MOUSE-KE-T@B Adventures: Crossroads of America Tearjerker Gathering and Beyond, July 13

I recently went on an incredible trip to places I'd never been before, met some wonderful people and also got to combine work with pleasure (so some of my fun was paid for!!!)

In addition to belonging to Fort Fiends, I also belong to a couple of other camping groups that are specific to my type of trailer.

One is tabtrailers on yahoo groups which is specific to my brand of camper, the other is www.tearjerkers.net

This group is all about camping in small trailers. Teardrops, T@Bs, Casitas, Scamps, homebuilt trailers, Scotty's, Canned Hams, you name it, they are all welcome.

Back in November, a multi-state gathering was announced up in Indiana. I had camped with the Indiana folks before and the campground was a reasonable 400 miles from the house, so I signed up. The gathering was going to be at McCormick Creek State Park in Spencer, IN.

The organizers expected 40 - 50 trailers to attend, but over the months, the excitement grew and the final tally was 141 trailers!! It took me two days of the 4 to get pictures of all the campers!!

A few days before the trip, I found out I needed to be in Sterling, VA for work the day after this gathering. I was a little stressed at first, cause that meant, I would have to rush home on Sunday morning to catch a plane. Then I got to looking around and found a fairly well-reviewed campground only 8 miles from my work location. I then looked up the mileage from Indiana to Virigina and found that driving and camping was doable!!!

So I got an airfare comparison and it turned out the airfare/rental car was going to be more than the mileage, so I could drive!!!!

So Wednesday morning, July 13th, I'm all hitched up, spend half a day at work, and head on up I-65 towards Spencer, IN.

Not much to report on the drive.

I stopped at a Wal-Mart about 30 miles before arriving at the campground to pick up a couple of things, and saw this parked in the parking lot.

I asked the owner if he was attending the gathering also, but he said he had not heard of tearjerkers, but was just overnighting in the parking lot. I know a lot of folks do that, but without electric or AIR CONDITIONING, just not my thing.

I then headed on to the campground and was warmly greeted by a few folk already there and got set up.

I already knew I was gonna be on site 104. By the way, this campground has about 170 sites and we as a group had a 141 of them, pretty impressive I say!!

Thursday and not much to tell. I had to do a bit of work, and also just napped and lazed around. It was pretty late night on Wednesday with the driving and setting up.

A lot of folks arrived on Thursday, and my camper was in a spot for a front row seat to see a lot of folks arriving. I had met a few of them over the years at the various state gatherings. I'm fortunate that I'm pretty central to the Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Mississippi chapters, so get to go to a lot of gatherings within a reasonable driving distance.

On Friday, I finally I got out and about and started taking trailer pictures. Now I won't post every one of them here, but here are a few of my favorites.

I'll post my photobucket link at the end of the trip report for those that are just dying to see each and every trailer at the gathering.

This tear was pretty ordinary, but the car was awsome!!

This was a pretty unique setup. This family has four kids. The first few years, mom & dad were in the big tear and the kids in the little one. Now they have swapped. The kids sleep in the big tear and mom & dad in the little one! They pull these in tandem.