The SL Enquirer: skydiving

Copacabana County Campgrounds is a PG friendly outdoors escape from city life and into the mountains, valleys and coasts of Serena Copacabana. With Summer winding down and fall approaching, Second Life lights up with activity. With so much to do, avatars are teleporting all over the grid in search of new and exciting past times with family and friends.

There is something about feeling one with nature when you can take a deep breath and smell trees, flowers and crisp air. In Second Life, we get to experience the outdoors without the threat of mosquitos, spiders and bears and snakes! CopaCabana County Campgrounds is a creative and accurate interpretation of the Appalachian Mountains along the North Carolina and Tennessee border.

Blanketed with lush foliage, beautiful scenic views and a relaxing lake, there is plenty to do and see. When you first arrive, close your eyes and listen to the crackling of nearby campfires, birds and crickets chirping and maybe even the laughter of children. Absorb the nature that surrounds you. If you listen close enough you may hear an owl hooting, a horse approaching or the call of an eagle overhead. CCC is abundant with wildlife and guests who love the outdoors.

Along the beaten path visitors are encouraged to interact with others at one of the 19 campsites with tents and some luxury cabins. During the day guests can go on excursions like hiking up a mountain and gliding all the way back down on a zipline. For the real thrill seekers, go bungee jumping or grab a parachute and skydive over the breathtaking landscape. As the sun begins to settle, indulge in a horseback ride into the sunset, explore a hidden cave or participate in weekly events like Monday Movie night, bingo, fishing and campfire stories. You'll also find group activities including paintball, bumper boats, archery and more. There have even been rumors that bigfoot has been spotted in the woods!

There is an element of roleplay at Copacabana County Campground to interactively immerse yourself into the environment. With a fully functioning fire and rescue department, you can even be part of a team combatting a forest fire and other man vs nature situations that may occur. Just be mindful of the sign that indicates the threat level.

The SL Enquirer sat down with Pen and Jadey Dragon for an inside look at CCC and what inspired this great adventure.

Interview with Pen and Jadey Dragon

SLE: As I sat on a fold out chair at a campsite while absorbing my surrounding, I felt a sense of calm. I can tell you two have put a lot of time into the details and activities at Copacabana County Campground. You truly captured the essence of nature and all its beauty. Can you tell me what inspired you to bring a virtual camping experience into SL?

Pen: We had looked all over the grid for a good, family friendly camping experience and were left sorely wanting. The old adage is, If you want something done and done right, do it yourself. So we did!

Jadey: The things our family needed just weren’t being met at the time we went camping. We travel as a pack, finding large spaces of just tents was not available where we looked. The activities, though pretty cool, again didn’t fit the theme. We wanted more than just a concert in the park.

SLE: You did a fantastic job creating CCC! Thank you for the tour, and my first SL zipline experience. That was exciting! While roaming around and taking in such a beautiful sim. I thought a hot air balloon ride would really put a birds eye view over the sim.

Pen: We actually had considered a Hot Air balloon in the beginning, and may yet add one as we are always looking to upgrade the experience we give our campers. We do take into consideration how scripted something might be as we try hard to keep the lag at Copacabana to a minimum.

Jadey:I am all about the realistic aspect of things, so I based the sim off personal experience.

I keep telling Pen, I have yet to find a hot air balloon ride camping, but maybe it’s just where I’ve been camping.

SLE: OH yes! That’s true lag and getting tangled in trees can cause problems. Lol

Do you offer any other activities I didn’t mention?

Pen/Jadey: We do have pottery as well as arts and crafts. We recently did a pine cone turkey where everyone hunted in the woods for the pieces such as feathers, the pine cones, acorns, fruit etc. assembled them to their pine cones, glued (linked) them together and took them home for show and tell. It was all done as an activity and a RP. Those are the kinds of activities that we looked for before we opened Copacabana Country. It’s our goal to make camping with us as fun and interactive as possible!

SLE:I will definately be back! Can I still make a cone turkey? That sounds creative and fun. You mentioned RPing. I heard there was a forest fire? What happened?

Pen: Yes! As I’d mentioned before, we like to keep things realistic and fun, plus we love to roleplay. In that spirit I notified the camp that the weather conditions were very dry and suitable for a forest fire. In response to that a few of our campers contacted me, asking if they could start a fire. Of course I said yes! As you said above, we have a fully functioning Fire/Rescue department for just such scenes. There is even a giant ‘Smokey the Bear’ sign next to our Ranger station that will alert campers to the fire danger that particular day. It’s all about having fun! Oh yeah! You can certainly get a pine cone turkey..you’ll just have to search the woods for all the pieces like everyone else!

SLE: lol fine! I love the realism of the environment. With 19 campsites, there are a lot of choices! Can you describe some of the various campsites and the Cabins. Are they available for rent?

Jadey: Our goal for the campsites are really quite simple, you need it, we’ll get it! All of our tents, and cabins are just an example. In fact recently some campers decided to swap out their tents to adjust for RP winter. So we removed their tents, got them better fire, and set up a cozy little cottage.

SLE: Ohhh I can wait to see the winter activities! I’ve seen many campgrounds scattered around the grid. What is the competition like?

Pen: Yeah, there’s competition out there and we try to keep improving to stay on top of the game. Our goal is more to have a fun, safe place for families to camp than it is really to beat other campgrounds.

Jadey:Recently our competitors have been spotted copying our sim down to the cliffs, and literally the events we schedule. At first I was felt the same as our loyal visitors. Violated, angry, eager to set their place on fire! However, I decided that instead of feeling slighted or robbed, I wish to send a challenge out to them. Let’s keep the important things in sight, the families. Let’s work together, do field trips to each other’s campgrounds, and find a way to be friends not enemies.

SLE: Shame on them. That is an amazing challenge that I fully endorse. Not just amongst campgrounds but in other feuding genres.

Pen: I know, right? Lol We had a TON of people coming in telling us about this other campground. They even closed for a week to remodel and look like us. But we decided that was okay because if they want to be like us, then we must be doing something right. Our core values, such as the safety of the kids here, are more important than some feud. If they want to copy us, copy that part as well.

SLE: Great attitude. If someone wanted to rent a cottage? How can they go about getting information on what’s available?

Pen: We’ve tried to make that as easy as possible! We have our rentals listed on our website and facebook, we have rental cards available at our welcome center and if nothing else, there is always either a Park Ranger or Jadey and myself on the sim to answer questions.

Jadey: We are not just here to rent campsites. We live here, we interact with everyone, we’re always available in some capacity or another. We are not just notecard and warning senders when tier is do. We have had one on one conversations with each and every renter. If not me, then Pen or our other rangers. Not one person has gotten by without at the very least, a personal greeting. The hope is to always stay approachable to our campers for any questions, comments or concerns.

We also like to cater to special family events. Just recently a family of 3 informed us of their recent nuptials, So we put together a beautiful little reception and they were gracious enough to invite the entire sim to celebrate with them. A recent family reunion has been booked, and our onstaff DJ’s, photographer, videographer are on hand if needed to make it as special and memorable as possible.

SLE: Now that’s a community! Do you have a group discussions about activities and events?

Jadey: So here is how we operate, as I stated we’re family-owned. Each member of the family has a major role. I’m the bank, and I have final say over everything but the input comes from everyone and every where. If someone has an idea, they put it on the table, and everyone takes a vote. I have only had to override a few ideas. For example, my husband and brother wanted to set the ENTIRE sim on fire. This was not going to fly! Boys and their toys can get carried away.

Pen is the voice of reason, most of the time. He’ll play devil's advocate when we all are eager about something that could potentially blow up in our face. Nefertiti works behind the scenes, she comes in as a closer to verify things are actually making sense from an outside perspective.

Nick, is our social media, salesman, prankster, firefighter, and nosey neighbor. The kids, all of them, mine, his, hers the whole kit kaboodle are our welcoming committee. This is how events are created, discussed, argued about, and designed with possibly more arguing!

Pen: Yeah, what she said! With that said, we also take into consideration event ideas that our campers suggest, and there have been a few. For example, one camper recently asked if she could help around the sim which had led to the creation of our jr Rangers. That will also be an avenue to teach the kids fire safety, first aid and more.

SLE:oooo I have a few ideas! Relay races and obstacle courses dressed in costumes (Halloween). It sounds like you have a great team and community, we should all roast s'mores sometime. I once accidentally set a sim on fire using a spellcaster and it took the owner a couple hours to come find every particle. It was a nightmare! A good friend but she slapped my hand and took my rezz rights away. Anyway, you both have done such an awesome job on CCC. Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Pen: Well, the obstacle course, races and the like...that was a secret project we were working on. Thanks for letting the cat out of the bag! We are also looking forward to making everything extra spooky for Halloween. Okay, well I’m looking forward to that, Jadey is always watching the prim and lag so she has me on a tight leash! And if ya want to roast some s’mores, come join us on Friday night for our campfire stories! We always has s’more room!

As far as something we’d like to share? We want our campground to be a safe, fun environment for families. We’re very vigilant about that, over all else. It’s important to us all that families, especially kids, have a place where they can just be, without the worries of the outside world.

Jadey: haha Rezz rights, that’s another topic all in itself. We’re very careful about who gets them. We don’t want floating adult toys landing on our campers! Or accidental explosions, so you don’t get a tag just for stopping by. It’s for your safety and ours. We do have a tag so people can keep up with the events, however rezzing is only for paid renters.

SLE: LOL Jadey you make a good idea lol. Thank you both for sitting down with me for an inside look at Copacabana County Campground. I had a great time.