I’m not sure how the idea of starting my own summer camp came to me. And perhaps it’s an idea that should have stayed only that. But, oh well, it happened. I had worked for seven summers at Camp Mondamin and loved every minute of it. But after seven summers I decided I was ready to do something else and so the idea of a travel camp came to me. And so for the next four summers I took kids on trips across the country and finally ending in a five-week trip to Europe using Eurail.
And so it was during those four years of traveling that I thought, wow...if I could make a thousand bucks being my own boss in a summer with just ten kids, think what I could do if I had a regular camp. Wrong thinking on my part, but by then it was too late to back out of my future plans. And so, around December of 198o I found 64 acres of land in Mitchell County, North Carolina (surrounded on three sides by Pisgah National Forest with the Appalachian Trail a couple thousand feet from our property boundary, and with a view of 6, 285 ft. Roan Mountain) it seemed like the perfect and most affordable spot.
And so, I made an offer to purchase... and went to my parents’ home for the holidays stoked to get started on this new venture and phase of my life. At this moment, I was not yet married to Bobbie.