Good morning my dear, long lost blogger friends. It’s time I dip back into the scene after yet another absence. How’ve you all been? I have so much catching up to do.
It’s another beautiful morning for patio coffee. We were up early this morning to prepare our brisket that will smoke happily all day today. I have a few hours before I set out for a day trip with a friend, we are meeting a group at Island Lake State Park and will paddle the Huron River. This will be the same stretch I explored with my niece a few years ago. As much as I love fall, I am SO not ready to say goodbye to summer, but fall is coming.
Yesterday I paddled Newburgh Lake and was happy to come back to musicians that regularly set up at Newburgh Pointe, a historic comfort station along Hines Drive. I floated for a while as I waited for kayakers ahead of me to take out at the boat ramp. I’d like to come back with Bill on a late summer night and find out more about these cool musical folks.
My life lately has been camping and working! We returned from South Dakota mid-August and had several weekend camping trips lined up, actually three weekends in a row! I was in heaven. We camped last weekend at the tip of the Michigan thumb in Port Austin with my oldest sister, a campground I last went to with my folks over 35 years ago! I got more paddle time in and took the Pinnebog River out to Lake Huron. This is my favorite shot of the day.
But then, there’s this one. In the distance, in the above pic, someone built a teepee out of driftwood! Too cool..
It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive to the campground, but I’m so glad we went. The local parks are great and quick to get to on a Friday afternoon, but I SO love checking out new parks. However, Bill and I came to a conclusion last weekend – we need to always physically drive or ride through a campground we’ve never been to before booking a site. The photos they provide aren’t always great and they don’t include anything across the road that may be an obstacle when trying to back in.
At Port Crescent (where we stayed in Port Austin) the sites are very small. Suitable for smaller rigs, pop ups and tents, really, but we have a 36 foot 5th wheel. RVs have really grown over the years and now it’s a tighter fit trying to get them parked. Even driving through the campground, you had to really watch and make sure you got through without hitting cars parked at the side of the one way road. In fact, Bill made me laugh probably harder than I’ve ever laughed. He said we may as well write our insurance information on Post It notes and stick them on our trailer so when we drive through hitting vehicles and trailers, people can just peel off our info. Hahaha.
Well, there’s a bit of a snippet into my life, lately! I have more to share as I go through photos and videos of our summer adventures. It’s just a matter of sitting down to tell the story and every time I do, something pulls me away.
I hope you’ve had a good summer, despite everything going on around us and that you are all safe and healthy. I looking forward to stopping by for coffee!
Oh, I’m so envious! With a new puppy and no one to watch him most of the summer, Ken and I didn’t use the kayaks even once. Now that our daughter is home, we’re hoping the weather holds for a bit so we can get out!
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Oh no! Have you paddled in the fall? I’m going to try to do more of that this year. I thought of you the other day – I ordered a cable lock for my boat. I remembered you being nervous about leaving them on top of your car when running in to a store. I would be too! They’ve been very popular and a thief target, unfortunately. Thanks for reading!
Camping and working sounds pretty darn good to me! Funny about those tights spots, but I know how nervous I would get if I was the one driving there…I actually spent some time looking at vans and motorhomes yesterday. There is so much to think about. Many campgrounds here are really specific about a ton of criteria that your rig needs to fit. IDK. I’ve always enjoyed boondocking the most, but if you do spend a lot of time camping it is convenient to be able to check into a campground and have access to the facilities there. We actually have a year round campground deluxe in our town, next to amazing nature, but with all the necessities one could dream about. Greta coffee share! Thank you!
We stick mostly to state parks that don’t have really any regulations for your equipment. Some private parks do. OMG that would be wonderful – a year round campground deluxe next to amazing nature! We’ve not yet boondocked with our trailer, but it sounds like an adventure!
Welcome back! What a beautuful place to play and rejuvenate. Seems to me there are more adventures ahead on the fall for you. Have a great week.
Thank you, Antoinette! It’s good to be back. I try to keep as many adventures on the agenda as I can. 🙂
Hi Kathleen
a pleasure running into you on these streets after a spell ha! I am envious I wouldn’t mind going camping I think lockdown fatigue is affecting me I miss the outside
~B
Hi Beaton! Thanks so much for popping over! Are you able to get out and enjoy the outdoors?
[…] night we were treated to some live music on the lake! I mentioned in my last blog post that I frequently kayak a local lake and have paddled back to a group of musicians set up on the […]