Hard to believe we are spending so much time in a state about which we knew so little and had so few expectations, but Michigan has been fantastic for us.  After three stops along Lake Michigan, we made the lengthy drive NE to the Mackinac bridge, which connects lower Michigan to the UP.  After our usual All Stays and RV Park Reviews research, supplemented by recommendations from a couple of Michigan folks, we were bound for Woodland Park Campground, a county park in the very small town of Grand Marais on the shore of Lake Superior.

The five hour drive is significantly longer than we prefer, but we had dallied enough and couldn’t justify an interim stop along the way.  Given the popularity of this park during the summer tourist season, we did pull over just after crossing the bridge to call and confirm that this first come first serve campground had openings, and given the green light we pressed on for the remaining two hours.

As soon as we arrived we knew we made the right choice.  A nicely arranged campground with reasonable sized sites, elevated and directly overlooking Lake Superior, all at a very affordable price, which is dependent on specific position within the park (waterfront or not) and services.  We took a spin around the perimeter, and selected one of the non-waterfront spots (site #19) that still had an amazing view of the lake.  Seeing the view we would have every day there, we made the on the spot decision to remain for a full week, which gave us a 14.3% discount, or seven nights for the price of six, basically.  So for $23 a day we got 50 amp power, water, a clean shower house, and this from our front yard:

The stairs down to the shoreline were 50 feet from our door, and we spent part of nearly every day on the fantastic beach, littered with driftwood and covered in beautiful stones. We had more than one dinner and a few glasses of wine in the sand, and even Pad Kee Meow seemed to enjoy the beach, so long as we did not get to close to the crashing waves.

Though we did not find any of the prized agate’s that this section of Lake Superior is known for, Rosemarie collected plenty of attractive alternatives to display or transform into jewelry.

We made a day trip to Sable Falls in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, making the short but stair filled hike down to the river side, following it all the way out to Lake Superior.  There we could observe the huge sand dunes under continuous assault form the elements, an the huge piles of lake stones continually washed ashore.

Back in the campground we took note of the prominently displayed sign advertising a weekly Thursday evening farmers market, and upon casual inquiry learned that it is an extremely casual affair with no table fees or even an official organizing entity, just people that want to sell stuff setting up in the city park for two hours once a week until the weather precludes it.  So for the first time since leaving Key West, we planned to sell Rosemarie’s wares at market.  We had no expectations, really, and looked at the entire affair as a dry run for our return to the Keys.  Rosemarie pulled out everything she had in the way of completed jewelry and supplies, and motivated by the impending potential sales constructed a lot more items.

Meanwhile I gathered driftwood and purchased wire mesh from the small local hardware store, and per Rosemarie’s specifications constructed a couple of jewelry display stands.  These are intended to look rustic.  I think “crude” might be a better descriptor, but they are pretty sturdy with a very basic single tongue and groove at most corners, supplemented by a screw and wood glue.  I cut the wire mesh to size and attached it to the back of the frame using tiny nails that we bent into makeshift “u-nails” with needle nose pliers, and then attached the frame to a large piece of driftwood at a slight backward leaning angle.  Whatcha think?

Anyway, we showed up half an hour early on Thursday evening, only to find not a soul there.  Ah well, at least Rosemarie increased her inventory, reorganized the supplies, and has some stands to her liking.  We killed a bit more time on errands before returning maybe 10 minutes before the official start time and found five or six people setting up tables.  Great, not a dead event after all!  We picked a spot between a pie/baked goods lady and a dude selling difficult to describe compilations of animal hide and found objects, at least one of which was a small set of drums.  Directly at 5 PM a smattering of people showed up, and a light stream continued all the way until the end of the event.  We made more than $70, easily exceeding our expectations, particularly since we got to sit in a nice park overlooking the bay in beautiful weather and meet both locals and tourists.

Aside from having padded our budge a bit, which allowed us to purchase a few fresh food products from the other vendors without guilt, the experience made us wonder why we had not been doing this in other towns; surely some of the many places we had been offered similar markets?  We were determined to fix that for our future stays, and much research ensued.

But the immediate issue was where to go next and when to do it?  Approaching the end of our paid week in Grand Marais, we faced the prospect of moving west, without reservations, right as Labor Day weekend hit.  So we extended another week in Grand Marias, happy with the location, the town, the campground, and the prospect of another farmers market.  More on that after our 20 Months Fulltiming Report next post.

Despite our mixed experience at Grand Haven State Park, we were enjoying Michigan far more than we expected, particularly since we had not even reached the Upper Peninsula yet.  Since our first intended UP stop was a significantly longer drive from Grand Haven than I preferred, we snuck in one final stop near the shore of Lake Michigan:  Platte River Campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Forest. (Warning, sunset heavy post ahead.)

Our research on both RV Park Reviews and Trip Advisor strongly supported a stop there, and we lucked into a single reservable electric hook up site available for our planned weekend stay.  Thursday late morning we made the 2 1/2 hour drive north, checked in at the ranger station and disconnected Loki before cruising through the large campground to our site.

It was huge.  Most sites were quite spacious, and nearly all under a tree canopy, but our spot was enormous.  You could have fit two additional RVs in our “yard” without crowding. Granted, it was electric only, but we new that coming in, had topped off our water at the Grand Haven fill station upon departure, and were only here for three days.  Our winter in Key West had taught us our tank limits under various conditions:  Living large with short showers in our rig every day we could easily go four days or more, while self imposed water austerity with the use of a campground shower house we could push it to perhaps eleven.   Three is a piece of cake.

We had been spoiled by our first two Lake Michigan stops, both of which were so close to the shoreline as to allow viewing of the fantastic sunsets with but a short walk.  Platter River would require a two mile drive down to the day park where the river meets the lake.  And in that is the supreme advantage of this campground over the previous two:  A clear running river meandering out to Lake Michigan, with excellent, protected swimming spots at the mouth.

I can’t speak to the conditions year round, but during out stay the river was noticeably warmer than the lake, and certainly calmer for easy swimming.  One could take a quick and bracing dip in Lake Michigan, then hop across the 30 foot sandbar to the river, and the contrast made the Platte feel like a heated swimming pool in a natural setting.  One would think this would make it a forever crowded place, but each evening we came there were at most a dozen other swimmers and perhaps twice that number on shore for the sunset.  It was so sparsely used that we had no difficulty taking photos without any other bodies cluttering up the picture.

We didn’t explore the nearby towns at all, but did take our advantage of the numerous seasonal dirt roads meandering through the forest.  Access, snowmobile, and hunting roads I suspect.  Regardless, our rugged off road four wheel drive vehicle allowed us the option, so we took it, at one point finding an alternative overlook to the river and lake junction.

Alas, it was but three days, and though we could have enjoyed several more, we really needed to get moving in order to enjoy the Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior before summer’s end.  So Sunday morning we departed for what would surprisingly turn out to be our longest stop since leaving Key West.

Are you tired of reading how much we loved every campground at which we have stayed? As if we are easily satisfied and not particularly discerning reviewers?  Let me fix that for you.

Early in our full time adventures we got caught by an unexpected fee while visiting Galveston Island State Park in Texas.  Unlike most state park systems, the campground fee did not include the park entrance fee.  In that case we were presented with the option of paying an additional $5 per person per day entry fee, or buying an annual pass covering up to four people in our party for $70, which also granted two %50 off coupons for campground nights.  This basically resulted in us paying on average a bit over $28 a night for the five days we spent between two different Texas state parks that year.  Not terrible, and the robust annual pass combined with the discount coupons provide a significant incentive to visit more parks in their system.

Michigan, however, seems determined to irritate out of state campers, particularly those in motorhomes.  For our three day stay at Grand Haven we paid $33 per night plus an $8 reservation fee, which is a bit pricey but not unusually bad.  Upon arrival, however, we found we would also need to purchase an access “passport” for the park at either $9 per day or $32 for the year.  Oh, and we would need to purchase it for each vehicle.  Each vehicle; as in one for the motorhome and one for the tow vehicle.  Out of state visitors in trailers or fifth wheels only have to pay for one passport.  This pushed our nightly rate to nearly $54!  Of course, we had the option of purchasing the annual pass and spreading out the cost by biasing our remaining Michigan stops towards additional state parks, but our next stop was going to be a national forest campground, and we had no idea which types of campgrounds we would prefer once reaching the Upper Peninsula.  So I did the opposite, choosing the daily passes and vowing not to stay at any other Michigan state parks.

And what did we get for that $54 per night?  An electric only site in a parking lot filled to capacity, barely a tree in existence, and with the physical arrangement so tight that extending slides and canopy would put you within a foot of your neighbors’ slides and canopies.  You do not get a water connection, wifi, cable TV, or shade.

Now granted, the actual town and associated beach are fantastic.  This truly is a situation where you are paying for the location and just have to live with the campground limitations.  Whereas Weko Beach had a small town a few miles outside of the park, Grand Haven is just a nice walk away from this one.  And while Weko Beach is a relatively small and quite beach, Grand Haven is very large and active, with dozens of beach volley ball nets, a lengthy pier, and plenty of activity options.

Situated on the east coast of Lake Michigan, every night was a fantastic sunset almost perpendicular to the beach.  Like dozens of others each night we took advantage of the pier and walked to the end, with a cocktail of course, to enjoy it.  Much of the rest of our stay was spent enjoying the quite tolerable water and excellent weather.

In terms of exploring the town, we used the excellent public library wifi, stopped in for flight of beer at Grand Armory Brewing Company, and a run through a fairly large local thrift store.  Rosemarie scored some crafting supplies and I found a nice pair of outdoorsey pants that do not even require hemming.

We capped off that afternoon with dinner in the much hyped local iconic pizzaria, Fricano’s.  This is one of those beloved establishments that local line up each night before they open precisely at 5 PM.  Your food options consist of pizza, and only pizza, served in one size, one crust option (very thin) with but five topping options.  Don’t ask for a menu, everything they offer is on the place mat in front of you.  For roughly $24 plus tip we each had a 12″ pizza and a glass of house red wine.  We spoke to a couple of other patrons, and they are truly loyal to this place, coming at least once a week even if its a long drive.  I suspect it is either an acquired taste or just something you have to have grown up with; we didn’t think all that highly of the pizza, particularly what was left over for the next day.  We are glad we came to this Michigan icon, but will probably pass should we be in the region again, which is sort of how we feel about Grand Haven in general.

So, our second stop in Michigan was not so fantastic, though we really appreciated the town and the beach.  We have overwhelmingly positive experiences at our campgrounds, largely because we research our potential stays and make our picks based upon careful readings of the reviews along with trusted recommendations.  Alas, not every place is fantastic, so we were happy to move on after our three day stay to continue our northward trek towards the Upper Peninsula, with one more stop in lower Michigan.

After our four days in Ohio we faced a long drive to our next destination: Lower Michigan on the east shore of Lake Michigan.  We didn’t really know how to “do” Michigan. Sporadic recommendations from friends were all pointing us toward nice locations in the lower portion of the state, but our research suggested the Upper Peninsula would be more to our liking.  We decided to give the state at least twelve days so that we could meander our way from south to north and then west across the peninsula into Wisconsin.  This is a much longer drive than we had considered before actually mapping it out.

And the length of drive is important.  Gone are the days when I am willing to drive ten, twelve, even all night to get to a destination.  That is a foolish young person’s game.  Add to that the significantly more difficult and stressful aspect of driving a 14 ton, 35 foot motorhome with a car in tow, and we arrive at a preferred three hour drive between locations, though we will push it to five or six when necessary.  Finally, there is Pad Kee Meow’s occasional motion sickness.  Though she is nearly ideal for the RV lifestyle in every other way, rarely bolting out the door, leash trained, dog and child tolerant, she does tend to get sick when subjected to long drives, especially on the back roads where Serenity wallows from side to side.

We have discovered four levels of cat sick warning signs, or DEFCAT levels, if you will. At DEFCAT 4, PKM is happily sitting on the wide dash watching our travels through the huge front windshield.  At level 3 we see our first low grade warning signs as she shifts to Rosemarie’s lap and insists upon petting and attention.  Our best road trips see her there for the majority of the trip.  At DEFCAT 2 she moves to the the floor, either under Rosemarie’s seat or near her water bowl, sort of napping, but a bit restless.  Finally, a true warning of imminent sickness, she shifts to the lowest step next to the exit door, plaintively staring from the door to us, as if begging someone to let her out.  When we get to this DEFCAT 1, we look for signs of nausea, particularly excess salivation, and have on a two occasions just pulled over to let her recover for a bit before finishing the trip.  Usually though once we get to the salivation stage its too late and we have to do a clean up in aisle one.

With all that in mind, the eastern shore of Lake Michigan was a solid six hour drive from our Ohio departure point.  Cross referencing All Stays with reviews on Trip Advisor and RV Park Reviews, we selected Weko Beach as our first stop.  It looked like our cup of tea, and positioned as it was at the southern end of the state and the lake, it worked well for our developing plan. We spoke with a woman in the front office at this popular first come, first serve campground, who recommended that we wait to show up until Monday rather than late on Sunday to maximize a chance at an open hook up site.

This worked out fairly well for us because the six hour drive was unappetizing; now all we needed was a suitable stopping point along the route.  Checking our options on Passport America led us to Grand View Bend in Howe, Indiana.  Yes, this would technically give us one night RVing in a new state, but this is the one time we skirted a border without trying to collect another state.  Besides, we spent five days in Indiana earlier this year, and intend to pass through again when we turn back to Florida.  Grand View Bend truly was directly on our route at about the right distance we wanted to travel, honored the astounding PA rate of $12.50 for a 30 amp and water hook up site, and had decent amenities.  Perfect for a one night stay.

The place offered us a spacious site, lush grass beneath our feet, a lovely field of cultivated farmland out to our backs, and a generally pleasant stopover experience.  The only downsides we discovered during out 20 hours there was the somewhat half hazard check in process and the poor alignment of the spaces with the electrical connections.  The short term area of the park is distinct from the full and seasonal residents, and laid out in a long line on one side of the lengthy entrance road.  Apparently the original spacing was altered in the last few years to make each site more spacious.  Unfortunately they did not move the electrical connections to match the new alignment, resulting in about 1/3 of the spots requiring an extremely long shore power cable to reach.  Fortunately they had three our four spots to pick from, and we selected one with properly positioned connections and a big shade tree to mitigate one of the hottest days we had experienced in a while.

We closed all our blinds and rolled out the awning to assist the one AC we could run on the 30 amp circuit in its struggle to get get the interior temp down while Rosie and I took a dip in the nice sized, in ground pool.  With a stiff breeze blowing it was actually nicer outside than in, so we spent a good portion of the late afternoon and early evening relaxing outdoors watching the cat obsess over the ground squirrel holes and observing the sun lower over the adjacent farm.  About the only other thing to report about the park is that the free wifi was completely unusable, but at $12.50 a night, all in, it was still a fantastic deal, perhaps the cheapest decent park at which we have ever stayed.

The next morning we made the 90 minute drive to Weko Beach, a bit anxious since we really didn’t know if a site would be available.  As we pulled up to the front office we spotted the large “No Campsites Available” sign, but hoped that was just because the morning departures had not yet been counted.  Sure enough, as we waited the staff checked the two sites with scheduled departures, and finding them empty gave us the green light to select one and park.

We passed on what I considered the nicer of the two because our would be neighbors there had three large, loud and unleashed dogs on their site.  Instead we selected the more awkwardly arranged, though dog free spot.  Pad Kee Meow is mostly unconcerned with dogs, often staring down and willingly approaching even the yippiest of them in some sort of test of wills, but these three looked to be under minimal owner control, and raised a ruckus whenever anyone walked by.  No thanks.

Instead, our selected site was mostly dirt with a triangular shape and a barely reachable water and electrical connection.  If you are getting the picture that Weko Beach is a bit half hazardly arranged and managed, then your perception matches ours.  Oddly laid out sites, lax enforcement of the rules, and basic accommodations, and yet it was fantastic; yet another example of why we lean towards country rather than state parks if all other things are seemingly equal.  Because for $30 a day ($35 on weekends) we were a couple of hundred yards away from an excellent Lake Michigan beach with a first come first serve policy that worked well for those of us whose RV pattern doesn’t often allow long term planning.

Intellectually I understood that the great lakes really are like oceans, with storms and big vessels and ship wrecks and the like, but seeing them in person really drives this home. Water as far as you can see, wave action crashing on the shore, sandy beaches, the works. Set down without knowledge of your location, it would be very easy to assume you were on an Atlantic or Pacific beach.  The water temperature was quite tolerable, the uncountable rocks all over the beach beautiful, the beach itself uncrowded, and after a dip in the lake one exits clean and without the need to rinse an uncomfortable layer of salt from your body.  Oh, and no sharks.  I had never thought much about the allure of the Great Lakes, but I am definitely a convert to their coolness now.

As a collector of things from the sea, Rosemarie had another reason for wanting to stop at Lake Michigan: beach glass.  As best I could determine from online research, the southern portion of Lake Michigan is best for it, so we spent a few hours leisurely walking the beach from Weko into the adjacent state park.  We didn’t have great luck, only finding two pieces, but one was thick and large, allowing Rosemarie to turn it into a great piece of found object jewelry.

We only stayed for our traditional thee days, but we made the most of it, spending at least part of every day at the beach, especially for the three wonderful sunsets over the water.  The nearby town was large enough to support basic needs, though we did not explore it for anything beyond resupply.  We have since moved on, still in Michigan but much further north, and having had the benefit of a few other campgrounds in the state, we would be hard pressed to pick our favorite, but Weko Beach would definitely be in contention.  The loosey-goosey aspects of the park are not for everyone, but we found it perfectly suited to our RV style.

We are now only two locations and zero states behind in this blog, though admittedly that is because of our soon to be reported extended stay in the Upper Peninsula.  Next up, continuing up the Lake Michigan shore.

After our thee day stay at West Virginia’s Tomlinson Run State Park, we retraced our drive 45 miles north before turning west towards the Cuyahoga Valley, which boasts one of the handful of National Parks to receive that designation in the 21st century.  This would be Kalynn’s last stay with stop with us, so we once again selected a private park with kid friendly amenities close to the national park and within easy striking distance of the Cleveland airport for her departure flight.

Passport America came through once again, leading us to the well reviewed Country Acres Campground near Ravenna, OH.  We secured a spacious electric/water site for the $20 per day PA rate.  They offered us a nicer full hook up spot that included a wood deck for a higher price, but we stuck with the most cost efficient option, and it was just fine, with a near unobstructed view of their catch and release pond.

Aside from the confusing road system, Country Acres turned out to be a near ideal choice. Large, level sites in an attractive setting, working free wifi, and plenty of things for the kids including a pool, bounce platform, inflated obstacle course and water balloon battle zone.  The owners were constantly out and about coordinating improvements and repairs. One of the longer term campers had nothing but praise for them noting that they really seemed to put a lot of their profit right back into the camp, adding new features and activities every year.

We spent two day there without leaving the property except one time for take out pizza. The rest of our time was spent enjoying the amenities, watching the ducks and swan, and trying to keep Kalynn reined in so we could send her back home with but the one skinned elbow from her bike crash.  On her last full day we even managed to finish off an extended math tutoring session with only the small amount of opposition.  Such is the power of promised ice cream.

On our third day we made the one hour drive to the airport, with Rosemarie escorting her to the gate and waiting there until departure.  Though we all had some great times, after 19 days she was ready to go home and we were ready to resume our two person grown up lives again.

While Rosemarie was waiting in the airport, I went geocaching in the area.  I snagged a nearby park and grab to meet my “one in every state” goal, but since I still had an hour I headed for a series of five nearby caches in an interesting location.  Apparently due to the expansion of the airport, an entire subdivision of homes was bought out and then completely removed; the only obvious trace being the three division roads slowly being reclaimed by the grass and wild bushes.  Everything else, including houses, driveways, street lights, telephone polls, have been completely removed.

The streets were blocked off by barriers, but since there was no “no trespassing sign” anywhere, I found my way onto the property in Loki by driving over a low point in the curb of the nearby access road and driving across the fields.  It was such fun that after finding one in the series I continued throughout the rest o the former neighborhood, likely driving through what had once been living rooms and the like until i found all five, then headed out the tree lined, empty streets before hopping the curb back to return to the airport and pick up Rosemarie.

Though Kalynn had exhausted us, we took advantage of our first child free afternoon in 19 days to drive to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center and at least spend a couple of hours exploring the park.  We watched the traditional park movie before getting a couple of recommendations from the rangers short hikes to see the park highlights.

It’s an odd national park, lacking the striking, much less overwhelming natural features that one normally associates with a full national park.  It is a very lovey area with an important natural ecosystem, but, aside from politics, it made its claim for inclusion in the NPS system as much on the cultural importance grounds as on natural wonderment.  The Ohio and Erie canal tow paths cut through much of the park, which has established a hike and bike trail along the historic canal line.

We did a short hike to see the beautiful Richie Ledges and the opening of the ice cave, though full access to the latter is restricted as part of the national effort against White Nose Syndrome, an easily spread fungus that has been decimating the North American bat population.

We capped off the visit with a climb down to the lower observation level of Brandywine Falls, a 65′ fall that, like several we saw in NY, has a lot less flow volume these days due to dry conditions.  The hiking in the park looks to be quite nice, but we didn’t have much time to enjoy such things.  We headed back to our campground, extended our stay by one night so as to recover from temporary child rearing, and prepped for our continued journey west.

We have made a big push this last week to catch up on the blog; when I published the 19 Months Fulltiming Report I wrote that we were 18 days, 7 stops and four states behind.  We have continued to travel, but we are at least posting at faster rate than we switch locations, so as of today we are only 12 days, 4 stops, and 2 states behind.  Progress! Next up: through Indiana and into Lower Michigan.
 

We are purely state collecting here.  As we worked our way west from Pennsylvania into Ohio, we dipped 48 miles due south to spend a few days in West “By God” Virginia, as the state’s natives are fond of calling it.  Since my father was born and raised there (though rather far south in McDowell County) I felt obliged to at least stop in and pay homage to the state, uncertain if we would be coming this route again during our RV travels.

I was unwilling to drive too far out of the way, pushing deep into the state to experience the best she has to offer for instance, but of the campgrounds we researched on All Stays in that northern spike, Tomlinson Run seemed to be the best option for our preferred type of camping.  So for only an hour’s drive and $15 in gas each way, we hit our first and only WV campground. It did not disappoint.

The campground has 54 sites, 39 with electric connections, divided in some manner between those that may be reserved and those that are walk up, first come first serve only. Upon arrival we talked with the check in desk about our options, and they recommend we drive around the campground and select one of the dozen or so spots still open, but pointing out that site # whatever might not be available because a couple just went to look at it, so if we liked that spot, make sure and have a back up option in case the took it.

And thus we fell prey to the “you can’t have it”self induced marketing trap.  We headed down the loop road with that site (lets call it #17, which might even be right) picking out one or two alternative spots along the way, but upon spotting 17 we wanted it.  We didn’t even give it a thorough look, we didn’t even check out the last loop of sites.  Someone told us we might not be able to have it, so we decided we must have it.  Don’t do this.  Resist it. There were several other even better sites, it would turn out.

Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful and spacious!  We didn’t have any trouble reaching the connections (such a challenge not uncommon problem in state parks,) it was a pull through rather than back in site, had no neighbor to the front, rear or right, and the left neighbor was across the road!  But it was laughably unlevel, particularly in the lateral direction.  At full extension our right side hydraulic jacks did the trick, but put the right side tires off the ground and the door step, at full extension, about 18 inches from the dirt. Ah well, we put the foot stool there and made do.  It really was a beautiful spot, with the hollow dropping down steeply away from our site and the the tree canopy giving us shade.

Though the park had much to offer, two of the best unintended features were the ready made friends that Kalynn found in the neighboring site.  There is something about camp that removes traditional boundaries to childhood friendship.  School cliques are absent, the various pressures around appearance and class are neutralized, no one knows anyone and thus everyone needs to take that first introductory step.  Camp kids know this instinctively.  Kalynn found two sweet and spirited girls roughly her own age, and they were pretty inseparable the three day stay.

Of course, the existence of the pool helped keep everyone happy and playful.  I don’t mean a regular little pool, I mean a great big honkin’ West Virginia pool complete with a three story twisting water slide.  Sure, it had an entry fee not included in our camping payment, but at $5 per adult, $4 for a child, and no charge for veterans, the $9 we spent on each of the second and third days was well worth it for the hours of entertainment it provided.

We took a leisurely drive through the beautiful park, exploring the ponds, boat house, and trail heads.  Tomlinson Run is a very well maintained  and large state park, definitely worth the time if you are in the vicinity.  They should probably rent something more than the unwieldy paddle boats and awkward rowing john boats at the boat house; a canoe rental option likely would have sucked us in, but it was still a lovely location.

We also spent part of an afternoon on a short day hike to find a local geocache, as is mandatory for me in every state.  Without expectations we were surprised at how nice a short hike this turned out to be.  It lead us down some very nice trails along side the challenging Frisbee golf course before we found the cache across a small brook under some tree roots and rocks.

All in all this was a great stop for us.  It had enough activities to keep Kalynn occupied and happy, and the sort of camping in the woods atmosphere we most appreciate.

As we circle under The Great Lakes towards Michigan we are making sure to stop in every state at least for a few days, our view, as we have said before, being that all of them have fantastic places to visit and great campgrounds to enjoy.  As we would be passing through the NW corner of Pennsylvania, we made sure to schedule a stop there.  Having just left a state park, we aimed for a private campground for this visit.

Since the niece was still with us, we restricted ourselves to Passport America (referrals available!) participants with plenty of kid friendly things and a swimming pool.  We had about four to choose from that were generally along our route, and ended up selecting Whispering Winds Campground and Cabins for its solid reviews, nice amenities, and location within the heart of the Allegheny National Forest.

For $18 a night we got a full hook up site in an extremely well cared for campground.  We sprung for the cable TV option for an additional $2 a day.  In addition to the pool, rec room with billiards and air hockey tables, free wifi, playground, and very clean shower house, the property has a clear running little brook running right down the middle of it, resulting in most of the sites, including ours, backing directly onto it.  This is pretty much my dream feature for any future home, so it was great to experience it for a few days.  Kalynn and I spent plenty of time exploring it, catching crayfish, and spotting fish and even one water snake.

The property is not all that wide, but very deep, pushing back right up against a National Forest boundary, with a hiking trail leading out of the back fence line into the woods. Alongside the creek towards the rear of the property we found scores of black and blue butterflies on the damp ground that would rise up in a cloud around you as you passed.

We enjoyed it so much we didn’t feel the need to explore the area as much as we might have, instead spending our days swimming in the pool, catching up on a bit of TV, and of course, the dreaded hour of math tutoring.  The place is such a nice little resort, with one of the few heated pools in the region, that locals purchase seasonal passes and use it like a day spa without even camping there.  How great does a campground have to be to get that kind of commerce?

The owners and their work campers do a phenomenal job of keeping the place in perfect working condition and beautifully appointed.  From the modern shower house to the wood foot bridge crossing the creek, it is just plain well done.

I struggle to come up with any downsides other than the shaky cell phone service in the area, and the need to be very careful driving a big rig down one of the campground roads due to the significant drainage control hump across it; though warned by the check in desk, I over-focused on finding our site and rocked the living heck out of the motorhome, opening up a cabinet and exploding a bottle of cayenne pepper all over our hallway floor.  An easily avoidable and small price to pay for a great campground.

Other than that, buy your liquor before getting to this town; I am not clear if it was a state or local ordnance, or merely the size of the nearby village, but we could not find any place that sold anything other than standard domestic beer.  Tragedy!

The problem with trying to write a dozen paragraphs with relevant photos for every place we visit is that it tends to become a bit like work (and thus something we can procrastinate,) resulting in the blog routinely being a couple of weeks behind.  That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for some of you giving us fantastic recommendations on things to do and see at our latest stop, but because of our delinquency those recommendations often come a week or more after we have already left the area in question.  Thus we missed Jim’s craft beer brewery recommendation and barely managed to incorporate Amy’s Michigan pointers.  So we are making a big push to catch up.  This post finishes off our July travels, meaning we are 18 days, 7 stops, and 4 states behind. That will be mostly fixed this week.

The Distance: 1,022 miles, the first 1/3 finishing our tour of New England, and the latter 2/3’s of it winding through upstate New York.  Not our biggest month this year, but we have definitely picked up the pace since our languid June in Maine, and August looks to be an even bigger mileage month.  Our 2016 total is 4,653 miles.

The Places:  Eleven stops in July, almost evenly divided between New England and upstate New York.  We extended our stay in Maine with a one week stop at the “no reservations” Bar Harbor Campground before renewing our westward journey.  After a one night stopover at Walmart, we entered New Hampshire, spending five days drycamping in the White Mountain National Forest at the Blackberry Crossing and Pasaconaway campgrounds. We finished off our New England travels with two days at Groton Forest Road Campground in Vermont, with day trips into Montpelier and Waterbury.

We entered upstate New York very close to the Canadian border, skirting around the north end of Lake Champlain for our first stop at Twin Ells RV Resort on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains.  We continued around and through the range to Adirondack Gateway Campground for a few days of relaxation before picking up niece Kalynn at Syracuse airport.  From there we would hit two more New York private RV resorts, Cherry Grove and Niagara Heartland, and two NY State Parks Robert H. Treman and Letchworth to finish off the month.

We had full or partial hook ups for 21 days, and dry camped/parking lot camped for 10.  We stayed 19 nights at private campgrounds, 11 in public campgrounds (all state parks) and one night parking lot camping at Walmart.

The Budget:   Exactly on budget.  We were on a path to be 7% or 8% under, but we paid for the unaccompanied minor airline fees for niece Kalynn, and a small medical bill from a few months ago caught up to us, putting us within $1 of dead even.   Aside from the flight costs, having a kid with you really challenges the finances.  Who knew?!  We are actually pretty happy with the way the month turned out; despite challenges and some pricey tourist destinations, we put our finances back on track after an ugly June.

The Drama:  Serenity and Loki didn’t give us any problems this month, aside from an electrical cut out issue associated with the hydraulic slide outs and the ignition switch, which we resolved easily and appears to simply have been the result of me turning the ignition key on while we were parked with slides out for a few days.  The true drama, as you can imagine, was from having an 11 year old RV with us for the last ten days of the month.  Exhausting!

The Improvements:  Really now, nothing significant to report.

All of our monthly reports, as well as our first full year report, 2015 in Review, are linked below.

2016 Reports:

• January Report
• February Report
• March Report
• April Report
• May Report
• June Report

2015 in Review

• January Report
• February Report
• March Report
• April Report
• May Report
• June Report
• July Report
• August Report
• September Report
• October Report
• November Report
• December Report

The New York State Park system is amazing; grand in scope and very well maintained.  We tend to think of National Parks as huge, requiring days if not weeks to explore, and state parks as small scale bits of nature that can often be experienced in a single day if you are just looking for the highlights.  Not so many of the huge state parks in the NY system.  Indeed, one could easily imagine Watkins Glenn or Letchworth as true national parks; sure, they can’t match the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone, but I found them easily as impressive, if not more so, than Cuyahuga Valley, Congaree, or Hot Springs National Parks.

My dad and stepmom had strongly recommended Robert H. Treman for the great falls system and fantastic day hikes, and our own online research pointed us towards Watkins Glenn, both in the lower Finger Lakes region outside and west Ithaca.  With the latter’s campground completely booked, our decision was made easier, and we secured four days in the drycamping section of Robert H. Treman.  At just over $25/night it is a touch steep for a site with no connections but it turned out to be the best choice for us: far less chaotic and crowded than Watkins Glenn, with the option of actually swimming in a section of the river right next to the lower falls.

Our site was quite spacious and heavily treed, which provided necessary relief from the sun driven heat, particularly since generator use was restricted to a few hours in the morning and evening.  For most of our stay the camping area was not much more than half full, though the electrical hook up sites stayed packed.  No worries, we paid less and had a wonderful, large, and level site with plenty of squirrel activity to keep Pad Kee Meow entertained.

On our first day we spent part of the afternoon swimming in the lower falls area.  Since it was still the weekend we had to contend with significant crowds, mostly day use people, but it was still a fun time, and the falls themselves are pretty impressive.

Kalynn got braver on Rosemarie’s bike, resulting in the inevitable first crash and associated skinned elbow, but to her immense credit she barely shed a tear and literally got right back on the bicycle.

That evening we had significant rain, the resulting run off leading to the closure of the swimming area for nearly two days.  This provided two opportunities: we could take pictures of the lower falls without all those pesky people in the way, and we now had the time to visit the nearby Taughannock Falls.

We had first seen Taughannock Falls from the upper viewing area during the evening rain shower, and were quite excited to get to the bottom the next day, having spotted several swimmers enjoying the seeming very nice swim hole below the the 215′ fall.  The following day upon making the one mile hike from the lower falls parking area, however, we learned that swimming was actually prohibited, and without the rain adding to the water volume the falls were little more than a trickle, the up stream region having experienced unusually dry conditions.

But we had come to swim, so we were gonna swim somewhere.  We drove a few miles down the road to the section of the park sitting on Cayuga Lake, complete with marina and swim beach.  The latter was a very contained, as in small, beach filled with day use people, swimming in a roped off murky area near shore.  The slightest step out of the roped off area, even knee deep, resulted in lifeguard interaction.  It was awful, but we made the best of it.

The next day went better.  We made the half hour drive to Watkins Glenn State Park, which contains a stunning set of falls and pools with hiking trails on either side of the deep gorge they have cut over millennia.  Aside from the very confusing, bordering on unsafe vehicle entrance to the park, it was a great experience.

We truly enjoyed the round trip day hike, but again, swimming was completely prohibited.  Sure we spotted a young couple risking arrest by swimming in one of the most inviting falls pools you can imagine, but we weren’t there to take that kinda of risk.

We instead visited one of the actual designated swimming pools in the park for a couple of hours of play and another informal swimming lesson for Kalynn.  At the end of our visit, while in conversation with one of the ladies running the gift shop, I expressed my disappointment at not being able to swim at either Watkins or Taughannock, though we really enjoyed the former as well as our camping experience at Robert H. Treman.  She strongly recommended we visit Letchworth State Park if we could fit it into the schedule.

And so we did: we did not have any reservations for the last two days of July anyway, so we secured an electrical hook up spot at Letchworth.  This place is gigantic, at least by state park standards.  Referred to by some as “The Grand Canyon of the East” or perhaps just “of New York,” it is 17 miles long and encompasses more than 14,000 acres along the Genesee River.  It includes three major falls, scores of minor ones, and 600′ cliffs in some places along the river gorge.  With 66 miles of hiking trails within the park, you could spend quite some time here exploring.  We only had two days, so we would be limited to the short ones to see the major falls.

Thankfully we are no longer travelling without a tow vehicle.  With the swimming pool at one end, the campground 5 miles towards the center, and the falls area at the opposite end, you really need a car to take advantage of all this place has to offer.  We ended our short stay with an educational reptile encounter aimed at the camper kids.  I didn’t knock any of them out of the way to touch all the snakes and lizards this time.

Closing out our review of this quad of NY state parks I can’t help but mention, or perhaps reiterate the downsides.  We have been to a lot of parks, many on the state level, in a score of states, and none of them are as tightly controlled and restricted as in NY.  Fenced off areas, lots of rules, no getting in the water even along the entire 17 miles stretch of the Genesee, and tiny designated swimming spots with aggressive lifeguard control.

I was told that swimming used to be allowed at Letchworth, but someone had died, so the obvious state response was complete closure, unless of course you are paying money for the white water rafting.  Even the man made pools are operating at a level of micromanagement we have not previously seen.  Its not just the 10 minute pool break every hour complete with a laconic life saving drill, its the overabundance of restrictions in every regard.  I am just not used to it, and was almost relieved to get to the less restrictive state park in West Virginia on our second stop after leaving NY.

Ah well, am I being to hard on NY?  Is it a necessity just because of their popularity and thus need to control the crowds?  Regardless, we generally enjoyed our stays in the parks, and were particularly impressed with how well maintained they are since some other states seem to be operating theirs on a shoe string budget.

Ever since we had Maria and Kalynn RV with us for a couple of days back in June, we have been looking into the possibility of Kalynn travelling with us a bit longer before the summer ended.  After a few false starts, we made arrangements for her to fly from NYC to Syracuse on a one way, non-stop flight on Jet Blue. As we solidified our travel route we would lock in a return flight.

Incidentally, the unaccompanied minor fees most of the airlines charge are outrageous considering that they don’t do much of anything in terms of additional labor or assistance. They don’t escort the child, the person dropping them off is the escort all the way through security until boarding.  The only thing they actually do is seat them on the plane and walk them from the arriving gate to the exit point to verify the identity of the pick up adult.  Hardly worth $100 to $150 for each direction!  Ah well, at least we were able to get both tickets for a very low point value from our various mile stashes.

So Friday morning had us up early and headed from our last campground at the southwest edge of the Adirondacks over to Syracuse airport in our RV.  Yes, in our RV.  Turns out SYR is very easy to get into even with a big rig, and we pulled into the cell phone lot with no problems.  Rosemarie walked across the short parking lot and road directly into the terminal to meet Kalynn as she exited while I waited with the vehicles, and then we were on our way to anther New York campground.

Having an 11 year old with us meant we needed to keep her entertained (for our own sanity), and that meant changing our general RV park selection criteria.  Now all those “family and kid friendly” type amenities switched from being negative qualities to strong positives in our prioritization.  And we would need more than ever to keep the costs down, so ideally we were looking for Passport-America participants with a lot of free child oriented activities.  Unfortunately we would be staring our RV experience with Kalynn on Friday, and were unable to find a PA park in the region that did not exclude the weekend, so we would have to spring for full price.

Our first selection was Cherry Grove Campground in the very small town of Wolcott, less than an hour from the Syracuse airport.  This is exactly the sort of property we would usually skip over, but for this situation it was ideal.  Affordable at only $33 and change a night ($34 plus $3 AC charge minus 10% military discount) with playgrounds, a pool, jumping pillow, putt putt golf, an ice cream shop, planned activities and, perhaps most importantly, other kids.

We filled the two days we had there with pretty much all of those activities, along with an hour of math tutoring every day (you can imagine how much “fun” that was) and casual swimming lessons.  Rosemarie got to play a bit of bingo, and the local publication from the chamber of commerce led us to a very small farmers market where we scored a big loaf of fantastic banana zucchini bread, and fresh fruit and veggies from the young Amish pair there.  Cash only, of course.

For our next private park, we needed something in the Niagara Falls region, and again we just couldn’t find a Passport-America participant in the area that did’t have exclusions for our time frame.  The best deal we found was about 40 minutes from The Falls at Niagara Hartland RV Resort.  We locked in two nights at the AAA 10% discounted rate of $30 a night.  This park had a few less amenities than Cherry Grove, no pool for instance, but it did have a nice sized chain of man made ponds, a playground, and a chicken coop.  We were fortunate enough to be there at the same time as a family with two daughters and their friend, all very close to Kalynns age, so that worked out pretty well.

Our second day we made the run to Niagara Falls.  Here we employed a couple of common sense tricks that have served us well to avoid overpriced tourist traps: don’t park right next to the destination, pack your own lunch and snacks, and don’t buy from the first vendor.  The parking closest to the falls charged a flat rate of $20 a day!  I found a metered spot just a couple of blocks away and spent only $6 for our three hour stay.  We would later enjoy our own prepared meal in a nearby park, avoiding the overpriced stands next to the falls.  And rather than the $45 tickets offered by the first vendor, which included an unnecessary bus ride between the points of interest, we just purchased out tickets for the Maids of the Mist boat tour directly at the gate for about $18 each for us adults, and less than $11 for the child.

We only had a 15 minute wait to board; they have a really efficient system, able to pump through close to 20,000 visitors per day on peak days.  The boat tour is totally worth the price of admission, putting you right up next to the major falls, especially the Horseshoe Falls that are not nearly as easy to see from land on the US side.  The power from them is amazing; as you approach in the boat the massive volume of water pouring over the cliffs creates its own wind system, blowing cool air and mist across everything.  The boat pilots make sure to give both sides of the boat a turn to experience each angle of the falls before returning to the landing.

Two excellent private parks started our kid-oriented RV adventure off quite well, and if you are in those regions with children we can recommend both Cherry Grove and Niagara Hartland.  Next up, four NY state parks.