The Best of Warm River

We've met people from all over the world here at Warm River – as well as people from our local community of Ashton and the surrounding “big cities” of Rexburg and Idaho Falls.  Here – in no particular order – are glimpses of the best of what the campground and its campers have brought to us.

Best family reunion t-shirt:  The Dye family.  Every family member, starting with the first child, wears a number indicating the order in which they came into the family.  The eleven children are, of course, numbers 1 – 11.  As spouses were added and grandchildren born, each got the next number in sequence.  The youngest child at the reunion wore #71.

Best fitness tradition:  The Nielsen Family 5K.  They start at Bear Gulch and run down the Railroad Grade Trail.  This year’s winner finished in just over 21 minutes.

Best pole dance:  Cheri shimmying down the fee tube to get into position to open it.  Note:  AuDi Campground Services Uniform is required apparel. 

Best crazy tradition:  The ParkView Ward’s Big Chill.  They jump into the river at 10:00 PM and float down to the group site.  Participants get a t-shirt.

Best acronym:  ALPOT – annoying little piece of trash – which we pick up quite frequently. 

Best service call:  Ben, a camper from Shelley, noticed that we had a broken vent cover on our trailer.  A week after his family left the campground, they came back with a new vent cover, and Ben climbed on top of the trailer to replace it.  We paid him for the vent cover but he wouldn't take any money for his labor or his travel. 

Best cobbler:  Also the Dye family, although the cobbler master married a Crockett so we got this cobbler at both the Dye and the Crockett reunions.  The secret ingredient is cream cheese, and while he didn't give me the recipe, I found one online that is similar. 

Cream Cheese Peach Cobbler

Ingredients:

9 Cups chopped Fresh Skinless Georgia Peaches

1 8-oz Package Of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1 18-oz Package Of Vanilla Cake Mix

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Sugar

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened

Preparation Instructions:

Spread peaches in bottom of 12-inch Dutch oven.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and water, stirring until all of the sugar completely dissolves. Evenly pour this mixture over the top of the chopped peaches. Next sprinkle the fresh ground cinnamon over the top of the peaches, then follow that by sprinkling on the vanilla cake mix over it all. Drop small clumps of cream cheese and butter evenly over the top of the cake mix.

Bake with 20 coals on top and 10 on bottom for 35 – 45 minutes.

Most inspiring visitors:  Dirk and Trudy, raising money for charity on the Model T World tour. 

http://www.tfordworldtour.org/

Most inspiring campers:  The cyclists riding the Tour Divide Trail. 

Best daddy-daughter date:  Dave and Emily from Tennessee, riding the Tour Divide Trail together – but in a far more civilized fashion.  After they left our campground they spent three nights in the Jenny Lake Lodge.

Most exotic names:  Bernadina, Leo, Donato, and Agnesa, the children of Lawrence and Evalinda from Northern California.

Best prank:  The Hanson family’s stuffed skunk.  I still laugh over how I fell for that one.

Best crossing guard:  Sarah, who turned three on July 29, helped her grandparents park their trailer by standing in the middle of the road to stop us in our golf cart.  After the trailer was securely parked, she let us pass.  Sarah was also kind enough to invite us to her birthday party – complete with pink cupcakes.

Best coffee date:  A French trio, who patiently put up with my blundering French, invited us to have coffee with them after their picnic.  They showed us photos of their horseback trip to this area – 20 years ago.

Best fly fisherman:  Ghislain, also from France.  I have no clue how good he was at “la peche a la mouche,” but it was delightful speaking French with him.

Best camp host gift:  Come for a visit!!!!  We're here until the end of September.