The Pennsylvania Pulse

Want an interesting truck ride? Overload your rig and tow a camper on PA I-81.

The last week of August 2017 has the kids and parents split up and a hundred miles apart in central Pennsylvania. The boys have been looking forward to this since before we left Detroit. It’s their big week at skate camp in Woodward, PA. Erin found the ‘rents a cool little spot on the Susquehanna River to wait it out.

Kids at Camp Woodward

If Camp Woodward was a casserole the recipe card might look something like this:

• 3 parts classic summer camp with cabins and cheeky camp counselors
• 3 parts huge extreme sports multiplex
• 2 parts rural, woodsy, farming setting
• 1 part gross bathrooms
• 1 part famous pro skaters as guests
• 1 part former reality TV show
• 1 part spotty cell/internet

This week was months in the making for the boys. Four other buddies from Detroit were coming in. The weather was perfect. They had been skating daily for two weeks straight in preparation.

The daily routine

1. Up at 6:30 or 7am
2. Frantic dressing to make it to the bathroom (it was down the way)
3. Cafeteria for breakfast. Apparently the cheerleader camper girls were unapologetic line jumpers. And the lines were long.
4. Back to the cabin to clean up their bunk areas
5. Over to Lot 8 for morning stretches. This was Elliott’s favorite part of the day as the 12 hours of skating took their toll on feet, knees and joints.
6. 9:30 to 12ish they would follow their instructors over to a part of the complex of the instructor’s choosing. Elliott said his instructor would go to where the music he liked was playing.
7. Lunchtime - they had choices included with their tuition:
   • Cafeteria - pros: variety, cons: long lines
   • Chicken grill - pros: short lines, cons: grilled chicken (if you’re Elliott)
   • Burger grill - pros: BURGERS AND DOGS, cons: nothing except the bees swarming around the Sprite fill up station
8. After lunch they were let loose on the complex until 10pm. I imagine this is when 99% of shenanigans went down.
   
9. Dinner was at any of the aforementioned food pits. Come as you please.
10. Once they’re in the cabin it’s lights out at 11pm
11. Repeat from Monday to Saturday

The cabin crews

We originally tried to arrange for all of the Detroit kids to be in the same cabin. Luckily for Elliott they put him in with the older kids who were way more chill. Nolan was right at home in the middle of the chaos with fifteen kids aged eleven to thirteen. His cabin seemed like a madhouse of screaming and throwing stuff. He had no voice for two days after the week was over!

Elliott made some good friends and assumed the role of quiet skate technician of the older kids crew. His flat ground game was revered and never lost a game of S-K-A-T-E (like basketball horse but with skate tricks) - even taking out the instructor.

Nolan’s crew stuck together and hit up all the spots. Especially the mini-mega ramp. The ramp we specifically suggested he wait until later in the week so as to not risk a week ending injury. Of course that was the FIRST ramp he tried and on day one!

Lessons and stories

Next year Nolan plans to bring a pair of back up shoes. One pair just doesn’t cut it when you’re prone to getting soakers. This time he was bombing down some hill on his board, got cut off by a counselor and had to bail into a scuzzy pond.

Elliott broke out of cabin anonymity by blowing minds through accidental levitation. He said he went for a Primo-stall, hit a dip and floated instead. The kids were like, “What?! Homie just levitated!” My son, my homie, my levitator. He was very relaxed about it all.

Nolan dropped in on a fourteen foot vert ramp. He did it first try, but after twenty minutes sliding down it a few times and standing at the top looking at it. He says, “it was scary.” I concur. It’s scary standing at the edge of an eight footer! The boys easily have the skills to roll down the ramps. The huge challenge is forcing your body to do something that humans definitely aren’t equipped to do (like falling from fourteen feet). I’ve been watching him psyche himself up for this kind of stuff since he started riding. He just tells himself over and over (out loud when was little), “I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna do it.” And he does it. Scared and everything. I don’t think he’s reckless. He definitely skates within his ability, but these days the skills get him into some scary stuff!

So right now Nolan is about learning to understand his fears. Elliott is about testing his patience. The amount of effort he puts into learning tricks is insane. I had to back up his iPhone once and there were FOUR HUNDRED clips of him MISSING the same trick. Over and over and over. Four hundred clips of not landing the same trick (a nollie tre). I have no idea how he talked his brother and buddies into filming that many attempts for him. But he eventually landed it. This is another thing I love about skateboarding. He uncovered his own process to learn something. Whatever that process is for him, he can now apply it to anything that requires patience and adjustments to learn - so.. anything. This year it’s all about the crazy flat ground tricks and tackling new obstacles: ledges, mini ramp and rails. The Playground and Target plaza were the spots for it. Not a bad way to spend to twelve hours a day for five days straight!

Camp Woodward Summary

They loved it. Pretty sure they were asking about next year’s visit as we were walking out to the truck. Here’s a selfie of us walking out to the truck.

Parents at Sunbury, PA

If our stay in Sunbury, PA was a casserole it’s recipe card might look something like this:

• 4 parts embarrassingly terrible camper parking job to introduce ourselves to the seasonal campers. It took an hour and at one point the camper so badly off target that the owner came running over asking us,“what the hell is going on?” I had no answer for him.
• 4 parts Erin and I daily checking the increasingly lower river while walking Mini through the quiet state park. I loved this routine. Should’ve been 5 or 6 parts.
• 1 part paddling (which usually means me yelling for Erin to “wait up!”)

This week would be the longest that both Erin and I were away from the boys together. It was especially strange after being together with them every day for the last two months.

Straight into a routine

It was nice to get a little routine going. It started on day two when Wheel of Fortune ended. Earlier we had taken Mini for her walk in the park, looked at the river. Ducked under the bridge and read the same weird graffiti. Then off to Weis Market for food stuffs. Pennsylvania has the most varieties of local chips I’ve ever seen. I’m not kidding there were two aisles dedicated to them.

The Susquehanna River

Our campground was on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna at the confluence of the North and West branches. We knew were on a nice looking river but I did little more digging after Ted responded to a text, with “Ahh the mighty Susquehanna.” It’s the longest river not passable by large vessels. We also happened to be right by the fiber dam. The biggest fiber damn in the world. They had just removed part of the dam to repair it so throughout the week we got to watch the water drop. We were very entertained by this. It dropped like five feet!

When we were scoping out our path to paddle the perimeter of the island, a local couple recommended we go around the southern point, then up the river to catch a free ride back down to the launch with the current. So of course we ignored that advice and went the opposite way. What’s the difference, right? The difference is when you get to the hard paddling parts. Local way: hardest part is after .1 miles of paddling. Our way: the hardest part is after 3.4 miles of 3.5 miles of paddling. I was stuck in a current paddling my hardest going 0mph! Of course no probs for Erin who was ahead laughing hysterically at my effort. I thought I was going to have to walk to shore! (the water was about 12” deep at that part hahah!) Also there was an odd effect of the wind shifting so that no matter what side of the island we were on the wind was blowing in our face. WHAT?

Ten minutes in to the paddle we had a bald eagle come in and land across and just up the river. It was an awesome sight. Then I realized that I’m in a boat and we can just paddle over to right under the tree he was perched in. So we did that. Incredible! Erin was amazed too once she located him up in the tree. I’m not sure how she could miss the three foot tall bird with bright white head and yellow feet. We also had another heron fly by and spotted a huge channel cat in the shallow, crystal clear river.

Surprise vintage camper rally

The campground was arranged with the seasonal campers on the edge and the transient campers on the barren “infield”. We were the only campers on the infield for most of the week. Then on Friday a sweet, vintage camper rolled in. “Babes look at this camper!” Twenty minutes later, another vintage camper. They kept rolling in all day. It was a rally! All vintage campers in the infield except our huge monstrosity haha! Saturday was “walk through and judge favorites” day. It was great hearing the stories and seeing how proud the folks were.

Sunbury wrap up

The boys got a taste of Sunbury for a couple days after Woodward. We hit the park, Weis, did a little tour of downtown and caught the championship game of the Little League World Series (it was right down the road). It was good to be one fully operational family unit again. We lazily packed up camp and hit highway bound for Detroit for a couple days layover before Chicago. The boys were very pumped to skate with their buddies. We were looking forward to catching up with everyone and unloading some weight from the truck. It appears I’ve brought WAY more stuff than necessary :D