Sometimes in the nomadic life, you just need to sit and do nothing

The month of September had been a whirlwind. We started the month in Long Island, New York, without our rig. Then we ventured back to Massachusetts to get the rig (and Tanner), and two days later, we were in New Hampshire. In our first week and a half in NH, we needed to get displaced from our rig twice because our furnace wasn't working and we needed to get repairs. The furnace still wasn't fixed when we decided to continue northward in the state. We had a crazy week in Lancaster, where I had a huge product launch, we saw the northern lights for the first time, and we summited our third 4000-footer. And, since our furnace still wasn't fixed, we spent every night trying to snuggle in as many blankets as possible in order to stay warm in 40-degree temperatures. Then, on our travel day from Lancaster to Pittsburg – the northernmost town in the state – we finally found a mechanic diligent and knowledgeable enough to get our furnace back in working order. Fall was upon us, and the temperatures up near the Canadian border were sure to reflect the seasonal change. We had a primitive campsite waiting for us, which meant propane heat would be a big deal to keep us warm and cozy.

After our third day of displacement, we towed our rig (now with working heat!) up to Pittsburg and set up camp in our beautiful site at Lake Francis State Park.

While the campground does have lakefront sites, they book up far in advance. Not only do they have water views, but they also have electric hookups. We booked our site too late in the game, so we ended up with our non-electric site in one of the back loops. When we arrived, though, we realized that the site was absolutely perfect. The lakefront sites are situated close together, but our site was large and had tons of privacy. The site was surrounded by tall trees and the leaves had started falling. We had yard space on both sides of the rig, and our parking area was plenty long for both our rig and truck.

We arrived on a Friday, and weekend camping was in full swing. We love camping with fellow New Englanders because they enjoy the outdoors in 60-degree weather, often wearing just shorts and a t-shirt! In other parts of the country, we've been poked fun at for things like this, but here, we fit right in. The weekends bustled with campers of all types, from tenters, to vanlifers, to RVers, but the week turned mostly quiet.

We wanted nothing more than to enjoy the fall weather and take it easy. We still had lots of work to catch up on, and our muscles were recovering from our big two-summit mountain hike. We made plans to use the patio as much as possible, even if that meant needing to bundle up when the temps wouldn't get out of the 60s. For the first few days, this is exactly what we did.

The weekend was special. Not only did we welcome the fall season, but we also celebrated Lily's 15th birthday. She got two of her favorite things as gifts: A working furnace and fresh patio air, snuggled up on her human's lap.

Of course, sitting around all day does eventually start to make us feel antsy, so we did get out and explore...and by "get out," we mean of our campsite. And by "explore," we mean the state park. Sure, we could have ventured further. There are some nice hiking trails and outdoor adventures up here in the North Country, plus some cute country stores. But Lake Francis is one of the top rated places in this region of the state, so why not take advantage of it being right in our backyard?

We took lots of walks around the campground and by the lake. We got to see the leaves change color gradually throughout the week. We got to hear distant calls of the loons. People were soaking in their last few weeks of paddling on the lake before temperatures reach freezing.

One of the smaller trails ran behind our campsite, but was only accessible from our neighbors' site. We didn't even know it was there until they came walking by while we were on our patio! On the days the site was vacant, we took advantage, using the trail to reach the back of the campground. We would have loved to access it from our site, but underneath all that brush was a massive, muddy ditch. The campground map lists it as a brook. Maybe it flows more in the spring.

The park also has a riverside trail, used mostly by hikers and anglers. The Connecticut River is a shining star of New England. It starts in Pittsburg, just south of the Canadian border. It runs through lots of bodies of water, including Lake Francis. Once it leaves the North Country, it runs nearly 400 more miles, south to the Long Island Sound. It marks the border between New Hampshire and Vermont and then travels through western Massachusetts and into Connecticut. Some areas of the river are so wide and calm that you could mistake it for a lake. Other times, the river is narrow and has amazing whitewater rapids. This was the case up here, where the water rushed into Lake Francis. If you ever want to roadtrip New England, consider a journey along the Connecticut River. There are gorgeous views and tons of activities along the way, from scenic nature trails, to farm stands, to historic covered bridges, to Six Flags New England, to the city of Hartford! Hmm, I might be inspiring myself to make this a future RV trip. Duly noted, Nicole.

Lake Francis State Park has tons of amenities and facilities for campers. There are bathroom facilities with showers and laundry (really inexpensive laundry, at that!). There are recreation areas that offer horseshoes, basketball, and a little playground...although we took one look at that tall metal slide and only thought one thing.

We challenged ourselves to a game of horseshoes, which despite ample opportunities at campgrounds all over the US, we never actually play. We were delightfully mediocre, but I did manage to land one shoe on the post. It was a proud moment.

We had a mixture of sun, clouds, and rain, but the rainy days just gave us more of a reason to stay inside and relax. These days also brought some of the best sunsets, as the weather cleared just enough to emit a beautiful glow in the clouds. New Hampshire had been experiencing a drought, so this rain was very much needed. We noticed that the mix of drought followed by these rains really sped up the color-changing process of the leaves. They also started falling to the ground more, due to the heavy water and the winds.

Our quiet week in the woods helped us reset so we can enjoy more adventures ahead, but our stay at Lake Francis wasn't entirely relaxing. We had a few tasks to tackle that we had been putting off while we prioritized our furnace repairs. Before we left Massachusetts, we needed to tear up part of our cork subfloor that had gotten wet and mildewy. Typically, cork is porous enough to dry itself, but this area was prone to spillage, both from the kitchen sink and Tanner's water bowl. We tried to dry the cork out as much as possible, but the musty smell remained. We ended up deciding to replace the cork with a rubber underlayment, just in those couple of spots. We bought a roll of rubber subfloor and it had been sitting in our rig for weeks. We finally took the time to cut the pieces to the right size and shape, and we put our vinyl floor planks back on top of it. So far, it's holding up well and also gives some extra cush to our feet when we stand at the kitchen sink. The downside is, that extra softness also causes the floor boards to creak more when we walk on them. It wasn't the perfect solution, but it was the cheapest and quickest fix that would get our problem solved. So yes, for 3 weeks we were living in a rig with a half-torn-up floor. Not everything is as it seems when we're taking photos of our rig in gorgeous campsites!

We also used our patio time to work on the next iteration of our sun shade setup. In the last post, I mentioned that we hung up extra curtains to shield ourselves from the sunlight. We liked this idea so much that we ended up ordering actual patio curtains to put up on the sides of our patio whenever the sun is shining too bright. We kept the setup super simple, using binder clips to secure the curtains to the overhead sun shade. Then if needed, we clip them to the railing too, so they don't blow in the wind. So far, so good! The semi-sheer fabric is just enough to filter some of the light and keep the patio cooler. Everything has been staying intact, even on breezy days. Plus, the shades give us a little more privacy – something we didn't need here, but will be nice when we have neighbors close by.

We've really given our patio quite the glow-up in recent weeks, with our rug and new patio sheers. Even though it requires more setup and takedown, we actually find ourselves using it more often because it's extra cozy out there now. In a future post, we plan on discussing the evolution of our patio setup over the past few years, talking about what we liked and disliked about each one. This is when we'll go into more details about this current setup with the shades. If you have a toyhauler patio or are interested in setting up outdoor spaces at your campsite, you'll definitely want to catch that post, so make sure you're subscribed to our blog!

We had one other task that we needed to check off during our time at Lake Francis, and this one came when we were...only kind of expecting it. It also became the highest priority task of our time here. We'll save that for our next post, though, because as with so many other RV-related repairs, this one is part of a much bigger issue.

Stay tuned for that giant debacle!

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