Poland Spring Campground

until Clean Up Weekend!

I just received a call from the nursery, and we’ll have trees for planting this year. In 2007, there was a little mix up, the trees didn’t come in on time, and the kids were so disappointed. We ended up sending one of our employees into the woods to carefully dig up one-foot baby pines. It’s always warms my heart to see how much the kids enjoy this ecological activity.  Some families request the same site year after year so they can check on “their trees”.

Every year we lose new growth between the sites, due to people cutting between sites, kids riding bikes off road, or campers setting up their equipment off the cleared site area. If we didn’t transplant trees, over time we’d end up with a tree-less campground.

Those of you who are camping this weekend, don’t forget about our pot luck supper on Saturday night! We’ll have a sign-up sheet in the office.  Hmmmm . . . maybe I’ll bring chili.

A snow update: Cookie and I walked the park early this morning and found only four little areas with the white stuff. Yea! There were still a few spongy road spots, but between the rain (to help get rid of the frost) and the sunshine they’re predicting after it, those areas will be firm enough by the weekend.

Halfway through my walk, the haunting sound of the loon reached out to me.  It was sweet, sweet music to my ears!

I would have headed down to the water’s edge to sneak a peek and catch if there were one or a pair,but alas . . . I had to get Ben ready for school. He was not a happy camper this morning. April vacation went by much too quickly . . .

The weather has been gorgeous these last couple of weeks!  The snow is melting nicely.  There’s still a few snow covered areas like here in the 40’s

but for the most part, the campground now looks like this

And Sam . . . your site looks like this

Isn’t that better!?

The roads are still too soft to drive on, but I think I can put those snow shoes away now.

Within the last week, we’ve watched the ice on the lake recede a few yards at a time. Last Sunday, there was still quite a bit off to the left of our point.  Today, I’m pleased to announce there wasn’t a smidgen of ice in sight.

The loons are back!  I can’t wait to hear their call over a roaring, crackling campfire.  It’s one of my favorite things.  There were ducks everywhere too!  At least fifty dotted the lake between our frontage and the golf course.

Even Mama Eagle was up on the edge of her nest, enjoying the warmth in the air

So keep thinking those Spring like thoughts!

A great big shout out to everyone who stopped by to say hello at our booth in the Maine Camping Show this past weekend. It was truly wonderful to see you all! We talked of . . .

campfires

s’mores

loons

eagles

kayaking

canoeing

fishing

swimming

activites

No matter what we talked about though, we always came back to this one all important thought:

When is this snow going to end?

Funny you should ask!

We have a booth at the

Vacationland RV and Camping Supershow

located at the Portland Sports Complex/The Dome

The hours are

Friday 1pm - 8pm

Saturday 9am to 8pm and

Sunday 10am - 5pm

If you attend, pop over to the booth and say hello!

We won’t be set up to take reservations, but would love to answer your questions and show you some pictures such as these:

I received word this week that one of our favorite magicians, Bob Nixon, passed away.

Bob was a showman extraordinaire! My campers adored him . . . my kids adored him.

I adored him.

I’ll never forget the first time my daughter and I saw him pull that rope through his body! We almost fell off our seats! Alex and Ben grew up watching his shows, as did many of my campground kids.

He was always cheerful, even when performing for the third time on a 100 degree day. And whenever I was in a “booking” bind, he was there with sound recommendations and a helping hand.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, as well as his magical community of friends.

Bob . . . you’ll be sorely missed.

Bob’s Obituary

Edited to add:

Almodarr and Angelique of The Magic of the Steelgraves will be dedicating their August 2nd Medieval weekend show here at Poland Spring Campground to Bob.

So what do we do in January when we’re snowed in?

We send out our Think Spring letters with a Calendar of Events to all our repeat customers! We’re trying to coax you into booking early. If you don’t receive one by the end of January and you’d like to, just send me an e-mail with your address through the website and I’ll put one in the mail to you. Or you can see it on our website here.

Pirate Weekend

and Medieval Weekend

were so much fun last year, that we decided to add a new theme.

Are you ready for this?

Super Hero Tryout Weekend!

It’ll be August 22 - 24. We’re encouraging the kids to bring their superhero outfits and tryout at our silly Olympic events: run faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings, water balloon target practice and toilet paper tie up. Mad Science will perform their Spin, Pop Boom show on Saturday night!

Creating a blog seemed like a great way to kick off 2008! We plan to post news, photos and updates to attract new customers and keep in touch with our regulars.

Alex and I are now working on getting out our Think Spring letter with the Calendar of Events. You should see this in your mail box by the last week in January. If for some reason you don’t, feel free to send a quick e-mail, or call us. We’ll get it right out to you. We have a new theme weekend, but I think that might be a good subject for another post!

Can you believe the snow we’ve been getting? My son can’t remember the last time the piles were so high! Here’s a pic coming in the driveway. It’s getting narrow . . . Dave’s going to have to get the tractor out and push back the piles soon.

And here’s a few from around the entrance. The Game Room never looked so lonely . . .

And the store so empty . . .

It’s a far cry from this, isn’t it?