Our first A-frame camping trip

We bought our A-Frame popup camper in October 2020. The camper was listed on the Marketplace (Facebook) and located in Wilkes-Barre, PA. So we had to drive a round trip (8 hours) to pick it up. It sure was a risk to buy something without seeing it first! On the way home, we quickly learned that it wasn’t easy towing a trailer through the gas station! I’ll leave that to your imagination (but luckily, nothing too embarrassing or awful happened).

*Last year when we got the camper in Wilkes-Barre, PA (yes we’ve got better at parking!)*

*The mirror view of the camper behind us.*

The foliage was at peak when we drove to Wilkes-Barre, PA. It brought back some childhood memories such as my family’s trip to the Poconos mountains. I love the mountains in Upstate NY and PA, it’s one thing that I miss especially during fall. I knew after that trip that we’d end up back in PA for camping someday!

*Beautiful foliage in rural Pennsylvania!*

That’s when Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania came into the picture. As mentioned on last blog here, Jim Thorpe seemed to be a popular town to visit in PA. I found a campground, Jim Thorpe Camping Resort that was within 3 miles of downtown Jim Thorpe.

Let me tell you, packing for camping is another whole ballpark. We had to pack bins of stuff. One for kitchenware/cooking utensils. One for cleaning/toiletries. One for our clothing. One of our bedding/pillow. You get the gist. It was a LOT. This trip was a learning experience of what to bring. We did ended up visiting Wal Mart there for some items we needed.

Towing the trailer is another thing. It is stressful! Before we left, I had to plan out EVERY route and research RV-friendly gas stations. Not every highway allows trailer (like NYS Highway Route 9 in Hudson Valley and Merritt Parkway in CT). It was nerve wrecking to end up on the wrong route, but we didn’t. Whew! The trailer was little wider than our pick up truck too. Every turn we took had to be a wide turn. Most of the route to PA was on I-84 until the last hour. The last hour took us through rural Pennsylvania on the back roads. That was fun! We got into Jim Thorpe mid-afternoon on the weekend which I read online is the busiest time. I found a route two streets over from downtown but once we got there… cars were lined up on the street on both side making it one-way. A guy in another pick up truck was nice enough to stop to let us drive thru but unfortunately there was impatient driver behind the the guy in the truck, and he drove down making both of us SQUEEZE through. That probably was the worst part of the trip. Oh, wait… we got lost on finding the campground so we had to find a spot to turn around. That was stressful too but we got lucky and found a huge parking lot in a park. It was quite the adventure on the road!

*Excited to start our trip (we didn’t look like this the entire time!)*

The camp ground was beautiful. It was in middle of the woods and all of the leaves were changing. We had issues with the original site being that we were inexperienced backing up the trailer. The site was really small so they gave us a pull-through RV site. It was a huge help! We realized that we will need ask for a pull-thru site for all future campsites.

Jim Thorpe Camping Resort is a very family-oriented place. The main building had a small grocery store/coffee bar and a sitting room. The arcade was located in a small building across from the main building. There were several bathrooms (and showers) across the campground. We had water, electric and cable hookups at our site. Over the weekend, there were plenty of kids playing at the basketball court and the playground. I thought it was cool that they had a movie night as well.

*The main building (loved how the campground decorated for Halloween!)*

The campground was busy over the weekend but still quiet at night. Many campers left Sunday or Monday while we stayed until Tuesday morning. By Monday, it was beginning to be empty around us! It was fun to see how others camped. Many campers decorated with Fall or Halloween decor. My husband brought our inflatable pumpkin so we fit right in! On Sunday, it was hilarious to see our neighbor set up his camp site with a 50” TV for football! He was a hardcore Eagles fan sporting a beanie with the Eagles logo. Even had an Eagles folding chair! Many of campers around us were very friendly and welcoming. A couple felt comfortable enough to do a live Jerry Springer skit for us, arguing over who was suppose to bring the shrimp cocktail. Too bad we didn’t bring some shrimp from New England (the best!). The management received a few complaints and addressed them to the best of their abilities. We met many furry campers too as the campground was super dog friendly! I wish I could chat with my doghter, ask how she felt about camping. It was noticeable that she didn’t like the campfire. She enjoyed exploring and meeting campers and their fur-kids!

The entire weekend, we cooked lunch and dinner over the campfire. That was another learning experience. What food to bring and cook. We cooked the traditional camp food over fire such as sausage, hotdogs and chicken. I noticed a taste of the firewood or smoke on the food, which I wasn’t a fan of. We will have to look into more recipes for camping and use our portable gas grill. I brought a lot of snacks which we munched on often.

I was surprised that throughout the weekend, I found myself wanting to come back to the campground and just hang out there. It was so serene and one of my favorite part was sitting outside surrounded by the foliage reading my book. It was unexpected but for the most part of the trip we were off the grid, Jim Thorpe has LOUSY service. The campground had WiFi but it was in and out. I decided to read that as a sign to stay off the internet and just take in the beauty of the nature. It was so peaceful and I was actually sad to return to civilization! If you do go camping I would suggest an internet VPN for added security.

For our first camping trip, it was a lot fun, a lot of learning and stressful at times. We loved it so much that we look forward to more camping trips in the future! We were lucky to have a great experience for our first time using the A-frame camper. We look forward to exploring more campgrounds around New England and NY/PA. Hopefully after some more practice, we will explore the South and West as well.