The RETURN TO MOUNT

After 9 years the Camera Couple headed back to the University of Mount Union, where our photography passion and the early days of the Camera Couple began. 

we made it!

Since leaving college in 2016, I had never been able to return to Mount for an Alumni weekend in October. They always have a fun-filled weekend with alumni returning and the current swim team gets to race the alumni in a fun mini-meet. When I worked at the speedway the weekend always fell on a big race weekend and when Cameron and I started traveling we always headed up north to see family during October. This year I was determined to make it back to the Purple Raider campus! 

We headed out of NC early morning and made the 8 hour journey up to Ohio. It was nice to have a different view on the drive, since most of our trips had been up I-81 to see family and we were getting quite familiar with the landscape. When we got closer to the campsite we took several small town Ohio farm roads that wind back and forth. We were staying at Fireside Lake Campground in East Rochester, Ohio. When we pulled in we were impressed how big the campground was and how many activities. It's a great campground, especially if you're looking for a place close to Mount Union. They have a little kitchen area you can order food like pizza and ice cream, and there's lots of activities if you have kids. We had a busy Saturday and arrived later Friday afternoon, so we didn't explore everything, but Cameron of course sampled the pizza to make sure it passed the test and LunaBear enjoyed the fresh Ohio air. 

Saturday was action packed! We were leaving Sunday, so we only had the 1 day to cram in the swim meet, team cookout, seeing other alumni, exploring campus, and going to the local park to see if the tree we carved our initials in was still there! Busy, Busy. We headed over to campus and got right to it. First stop, the pool! 

It was so much fun to race again in my college pool. It feels like home and the meet was a lot of fun seeing all the current swimmers and some past alumni. We followed up the meet with a team cookout where I got to catch up with my old coach and enjoy lots of stories about all the changes around campus. After some good mingling, Cameron and I did a walk around the campus enjoying the beauty that it always maintained and looking for my Alumni brick. I swore I knew where it was, but apparently in 9 years my memory ain't what it once was.

It was getting a little bit later in the day and we had to get back for our LunaBear so we did a quick trip over to the nearby park to see if we could find our special tree. When I was a senior in college, Cameron would come visit me at Mount and we would go to Silver Park in Alliance, OH to practice our photography and spend time together. The park became special to us as we shared so much time there and before leaving we carved our initials into one of the trees in the woods. Well....we didn't do the best job of remembering exactly where it was so for the second time that day we were on the hunt! 

We eventually found it thanks to the old picture we took back in 2016 of us with the carving, however after 9 years the initials had faded and not much was left. Lesson learned, we should have carved it deeper! 

2016 tree carving

2025 tree carving fail

After a good laugh and some pictures, we headed back to the campsite to spend the final hours in Ohio with our LunaBear. While it was definitely a short weekend adventure, I'm so glad I got to return to Mount and see my old coach and teammates. The weekend brought back so many fun memories and Cameron and I got to reminisce on the start of our relationship and how far we have come. As they say, "Once a Raider, Always a Raider!"