The Gypsy Camp...

Whenever we go camping at a public campground we always worry some about what kind of neighbors we will have in the campsites beside and across from us. This last time we were worried about what Chucky the puppy would be like on his first campground visit...

The state park was packed when we checked in - we weren't aware of the record low tides that were occurring. But we found out when there was a mass exodus of rigs at 5:00 AM leaving their campsites. Folks were there to go clamming for the famous Razor clams.




The group that was camping across from us looked like a real mixed bag of humanity. They had a full hookup site but were tent camping and had several vehicles. Multiple tents ringed the fire pit area and a big screened canopy was set up on the pavement where an RV would have been parked. There were adults and kids, all having a good time.

We met them by apologizing about Chucky - he growled at them and we realized he had never seen a child up close. The youngest in the group - a precocious little girl - adopted us as the camp she wanted to spend time at. She helped us socialize Chucky - they all helped us - a lot! They referred to their camp as the "Gypsy Camp". This trip has been a tradition for them - friends and kids camping and clamming.

These are the razor clams that they had dug in one morning. They had to be cleaned and of course, the Mom in the group was the one doing that job. She would be standing at a table near the water faucet cleaning clams every afternoon.

They were such great neighbors to have. They invited us to go clamming with them - it had been many years since we dug clams. But we really needed that extra hour or two of sleep in the morning and reluctantly declined their kind offer.


So what do you think they did? Yep, they brought us over a plate of the most delicious fresh clam fritters complete with homemade tarter sauce. Weren't we just ever so lucky?!

They loaned us squirt guns that we used on Chucky when he became too incessantly vocal in the campground. The little girl was especially good at giving Chucky the business when he barked!

We were also the recipients of a plate of amazing fresh caught trout - just hours old from the lake at the campground. They had cooked the trout in foil packets with lemon and butter over the fire. It was so good!!

Thanks to email, we have stayed in touch. Some of them are going to be camping over our way later this month. We are hoping that we will be able to visit them for a few hours to catch up and to show them how much Chucky has grown in the last couple of months.

Have you made some good friends in unexpected places?