Monday, August 9, 2021

 Day #15

Transition day from central Michigan to further up the state to Boyne Falls and Chandler Hill

campground began by jumping on 31 heading north. The sky was overcast with a promise of rain. We were pleasantly surprised as the day progressed, the rain remained at bay.

We stopped for gas and lunch in Lake Houghton. Lunch was a southern comfort – KFC!

Following WAZE and the NAV system on the truck, after no service put a stop to WAZE, we turned onto Thumb Lake Road, a well-maintained state road into the Gaylord State Forest.  Private homes dotted the landscape, as we drove through wooded areas and open fields. Chandler Hill campground feels like it is in the middle of the state forest.  Miles of dirt roads crisscrossed Thumb Lake Road.

As with the other campgrounds, this also had permanent sites, pool, playgrounds, showers, laundry and Deer Poop Trail. (One of the named streets in the campground) The distinction was the ORV trails that was carved out of the field and forest behind our camper

The rain continued to hold off while we parked, unpacked and setup the camper. We headed into the nearest little village Vanderbilt to pick up a few groceries at the store that was like “IGA”. Well, think overstocked convenience store that was not very well stocked with overpriced products. We picked up a quart of milk and headed back to the camper.

On the way back to the camper we could see the storm heading our way. 

We could see the storm approaching behind a small church across street from convenience store

The rest of the evening and night, we listened to the steady beat of rain on the camper from the storm that had moved across the lake.

Thumb Lake in the rain

Sunday, August 8, 2021

 

Day #14

Josh Hayes, spoke for the Sunday services at Grace Community Church, he did a great job delivering a challenge to High School Seniors who would be attending college in the next couple of weeks.

After lunch at the camper, we drove into Silver Lake to a public beach access, where we spent about 45+ minutes on the beach. This is where Doug took his famous Lake Michigan Swim.

Today is a down day – laundry, organize, repack and pitch for transition day tomorrow.

We’ll be moving further upstate to Boyne Falls area.

Saturday, August 7, 2021

 Day #13

A drive up to Ludington brought us to a quaint town, busy with tourist and a town park that maintained a jetty that went out a half a mile into the lake to the lighthouse.

Every 100 yards or so there was a concrete walk out onto the beach that was designated as handicap accessible.

View halfway to the light house. The water on either side of the jetty at this point was deep and dark blue. The lighthouse has a volunteer only operated gift shop and charges to walk up into the top of the lighthouse. The volunteers this day were transplants to Seattle, WA from Gastonia, NC.  They spend a week every summer volunteering at the lighthouse.

Looking back toward the beach. The water on either side of the jetty was clear, it was difficult to determine the depth.

We have noticed during our travels in Michigan, there are very few chain motels. The hotels are mostly smaller, privately owned, two story “motor courts”. Themes of the hotels are as numerous as the imagination, from simple Verna’s Place to Earl’s hotel to Legs Inn.

The size of the  townships/villages are anything between a small sign on the road to populated, busy streets of tourists everywhere.

The 2019 population for Oceana County, MI was estimated at 26,467 in 536 square miles and has one stop light.

Driving out of Lundington, along the lake, we noticed that barriers had been placed along the shoreline to keep the water out of the roads. Looking at the shoreline, it seemed that if the white barriers were removed the lake would been in the road. If vehicle wheels moved off the shoulder of the road, it would be in the lake.

The beaches are beautiful, sandy and windy. These pictures are from our drive out of Lundington, where the road ended at the State Park. Nice state parks, amenities, but are a first come-first serve, so very difficult to get a spot.

The land is wet. Some roads are flanked with wetlands on both sides. I have never seen so many cattails growing abundantly along the road sides. Driving down a hill, a wetland area would appear, some would be like the picture, while others were forested.

Another jaunt that we took was to the end of the road in Silver Lake. The road ended at the pedestrian access to the dunes – a straight up wall of sand.

A flock of turkeys with their polts foraging on the side of the road.

Supper was a local restaurant, at crossroads in the middle of nowhere! The Open Hearth advertised family style meals, but tonight was prime rib night. Who can pass up prime rib – not me. I was delicious, but not as good as Fireplace in Weaverville, NC.

I noticed several fields of this crop. I could never get a really good picture of it and never thought to ask Doug to stop for a picture. I think it is dill.

As the evening progressed, the Wisconsin storm gained momentum moving across Lake Michigan, so we packed up the chairs, tablecloths and anything else that would blow away. Spent the evening reading, writing and listening as the storm approached. The Bed began calling as the rain pelted the roof of the camper! Good night!

Friday August 6, 2021

Day #12

Silver Lake was our tour destination today, with our first stop at the Chick Shack, a popular wing restaurant downtown.  The restaurant was surrounded by amusement park rides – roller coaster, race cars, a pond with bumper boats and a putt-putt mini golf. Gary Huber did not steer us wrong with the wings as you can tell by Doug’s face!

Doug's expression when we got our order of wings! I wonder which employee was counting to out the 12 wings for our order.

The wings were cooked on a rotisserie, then you could pick the flavor of BBQ sauce.  We really think that boxes were mixed up when packing the carry-out bags. 

After our surprisingly delicious lunch, we trekked down to Mac Wood’s Dune Buggy Rides. This business had been in operation for 91 years. This is the 1934 Dune Scooter they now have stored in their museum, along with this model used in 1960.

We rode in their current model, the Sand Witch. Crossing Termite Bridge, we entered the wooded area of the dunes, but soon was on the up and down sandy dunes.

The experience is difficult to describe and the video is not really doing the ride justice. The kids were loving the ride, you can hear them in the back ground. The driver/emcee, Chris did a great job with informational stops, driving fast and making the ride exciting. Several of the hills felt that there was nothing there but space, until you started down the other side. 

Halfway through the ride, we had a  minute to stop on the beach of Lake Michigan, where we took photos, looked at the rocks smooth by the waves rolling them in the sand.

One of the informercial stop, Chris talked about the sand and how lightening strikes cause the sand to melt – made me think of “Sweet Home Alabama”. The trees that you see are the tops of 30–40-foot Popular trees – this is caused by “live sand” – areas in the dunes that sand is constantly shifting by the winds. Dead sand are those areas that because of grass and other small shrubs the sand does not move no matter how hard the wind blows.

I did not video the last dune that we went over. Chris stopped at the top of a dune as we were looking across Silver Lake at the beach on the opposite side. (I think I posted a picture yesterday of the dunes across the lake where you can see a flag on top of a dune, we were at that flag.) My first thought when he stopped was that the front wheels were teetering over the edge of the dune. Just like a roller coaster, he had everyone raise their hands, building the anticipation to continue on the ride down the 80-90 foot straight down dune.

Next door to the dune rides was Whippy Dip, an ice cream shop, except it looked like everyone had the same idea. So we drove down the road to Tasty Creations and was rewarded with Country Dairy Ice Cream!