October 23, 2024 - November 2, 2024 -- Empty Pockets Ranch to The Prince-Phillips Millstone
Written By: Wendy
After Maine, we had a long haul down to Scio, New York where our first 50 Pies event, Family Fright Feast, was being held. We broke up the long drive with a quick one night stop at a Harvest Host, Empty Pockets Ranch in Cobleskill, NY. It was a delightful little family farm that we enjoyed exploring and chatting with the family. They even had a pumpkin patch, so we were able to stock up on all our pumpkin needs for our Halloween event. The next day we set out with excitement in our step but butterflies abound in our stomachs. We had talked many times with the owner of the property, but we had never actually seen the property. And we had somehow convinced 6 other families to come to this remote part of New York to boondock (no water, electric, or sewer hook ups) with us for a full week. What if there wasn't enough space for all the big rigs? What if there wasn't enough open sky for everyone's solar and Starlink to work? What the promised common spaces that we could use weren't actually as big or accessible as we hoped? And not only did we have the actual property to worry about, but it was also the last week of October in upstate New York. What if it snowed?! I can usually tamp down my anxiety and talk to myself reasonably, but Scott turns into a ball of anxiety when there are too many "what ifs" and ways for things to go wrong. Throughout the drive he was starting to rub off on me, and my initial excitement turned into down right dread that it was going to go wrong as the road narrowed and we approached the property.
We pulled in and parked in their huge driveway and saw an adorable brick and wood house, decorated perfectly for the season. The hosts came out to greet us in such a warm and welcoming way that my fears started to melt away. When they took us inside the common space, though, all my fears of things not going well instantly vanished. When we walked in, there was a huge sign that said, "Welcome Campers!" being held up by two blow up creepy Halloween clowns. Upon turning the corner and going into "the ballroom" as we decided to lovingly call it, we were greeted with extravagant Halloween decorations (some of which Parker immediately requested to put away due to the spookiness of them), long tables perfect for gathering together, a large kitchen area, and, the best part, a whole children's museum worth of toys in one section of the large room. There was a play kitchen, a play grocery store with cash register, a whole fleet of various action figures, a nursery with several babies and a washer and dryer full of baby clothes, tractors, trucks, and a barn with animals. I was in awe and actually a bit confused. Was this space all for us? I confirmed, and yes, indeed this was our space for the entire week. Amazing. Absolutely amazing was all I could think. We then took a golf cart tour of their property to scoop out the best place for everyone to park their rigs. We went down by the river and on their many trails throughout the property adorned by trees sporting their best yellow leaves. We arrived a few days ahead of everyone, so we spent the next couple of days getting set up, finishing grocery shopping, and just settling in. It was lovely, and we excitedly awaited everyone's arrival.
When the first RV pulled up just after noon on Saturday, all four of us excitedly burst out of our trailer to greet our friends who we hadn't seen in 6 months with big hugs, happy smiles, and animated chatter. It was happening! I had hatched this idea way back in January when a group of us at the Xscapers Bash event had said that we should all host a Halloween event together. When I started to actually look at properties and contact people, though, the others seemed to slowly fade away. They didn't discourage me, but when you actually start to do something instead of just talk and dream about it, people often fade away and are too busy to make it happened. I jumped in with gusto, and even after I was turned down by Escapees to do the event through them, I was not deterred. Scott and I decided to make it a 50 Pies event, and we continued making plans. After everyone had arrived that evening, I was beyond elated. We had been planning this for months, and it was actually coming to fruition with really great friends. Sitting around the campfire that first evening swapping travel stories and catching up with everyone, I felt such a great sense of contentment.
The next day we headed out on a field trip to Letchworth State Park, dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the East." We set off as a group and hiked on a trail along a deep gorge with a river and cascading waterfalls below and a yellow and orange canopy of leaves above. About half way, we stopped to play some ice breaker games together. We laughed over Parker's 'would you rather?' questions and had families come up with a family spirit animal that represents them. We ended the outing with lunch at the playground within the state park. It was a lovely lunch with all the kids playing together seamlessly like they had all been friends for years. All the adults were able to just sit and chat and enjoy each other. This would become a common theme this week that made the week so magical for everyone. You will hear that word, 'magical,' a lot in this post, because it truly was a magical week.
That evening we had our first cooking class, the pie making class. When Scott and I were coming up with plans for this event, we decided that we wanted to make it food themed to go along with our family mission and not only to help us to make our pizzas and pies for New York, but also to bring people and families together through food. On Sunday afternoon, with the sun starting to set and a chill in the air, we all gathered in the ballroom, turned on some relaxing fall music and made pies together. I taught the group how to make pie dough from scratch, caressing the butter into the flour with our fingers and rolling our the dough into misshapen circles. Kids played behind us with the toys and jumped in and out to help as they pleased. One of the older kids can over to help her mom peel apples for the apple pie and then went back to playing baby dolls when she lost interest. The younger kids would come over to dump one or two items into the bowl or mix the pumpkin filling together and then run back as a friend called out to them. My heart was full, and it felt like such a fluid and natural process. Later that evening, after the pies were baked and the kids were tucked into bed, we had mom's night in. All the mom's gathered in the ballroom with our warm pie slices and we chatted the night away while making a pumpkin succulent craft.
The next day was pizza day. In the morning, everyone met up at the ballroom, and Scott lead the pizza dough making class. It was similar to the pie class in that kids were free to come in and out of the class as they pleased in between their play to help stir the flour or knead the dough. Once again, it felt very fluid and relaxing to all be making the dough together with warm morning light streaming in through the windows and the quiet sounds of kids playing in the background. It was exactly what Scott and I were hoping for, and we could not have been happier.
If I thought it would be of interest to you, the reader, whoever you might be, I would go into full minute by minute detail of each day during the Family Fright Feast. I am writing this several weeks later, but I still remember every detail because it was such an important week in my mind and had such a profound impact on me that I still do not even know how much it will impact me and my family going forward. I know, though, that you, reader, are not as interested in every single detail, so I will skim over some of the quieter and seemingly more mundane moments of chatter between friends or watching kids play and grow together. Our week followed a rhythm. In the morning, we would all meet up at the ballroom around 9:00 for coffee chat. Families and kids would stream in at a leisurely pace. Adults would sit and join the group conversation while kids would decide the big play agenda for the day. After that, we would do story time and a craft with the kids. It made my teacher heart full when I would gather all the kids around to listen to a story, and they all sat, ages 3-10, fully engaged and hanging on my every word. We would break mid day for lunch and some quiet time and then join together again in the afternoon for some outdoor group activity of a hike, relaxing down by the river, or a scavenger hunt. In the evenings, we would all come together for a community meal of pizza, pasta, chili, or BBQ. Evenings were ended with a group adult activity of some sort, either by the campfire, dads night in, or moms night in. It was an easy routine that everyone seemed to enjoy by spending time together and building a community.
On pizza party night, we decided that we wanted it to be a more inclusive pizza party and give everyone the opportunity to make their own pizzas if they wanted. We set up both pizza ovens and stations for making pizzas while Scott and I oversaw and gave tips on how to stretch the dough and how much sauce to put on to make sure that your dough didn't rip. Kids of all ages were eager to help stretch the dough and make misshapen pizzas with way too much crust on one side and way too much sauce on the other side, but it still tasted the same. Scott and I immensely enjoyed passing on pizza expertise and everyone seemed genuinely excited to learn and try their hand at putting their pizza in the pizza oven. It was magical to see the enthusiasm each family had for making their own pizza creations working together as a family. Another 50 Pies success!
Finally on Thursday, it was Halloween, which all the kids had been excitedly anticipating all week. It was 70 degrees and sunny that day (absolutely astonishing!), so we collectively decided to spend the afternoon by the river in the sunshine. It was a short hike to the river, and we brought fold up chairs, paints, and drinks. Adults sat in the sun, chatted, and enjoyed beverages while the kids splashed in the shallow river, explored the bushes on shore, and painted Halloween rocks. It was lovely and magical. That evening since there weren't many of us and trick or treating at all our rigs would have taken about 10 minutes total, we decided that each rig should set up a game for the kids to play before getting their candy. I loved the creativity of each family and the kids had fun playing Halloween BINGO, throwing marshmallows into bowls, throwing spiders at a target, and chasing around an adult dressed as a piñata with a pool noodle. We ended the evening with s'mores and hot cocoa around a big campfire because we all needed more sugar, obviously. One of my favorite parts of full time travel is the proximity to your neighbors and flexibility after kiddo bedtime. Since we were all parked right next to each other, our evenings didn't have to end when we went home to put our kids to bed. We were always able to come back out after, equipped with our baby monitors and sit around the campfire until the wee hours of the night and chat and really get to know each other, playing "Never Have I Ever," and talking about the stupid decisions we made as our younger selves. I cherish those evenings of laughter and know that if I go back to living in a house, this is one of things that I will miss the most, and that I didn't even know was a possibility before traveling.
As our week came to a close on Saturday morning, we all woke up with heavy hearts that we had to leave this magical place and end this truly magical week. Several of the adults had confessed around the campfire the night before that this was the least anxious they had felt in months. They had felt such contentment here in this community we had built. I had felt it, too, and was all the more energized by hearing from others that they also felt the same way and knowing that I made it happen. My heart could not have been fuller. We all gave great big hugs and said our farewells that morning and then headed out to our next adventures. Most of us were heading south to Florida for the winter, so we knew that we'd all see each other again at some point, so it was not good bye, but see you later, friends.