Ft Custer Recreation Area

Good morning.
As I said yesterday, we've just returned from trip #4. This took us just 75 miles to the Ft Custer Recreation Area. We arrived late Friday afternoon, and since rain and storms were in the forecast, we left the awning closed and rug and outdoor furniture put away. It was also very humid and warm in the upper 80's, and with having so much rain, the bugs were bad. But as usual, we adjusted. Saturday morning took us about 18 miles to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. They have an amazing collection of planes. And they are displayed in chronological order. They've also have many amusement park-style rides, full-motion flight simulators, 4-D Missions Theater, Magic Planet, Space Ball and a Zero Gravity Experience, as well as historical exhibits and educational activities. So it's a family destination, which seems odd since none of the kids we saw seemed at all interested with the planes, just the rides. But I guess that's what get people in the door. And admission to the the Air Zoo is free. But you have to buy tickets to get on any of the rides, so that's how they make money. And there were a bunch of kids there the day we went.
Anyway, here's a couple of pics....






After the museum, we headed into downtown Kalamazoo. I've lived in this state most of my life, and managed to never go here. I thought I'd now find out why. And we were pleasantly surprised. Being a smaller city than Lansing, it has a really nice downtown. They've managed to keep most of the old storefronts and after a nice lunch at the Olde Peninsula brewpub where Craig had a burrito, and I a tasty California Ruben, and as you see, Craig doesn't like his pic taken, hehehe, We took a couple of self guiding walking tours of downtown.





They have many cool old buildings, and I didn't take one pic. I'm just terrible at taking pics. ;-)


Then to the heart of downtown to Acadia Festival Place. This is a park in the heart of downtown where they hold city festivals, and this weekend was Kalamazoo Pride.

They had rainbow banners everywhere! Music, food, vendors, and lot's of people. But it was too hot out for us to stay the rest of the day, and after purchasing a few items, we headed back to the campground.
Took a walk around the campground which is quite large, and then fixed turkey/cheddar kielbasa for dinner, and watched Our DVD set of Eating Out. A very funny movie night.

Then on Sunday morning, while lazy bones slept, I took a bike ride around the park.

I ended up down at the Kalamazoo river, which runs along the west boundary of the park. You can see how high the water level is. We've had a lot of rain in mid Michigan.
After my ride, I showered, woke Craig up, and we took a walk with our coffee. Then it was over to the Firekeepers Casino, where as you know, is usually not a good idea. ;-) But we had fun, and as usual, one of us won, and one of us lost. We left about $30 down, but felt we had spent enough time there to get our money's worth, Then a quick lunch, and back to the campground, where we did some extensive biking around the park. A front went through the previous night, so the temps were better, (mid 70's) and lower humidity. Back to the campsite, and a campfire to go with the Sunday paper, and cocktails. For dinner, pork streaks on the grill and Craig's homemade pasta salad. It rained during the night again, and so it was a buggy damp morning, packing up to go home. We made it safe, and finally a trip without any incidents.

What did piss me off is we always dump our tanks at the campground, add a couple gallons of water, and a bag of ice. We let that 'agitate' while we drive home to better 'clean' the tank and then we stop at the Flying J to gas up and power flush the dump tanks. Well, they're now charging $5 to use the dump station. I would think with all the money we spend on gas for the mo-ho, we should be able to dump for free. I fired off an e-mail to them saying so. I doubt I'll hear anything back. We'll see.