus. There were lots of big hair wigs going around too. It was amusing until I realized none of these people could possibly have grown up in the 80s. I may remember the tunes, but I must have missed the tutus craze. Luckily, the festivities toned themselves down and weren’t too obnoxious (or the partiers got busted by rangers).

Dinner Saturday was grilled veggies and pork fajitas. It was yummy. After dinner, I wrote a bit of a report because I’m back in the groove of doing a report a week. I’d whine about that, but it really wasn’t that bad and I got to listen to post-80s music in Dory while snacking on snickerdoodles. Tough life eh?

Sunday we went on a hike up to a reservoir. Richard kept us on the trail with his Gallileo Pro app and I kept expectations realistic by noticing the contour lines on the map. The trail was clearly going to do some climbing so we just took it very, very slow. It was all nice and shady so that was good, but our calf muscles definitely noticed the next day. Once at the top we got to sit under a big beautiful tree, enjoy the small reservoir, and spot a California King Snake. There is a mountain bike trail that we could have taken to a vista point a couple hundred feet up, but we both opted instead for a stroll along the flatter part of the trail that had been labeled “easy” on the trail map. By that time, we were ready to walk back. And by the time we got back to Dory, we were both the kind of tired you can only be if you were already entering adulthood in the 80s and had just climbed and descended about seven hundred feet. Back to chair throne.

Sunday dinner was grilled shrimp and asparagus with the Fettuccini Alfredo in a grill bag trick. This is working really well. We set the grill on medium and put the pasta foil bag inside for 15 minutes. We line the foil bag with parchment paper to keep it from sticking and allay any fears regarding cooking on aluminum. Then we put on the asparagus and shrimp and cook for just about five minutes or until they seem nice and done. Delicious. A little more report writing, a little GoT on the iPad, and that makes for a damn nice day.

Monday we meandered on home and got back around two. There were lots of trailers on the road, so I guess this is the thing to do on Labor Day weekend. Works for us.

Richard wants me to mention that the sites are rather slanty and the water hookups at this place are weird. You have to pull down on the gold spigot at the bottom and then lift up on the big handle to get water to come out continuously. And I wanted to mention that there were some interesting structures at the reservoir whose purpose eludes me. Anyone know what these structures are for?

What is this for?

And this? What’s that?

Total miles: 65, 15.4 mpg (there is a lot of climbing at the end to get out of Saratoga and up to the park), 1 hour 52 min. Site 3. All sites are next to each other and pretty much the same. Sporadic, weak cell service for both.