As I promised last night, I want to tell you the story of a local business, and family, who are making their dreams come true in Lebanon, Maine.
The story is of the family of Cheryl and Marty Flood, the owners of the Salmon Falls River RV Resort & Family Campground, located off Rt. 202 on Natural High Road, right here in Lebanon.
When the Flood family came to Lebanon, the campground functioned, although barely, as the Natural High Campground.
Open from Mid-May through Mid-October, the campground boasts 187 over-sized camping sites, Olympic sized Indoor Pool, Crystal Clear Outdoor Pool, access for Fishing to the Salmon Falls River, an Exercise Room, Craft Room, Nature Trails, a 17,000 sq ft Activity Center, Horseshoe Pits, Volleyball and Basketball Courts, a Private Pond where guests can enjoy Paddle Boats and Row Boats, and new last year, "SHIPWRECKED", an 18 hole Miniature Golf Course.
Of course, the BEST part about camping at Salmon Falls is that it's quiet, family friendly, and if you'd just like to kick back and relax for the day, that's okay too!!
Salmon Falls is a pet friendly campground, encouraging people to come and stay with their pets. Although there are some dog breed restrictions and pets are required to be leashed, there are two dog parks on the grounds just for a little run time for your dogs.
For guests of the park (of whom over half are now seasonal campers), there are so many planned activities to enjoy, and a camp store and ice cream parlor too!! And all of this is planned for comfort on a 53 acre pine tree studded site right here in Lebanon.
When I heard from Mom, Cheryl Flood, late last night, she was more than excited!! One of her seasonal campers, had called her from Massachusetts having seen the Campground mentioned on Channel 5 News out of Boston. Salmon Falls has been given a wonderful honor by being named one of the TOP New England Campgrounds by that network. Number 15 out of the 32 mentioned by the news agency, in fact!! Although Cheryl is unsure of how that honor came her way, she is grateful that people are acknowledging the hard work done by her family in turning a dilapidated old camping venue into a quality family camping resort.
"If I would have known I'd been nominated", she stated, "I would have had all my seasonal campers calling in to vote!". Who nominated her, or who voted, she is not sure, but her easy laugh, I would assume, would be a delight to the person responsible. It's almost that much more of an honor that she didn't have a hand in it though. Knowing enough people enjoy her campgrounds enough to nominate Salmon Falls and vote in the camping resort's behalf has a sort of sweetness to it that making calls and asking people to vote for you just doesn't include.
The new Mini Golf Course is open for business, and the public is more than welcome!! At first only 9 holes were open, but now you can play the entire 18. "I got it on a barter," says Cheryl proudly, talking about how she traded a few items she had no further use for, to a businessman who wanted to do away with Mini Golf on his own property. It took 6 men to move all the pieces to Lebanon, and several days, with the larger stuff coming first, one or two pieces at a time, and then a final trip for all the smaller pieces. The final touches of adding plant life and flowers around the course are in the works now. Playing the course is only $5 for adults, and children under 5 play free with a playing adult. Children over 12 years old are only $3....."And it's not your typical plywood built course," said Cheryl. This is the real deal!
Don't forget, their best friend of over 40 years also owns and operates BITE ME Hot Dog Eatery, just down Rt. 202 a piece, where he's carved out a niche for himself with great comfort food at an affordable price, served in a friendly, small town atmosphere.
I could have sat with Cheryl all day in the shady sunlit front lawn of the Camp Store and Office. The day was breezy, and although hot in the sunshine, under the cover of the pines it was cool and comfortable. Hearing her story of how she and husband Marty, sons Jon and Bill and daughter Jen have carved and molded a beautiful property out of something almost too far gone to bring back to life is nothing short of amazing.
Ms. Flood credits her family's success to her children. Son Jon and younger brother Bill worked side by side for many years, always doing something to better the camp sites and the campground in general. "You can't mention one without the other," she stated, "they were always working together." and you could see a smile come across her face as she spoke of her two boys. Daughter Jen works at the campgrounds too, "Many here say she's one of the hardest workers," stated Ms. Flood. "But we know she works at her beauty sleep, that's why she's radiant!"
Coming to Lebanon has not been without times of trouble and loss for the family. In November of 2014, son Jon was struck and killed on Route 16 as he pedaled his adult tricycle on the busy nearby New Hampshire highway. For Cheryl, that evening, only 8 months ago, is still so fresh and painful that her emotion is easy to see when she speaks of her late son.
According to Cheryl, the larger news papers and news organizations wanted to turn their attention to Jon's mental illness, as he suffered from Bi-Polar disorder. However, it is thought that the 34 year old may have been suffering a form of seizure that caused Jon to have frequent blackouts where he would seem, on first view, to be completely himself, until you tried to speak to him and realized he wasn't making sense.
In speaking, my own memories of complete loss were flooded back to me, and we had a long conversation about trauma, redemption, and forgiveness that was at once, refreshing as it was sad.
Honestly, very little is known about how Jon, on his first trip alone off the campground property, wound up traveling southbound on the northbound side of Route 16, on a pitch black, rainy evening. Cheryl says that sometimes the grief still takes over and she has viewed satellite views of the area and driven the area many times trying to figure out how he could have been so far off course.
Of course, no one will ever know exactly how Jon came to be on that highway in the evening hours of November 4, 2014, but all the hoopla and attention given to only the suggestion of mental illness has always bothered Cheryl.
Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers thought we would share Cheryl's story here, to help our local residents understand that sometimes there is more to a person than mental illness, or what you read in the larger news media. It could have only been a simple mistake in direction and nothing at all to do with Bi-Polar Disorder or Epilepsy. Jon was never just "Jon", to the news media. He quickly became known only as the "mentally ill man killed on Rt. 16". In hearing Cheryl's story, the fact that local news organizations chose to focus on Jon's mental illness rather than acknowledging the person that he was, or that any man could have made a mistake and taken a wrong turn, was heartbreaking .
Jon was more than they could have ever reported, he was her son. A hard worker, a good brother, an attentive groundskeeper, friendly and social, and completely committed to the betterment and upkeep of the family's chosen business venture, Salmon Falls Campground.
Sometimes things are just accidents, and the cause is never truly known. Accidents have no reason, and are sometimes the hardest tragedies for a family to overcome. However, despite such devastating personal tragedy, the family continues to maintain, build, and renovate the campgrounds and provide a happy, peaceful place for others to come and enjoy one another, or just to relax and enjoy the quietness of the winds in the pine trees and the rush of the river.
After a lengthy conversation, our talk returned back to the campgrounds that Cheryl and her family love so much, and once again back to the designation and honor given to them by Channel 5 Boston viewers.
As we spoke, a young man delivering firewood caught our attention. He spoke of the early days of the campground, when his Uncle was carving the campsites from the pine forest, and his "happy memories" of being a child and living in one of the apartments over the Camp Store. He spoke of his mother, who was the campground's cashier and of walking the long walk up Natural High Road to catch the school bus.
Campers drove past, in and out through the key card controlled security gates, all waving and smiling as they passed.
Cheryl stayed busy, our conversations interrupted by phone calls, making reservations, and helping groups of smiling, suntanned, bicycle riding children coming for candy or ice cream at the Camp Store. Marty left with the aforementioned young man delivering firewood, and Bill, now the campground's Maintenance Foreman bounced back and forth, passing us several times with trash barrels, and the like.
"Bill is responsible for all the maintenance now," Cheryl added, "He runs this entire campground with only one other employee."
It was hard for me to leave that idyllic little spot at the entrance to the campgrounds. It was comfortable and the conversation and company were good. But my grandson was waiting and I was already an hour late, so we finished our conversation, said our goodbyes, and promised to keep in touch, even though we're only right across Rt. 202 from one another.
If you have guests coming to visit the area, why not suggest they stay at the Salmon Falls River RV Resort & Family Campground during their stay. As one of Channel 5 Boston's TOP Campgrounds in New England, they're sure to have a good time and thank you for your suggestion.
Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers would like to Congratulate Cheryl and Marty Flood and their family on a job well done and for bringing family pride to their Lebanon Maine business!!
If you'd like to see the Channel 5 Boston Report of the TOP area campgrounds, Look for Lebanon's Salmon Falls River RV Resort & Family Campgrounds at number 15~~~ SEE IT HERE:
http://www.wcvb.com/news/33769202?utm_campaign=WCVB%20Channel%205%20Boston&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_source=Social
