Camping Neighbors are the Best

Our site at Wright’s orchard station campground

We settled in at Wright’s Orchard Station Campground near Altoona, PA for the summer and are really enjoying the campground and the area. This is a small, quiet campground with friendly people. Since we wanted a site without too many trees overhead, we are in a long, somewhat narrow, pie shaped site, which works well for us. There is room for the truck in front of the rig and I am able to park my car in front of the office, which is only about 40 yards away. We have enough space for our chairs, table, and the dog cot in the patio area, with a little grassy area behind us.

So far, the sites behind and in front of us haven’t been booked much, so we feel like we have lots of space. The one time that there was someone booked in the site in front of us, we ended up with terrific camping neighbors, Gordon and Mary. In an effort to be friendly and helpful our new neighbor Gordon asked my husband if he needed a hand with something he was working on.  Tim, not missing a beat, said “What kind of question is that for a one-armed guy?”. 

Caught off guard, Gordon was a little apologetic at first, but that didn’t last long. Tim laughed and assured him that he was not offended.  That led to the friendly bantering that went on for the next few days. Gordon and Mary sat out by the campfire every evening and invited us to join them. Always nice to spend a cool evening by a fire, sipping a good drink with great people and wonderful conversation.

When I look through the many camping Facebook pages, I see many complaints about camping neighbors. If you stay at commercial RV parks or campgrounds, you are parked very close to other people. We have been very lucky in our travels. We usually have friendly neighbors and find most campers to be easygoing, fun people and the campgrounds to be fairly quiet. Since both of us are outgoing, we have met many people over the past few years that we still keep in touch with and try to meet up with in our travels.

We tend to prefer smaller family-owned campgrounds where the owners really care for their park and ensure that everyone has a good time. Wright’s Orchard Station is just this way. Small, clean, well-kept, quiet, with owners on-site and very friendly people staying here. Definitely a good place to make friends with your neighbors.

I have been keeping busy a few days a week working at the campground in exchange for our site. The owner is very flexible with the schedule, so I am able to get some days off in a row. The work is fairly easy; I primarily cover the phone, take reservations and check people in when they arrive. I also help to keep the campground looking good by cleaning up the sites of any junk thrown in the fire pits and making sure the restrooms are clean. For the most part, the campers here are respectful and keep the sites in good condition so it doesn’t take much work to keep everything looking great. For my first work camping experience, this is a good one to have.

We have spent some time touring around the Altoona area. As you know, we are history buffs so we found some historical places to visit. Altoona was once known as Railroad City and was the home base for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). One of our first stops was the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum and the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark. We purchased the combination ticket so we could tour both museums.

The Museums tells the history of PRR, development of Altoona, PA, and the expansion of the PRR shops to not only maintain the train cars, but also build them. Many of the displays immerse you in the period and help you to experience what life was like for the railroad workers. We also learned that PRR and Altoona was a key site for transportation during the Civil War as well as World War 1 and World War 2.

PRR was chartered in 1846 by the Pennsylvania legislature to build a railroad line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. By 1850, the railroad had been constructed from Harrisburg west to Altoona. At that point, they faced a difficult challenge finding a way across the Allegheny Mountains. Horseshoe Curve, completed in 1854, is the engineering marvel that they developed to safely climb and cross the mountain. The curve is a 2,375 foot stretch of tracks that reduced the grade over the mountains. It is still in operation today with 50-60 trains traveling around the curve daily.

Three lines pass around the curve and we got to see two trains heading in opposite directions passing each other on the curve

Nice spot to picnic and watch the trains go by

I enjoyed both museums and films as well as climbing up to Horseshoe Curve to watch trains travel up the mountain around the curve. We passed a couple of reservoirs on our way up to Horseshoe Curve and there is a great view of those and the surrounding mountains at the curve.

View of the reservoirs. it was interesting to learn that they had to create a water supply for the expanding growth of altoona. it is landlocked in the mountains and had water shortages as its population expanded . these reservoirs made a big difference for the town.

We have been enjoying driving around Altoona and the surrounding small towns. We have found some good local eateries and took in an Altoona Curve ball game. They are the AAA team for the Pittsburgh Pirates and have a terrific ballpark just a short distance from the campground. We are close enough to get together with some of my family. We met both my brothers and sister-in-laws the last few weeks. We met John and Carol at Jethro’s for a good meal. Then this past week, we took a trip up past State College to visit Randy and Val at their new home. The smoke from the Canadian wildfires have impacted us a bit and really impacted our view on the drive north to State College.

Enjoying the ballgame

John and carol

hazy drive thanks to the canadian wildfires

There are other historical sites in the area that we still need to explore so look for more on that in future blogs. We look forward to spending the summer in Altoona.