Saturday morning we started on the next leg of our July 2025 adventure, heading to the main attraction and reason for the trip: the Galecki family reunion. The Galecki’s have been meeting annually for 25 years at Smith Mountain Lake, with up to 35 people in attendance. The family patriarch and matriarch (Joe and Chris) are surrounded by their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
The road out of Pipestem was the same as going in: hilly and windy. We had the ‘Check Engine Light’ turn on while driving. The OBDC readout said we had an engine misfire, I suspect that happens when the engine is braking the RV and I apply the gas pedal. So I will stop doing that. And I was able to clear the errors from the readout and the check engine light.
We arrived at Smith Mountain Lake state park (https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/smith-mountain-lake) and set up the RV. I had biked through the campgrounds during previous SML reunions, but this was our first stay within the park. The park has many hiking trails, and a beach area with lots of sand and kayak rentals. Our campsite was isolated and well shaded, as were many other sites that were located on the outside of the campground loop. The site pad was huge, more like a parking lot than the usual pull through sites with grassy sides. But the RV stayed cool in the shade. We even got family visitors to the RV during our stay.
As expected at a family reunion, there were many Galecki conversations and activities during the week. We didn’t take enough pictures of the week. We have no pictures of the pinochle games, the bacon/tomato breakfast sandwiches, the grandchildren running around or playing at the beach. We were too busy to capture those moments.
Each family takes a turn at making dinner for a night. This year Steve and Vicki’s family made Mexican lasagna with a side of Spanish rice. And brownies for dessert. Other dinners during the week were steak, gumbo (always a favorite), chicken meatball sandwiches, and three types of risotto.
Steve Cibor remodeled the house next to his to add bedrooms and even an RV pad and named it the ‘Gframe’. This became the main gathering place for the family.
There was even a house boat rented out for the week that was used for a few cruise trips and meetings. The younger generation played a ‘Survivor’ game during the week, and pow-wows were held on the boat.
Besides the house boat the family had access to a ski boat and a pontoon boat (fast rides and slow rides.) On one of the last evenings we took the matriarch out for a ride on the pontoon boat.
Joshua, Juliana, Calvin and Miles ended up in a nice little house about half a mile from the main house. They needed to make several trips back and forth during the day. Vicki and Steve took their turn babysitting one evening, and spent time during other evenings with the parent who had child watching duties.
Joshua and family did spend a morning at the state park’s very sandy beach, and they all enjoyed their time there.
Steve and Jennifer took a short (3 mile) hike to the peak of Sharp Top Mountain (part of the Peaks of Otter) that lasted two and a half hours and went up over 1100 feet. Steve had no problem going up the trail, especially with the handy walking stick. He did find going down more challenging, with the sense that he was ‘falling’ rather than stepping down. Jennifer just scampered down like a mountain goat….
Steve also took his sister Cynthia on a shorter, less challenging one mile hike (Beechwood trail) around the campground. The hike included a small waterfall, some rocky terrain, and walking close to the lake. Lexie liked walking close to the lake, this gave her a chance to lap up some fresh water. And no one was scampering on this hike.
Towards the end of the week the RV was moved from the state park to an RV pad closer to the main house. While it was nice to be close to the action, there was no shade at the pad. The outside temperature was well into the 90’s, so the sun overwhelmed the RV’s air-conditioning. This resulted in concerns that Lexie was going to overheat in the RV and she got to go into the air conditioned house for a short time. This was the initial stay of any RV on the pad, and it gave Steve Cibor a chance to gauge how to improve the pad as he finished it. But the pad had sufficient water and electricity, and the black water connection worked great!
We spent a week in the Smith Mountain Lake region and enjoyed the time we had with our family. There were a few regrets (no one played volleyball this year!) but overall a very satisfying reunion.