What a fun weekend we had a Governor Dodge State Park! There were a total of 19 of us in our group, spread out over 8 sites in the Twin Valley Campground (240, 255, 256, 257, 261, 265, 266, & 267) We had a mixture of electric and non electric sites and all were very nice. The first weekend in October can sometimes be a little iffy weather wise, but we lucked out with pretty warm temperatures. We got quite a bit of rain on Saturday, but none of the sites had issues with flooding like we experienced in the spring at site 269. We walked down to that site and it looked like they had fixed the drainage pipe so the flooding there was not as bad as the previous trip. Bathrooms/showers were warm and clean, and the vault toilets were not bad although there were a few spiders. The Stevens Falls and Canyon Trails were the highlight of the trip- even in the rain! First you can explore the old spring house and read the informational signs about the family that used to farm there and other early settlers in the area. Once you continue down to the falls they have another informational plaque about the falls with old pictures, but unfortunately this plaque was not as well maintained so it’s difficult to see. The falls themselves are amazing. There is a slippery uneven staircase to go down, but there is a sturdy handrail. We spent quite a bit of time walking around and looking behind the falls, then continued down the canyon trail enjoying the beauty. Unfortunately the rain and wind picked up so we decided to turn around instead of completing the 3 mile loop. We also took a hike on the bluff trail that goes past campsite 271 that everyone enjoyed- awesome moss everywhere! Some members of our group took the trail to the amphitheater, but said while it was a pretty walk there wasn’t anything too special along the way. We went through a lot of firewood- the bags at the park office were $5 and were pretty decent. We also purchased wood from the trailer next to the Don Q inn for $5 an armful, but it was rather wet. We noticed when we drove past Jumping Jupiter General Store that they also had wood (covered by a tarp) but did not stop so I’m unsure of the prices. We stopped at Kate’s Bait and got a nice variety of worms for a reasonable price, although we never got out fishing! The ranger was very helpful in suggesting places to fish though. We had planned on doing a trail ride on horseback through the park at Doby Stables, but unfortunately it was cancelled by them due to the rain. As a ranger for The Dyrt, I sometimes receive products to test. This trip I had the Midland EX210VP E+Ready Bundle that includes 2 X-Talker two way radios and an Emergency Compact Crank Radio. https://midlandusa.com/product/ex210vp-eready-bundle/ I was impressed by both products right away. They are compact, yet sturdy- we’ve had them over a month now and my 4 year old and 6 year old have played with them a lot and they still look brand new! I’ve never really used a two way radio that wasn’t a toy, and the instructions from Midland were easy to understand. I appreciated that you could either use AAA batteries or the included USB rechargeable battery, which lasted the whole weekend. Midland states the range is 26 miles (obstruction free) but we didn’t try it that far- the farthest we tried was about a mile away through the trees but we were still able to hear each other clearly. There is also a weather radio feature that would come in handy if you didn’t have a separate weather radio. The emergency compact crank radio is a solid product as well. We used this all weekend, for weather alerts, listening to music, charging phones, and as a flashlight. It has a rechargeable 2000 mAh battery that can be charged via USB, solar, or hand crank. Battery seemed to last a long time, even when charging phones or playing the radio for a long stretch. The radio will not play when you are charging something, but that wasn’t a big deal to us. The weather alert was nice to have while in the woods during a storm- really reassured the less seasoned campers that we would be ok during the rainstorm. When there is severe weather the radio will make a noise and flash the light so you can be prepared. You can press any button on the radio to turn the noise off and turn on the radio to hear the weather. Overall we were very happy with this bundle.