RVentures with Doug and Chris: July 2020

Lake Time:

Have fun ... Find the sun ... Read on

Kayak ... Relax

Corn hole ... Take it slow

Take a hike ... Ride a bike

Speed boat ... Gentle float ... Pontoon

Bring a friend ... Jump in

Play a game ... Campfire flame

Make a s'more .... Love life more!

Summertime in the Midwest is synonymous with Lake Time. It is Mother Nature's reward for braving another long, cold winter. And even more important this year, Lake Time provides a way to safely gather outside with family and friends.

Even though we can't claim to have braved a Midwest winter in a number of years, it is always nice to embrace Lake Time with our family and friends when RVentures bring us back ''home''.

After we left the Durand, Michigan area, we headed west towards the shore of Lake Michigan. On our way, we passed through Grand Rapids, Michigan where we discovered the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. In light of the current conditions, we are hesitant about visiting indoor museums. This works out OK for Doug, who is not exactly the art or history museum kind of guy ... but it is sometimes a bummer for me. But so far, we have been successful in seeking out and finding beautiful outdoor attractions. The Meijer Gardens fit my desire for an interesting walk in the park. We were greeted with ...

flower-lined paths,

... unique sculptures,

... joyful waterfalls,

... and someone who was willing to
just listen to all that I had to say!

Later that day, we reach the shores of Lake Michigan and explored the lakeside towns of Muskegon and Ludington.

Pick any town on Lake Michigan,
and you can most likely take a
walk out to a lighthouse.

The pizza and beer were spot on
for Doug's first microbrewery
visit since the pandemic began.

The SS Badger ferry rested in the Ludington
port, waiting to take passengers and vehicles
across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin in the morning.

We had decided to stealthily park on the streets of Ludington for the night ... otherwise known as boondocking. Unfortunately for us, the friendly policeman who knocked on our door at midnight didn't seem to agree with our plan.

Not sure if the young officer will ever get
over the shock of seeing two ''old folks''
hanging out in a van in their pajamas!

Lesson learned: never assume the local overnight parking ordinances are up-to-date on Google and therefore, always have a ''Plan B''. It worked out for us that there was a Walmart three miles away, so we were able to stay there for the rest of the night.

Our journey up the Lake Michigan coast continued the next day. Originally we had planned to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes, but the rain reminded us that we always need to stay ''flexible'' with our travel plans.

No sitting outside at
this Traverse City Brewery,

... but the Grand Traverse Cherry Pie
was a tasty replacement.

That night we decided not to risk another midnight visitor, so we settled in at a free casino RV parking area in Petosky, Michigan. The next day, the sun was shining and the winds were calm as we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and started driving along one of our favorite stretches of highway. US 2 runs along the northern shore of Lake Michigan and provides great views as well as spectacular pull offs where we enjoyed our classic ''Yooper'' lunch ... a pasty.

A chance message to a friend who lives in Gladstone, Michigan became our next Lake Time experience. Our van fit nicely in their driveway, and their two girls were delighted to have a ''playhouse on wheels'' to hang out in. They were quite sure that their parents would gladly trade their house on the shore of Lake Michigan for our van ... I'm thinking not.

We enjoyed another beautiful Upper Peninsula day at Fuller County Park ... once again camping right on the shore of Lake Michigan. After three days of boondocking, we were looking forward to a real shower, but unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, the showers in the park were closed. Time to jump into the cold lake or hurry on to Minneapolis!

We decided on the quick trip across Wisconsin which brought us back the next day to the City of Lakes ... Minneapolis. There we enjoyed bike rides on the trails that surround the city lakes and took advantage of refueling with a few ...

... backyard barbecue lunches
hosted by our sons and our
cute grand-puppies,

... Peter tha Pug,
always cute in person or on Instagram
#peterthapug

... and Pippy Ann Longbody,
likewise adorable in person or on Instagram
#pippy_ann_longbody

Our time in Minneapolis always goes too fast, but we were grateful to be able to spend time with ...

... friends who are like sisters,

... and sisters who are the
best of friends!

With plans made to visit Glacier National Park in two weeks, it was time to start our journey west. Lake Itasca State Park is often rated as the #1 state park in Minnesota, and during our three days there, we found out why.

Beautiful hiking and biking trails surround the lake, and the park has two well-maintained campgrounds. But a trip to the northern tip of the lake reveals the significance of this gem of a park. Flowing out past this rock lined stream, the mighty Mississippi River begins its 2,552 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

As a kid, I visited this spot with my family and recall slipping on the rocks while my dad was filming the whole un-graceful event (on movie film reels that were all the rage in those days). That ''movie'' became the most requested by my siblings who would enjoy a good laugh at my expense. This time around, I was hopeful that I could successfully make it across and join the ranks of the ''I successfully walked across the Mississippi River'' champions. Sadly, the rocks have gotten even more slick through the years, and I was only able to get halfway across. I will just have to look like a champion as I pose for a picture.

Our travels nicely matched up with the Lake Carlos State Park camping vacation that some friends from Rochester take every year. This is the ultimate Lake Time experience complete with ...

... speed boats and tubers flying through the air,

... lakeside games,

... and time to relax with that special someone.

One last Lake Time experience awaited us before we left the land of 10,000 lakes. This was another one of those ultimate boondocking experiences as we snuggled in alongside our friends' new lakeside home.

Knowing that we bring our own kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom with us, we were able to have a CDC-approved socially distanced visit ...

... complete with masks for the two
engineering geeks as they examined the things
that only engineering geeks find interesting!

So many wonderful memories of our summer Lake Time in the Midwest! And it was just what we needed this year as Lake Time gave us an opportunity to come together with family and friends even as we need to stay six feet apart.

Thank you, family and friends, for all the special Lake Time moments that we will hold close in our hearts as we venture into a new territory (for us) and explore the western United States.

''We didn't realize that we were making memories;
we just knew that we were having fun!''

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Pile the kids in the car. Make sure that each of them has their Game Boy devices and enough batteries to last twelve hours. Time our departure so that we will miss the worst part of a Chicago ''rush hour''... And be prepared to respond to ''are we there yet?'' a million and one times. Believe it or not, we enjoyed the journey to our ''happy place''!

For a week each summer, we visited Doug's parents and made memories at their small lake home on Leisure Lake.

This past June we once again made this journey. Yet, from the start, we know this would be different than past trips. Our normal twelve hour trip took a week as we stopped in Elkhart, Indiana to visit Doug's sister and family. She is preparing for a graduation party and a house move later this summer, so I was in my glory helping her downsize, organize, and spruce up her kitchen.

Doug is pretending to smile because he really
doesn't think it is much ''fun'' to prep a house to sell!

Penny, their cute shih poo, provided
us with some much needed supervision!

We caught our first glimpse of Lake Michigan when we stopped in St Joseph, Michigan for lunch with my sister. She happened to be there visiting her mother-in-law, and it was great to reconnect with her as well as explore this cute lakeside town. We enjoyed our first ''eat-in'' restaurant meal since the beginning of the pandemic three months ago. Beautiful views of Lake Michigan from the rooftop patio and the wonderful gift of catching up with family helped us to ignore the stiff cool breeze that was coming off the lake.

Heading north and east towards the center of Michigan, we arrived at our favorite ''are we there yet?'' destination ... Leisure Lake in Durand, Michigan. But as we came into the trailer, we knew that this trip would be different than those of the past.

Instead of Grandpa sitting on the porch,

... and Grandma ready to listen to her
grandchildren's stories,

... the cabin and the deck
were quiet.

Because of the difficulty of traveling during these Covid times, Mom and Dad had decided to end their summer migration from Florida up to Leisure Lake. Unfortunately for Doug, this is not going to be the usual ''sit on the porch'' Leisure Lake vacation. Our mission was to get the trailer cleaned out and ready to sell.

This mission, once again, fit right in with our set of job skills ... but still, it is never easy to clean out the years of ''fun''.

Piles of old clothes, beach toys, and picnic gear were sorted through and given away. We placed the items on the lakeside deck and put up a giant ''FREE'' sign ... and they quickly disappeared. Cleaning out Dad's tool shed proved to be a bit more of a challenge ... but ''Life was Good'' when it was done!

Being able to live in our van during this week made this task much more do-able. I had the trailer's larger kitchen to cook meals, but at night, we were able to settle back into the comfort of our own cozy ''home''. Over the next few days we emptied the trailer, but thankfully, we can't empty the memories of family time at Leisure Lake.