Nikki brought me this  box turtle, after I thought she would scare everything off.  I saw a moth and noticed that some blackberries were ready for harvest. I caught a photo of this well-fed lizard on my back porch. The Queens Anne’s Lace is pretty but beware of bugs!

I almost stepped on this little guy today. Nikki didn’t even notice it and she ran right past it! The little fur ball stayed put for a while. This gave me a chance to run and grab the camera. It finally hopped off when I  my camera came too close.

Hiding in plain site!

Part 2 of 2011 Coca Cola 600 photos are now posted and ready for your enjoyment! As you can see we all had a great time. Lots of new friends and plenty of catching up with the rest of the gang. We were thrilled that almost everyone came back was excited about the Coca Cola 600. It is so good to hear that good times were had by all. Can’t wait until October. We are going to have a drawing for this poster. Hey, if he’s not your driver – well I am sure you can still have fun with this cut-out!

We will have a drawing for this in October!

Everyone had a great camping experience here at Yates Family Camping! We missed some of our regulars but we are very happy to have made wonderful new friends who were here for the first time. Thursday, the weather radar was very scary. Roaul and I ran to every campsite and informed all of the situation. We offered our home, apartment and garage as an escape from the storms. We did have some guests choose to come inside our house until the storm passed. Thankfully, the worst of the storm headed north and we were spared. Friday we had torrential downpours of rain.  After sunset, there were only a few light showers. Saturday started cloudy and when the sun came out, of course it started heating up and drying out.  Sunday was very hot. Almost everyone was outside playing games and enjoying socializing outdoors. We even had a night horseshoe game. Please be sure to check out the new photos. I am sorry I did not get a photo of the slip and slide. It sure looked fun. I think everyone enjoyed Roaul’s morning coffee. Kudos for to Roaul for such an awesome idea. It was a great way to get our day started,  catching up with our guests. As most everyone agrees, Roaul is a super guy. He does his best to help out with any problems that arise. He has his toolbox ready and does a fantastic job helping our campers get set up. A special thank you goes out to Ed Tremley and our son Kevin. Thank you for lending a hand and backing us up. We both patrol our Yates Family Camping to help insure everyone is having a good time. We stayed up last night until the traffic dimenished after the race. It was so good to hear our guests coming back and  hearing that they really enjoying the Coca Cola 600. We thank each and every one of you for making Yates Family Camping successful and being a joy to host.  We look forward to seeing you back here  soon! Until then, safe travels!

Seriously, we have the best friends camping here this weekend at Yates Family Camping. We are enjoying catching up with everyone. The stars are out and the rain is over. It is shaping up for a fantastic weekend! Enjoy!

We have the fans rolling in here this week. We still have some tent camping and RV sites available. Yates Family Camping is a great spot to set up for your racing excitement. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends back with us this year and making new ones. We are RACIN” READY!

For several years, we have had these interesting birds on our property. Last week we learn that they are endangered. There was a nesting pair at a nearby campground and it made the local news. We also found that they may sit on the nest for 40 days. Our nesting Killdeers had laid the eggs before Easter and the nest is smack in the middle of one of our campground sites. We put a metal sawbuck over it to keep vehicles off the nest. There is a motorhome just behind the nest. We advised everyone of the nesting family. If you come too close to the nest the father bird will try to get you to follow him away from the eggs. He will make a peep peep peep PEEP noise and pretend to be injured. If you get too close to the mother sitting on the nest, she will ruffle her feathers. She will stand up and get ready to try to trick you into following her away from the eggs. Notice that the eggs blend into the surrounding rocks. The babies hatched yesterday right in the midst of the All Star traffic. The mother kept her young under her. Look closely and you can see two of the four chicks just in front of her. Today she wisely moved them to a fenced in yard across the street, well away from any traffic. The chicks follow her around and have left the nest for good. The father stays close, if you approach he will run and loudly peep to get you away from the babies. A great site to check out more on these and other animals is www.enature.com. Yates Family Camping is a certified National Wildlife Habitat. All of our sites were resevered this weekend but we were not going to disturb the birds. Some last minute changes let us have enough room for the dedicated Killdeer and all of our guests! All four babies ( its hard to get them all in one photo) are well and happy.

Thank you Wayne Rich. You are a great one-man artist! We had a great crowd (I took this shot just as he started). The weather was perfect.

Hopefully we can make this a traditiion!

We had gorgeous weather for the All Star Race. We made lots of new friends and welcomed everyone back to Yates Family Camping. We had lots and lots of dogs here. Be sure to check out the photo page for some pics. Great times were had by all. Roaul & I are so happy hearing that our guests were having a wonderful time and enjoying the weekend. We did have an unusual occurrance. There was a short micro burst of air, it lifted up two party tents to the height of 30 feet. One landed on top of their camper and the other one landed in the field.  I didn’t believe it at first but enough people witnessed it to make a believer out of me.