OVerall weather on this trip was quite cool, maybe mid 70's during the day but then it started getting hot on the travel home day.
DAY 1 (SUN) - Father's Day. Kids made me breakfast in bed (bacon, fried eggs, toast and OJ) then it was travel day. It took Jeani, Josh & the dogs about 4 hours to travel to the campground from home. We saw a white pickup truck with a deer sticking out of the windshield on I-69/96! Setup was pretty easy. We used our surge protector for the first time. Ellie drove herself since she has to work later in the week. Joey and Abby also drove separately becasue they are going to the Electric Forest Music Festival. Ellie used the front door in the evening and the screen door handle snapped off in her hand! First omen of many on this trip.
DAY 2 (MON) - Josh saw that the far end of the awning roll end cap was missing a screw and was cock-eyed! He did find the screw and was able to repair it, but he also noticed that the decal was pulled away from the wall and the gutter was bent a little. Ugh. We went to Ludington and our first stop was Bish's RV for a replacement door handle. Most of the workers were out with the flu, apparently. Ellie drove with Joey and Abby and also did some shopping. Later on Josh got to go to the Windowsill Used Book store and the Dungeons & Dragons used game store! Always a highpoint for me! I got some Pokemon cards but no new books...this time! Then we (Josh, Jeani, Kevin and Maria) all went to the boat ramp area at the end of town so that Josh could get the stamp for the Ludington North Breakwater Lighthouse. Once we made it back to camp Josh napped in his red hammock.
DAY 3 (TUE) - We all went to the Little Sable Lighthouse beach to test the water. It was SO COLD! Joey, Josh, and Kevin all went metal detecting. Joey found quite a bit of wire, nails and foils. Kevin didn't find anything because he was using a Bluetooth headseat that was beeping a 1/2 second late. So he was digging in the wrong place! Josh, Jeani, Ellie all went to the Country Dairy for cheese curds, cheese blocks and ice cream while Joey and Abby went back to camp so she could cleaned up for her hair appointment. Joey called Josh to say that there was no water pressure! Josh told him to go see if Maria had no water pressure either, and she didn't. When Josh, Jeani and Ellie got back, they saw a couple of campsites with their water spigot under maintenance, which could account for the no pressure since it was fine when they got back. Joey and Abbey left for the music festival at 10pm and were able to get setup by 1am.
DAY 4 (WED) - The day started foggy, misty and gloomy, then it started raining. We all went back to the Country Dairy for a horse wagon guided tour of the dairy farm. In the rain. Ellie loved the calf barn and the horses pulling the wagon, Daze and Dan. The rain did miss the campground, for the most part and any we did get shouldn't have caused any damage to the camper. David, Sylvana and Katherine showed up finally and we had tacos for dinner. Later on Kevin and Josh let the girls use their metal detectors at the campground. Katherine found a penny while Sylvana found 6 cents! They also found some cans, and foil. Ellie went home today because she had to work.
DAY 5 (THU) - Found the freshwater tank was full and leaking out the overflow vent! Determined that the checkvalve in the pump had gone bad and was allowing water to pass through from the city connect into the tank! WTF! Josh closed the quarter turn ball valve to prevent that from happening again(foreshadowing). We went out to the Ludington State Park to watch David and Andrea move campsites, then we hiked out to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It was foggy, and misty and cold on the hike. Josh dropped Maria and Kevin off at the trailhead to give them a headstart on the hike, while the rest of the group parked at the main entrance. Kevin and Maria beat us to the lighthouse! We could hear the foghorns from the freighters in the lake, but we couldn't see them! Josh got his passport stamped, finally, and the clouds parted for the hike back. It was hot and sunny and Maria slowed down. Jeani, Josh, Andrea and Katherine hiked ahead to get the vehicles back to the trailhead. The hike was 4 miles round trip! Maria was very tired afterwards. Jeani stayed at David's campsite while the rest of the family went to the State Park beach to do some more metal detecting. Josh FINALLY got to use his own detector and found nothing, nada, zilch, zip, bupkiss. Meanwhile, Sylvana found 10 ft of wire, and a Pop Tart wrapper, Katherine found some more pop cans, Kevin found a quarter, David found a twist tie and Andrea found 3 tent stakes! We went out to dinner at The Timbers bar and grill. Decent food and prices.
DAY 6 (FRI) - We met up with David's family then drove back to the Ludington North Breakwater Lighthouse so that Andrea could get her passport stamped. While Jeani, Josh, Andrea and Katherine walked out on the breakwater, Kevin, David, and Sylvana did some more metal detecting. Kevin found some tire weights and scrap metal. We then drove up to Manistee to check out the town and see the Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse for another stamp! It was pretty cool with the gantry along the breakwater, which was for when the concrete ices over in the winter, but then the gantry ices over too!? Good idea on paper I suppose. Maria stayed back at camp due to still being tired from yesterday, but Gregg came up to stay with them. Came back to camp late and found water along the kitchen island. After much frustrating investigating we found that the pump/screen was leaking and it had pooled under itself because I had closed the quarter turn ball valve to the freshwater tank thus preventing the pressure from releasing!! OMG!! WTF!! I swear this camper will be the death of me. So we opened up the ball valve and the low point drain to keep the pressure from building. Josh ordered a new screen and new pressure regulator with a dial to set the pressure lower than 50 PSI!! We started keeping the city water spigot turned off unless we needed to use the water.
DAY 7 (SAT) - Took the dogs to the Little Sable Lighthouse beach so they could have a beach day. They loved it! We threw the bally into the surf and Charlotte bounded in to rescue it! Holly did her chasing and frolicked as well! Kevin and Gregg brought Zuzu down to the water and had no idea what to do! Andrea, David and Kevin went up the lighthouse! The rest of the day was spent back at camp relaxing and packing up for the trip home.
DAY 8 (SUN) - Travel home day! Thank GOD! Once at home Josh replaced the water pump, screen and added a new quarter turn checkvalve between the main water line and the pump so no overpressured water can make it to the pump ever again. |