Stillwater Campsite 46

My favorite cousin David got campsite 45. We were neighboring campers for three days of bliss on Stillwater reservoir. As much as I love the peace and quiet and nature filled sounds of the north woods. Its quite a job organizing and packing all the necessary gear to make the camping experience as comfortable and easy as possible. I wonder how my mother did it with four kids all those years ago. I must say that the only things we lacked on this trip was a few folding tables, a door mat for outside the tent and that collapsable bucket that I should of bought at Mountain Man in Old Forge. Other than that I give Bill and I an A on camp life. Leaving first thing Wednesday morning after getting my Tuesday night shift in a Michaels. I packed the waiting pile of camping gear and headed north. Having secured campsite 46 the weekend before. We already had the tent, hammock and make shift counter built out of an old beat up picnic table rotting away in back of Marian's camp, up and our cloths and coolers already hauled out. So Wednesday was just a matter of getting the baby Taylor, Lou and new ice to replenish the coolers. I pulled into the Stillwater parking lot which was in it's usual summer frenzy with campers, boaters and tourist milling around making their last minute plans before retiring into the wooded arms of Miss Adirondacks. Pulling into a parking space, my car all dusty from the 20 minute trek down the Stillwater road, I opened up the door and Lou bounded out as he KNEW what was at the end of that bumpy dusty ride. RASCAL! Marian Labradoodle! Rascal is 100 times bigger than Lou and to see him gently play with Lou is heartwarming. Rascal actually lies down on the deck and lets Lou play on top of him! This time however Lou hightailed it down to the pavilion down by the shore where the map of the reservoir is and all the campsite that surround it. The sign up book is under on the other side. Camping is free on Stillwater. You just have to sign up and get there.Two summer ago when Jen and I went out for a girls camping excursion. We loaded the kayaks, luckily got site 45 and got out there. After setting everything up and getting the site under control. Jen poured us each a glass a wine and we waded over to the large boulder for our Stillwater happy hour. After a toast Jen looked at me an asked me how much I did I pay to rent the site? A hundred dollars? I said No Jen! It's free! You just gotta get here. She was a riot all during the time we had out at site 45 opera singing FREE! FREE! FREE! Over and over again. It was that night we skinny dipped and both my celtic rings fell off my fingers to be swallowed up by the lake. Everytime I go out to 45 I'm subconsciously looking for my beloved silver rings shining in the sandy water.
So back to the pavilion! After catching Lou the little varmite, I walked over to the sign up book and flipped through to the most recent pages looking for my cousin David's name as he came in the night before and was so happy to see he got site 45!
Awesome. Another Stillwater camping memory made!