Destination Reached

On Friday we were up and out fairly early with another long day ahead. As we got farther north, we noticed two things. One, there were almost no tractor trailers. We wondered how goods get to the UP. The second was that almost every vehicle was towing a trailer or had kayaks or bicycles attached to it and the roads became crowded with this. Around the Saginaw area, suddenly they were all gone and the traffic cleared again. The roads were better today and the oil problem gone. We crossed the bridge into the UP around 5 and were to our campground by 6.
We are staying east of I-75 about 17 miles in Cedarville. The campground is on a small peninsula jutting into Lake Huron. This area is known as Les Cheneaux (The
 Channels) for the group of islands lying just off shore. Our campground faces the largest of these Big LaSalle.
This campground has only 55 spaces and all but 28 are individually owned. In the south, we find that where there are long term campers, it looks like a slum. Not here. They have either covered their lots in gravel or nice grass, planted flowers and have nice decks. There are also four "mobile homes" which look like tiny homes. They have front porches with columns. The first section is really crowded but our spot is down on the end where you have water all around. These spaces are larger, designed for motor homes to nose into. So our hookups are on the wrong side, but we coped. There is a big rig on one side and a pull behind on the other, both with their backs to us so it feels so much more private. There are groups of people about our age gathered here and there and some start talking to us while we are still setting up....its the Georgia tag. Before we set up in earnest we had to go get jackets and that, folks, is why we are here.
Just across from us are two docks where campers can rent a place to tie a boat. Gene walked down there and saw a mink scurrying about. We slept soundly with blankets on and no sound whatsoever.
On Saturday there was a large antique boat show in Hessel, the next town over, but we did not try to go due to the crowds. Instead we went to the two local museums, one maritime, the other history. The maritime had a lot of canoes and a few sailboats and boat models. They also had a nice maritime library and a workshop where the volunteers build one kayak or canoe each year and sell it to help support the museum. The one last ye

ar sold for $7000. They are partially supported also by the boat show.
Later that afternoon I noticed Gene in a long conversation with another man and when I went out to walk, he called me over. Turns out this was Rick. He and his wife, Pam, are Full Timers and have been for three years, living in their RV. They had just bought a "landing spot" cabin in, of all places, Blue Ridge, GA. He also had seen the Georgia tags. He was telling us about what to see and where to stay as they had come from where we were going. He invited us into his rig so he could refer to his notes on campgrounds.
Rick and Gene were sitting in the Captain's chairs in the front and suddenly Rick saw the mink, several of them, scurrying over the rocks and under the docks. One was in the water swimming and diving. Shortly after that the boat show ended and we began to see really interesting wooden boats coming by. That continued for the next several hours. The day was quite breezy and by 5PM a jacket was needed to be comfortable.
This is such a great place and the people are so friendly that it is going to be hard to leave.