1920s Camp, Moonrise and the Winnie

sentimental about a camp in the woods....growing up in Northern California among the tall pines and ancient redwoods, with birds darting around the branches, with needles and dry grass under my feet...
I went to camp 2 summers in row as a kid....you know, kinda like Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.......





I despise those slick and fancy Disney-Fake "resorts"...I hate phony cutesy fake and corporate. So, I was thrilled to find a small RV park that had what I wanted....electricity, hot water, and the Pacific Ocean, and not much more...oh wait, these days I want wi-fi.
(sidebar--State Parks usually don't have wi-fi...wtf? what year is this? is this America?) so, yes, my buying trip was divine ...except Astoria. Fuck you Astoria.

The reason this camp looks like an old-timey 1920's church camp is because it was. Now, it's privately owned and it is simple in its services, clean all around, with the niceties of life.
Simple square buildings, lots of trees with roots that are breaking thru the minimum of asphalt road that winds in a loop around the park.
There's a huge outdoor sink to clean your clams and oysters if you dig some....and hot showers. You know what I say...I can stand almost anything if there is a hot shower at the end of it.....
It did have a pool, a hot tub, and 6 block walk to the Pacific Ocean. The owners have kept it simple and kept the homey feel. There is no, and I mean no, fancy stuff here. It is perfect.

I think people who need fake-fun are people who can't think for themselves....I can. I can amuse myself. I can read a book, I can write a book, I can make a daisy chain, I can ride my bike, I can lay on a blanket on the beach, or I can wander into a tiny bookstore, or stop off in a little tavern and have a cold beer. I can wander around town and enjoy the lovely summer gardens.
Which is not to say, I dismiss movies or a baseball game....but I don't need a 24/7 fun fun fun time.

I added a few new things to the Winnie....I tacked a vintage Trees of Mystery paper sign I got on my bumper during a family vacation a few years back. When you stop to see the big Redwoods, the staff wires the cardboard sign, yellow with Big Block letters in red....one on the front bumper, and one on the back! It's pretty funny, and now you know why, when traveling thru Northern California, why so many cars and RVs have these cardboard signs on the bumpers. Free Advertising!

and just above it is the vintage version of the Trees of Mystery fabric pennant....
 you can see Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox !

Laying sideways in the back bed with my little traveling library and Tom Cat, my etsy avatar. I now own just a few of  the entire Peg Bracken library.

a vintage San Francisco pennant...I told ya...I wanna decorate like this is a cabin in the Northern California woods near the beach, and I want to make Ralph Lauren cry.  Nobody on Pinterest repins any pictures of my Winnie interior....most people want white interiors, chevrons and modern owls, or signs that say "Believe" or "Dream".  I'm going with the 1920s cabin thing.

I got to try out my dishwashing station...it was fun! I wet a sponge and drip some hippie dish soap on it, then rub and scrub the dishes and set them down soapy. Then, I turn on the water in a slow drip to rinse the dishes and then lay them on the towel to dry, or dry them with a towel and put them away....

After dinner, after a walk around town with the doggie, we came back to Home Sweet Winnie....the lovely moonlight, clear sky, the tall black evergreens.
Time to get a good nights sleep, for tomorrow we drive to Oregon and to the shipwreck and dunes.

buy this Zion National Park Pennant






buy this photo of a motley crew of women and men with guns and hiking sticks and a can for huckleberries?






buy this Cabin Camp Blanket