Watkins Glen-Corning
KOA Camping Resort

Hi Mateys! My name is Captain Pete and this is my story.  It's full of adventure and treasure.  Read it and then follow the instructions after the story.  If you do a good job, you'll receive a reward when you come to the KOA. - Pete the Pirate

Captain Pete’s Stolen Treasure

“Don’t ever tell your parrot your most important secrets!”

Yes kids, that was my big mistake!  You see, after spending many a year pirating and having the time of my life aboard my great ship, Sea Bandit, I was super rich.  But I was getting old and it was time for me to enjoy my gold.  So there I was relaxing on the beach when I found an old bottle with a message inside of it.

The message was from Barnacle Bart who was as fearsome a pirate as ever lived!  I should know because I had known him before he disappeared.  In fact, my parrot, Repeat, had once belonged to him.   Now the message in the bottle told of Barnacle Bart being shipwrecked and stranded.

Always liking adventure, I got ready to look for my old friend.  But I'm no fool either, so I loaded all of my gold onto Sea Bandit and sailed to Tremors Cove on Caraway Isle to bury  it.  Now kids, I had to hide my gold because Barnacle Bart would have stolen it from me if he had a chance!  I was sure that my treasure was safe because everyone knew that Caraway Isle was haunted!

Repeat was really excited as we set out to sea.  After a month of searching, we finally came to Barren Island.  We found a cave on the island and Barnacle Bart was there, too.  Now Repeat was so happy to see Barnacle Bart  that he jumped off of my shoulder and onto his.  Then Barnacle Bart told us the tale of his misfortune.  Over three years ago, his ship had struck a reef off Barren Island and had sunk.  But only Barnacle Bart had lived to tell about it.

The wind was starting to blow pretty hard, so I went out to check on Sea Bandit.  I rowed out to the ship to make sure that everything was okay.  When I got back to the cave, Barnacle Bart and Repeat were still talking away, just like pirates always do.

The next morning we got onboard Sea Bandit and headed to Port Sandhaven.  We went into town and had a great time that evening with a few other pirates we knew.  We spent the night in a nice inn right on the beach.

When I woke up the next day, I was all alone.  In a panic, I rushed out to the harbor only to find Sea Bandit missing too.  It seems that Barnacle Bart and Repeat had left during the night.  I figured that Repeat must have told Barnacle Bart all about my buried treasure!

I wasted no time in finding Rowdy Roger, one of the pirates we had been with the night before.  Together, we sailed on his ship out to Caraway Isle.  Now because Rowdy was afraid of ghosts, I went ashore alone.  Sure enough, there was a hole where my treasure had been buried.  Barnacle Bart and Repeat had beaten us to it!

Rowdy and I went back to Port Sandhaven.  I was lonely without Repeat and I was broke without my gold.

Then one day I heard the tallest tale I had ever heard.  It seems that Barnacle Bart and Repeat had been caught up in the hugest hurricane of all time.  Sea Bandit had been battered and bruised and had been driven by the hurricane all the way to New York!  And get this… the ocean and tides had risen so high that Sea Bandit had been dumped high up in the hills outside of Watkins Glen.

I had nothing better to do so I decided to check it out!  I went to Watkins Glen and sure enough, there was my old ship and Repeat was there, too!  Sea Bandit was sitting in a huge pile of sand at the Watkins Glen KOA Camping Resort.  Only now Sea Bandit had been turned into a giant playground with all kinds of fun play things stuck onto the ship.

When Repeat saw me, he immediately jumped onto my shoulder and right away we became friends again.  He told me what had happened.  It seems that Barnacle Bart had been washed overboard during the hurricane.  Then Repeat told me that my gold had been dumped all around the ship in the sand.  He also told me that the people at the KOA were really good to him and that they would let me stay there too!

So now kids, Repeat and I are here at the Watkins Glen KOA Camping Resort.   And yes, there still is a lot of my pirate gold buried in the sand around Sea Bandit.  Everybody knows about it because kids are always digging and looking for it in the sand.

And believe it or not, the people at the KOA camp store let the kids spend my gold in their store!  That's okay though, because every once in a while, Repeat and I go there at night and do a little digging ourselves.  Hey, even pirates like the stuff in the KOA camp store!

So kids, you now have heard my tale.  Why don’t you come to the KOA yourself this year and have an adventure!  See you then!