friday, travel day, delayed post!

**content created Friday September 19th, and subject to delayed posting due to lack of internet access (but I'm still within Blog365 guidelines...so there!)

Yay, me for planning a 3-day get away weekend in the MiniMaison with TheMostImportantGuy! We left this morning to head to a place that is something like time-share campground set up for RV-ers. I am not a member. I've only been solicited for the sales pitch. They've offered me a $25 gas card, a $50 gift certificate at Camping World, and a free 3-night/4-day stay at their "resort"....but of course we have to sit in on the 90 minute sales pitch. Ugh. I actually am a little bit curious about their offer, but I dunno. It's not even my first full day here, and already I'm not quite sure if any of their establishments are going to be my type of place. It's totally not gimp friendly in terms of a manual wheelchair, and that makes me not a happy camper. More on that later, if I can get it to come out without it sounding too kvetchy.

ANYHOW. Getting to the campground was half the fun! We left this morning and I had figured out where we could stop on the way to see a matinee. We cruised into this little town called Woodland to see Burn After Reading. It turns out that the theater is a very old, very tiny little theater on little "historic" downtown drag. We got there a little early so drove around the block. That's when we spotted this:




I actually think it is someone's house and they really live in there. Very cool.

Then we found a shady place to park the van right about here...


....where I kid you not, we opened up the door to the van, and the dog darted out and went tear-assing through the neighborhood. Ha.

We walked around a bit on the main drag and I snapped some oddball shots:


Main Street in Woodland.


The Democratic headquarters on the main drag.


An antique store with an old wheelchair out front (dudes, I am so happy I live in modern times. Pushing that would SUCK---although I do find it interesting that the large wheels are in the front instead of in the back. hmmmmm.).

So we saw the movie and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Brad Pitt's character totally cracked me up every single time he opened his mouth, but actually everyone in the film was awesome. Loved it. I'm a big Coen Brothers fan.

After the movie we headed over to the campground. It's a little place called "Lake Minden" and it sort of looks like what used to be a watering hole for cattle, and it is situated between a corn field and some walnut orchards.

What's it been like so far? Well, let's see (here comes the kvetching part, by the way). After selecting our camping space, we had to go back to the front gate to turn in a registration paper with the space number. We decided to do that by taking the dog for a stroll around the lake back to where the entry gate kiosk was. It didn't take long to figure out that was a really bad idea, but the van was already set up and plugged in and I didn't want to go back and unplug it and drive it over.

So I'm in my wheelchair, and the roads?? They are large-type gravel, and it is not well compacted in most places. What that means is that my front wheels are getting stuck like every 2 feet. TheMIG had to wheel me rickshaw style through the tough spots. What should have been maybe a 40 minute stroll to get around the lake?? It look close to 2 hours.

Oh, and by then the sun was setting, so the mosquitoes were coming out. We got eaten alive.

Oh yeah. There's more. Back at the kiosk, when we turned in the registration, we asked about the free Wi-Fi they had advertised. Come to find out it's only in the clubhouse. Not in the whole RV-park. And guess what?! The clubhouse has stairs and no wheelchair ramp. Yay. Know what else is not accessible? The little market they have on site.

I am happy to report that for all my grumpiness about accessibility issues, it did not dampen my spirits. I chalk that up to being in good company :-)