Thursday, July 5, 2012

July 3 and INDEPENDENCE DAY

     We traveled from Timber Ridge campground at Traverse City to Mackinaw City and settled in to our spot at the Mill Creek campground that we had reserved.This is a family owned campground. It is confusing because there is also a Mill Creek State park Campground. Our site on Tuesday was #274 and it was a nice shaded site. This site was one row back from the beach but was only available for Tuesday night and when we called for reservation a few weeks ago there were no site available there for the 4th. So when we checked in we asked for any site and the guy said yes.I know Sherry was exited because sleeping in a parking lot seem weird. So he made her very happy. We were going to Mackinac Island on Wednesday the 4th and had to leave site 274 before 11am. When we checked in we were able to secure site 70 for Wednesday night, but we couldn't move to this site before the current guest left at 11 am. We decided to take Daisy to the parking lot at the Boat Ferry (Star Line) in the morning and then return to site 70 after visiting the Island. This worked very well as we were shuttled from a parking lot across the street both to the boat and back to Daisy after visiting the Island.
       When we returned to the campground and got set up for the night we took our lawn chairs along the beach where we had a great view of the bridge and were able to see FIREWORKS from Mackinaw City,St Ignace, and Mackinac Island as well as a city I didn't know farther north. We had a great time as the fire works reflected in the water. We visited with several fellow campers along the shore line.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Vacation July 1 and July 2

Good morning from the crew of MS Daisy, Sherry and Jay. We are at Timber Ridge campground in Traverse City Michigan since last night.   This is a wonderful campground with friendly hosts and campers.  We took a couple of bike rides around the campground and discovered a covered bridge and a tower for climbing kids. Also there was lots of playground equipment for kids too.  There is a nice pool that was extremely busy with young families.  There was a nice camp store combined with the check in station.  When we called I was told  the cost for one night would be $48, but when we checked in with our Good Sam discount our cost was $36 isn’t that great.

                Sunday night found us at a KOA campground in Allendale MI. in a campground we both found lacking.  It was very dusty, loud, the water quit,  I tripped a breaker on our power panel.  There was two weed filled ponds to fish. When I tried with a twister tail jig I got a big hang up and pulled in several bunches. There were also no nibbles on the rig.  We were only there for one night  and don’t plan to return.  

We traveled yesterday to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and I obtained my life time card to the all the National parks for the same price for a 7 day pass.  This is only available to seniors over 62 WHAT A DEAL!  The Dunes in this park are formed by the winds coming off Lake Michigan.  I read a story in the brochure on how the Indians said the park was formed.



A forest fire in Wisconsin forced a mother bear and her two cubs to flee into Lake Michigan and though they tried only the mother reached the shore of western Michigan.  They believed God formed the two small islands and the Great Bear dune in honor of their struggle.

Sherry piloted Ms Daisy yesterday along the western coast line from Allendale / Grand Haven to the dunes then on to Traverse City where we are camped. WIFI connections are spotty at best so our posts will also be spotty.

I will add photos later when I upload them from the camera

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Battle Creek MI Balloon Festival and Air show

Sherry and I are on Vacation!!!!!
    We drove Ms Daisy to Battle Creek, MI on Saturday. We had reservations at W. K Kellog Airport to enjoy the festivities. And what a treat we had. When we sent our reservations in they had 3 different choices. Our first choice was front row and we were lucky to get one. Met some really nice RV'ers and we talked about our rigs.
    We arrived at our spot around 1:30pm and the air show was already going on.
This is the Thunderbirds Air Force Squadron planes. They put on a great show. It makes me wonder how they do it. It was loud and fantastic and they flew right over us and in front of us. I just can't say enough about this experience. There were lots of other planes all day long. Bi-planes and other military planes.Some of the planes flew by themselves and others flew in groups crisscross the sky.


     Then as the sun went down the hot air ballon show started. We had really came to see the ballons take off, but they did not. We counted 29 in doing the illume. This was a site to see.The final show of the night was the worlds only jet powered school bus. We had to cover our ears as the bus screamed down the run way. With fire, smoke and excitement this was a great end to the perfect day.

     Michigan is as dry in this area as we are in Indiana. Lost more to see and do. Heading west to Grand Haven area. Bye for now. We'll be Driving Ms. Daisy.