Tag Archives: Hillside Campground

Although we can hear Cher’s greatest hits booming from somewhere up the mountain, things are otherwise quiet at the moment as folks get ready for this afternoon’s Mad Hatter’s Party. As usual, we are unprepared for a Hillside theme, so Aaron has fashioned a hat for himself out of newspaper. It’s also Uniform Weekend or something and we’ve seen roaming …

I’ve just arrived with my loyal companions Aaron and Chris for three days under the trees at Hillside Campground in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. The guys in this photo have had the site next to ours for the last three summers and we always seem to get here at the same time. It’s 75 and completely clear, which bodes …

We had a relatively quick exit from Manhattan this morning on our way to Hillside Campground in the Poconos Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania, where today I begin my tenth consecutive summer of Hillside weekends. After our traditional lunch at the fab Jefferson Diner in northern New Jersey, we arrived more than an hour earlier than usual. No traffic, no thunderstorms, …

On a quiet acre of Hillside Campground is the Memorial Garden, where campers have paid tribute to friends and lovers lost over the decades of camp’s existence. The displays range from elaborately carved stones to mere photographs in plastic sleeves. There’s a pair of bronzed combat boots, and two feet away, a pair of bronzed pumps. Raucous groups of friends …

Aaron, Chris and I got a later start than normal this morning, so we’re just now setting up camp in the twilight. It’s “Illuminations” weekend at Hillside, the time when everybody decorates their sites with strings of lights and many, many, many tea candles. Gay. The entire camp is mobbed this weekend, with more tents per site than I’ve ever …

As we usually do, Chris and I ran into road construction on I-81 in the Pennsylvania mountains on the way to Hillside Campground on Friday. We were creeping along at 5mph when two men in a black Audi pulled up next to us and began making strange hand gestures. Chris said, “Are those gang signs? What the hell are they …

Chris and I drove through a downpour much of the way through the mountains this afternoon and about ten minutes after taking this photo, we got clobbered by another thunderstorm. Most of our stuff got soaked by sideways rain, despite the tarps, so at the moment I’m tent-blogging and hoping things let up in time for tonight’s bonfire party down …

After congratulating ourselves for such a great job of packing the rental car, we arrived in the mountains to realize that we’d forgotten our largest item – the campsite canopy – forcing Chris to get a little inventive with a giant tarp. It poured most of last night, but the rain let up for the few hours of the bonfire …