May 30, 2022-All Around Lake Michigan and Beyond

(click for today's pictures)

We slept with the slides in last night so this morning it didn't take us long to get ready to go. Well, it shouldn't have taken us too long. We did notice that one slide didn't go in all of the way. Robby had to move sleeping Graham to work on it. He closed it more, but it still didn't just seem right.

So we opened it and then closed it, and thankfully everything worked perfectly. The slides make us both a bit uneasy, so we were glad that today was not the day that we had slide problems. I'm sure that day will come, but for today, we are good.

We had to dump and hook up the car this morning, but we were still on the road by 7:30. I was happy about the first part of the drive, because on the way to the campsite it was dark, and we weren't able to see anything.

Today though we were able to see the whole beautiful drive. It was very nice-plus Robby has a new app that plays short little pod cast with information about where you are so that just really added to the drive.

Since we did have to wake up Graham, he was up early this morning, but Anderson was soon awake as well. When we stopped for gas later in the morning, Whitman was still sound asleep, but I think that everyone else was awake. 

Our drive today was just 4.5 hours, and it didn't take us anytime at all. Remember our last 4.5 hour drive took us from 7 in the morning until 10:30 at night, but we did have a few stops on that day. We didn't stop at all though we tried to get into the Russell Stover store, but the traffic was too heavy, and I was worried about the dip in the parking lot to get there.

So we headed straight to the campsite. It is pretty centrally located which is nice. After being here for a little bit, we made lunches and then headed out. We drove to the visitor's center and bought another sticker for the camper. Plus we also had to buy a Jr. Ranger book-some parks seem to nickel and dime you and this is one of them. 

Our stop today in the park was Elkmont. We were scoping it our for later when we try to see the fireflies there. However, it was beautiful-trails and streams. Plus there were a ton of old houses that used to be like a vacation home area many, many years ago. 

We then drove all through the campsite, and Robby and I decided what spot we wanted to be in next time we come here. The kids were not pleased about this at all because there was absolutely no cell phone service out there. However, it was absolutely beautiful.

We then headed back to civilization. We let Bentley out for a few minutes, and then met up with the Hobbs at Bennet's Pit BBQ. It was pretty good-I had a baked potato which I ate every single bit of. We all seemed to enjoy our meals-Campbell and Graham certainly loved the full rack of ribs that they split.

After supper, we went to the Alpine Slide. It was super fun. Reagan wanted Keaton to ride with her, but the worker let Keaton go by herself even though she probably wasn't tall enough actually. Whitman went with me, and I laughed and squealed the whole way down. Anderson, Graham and Campbell said that they didn't put their brakes on any during the mile ride down. I guess I believe them, but I know that I sure braked quite a bit.

We just continued our night out on the town with frozen custard and italian ice from Rita's on the strip. It was pretty good, but really, I always like ice cream. Keaton and Whitman actually ended going home with the Hobbs for the evening. Keaton was pretty excited about it, and Whitman jumped at the chance to go. I know that they are having fun, and we will meet up with them pretty early in the morning.


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