Cody’s blog

Lackawanna State Park
1839 Abington Rd
North Abington Township, PA 18414

570-945-3239

May 11 — 15, 2026

Lackawanna State Park was about a three-hour drive from our last campground. I hit the road at 10 AM and arrived around 1 PM. Our loop, the Ledges Loop, was a new-ish full hookup loop, and pet friendly. Because it was new, there were no fully grown trees within the loop itself, given it a somewhat barren, parking-lot feel, with back-in sites around the outside and pull-throughs in the middle. There was no bathhouse or even a dumpster in our loop, which seemed a bit odd. Perhaps they’ll be added later. It was also numbered a little strangely — I had space 115, and my brother and sister-in-law were in 116, but they were at the far end of the pull-throughs, while I was at the near end of the outside of the loop. Fortunately, it was a small loop and not far to walk even though we were on opposite ends of the loop. My sister-in-law told me that I had the best site on the loop, being at the end with grass and trees behind and on the camping side of the van. It was also more convenient to walk to the bathhouse in the loop just up the hill from ours, since I could cut up the hill behind the van and walk the ridgeline back to the bathhouse. John and Jill’s site was closer, being at the back of the loop, but there was no path from their site to the next loop. They would have had to walk through people’s campsites and up a steep hill to get to it directly, or all the way to the front of our loop and back up the hill to the next loop. (But of course, with a nice bathroom in their trailer, they don’t need to use the campground bathhouse. I have a tiny wet bath in my van, but I find its shower too cramped and inconvenient, and use the bathhouse to shower instead.)

I got set up pretty easily. It was low in front so I used the curved levelers to raise the front end. It was still a bit low, but not bad. It ended up being perfectly level side-to-side. I had to go ask Jill how to make the water hookup work — there was a diverter on it that the water poured out of, and no directions on how to shut it off. Turned out you had to pull the cowl on the diverter down and hold it while you switched the faucet on. No problem once you knew the trick, but it wasn’t an obvious solution. Since I hadn’t filled my tank at the previous campground, I went ahead and did it then.

We’d arrived at the campground fairly early in the day, so we decided to go for a drive around the park in the afternoon.

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Gifford Pinchot State Park
2200 Rosstown Road
Lewisberry, PA 17339-9787

717-432-5011

May 7 – 11, 2026

First camping trip this year! It was nearly a year since my last trip, since I’d missed our planned fall trip due to an accident where I’d dented the van’s left rear corner. It took FOREVER to find a place that would repair the dent—the van is too big/complicated for most body shops, and RV repair places don’t do body work. Finally found a place about 120 miles from where I live that specializes in RV and large vehicle body repair, and got my van all fixed up! Got it back exactly a week before our planned trip, and spent a hectic week getting the van dewinterized, cleaned up, systems checked out, and all the supplies reloaded and stocked up. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but I made it and headed out for the campground at around 12:30 pm. I’d meant to leave around 11, but I’d slept in late and still had last-minute supplies to load up, so I got a late start.

It should have been about a four-hour drive, but traffic and some confusion in arriving at the campground (I forgot to stop at the entry station to get a map, found the loop numbering confusing and missed the turnoff into my loop, and ended up driving aimlessly around the campground for a while), so it was after 5 pm by the time I found my campsite and parked. My space was right next to my brother and sister-in-law’s spot, so we were back and forth with each other the whole time.

It was a lovely site, with trees on both sides and a picnic area in back. It was a bit sloped, but nowhere near as unlevel as some of the sites I’ve been in. I put some leveling blocks under the passenger side (could have used two blocks, but I decided it was close enough) and left the front-to-back as is. It was a bit low in front but not too bad.

Davey was pretty good for the trip. I put his travel carrier in the back, strapped to the bed, with his favorite round blue pillow in it, sprayed some Feliway on it, and covered it with my robe. He complained a bit at first but quickly settled in and I heard barely a peep from him the whole way.

We had full hook-ups at both sites this time, which made things much easier for me. Didn’t have to unhook to go empty the cassette while at the site, or go hunting for water. Although they told me the water at the campground was not very good, and I still had water from home in my tank, so I decided to just use what I had until I ran out, and it ended up lasting me the whole time.

My sister-in-law told me she’d chosen pet-friendly sites for both campgrounds so we could be near each other, even though they don’t have a cat any more. That was nice of her!

I made ramen with kale and a slice of American cheese for dinner. One of my favorite comfort foods. They came and sat with me at my picnic table while I ate.

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St. Johnsville Marina & Campground
28 Marina Dr
St Johnsville, NY 13452

518-568-7406

June 18 – 22, 2025

Our final stop for the trip was the St. Johnsville Marina and Campground, a city park in St. Johnsville, NY. I arrived at around 1 PM, after a somewhat confusing drive from Westcott Beach State Park. I planned to stop for gas after getting off the 81, about an hour into the drive, but my GPS confused me and I ended up driving around aimlessly for about 20 minutes until I stumbled across a gas station and filled up. Then, when we got to St. Johnsville, navigation stopped in the middle of town and insisted I was there, when I was next to a bank and no campground was in sight. I circled around a bit more, then gave up, pulled over, and called the campground to get final directions to the site. Talked to a very nice lady who told me where to go and met me at the gate to show me to my site. John and Jill were already there. I set up and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

The campground has only 24 sites but it’s very well-kept with plenty of amenities. Our sites had full hookups, which was nice for a change. I could dump my cassette whenever I wanted to without having to leave the site! I’d filled the tank two days before and figured it would last the rest of the trip, but if it didn’t, I had water available. We were also right on the canal, on lovely deep sites with picnic tables by the water. Only negative was that the railroad tracks ran right along the back of the campground, and there were trains running through regularly. But I kind of like the sound of trains, so it didn’t really bother me. There was also a clean spacious bathhouse with laundry.

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