The First Overnighter for the Season

I was gonna write Sunday night but by the time I got sat down I was done for the day. It was a very busy weekend and I'm paying for all the activity with a stiff back today. Gonna be a couple days before I can stand up straight again without working at it.

The weatherman said the weather for the weekend was gonna be real nice. It wasn't bad but it was cooler than predicted and very breezy all weekend. It wasn't a hardship though so we're good.

Wanda, Chris, Belle and Jasper all took off ahead of me and were just getting to the campsite as I left work. I got home, loaded up the stuff I needed plus Bailey and Mercury and we were on our way up North by 5:45pm. Got there right about 7:00pm and not long after our arrival we were sitting down to a dinner of hamburgers and chips and dip. Rianna and her friend Sarah were at the camp when I got there, busy setting up their tent. I helped a bit with that and then decided it was time to start a fire before it got too dark to see. The girls decided there was some stuff that they needed to get from town (Ludington) so we jumped in the truck and headed for the local Meijers. By the time we got back from there it was almost 10:00pm. Wanda and Chris were the first ones off to bed, about 10:30, followed by the girls not long after. I would've liked to stay up late and enjoy the fire but the truth of the matter was that I was pooped and in bed before midnight.

Because I went to bed early, I got up early and decided to start the day by taking a walk around the place with Bailey. We went up to the lodge just to see what was going on and found that they're open for business and cooking breakfast. Good info to have for those weekends when I go up by myself and don't feel like playing chef mountain man. While we were there we got one of the Private Site signs to put up at the campsite. We took the long way back and by then other folks were stirring. I decided to get busy and run the mower over as much of our territory as I could, dragging away the branches and debris in the process.

After several hours of hard labor it was time for a break and a trip into the Ludington Home Depot. I went specifically for a couple things, that I got, plus a couple more things that weren't on the list. First I picked up a couple of 4"x6"x 5' posts to put at the end of the driveway. I'm going to eventually have a chain hooked from one side to the other just to make a point when we're not there. I had also been toying with the idea of accent lighting down both sides of the driveway so when I saw that they had the lights I wanted on sale at 50% off....well.......I bought two boxes of 'em. On the way back to camp me and Chris stopped at a little joint in Scottville called the desert barn and I got one of the best malts I've had in quite awhile. Gonna have to stop back there again and see if it was a fluke or not.

Once we got back to camp I fired the lawnmower back up and continued on with the reclaiming of the wild areas. It wasn't long after that it seemed and it was time for dinner. The girls had gotten a fire going and on their expedition into town had bought some cast iron cooking gear that they were going to try out by cooking dinner over the open fire. When we finally sat down to eat it was a feast for kings, or at least well-to-do mountain men. Huge Pork chops and corn on the cob was the menu and it tasted fantastic. We all stuffed ourselves. The girls get a big thumbs up for their efforts!

After the meal I busy reading the instructions for the installation of the accent lights. It went surprisingly well and by the time it was dusky I had a string of 10 lights from the water pump down to the street. Unfortunately to cover that much distance I had to use the cable in both boxes so I could only get the one side done this weekend. I've already gotten a 100' coil of wire for the other side and next time we go up I'll get the other side installed. Hopefully the ones already in position will still be there at the end of the summer....we shall see.

Saturday night went pretty much like Friday night, off to bed fairly early, before midnight. Between my heavy eyes and the wind it sounded like a good idea to get horizontal.

Sunday morning I was up early again and this time took both Bailey and Mercury for a hike. We went down Sippy road a ways and shot some pics of the blossoming green trees and the water before heading back to camp to make breakfast. It was still windy and kinda cool but I wanted a hot breakfast anyhow so I started off with scrambled eggs and sasage for the wife and then made pancakes for the girls and myself. After breakfast it was back at it with the lawnmower. I mowed a path from the campsite down to the road on the other side of the camp so we'd have a bit of a shortcut if we were heading for the lodge and just spent awhile clearing all the downed timber and stacking it up for later.

The girls all left for home and Bingo about 1:30. So while Chris put a couple coats of paint on the picnic table I finally got around to emptying the can of Thompson's Water Seal on the outhouse. It may require a second can / coat to really be effective, we'll have to see how it goes. About 4:00pm we decided we'd done enough for one weekend and started packing, unplugging and locking up everything. It was almost 7 by the time we got back home. I got the washing machine going with a load of towels and then tossed Mercury in the bathtub. I had forgotten there were parts of that dog that were actually white....whew what a mess but he looks (and smells) loads better now. By the time I was done, washing, blow drying and combing him out it was time for the wife to show up at home.

All in all a nice time, even though it was a bit too windy for my tastes. The fact that I can't stand up straight without extra time for the screaming muscles to get up to speed kinda sucks too but I guess after 8 or so months of laying around, waiting for the warm weather to return, I got soft! Time for bed now. We may or we may not go back up next weekend....kinda depends on the weather and finances. Stay tuned.

TC