trip #2

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our 2nd trip of the season.
The weather again wasn't the best. Cooler than normal temps only in the mid 50's and mostly cloudy. But at least we weren't in a tent. :-) And there were a few tenters in the campground.
This trip took us 200 miles north to Young State Park on beautiful Lake Charlevoix.

That weekend was Boyne City's Morel Tastefest.
Does everyone know what a morel is? It's a special mushroom that for some reason can't be grown commercially and can only be found this time of year. I understand they can be found across
most of the country, but grow mainly in certain soil types.
Anyway..... we left Lansing around noon on Friday and headed north. Part way up I let Craig drive. I usually drive all our trips. He doesn't like driving the big guy, but he knows he needs to once in a while, especially on longer trips when I need a break. Of course, while he was driving, the jacks down warning siren went off nearly causing him to lose control. But he got the mo-ho safely stopped on the shoulder of the highway. I turned on the hydraulic jack pad and saw the light showing the front passenger jack wasn't up. I pushed the store button, and the light went out instantly. I don't know what caused the alarm to go off, the jack wasn't down, but obviously wasn't making contact with a sensor that says it's up. So, Craig was happy to get me back driving. :-)We arrived at the campground with no other issues. :-)
We reserved a nice pull-through site with a view of the Lake.
Got all set up, and ordered pizza from a place we found on the net, Spicy Bob's. An easy drive from the campground there and back. We got 2 med pizza's, a traditional beef and mushroom, and a specialty, philly cheese steak. The philly cheese steak was very good, the traditional, so-so. We finished the evening watching Toy Story 3.
Saturday....

I awoke to cloudy and cool, 53 out. Played on the puter for while. Then, went out and scrubed the bug guts off the front of the mo-ho. It looked as if we drove through a swarm . It was nasty!Went back inside and wrote part of this post on notepad to be published when we returned. I took my shower, and discovered a small stain by the skylight. That means we have a leak on the roof around the skylight seal. The stain wasn't wet, so it was an older stain. Probably from the heavy rains we got during April. When we get home, I'll have to get on the roof and reseal the skylight.By time I woke up lazy bones, it had started to rain. And it rained a-l-l day. Little did I know, 53 ended up being the high for the day. :-\

But, we had plans, and a little cold rain wasn't going to stop them. We bundled up, I made our coffee, grabbed the umbrellas, and off we went to the Morel Mushroom Festival. It was just a short 15 min drive from the campground to downtown Boyne City. They had an arts and craft show, a farmer's market, and a carnival, besides the big tent for the Morel Mushroom Taste Fest. We wandered the grounds and Craig bought some cherry apple salsa.

Craig wanted one of these ugly large carved mushrooms and I said don't even think about it. he said it would look good in my shade garden. I said don't even think about it.

Then we went into the big tent for the tasting.
They had numerous area restaurants serving Morel infused dishes. We ended up trying, the Chicken bacon Morel spin rolls, the Home on the Range Buffalo Morel Perogie, the Steak and Morel Pasties, and the Morel and Steak Pizza. We wanted to try Cooper's Morel Mushroom Soup, but by the time we got through the others, the tent was so crowded, and the line for the soup was ridiculous.

We left the festival, and wandered through their downtown, looking through the different stores. Managed to not buy a thing. :-)

Since it was still raining, and we couldn't go biking or hiking, we took a drive around Lake Charlevoix.It was a nice drive. Back at the mo-ho, we played Parcheesi on the puter, where I beat Craig twice. :-) Then I played a couple of other games, while Craig fixed us kielbasas for dinner. With our TV only getting 3 stations, and nothing we liked, we watched a couple of DVDs. It was still raining when we went to bed, but we slept good.
Sunday.....
I awoke to 46, but no rain, partly cloudy. Played on the puter awhile and watched the morning news. Woke Craig up around 9. Made us coffee and off we went. Stopped at Micky D's for a sausage,egg muffin and headed about 20 miles north to Petoskey, MI where there is the Odawa Casino. And as you know, that's almost never a good thing. :-)
And today wasn't any different. But I left only about $10 down, although Craig was down a bit more than that. But it's a nice casino, and wasn't busy at all. On the way back, we stopped and picked up the Sunday paper. Back at the campground, we read the paper, and then got the car loaded on the car caddy for an early Monday departure. It had finnally gotten nice out. It was near 60, sunny, and the wind was being blocked by all the trees.

So we took a walk through the campgrounds. there's 3 here at Young State park.
The original Pines and Oak, and the newer one Terrace. Way back in the 80's when we camped in a tent, the terrace campground was new and just a big field with campsites. It's also huge with 8 loops compared to the Pines and Oak campgrounds with just 2. Well, the planted trees through that one too and now it looks much better, but still not near as wooded as the others.

After our walk, it was getting sooo nice, we got the chairs out and relaxed and enjoyed some nice weather and the beautiful lake.It ended up getting all the way to 65, after a forecast high of only 54. You can never trust the weather people. They're almost always wrong.
For dinner I cooked pork steaks on the grill and had them with a pasta salad we picked up with the paper.Watched some TV and called it a night.
Monday morning, 38 out with a beautiful blue sky.
Finished typing this post, and started to get the mo-ho ready for the drive back to Lansing.
And now I'm typing this from home, as we returned safely. Got there and back safe, and every thing functions normally.
It was another good trip.