We found a winner!

It’s not easy finding a location within a few hours where we can both camp and boat comfortably.  Lake Shelbyville is a great location to do both. We stayed at Coon Creek campground, a state park that is very well maintained.  The boat ramp isn’t busy (they restrict it to campers on the weekends – yay!) and can handle two boats launching at a time (or one if I’m doing the backing up, ha!).  We’ve been able to find sites at the end of a section that are nicely forested and you don’t feel on top of your neighbor.

We were there on a warm July weekend mainly to go fishing and continue to break in our new truck camper (and gear).

Enjoying the evening without a campfire (too hot) (not that we forgot wood)

Many campers know of the awesomeness of the Blackstone Grill – we ended up buying this instead of a grill for camping, since we it could be used for so many different meals.  The amount of space is quite large, and once you season it, you can use it for a ton of things (including bacon!).  We used it for breakfast (eggs, bacon, even grilling toast) and dinner (chicken, steak, seasoned potatoes, grilled veggies).

You can purchase the Blackstone grill on Amazon, but I’d look for deals – I found mine at Menards!

One new accessory that I’m happy to have found is the metal grill hood.  For awhile, the only cover this grill had was a polyester cover to protect the grill.  Blackstone has now come up with a metal grill top that protects the top, can be used a bit for steaming while cooking, and is great to keep food warm (especially when its windy outside). 

I’d also strongly recommend the spatula and scraper on Amazon – its a lot cheaper than the Blackstone website (at least at the time I looked).  The chopper/scraper alone is worth the price, but the spatulas are also well made – and you can look cool while attempting to make sushi (though you may have to get a cool hat to go with them).

Link to the campground:  https://www.recreation.gov/camping/coon-creek-il/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=73131

Happy Camping!