trip #13

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon, as usual....
As I said yesterday, we've returned from our 13th, and last trip of the season. :-(
We went a short, just over an hour away, to Yankee Springs State Recreation area.
The campground sits on the edge of Gun lake.




We had a nice pull-through site, over-looking the lake, since the campground was fairly empty.
There were maybe 20 campers there in just under 200 sites. There were even 3 tenters, even though the nights got down around freezing. Now there's some dedicated campers! :-)
They had even closed the bath houses for the season, although they did bring in a couple of porta-potties. I'm assuming the tenters didn't bath then? ewww!
I'm wondering why they left the campground open without bath houses. Indiana Dunes State park is open all year, and they keep one bathhouse open all winter. hmm.
Anyway, we got there safe, and back home safe, so it was a good trip. :-) And we made it through the year, with only very minor issues. :-)
We arrived late Friday afternoon. We worked later than usual, since it was such a short drive. We arrived to find the water fill station closed for the season. They said water was available at the pump house behind site 34. We got to site 34 , and fortunately, it was empty so I backed the mo-ho into the site, as our 2 hoses weren't long enough from the road. Filled our tank, and drove around looking for the 'perfect' site. Settled into a nice pull-through with a view of the lake. Cooked kielbasas on the grill for dinner, and watched TV. Saturday morning, we drove just 6 miles to the Gun Lake casino. a fairly small one. Spent a few hours there and left about 20 up. :-) Then headed up the highway to Grand Rapids for lunch. Stopped at Tommy Brauns and had tasty burgers and watched our Sparty's get whipped. :-(
Then it was over to Midway Motor Homes. The dealer we bought our motor home from, had a new 2012 Thor Challenger with an interesting floor plan I wanted to check out. And no, we're not buying a new mo-ho. Unless one of my readers wants to get us an early Christmas present. ;-)
So, here's a link if you want to check it out. 2012 Thor Challenger.
It's a gas, 37ft. 3 slides. It actually was quite nice, other than the too busy graphics on the outside. It is different from most motor homes in that it has actual 'rooms'. Not a big open space. I liked it. It felt like a cozy cottage. And with a king bed too!
Then it was back to the campground, and a roaring campfire, watching the sun set.
Sunday, we awoke to rain, so no hiking/biking that day. So since we were ahead, we went back to the casino. Spent a good part of the day there, breaking for a tasty lunch , at one of their restaurants. Left down about 25. Not bad for the time we spent. :-)
Got back to the campground to find only 4 of us left there. 1 tenter, 1 travel trailer, 1 fifth-wheel, and us. The rain had stopped, so we took a walk around and took these pics. Fixed chicken on the grill, and pared that with potato salad we'd bought earlier.
Monday morning, packed up and made the short drive back to Lansing. Did a good final dump, with repeated rinsing, filled the propane tank, and filled the gas tank and added treatment for winter storage. We went through 14 gallons of propane for the season. Not bad for as much as we ran the furnace in the spring and fall. :-)
Back home, I spent the afternoon taking stuff out of the mo-ho. Food, water, toiletries, anything that might freeze. I also removed batteries from everything. Will put new ones in , in the spring.
And now, time to wake up Craig. We have a lot of running around to do today......