Santa Fe National Forest - Black Canyon Campground

Just got back from a quick weekend trip to the Santa Fe National forest and it was beautiful! We chose this particular campground because they took online reservations which were easy to book. Here is the link to the reservation site, http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Black_Canyon/r/campsiteSearch.do?site=all&type=9&minimal=no&search=site&criteria=new&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70078&topTabIndex=Search. They do charge $9.00 extra for a total of $19.00 a day but it is worth it! Check out the pictures of how beautiful it is!

Black Canyon Campground in our Skamper

Very nice campground and quiet too.

Great, Affordable Idea for New Popup Foam Cushion Covers

So like most owners of older popups, we were faced with dealing with the old icky foam and cushion covers. We first thought about replacing the foam until we priced it out and realized one large piece would cost around $200. We then moved on to plan "B" which was to wash and "defunk" our old foam cushions. We were able to do this with a lot of Febreze and the hot dry desert sun. After spraying the foam with Febreze we left them out in the direct sunlight and allow the sun to heat them up and get rid of any offending odors. This worked very well for us but we also have lots of hot dry air down here. Next up were the cushion covers, they were washed multiple times. This was okay but the really bad stains and old burn marks were hard on the eyes so last year we just covered them with sheets. This year however my wife had a brilliant idea on how to cheaply recover your cushions. We used some older duvet covers that worked like a charm especially on the couch cover. One twin duvet cover allowed us to fit both couch cushions in it at the same time with enough material so it could hinge together to form the couch. Check out the pictures. We will definitely upgrade to a non Winnie the Pooh theme but that is what we had to try it out.

Twin duvet cover used as couch cushion cover in our popup

Bear Creek Canvas Update - One Year Later

It was finally time to dust off the old Skamper popup and open her up to see how she fared over the winter. Everything looked great including our Bear Creek canvas. We found some sand that found its way into some of the cracks and crevices that must still be open a little but nothing we couldn't handle with a broom. There were no signs of little critters which I am very grateful for, but I should probably thank our dogs for that because they are excellent mousers and critter hunters. We did take our popup out for one quick weekend so far and here is a picture of how she looks after sitting for almost a year.

First trip of 2012 in our rebuilt Popup