The wonderful thing about boxing, is boxing's a wonderful thing!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Planning For Weekend At Wakeda

As some of you may already know, Betty Boop3 and I are planning our first official event, and we're really excited about it!  Gollygee has jumped on board as well, and is going to help with the event, which is even better, since she's a veteran event guru!  Its at a campground in Hampton Falls, NH, which is near the seacoast, but nestled away just enough to be peaceful and quiet, while still being near enough to just about everything!

About a month ago, BB3 and I were headed over to Applecrest Farm in Hampton Falls to pick some apples, which we've done every year for the last 5 or 6 years.  As she was driving, we passed the sign for Wakeda, and as I looked over into the entrance, I noticed a kiosk near the office.  I told her, "Hmmm - I've never noticed that place before - we need to check it out.  They have a kiosk - maybe they have trails!"

So, we went and picked our apples, got some cider donuts too, and then headed back to the campground and turned in.  I was only planning on looking at the kiosk just to see what was there, but once I stepped out of the car and looked, I went right back to BB3 and said, "We gotta go in and find out more about this place!"

*Please note - all these pics were taken by gollygee, and used with permission!

The kiosk at Wakeda
We went inside the office and talked with Karen, one of the owners of the campground.  We told her a little bit about our lil hobby, and she told us that another boxer had been in earlier checking out the campground as well!  What are the odds?!  She told us a bit about the grounds, and gave us a visitor's pass to drive around and scope it out.  The place is huge!

This is just the field at the start of the grounds!
Not only is it big, but it is VERY well kept.  We stopped by near the end of their season, yet everything was clean and tidy and well maintained.  We fell in love the place, and that day started talking about the possibilty of holding an event there.  Later on, I wrote to gollygee and told her what we were thinking, and I asked her if she wouldn't mind meeting me there sometime before they closed for the season, which was October 1st, so that I could get her opinion and see if it was a workable place for the event.  Plus, I knew she'd know what to ask the owners of the grounds about, and how better to explain to them our hobby and the ins and outs of an event.  Little did I know she'd help plan the event as well!

The Wakeda Office
When we got there, the office was closed, so we parked the cars and spent two hours walking the campground, checking out the various places and discussing ideas and aspects of the event.  It was a really great walk, getting to check out each building, every area for camping, and watching as some of the remaining few seasonals packed up for the winter - its amazing how many seasonals are here, and how they've set themselves up and made this a pretty permanent home-away-from-home.

This unique tree was even rigged with lights!
There are so many neat aspects of this campground, and we had a really great time exploring it.  By the time we got back to the office, it was open, and we got to go in.  Karen was there once again, so we were able to ask all sorts of questions, explain what we were planning, and get more information about the grounds and the area.  They are more than willing to work with us, we have permission to go back and visit the place even during the winter, and I think this is going to be a great place for not only the near future, but for many years to follow.  Plus, since I didn't want the event to interfere with the other bigger events in our neck of the woods, the time we chose to hold the event is during a time where the campground is almost a ghost town, so we're going to have plenty of privacy and freedom that weekend, along with some "lax-ness" of the rules!  I'm really glad we stumbled across this place, and have really fallen in love with it!

More in the future about our progress, but for now, here are a few more pictures of what we've seen so far, and many thanks to gollygee for taking them!

2 comments:

  1. Wowza, it looks like a spectacular site--it would be great for planting time limited series and perhaps some permanent boxes, with there permission, too! Oooooo, but seriously--what's the snake situation?

    ReplyDelete
  2. WAHOO!!! This looks like it could be the May version of MMCLBE or Grateful Letterboxing. What a gorgeous place. Now all Big Daddy and i have to do is figure out how to get there. . .
    . . . how do you feel about having a camper in your backyard for a month or so??

    ReplyDelete