Terri and Peter's RV Adventures

It had sprinkled over night, foreshadowing things to come. But what wasn’t foreshadowing was the same 25 people as last night, in the campsite 6 feet over from us getting an early start on their camping day, including the 4 or 5 year old “Cora.” How did I know her name? Guess. She was the one who had only one volume set on her voice: loud. One tone: whiny. And one way of doing things and expecting things to turn out: her way. Get the picture? Her nonstop noise and the proximity of the 24 other people inches away was a completely intolerable situation.

At 8:30 am I jumped in the truck, went to the office and thankfully was able to get a new campsite. Aside from the fact that it’s peak summer family vacation season, we scored a plum site: next to the camp host and no one on the other three sides. On one side is a small paved path that leads through the woods to a pristine sandy beach, dock, swimming area, park store and grassy lawn. The camping experience couldn’t be more different. It’s private and completely quiet. If we couldn’t move, we probably would have left. Instead, we have three nights in this lovely spot.

Before moving to our new site, I explored the nearby farmers market. I’m a farmers market snob. Through a luck of geography, our farmers market at home has an incredible array of organic produce and fresh fish year round. But I’ll confess, this market was large, with a variety of offerings and well attended.

I bought homemade jam from “Two Old Farts” and homemade tamales from a woman who makes them in her home in Traverse City (they were just ok), and fresh, local cherries, lettuce and asparagus. Local farmers markets can tell you a lot about a place. Here, there are industrious people making wood products, pickled vegetables, jams, syrup, bread and other items and selling them at the market. Unlike my market at home, the people making or growing the products are selling them. They aren’t hiring other people to sell for them.

Returning to our campsite, just as it was time to pack up, it started to pour. This was the first time we’ve had to pack up in the rain. Even though we were driving within the park, we still had to put everything away. We got soaked. Arriving at the new spot, we couldn’t get the power to work. After many attempts, we went to the camp host who told us the park’s power was out. Good news that it wasn’t us. Bad news was we had no power. Fortunately, that only lasted a couple of hours. Aside from Starlink, we can function easily for a few hours (or more if there’s sunlight) without power.

The rain was steady throughout the day but that didn’t stop me from taking Lily down to the lake and throwing balls in the water. As usual, wearing her out is almost impossible but each day I try.

Rainy days are nice every so often, especially since they don’t happen in California during the summer. They are very much part of a midwestern summer and certainly cooled things off. It’s all part of the adventure and life in the midwest.