Well How Did I Get Here?
Well How Did I Get Here?
It‘s early on a Sunday morning and I see a dusting of snow outside. Snow in April? Really? Ugh. I guess I can‘t really complain. Last year, at this time we were still covered in two feet of frozen snow. This would just be a dusting and any evidence of snow would be gone by the afternoon. We had a pretty warm winter, so I guess I really cannot complain. Snow is really not my thing and winter can seriously take a hike. Not really what you would expect to hear from a Sussex County resident, huh?
Later on that same flurry filled April day, my husband and two kids spent some time in the backyard. Our backyard is not like most backyards. Our backyard is campground! We are going into our fifth season and as I look around and take it all in I am still amazed that this is our life, that this place is our home. “Once in a Lifetime” by The Talking Heads played in my head (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8 ) and it asked me “Well, how did I get here?”
We moved to Sussex County about five years ago to embark on an amazing journey that has been filled with more life changes than I can count on my two hands. If you told me ten years ago that I would own and help operate a campground in Northwest New Jersey I would have laughed and thought you were crazy. I had my path and I was set. I had a great job, two kids (one of each), a beautiful house, a beautiful husband....cue song!
We‘ve been camping since the year 2000. Every season, the “Buying our Own Campground” topic would be discussed. And each year it got even more serious. I usually dismissed it thinking it would never actually happen. One day my husband came to me and said, “I found it! I found a campground in New Jersey for us to buy!” Whaaaaaaat? Long story short, and you already know the result, we did a lot of soul searching and decided our life was way too comfortable and set in stone and we needed to stir it up a bit. So we bought the campground!
Needless to say, this Campground Owner Roller-coaster that we‘ve been on has been one of the most exciting, difficult, rewarding, emotional, fun, crazy rides that I‘ve even been on. We‘ve had our share of ups and downs and I would not trade any of them for anything in the world. This journey has brought me to a place in my life where I can look back and am proud of what we do for a living and for the people we have become.
It‘s not just about owning a campground and renting sites to campers. It‘s about giving other families the space to reconnect with each other in nature. It‘s about meeting tons of new people and welcoming them into our family. It‘s about family. It‘s about personal growth and taking ourselves out of our comfort zone. It‘s about testing our limits. Owning a campground you need patience, a vision, and a love for it. This is a business you go into for the lifestyle and is rewarding in its own right. We get to express our creativity, get our hands dirty (channeling my inner hippie I want to say “working with the earth“), and have fun.
The campground is an extension of my family and our staff. It has been built with our bare hands. We have put ourselves out there in the hopes that the families that come to stay with us enjoy our backyard as much as we enjoy creating it.
I‘m pretty excited about the 2016 Season! We are dusting the winter blues off and getting the campground ready for the season. I look forward to seeing all our old friends and ready to meet some new friends!
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