POSTAL SERVICES AVAILABLE AT ROCKY FORK LAKE
Bayview at Rocky Fork Lake is now a US Post Office Approved Shipper. Bayview sells stamps with no markup in price and six different sizes of flat rate boxes. They also provide fax services."Folks around the lake have been wanting a post office for years," says Bayview Manager Kim Slaughter. "We're working with the Postmaster to provide the most widely used services so they don't have to drive into Hillsboro." Customers may purchase stamps, drop off mass mailings or holiday cards, and send flat rate packages at Bayview. eBay shippers can drop off postage paid packages for pick up. The Post Office picks up at Bayview daily Monday thru Saturday by 1pm. For more information contact Kim Slaughter, Manager.

An elderly couple stopped by the store today to ask about our campground. I was ready to describe the shady sites, the view, our wheel-chair friendly showerhouse, our flexibility, the awesome staff. They stopped me. No, they just wanted to make sure they could get internet at their chosen site. So much sizing up customers. Here I am thinking they would love our small size and great people, when the most important feature for them was being able to pay their bills online from the privacy of their motor home. Fortunately, the answer was "YES, our wi-fi reaches every site. You can stay here forever and all your bills can be paid!"

Not many people have witnessed the beauty of a Scarlet Tanager, an elusive, tropical-red bird with black wings that migrates through Ohio woodlands. However, one male seemed to love an audience at the Appalachian Forest Museum on Cave Rd. (10 minutes from Bayview). We had just finished hiking the Valley of the Ancients Trail and were crossing the main road back to the nature center. This gorgeous red bird stayed near us for nearly five minutes. I know you fellow bird-watchers can understand the wow-factor here. Even my non-appreciative husband managed a nonchalant "Oh , that's pretty."

My sister turned me into a bird-watcher a few years ago. Prior to that, all birds looked the same to me. I shared my husband's attitude that birds just poop on cars and deck chairs. I know better now. We were delighted that Rocky Fork State Park has a Bird Watching Station (2 miles and 2 minutes from Bayview) overlooking a large marsh surrounded by woods on three sides. For you fellow bird lovers, you know that's a recipe for outstanding sightings. After we marveled awhile at the dozens of black vultures and great blue herons fighting over fish, we turned our focus to the smaller fowl-bitterns, wood ducks, lesser yellowlegs, eastern gnatcatchers, cedar waxwings. We couldn't wait to start checking the boxes on our lifelists!

My new favorite recipe is sweet onions on the grille (or over the campfire). Take each onion, peel it and scoop out a big hole. Save the scoopings. Place the onion and scoopings on foil. Top with lots of butter and some beef bouillon flavoring. Wrap the onions and place the packets on the heat for 20-30 minutes. My eight-year old daughter was caught drinking the juices after the onions were all gone-it's that good!

I just went five days without television or news. Five days! I feel so refreshed, so unburdened. That's what life in our cottages will do for you. We drug out the Dominoes, the crossword puzzles, and the cards (all supplied for you) and just lived for the moment. I haven't done that in a long time. (Confession: we weren't completely techno-free. The radios had i-pod hook-ups and kickin' speakers, so we could still indulge in all that good for the soul music.)

The kids learned to fish from a canoe this week. We set the canoe in the water next to the store and stayed in the inlet, exploring all the hidden coves on the opposite side. The kids saw a beaver building its den. They saw a female wood duck and babies. They even say an otter passed by the canoe, but I think it was a muskrat. Their favorite part was watching the bats fly by at dusk. Oh, and all the "foot-long bluegill" they caught (really, mom, it was that big!). Aren't kids great?!

My son made it Battleship Rock today. To get there, we hiked down a hundred foot cliff (at least it looked that tall), walked along Rocky Fork Creek, peered straight up at rock walls and then parted the river reeds to see a hulking "ship" aimed right for us. The natural beach made by the turn of the water gave us plenty of room to explore. The Etawah trail is fairly easy (my 4 year-old nephew had no troubles with the steps and bridges). Be observant. You may see deer on the trail like we did. Or watch for carp following you in the water. (The Appalachian Forest Museum is 10 minutes from Bayview).

Apparently, wildlife enjoy a good game of cornhole as much as we do. While camping this weekend, we left our bean bags on the boards overnight. The next day, three bags had disappeared. We suspected the squirrel whose tree we were under, but found no shreds of red or blue cloth. We searched the grounds for flashes of out-of-place color or dropped corn kernels. Our camping neighbors laughed as we perused the area, wondering if a squirrel could really lift a cornhole bag. Maybe it was a raccoon? We saw absolutely no signs of our bags! So much for tonight's tournament.

The Paint Creek Lake Dam can't compete with Hoover Dam, but it still gives you the butterflies if look over the right way. It's a bucolic drive down country roads to reach the dam, whose entrance is dotted with new playgrounds and shady pavilions. (Where does the State get all that money?!) The friendly folks at the Army Corps of Engineers visitor center answered all our questions about flood control and gave the kids enough coloring books to last 'til they have kids. (Again, where do they get the money?) Since we were out that way, we treated the kids to ice cream and putt-putt at Paint Creek State Park before heading back to our campfire at Bayview.

We were called "lake people" today. Not in bad way. More in a yearning "wish we could enjoy what you have" kind of way. The label surprised us. We see ourselves as hard-working Americans with little time for frivolity. "Lake people" just seems so Rockefeller or Kennedy. But if that's what folks think camping on the water makes you, then it's easy to be "lake people" at Bayview. Maybe we just looked in control of our lives again. That's a good thing.

Lately many of our State's most popular campgrounds seem more like small towns with a never-ending hustle and bustle of campers trying to find…of all things, peace and quiet. Sure, they offer manicured putt-putt courses, paved roads, uniformed employees, wood bench amphitheaters. But what I really yearn for is privacy, shade and a beautiful water view. That's why we created Bayview. J ust good old-fashioned camping.

Should we say "free" morning coffee? Or "complimentary" morning coffee? Either way, when you stay with us, we'll fix a pot for you in the store, which opens at sunrise, seven a days a week. Grab your mug and go. (For purely practical reasons, we say "free" in the store; that other word just didn't fit our window display.)

We call them "drive-throughs." No, not those fast food windows. The people who drive through our little campground to get a feel for the place, to check us out. Being new, we have lots of "drive-throughs." If you want to be one, too, that's OK. Here are a few tips to make the most of your Bayview "drive-through."

1. We only have a small loop road and a culdesac. Drive both.
2. Our showerhouse is a major selling point on the inside. Get out and take a look.
3. Rate information is posted on the entrance sign and by the cottages. Come to the store too.
4. If the cottages are empty, go around front and peek in. They're awesome!

"Extreme Makeover: Campground Edition."
That's what we called the Bayview renovations of 2009. Five months of cleaning, bull-dozing, rearranging, digging, fixing, painting and, in general, working our tails off. We gutted our entire property. There may always be loose ends to tie up, but Bayview has a new face and new attitude. Just wish we had Ty here to narrate it all and welcome all of you to our new home. (Before and After Pictures are on display in the store.)