Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Monday, July 17th

Today was moving day. As much as I loved this area, we had reservations at a different state park further north.  It was also shower day, which meant that Megan and I headed to the shower house to take showers and the rest took them in the camper.  The shower house at this campground was just as nice as the one prior. (We were now in Straits State Park. Hoffmaster State Park had awesome showers too!)


We had a shower house not too far from us, but when Megan and I got there, they were closed for cleaning. The janitors recommended another one not too far away, so we headed down there. We were on a time limit though. Before I left, I made a coffee cake and set the timer for 40 minutes. I was going to be efficient- take a shower while breakfast was baking! This bath house still had individual showers with doors, so it was still super nice.


Once we were done, we headed back to the camper and Matt had give Micah and Christian a shower in the camper.  They were both clean! Courtney had run off with Miki, so she ended up taking one later. We really try to take showers every other day when we are camping.


When we got back, we cleaned up  the camper. It is amazing how things can just get scattered after two days! The dishes had to be washed, shoes put away, snacks put away, bunkhouse cleaned up, etc.  This took the rest of the morning.  We ended up having leftovers for lunch, and then we had to figure out where we were going to do laundry! If I was at home, I would be doing a load or two every other day or so. Now that we are living in our camper, I can't do that. I usually do laundry when our laundry basket is overflowing. I keep one big basket in our closet and everybody throws their dirty laundry in there. It was definitely overflowing yesterday and I was beginning to have a pile on the floor! Time to do laundry!!


There were not any laundry facilities at our state park (there usually isn't at state parks), so I asked Google if there were any nearby. Luckily there was one about two miles away! Not so far! I sent Matt to the Laundromat to check it out. He went down and said it was clean and reported back the price it cost to do a load. We also had to be out of our campsite by 1 pm, so I wanted him to see if there was any place that we could park the camper for a few hours. He looked around and found some big parking lots down there, but none right next to the Laundromat.


Once he got back, we decided that he would just take me down there in the truck, and I would get started. He would then come back and hook up the camper, dump it, and park it in a lot a couple blocks away from the Laundromat. Then the rest of the family could join me and I would have a good start on laundry.


This is not exactly what happened though!! As we were all piling into the truck to take me to the Laundromat with the laundry, we saw two big motorhomes pull up on our road. Our friends had just pulled out five minutes earlier and one of them pulled into their spot. I looked at Matt and said, "Do you think the other one will want our spot??" It was 12:50 pm and checkout was 1 pm. They don't have a check-in time like in Nebraska.  Matt got out to talk to the driver and sure enough, they wanted our spot.  Matt hooked up  the camper and we left. We didn't want to argue with them! The driver of the motorhome had said to Matt, "You know, there is a 1 pm checkout time."


So now all of us were headed to the Laundromat with the camper in tow. Luckily, there was a line of empty parking stalls at the Laundromat and Matt was able to pull right in! Awesome!! He helped me haul all the laundry in and sort it. I ended up having six loads! There was only seven washers there and three were being used, so I got started with the four that were empty. There was a little toy area for Micah and Christian and Matt and Courtney ended up walking across the parking lot to Dollar General. They brought back strawberry ice cream bars and bug spray. :)  Unfortunately, by the time we got to the ice cream bars, they were half melted. I didn't think they were very good.


When the washers were done, I was able to get those loads in the dryers and put the last two loads in the washers. There were probably twenty dryers in the place! One the dryers started getting done, I was in a race to fold all the clothes and get the next loads transferred. It was quite an ordeal!! Matt helped me with most of it. When were done, he told me he had a new appreciation for me and laundry!


Once everything was washed, dried, and folded, we took it all out to the camper and just put it in the doorway. We could put it away when we got to our next camping spot. When I was coming out with the last load though, Matt was talking to some people in the parking lot. They were giving him ideas of places to go in upper  Michigan. 


Everybody climbed back into the truck and we were on the road again! We were heading north another 60 miles to Tahquamonen Falls State Park. I slept most of the way while the kids listened to "Adventures in Odyssey." Once we got to the area, we didn't quite know where to go! We had lost our internet connection, which means Google couldn't help us anymore. We were watching signs, but must have missed something because instead of turning left at a blinking light, we continued to go straight! Luckily we were at the way top of Michigan and were going to run into Lake Superior. We ended up by the Whitefish Point Lakehouse. I texted our friends to see where we needed to go and they gave us some help. I also got the atlas out of the camper. I guess when all else fails, we should do it the old fashioned way!!


We made it back to the blinking light and turned right like we should have in the first place! Our campground was another ten miles down the road. We went about 20 miles out of our way, BUT we did see a cool lighthouse (that we ended up visiting the next day.)


We got checked in, dumped since we didn't earlier, and filled up with water. We found out campsite and got set up. It was a pull through, so it was pretty easy! Our friends were across the road and about four campsites down. Not bad!  We also had a little playground nearby, so the kids went running there right away. The only bad thing was that the bugs were pretty bad. Good thing we bought bug spray earlier!


I ended up making tacos for supper, and we ate the outside. After dinner, we  decided to explore the park a little bit. This park is famous for its waterfalls. There are the lower and upper falls. We decided to drive to the lower falls and see them. What an amazing site!! There was  boardwalk, so we were able to put Micah in his stroller and push him. We checked out some boats you can rent and talked about how that would work with Micah.


When we got back, everybody wanted to make a campfire, so we ended up making one at our campsite. It was more private than our friends' site. I could also put Micah to bed and still join in the fun.


About 10 pm, I started to put Micah to bed. I put his bed out in the living room, so it took a little bit longer because the kids kept coming in and out of the camper. I was kind of getting frustrated. Matt doesn't want him sleeping in our room anymore, but at least I had some privacy there and could get him to sleep!


He finally got to sleep about 10:35 pm and I was able to join our friends outside for awhile. The girls were telling stories and Jennifer and Matt were talking. I was cold, so I got some beach towels to cover me up! I didn't want any of my blankets smelling like smoke! We sat outside until about 11:30 and then we all gave up and went to bed!

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