Pentwater Michigan May 2017

Here we are in Michigan this year. Pentwater Michigan to be exact. We are about 1 1/2 hours from our home by Grand Rapids so we will be able to see family and friends. We are starting our 7th year of wandering the country and working at campgrounds so we thought it would be nice to wander on home for awhile. We are at Whispering Surf Campground. It's a nice family campground with trees and fire pits and a beach on Bass Lake and a short walk to the beaches on Lake Michigan.

Whispering Surf started as Camp Morrison in 1913. It has had only two previous owners until this year. Let me introduce Jane and Andy Hathaway. They are the third owners of the camp. They thought it would be fun to own a campground and started looking. They found Whispering Surf and fell in love with it and it's history and the area. They closed on it the first of 2017, sold everything and moved here from Pennsylvania. They have been working on some upgrades and cleanup and getting ready ever since.

The first thing you see is the office upon entering the park. if you look to the right you will see us. We have a very nice site with trees some grass and we even have a deck. The owners are great to work with.  The other work camper couple is Dan and LuAnn and they have been here for the last three years as on-site managers. They have been a big help to Jane and Andy as they are new to owning a campground.

The campground has a lot of history to it as I said before. This is the Lodge...it was opened in  1921 and was used to serve meals to the guest and also for dances and other gatherings. Now days it is used as a gathering place for the campers. It has a pool table, a foose ball table, a ping pong table and an exchange library. It has a nice sitting area to get away and just read a book. In the early years guest stayed in tents and cooked over an open fire. At that time the only way to get here was by ferry boat from Chicago where most of the guest came from, or by train on the Pere Marquette Railway.

This is the lower campground. These are seasonal sites. We have 85 sites. Most are full hook up sites with a few tent sites. About half the sites are seasonal; some of them have been here for many years. As usual everyone likes Holly but the jury is still out on me. I'm not worried though, the vote goes my way or no more trash pick up or wood delivery.

This view is looking the other way in the lower campground. On Memorial Day weekend we were full. We were very busy escorting campers to their sites and helping to get them parked and delivering firewood. As usual it seems like they all showed up at the same time on Friday night but we were ready and everything ran like a finely tuned machine. Mostly that is, we did have a couple hiccups but nothing serious.

We are not right on Bass Lake but it is a short walk over the bridge and to our private beach. It is a nice sandy beach and swim area. There is a nice dock and we hear the fishing is great. We haven't been out yet but it won't be long. We do rent canoes and kayaks so we will have to give one of the canoes a work out.

There is a small play ground with a pirate ship. This is a great family campground. Close to Pentwater which is a nice little tourist town and 15 miles south of Ludington.  There are also two cottages that have not been used for years and Jane has turned them into very nice little two and three bedroom cottages. This is one of them and the other one should be ready in a couple of weeks.

On Memorial Day Andy and I went down to the beach and one of the campers asked if we were going to put in the swim dock. Not in the day's plan, but she said she would go out in the water with Andy and help get it out to the anchor in the lake. I thought it was a great idea (Marv is going to stay dry) and Andy took it as a challenge. Well we got it off the beach and in the water; they floated it out in deeper water and put the ladder on; then they swam it out to the milk jug on the end of the chain and the fun began. All the wood had swelled up and made things impossible to fit right.

By the time they got the ladder on and pushed out to the anchor point they had been in the water a long time and it was cold water. Neither one of them had ever done this before and they couldn't figure out how to hook it up to the anchor. They then pushed it back in until they could get the  ladder touching bottom to hold it until we could figure out how to get it hooked up. After talking to them I figured out what was needed. #1 a pry bar. #2 a hammer. #3 a wood chisel. #4 Marv getting wet. Turns out that while we were talking Andy's helper disappeared.

Yup, the water was cold. Really cold but they had been in the water a lot longer then I would be so off we went. With the right tools we had it done in no time and had a bunch of happy campers. These are Andy's helpers and I say thank you to them as they did the hard work and I didn't have to spend as much time in that cold lake.

Those of you that have been with us from the start might recognize this lighthouse. This is the North Breakwater Light in Ludington. This is where our adventures started six years ago. This is also what I wrote about in the first post of our blog that you are reading. On this day the lake level is so high the breakwater is almost all under water. If you go back to our first post you can tell how much higher the lake level is.

This is an artist rendering of what the Little  Sable Point Lighthouse used to look like. Today only the tower remains. The rest of the buildings were in such disrepair that they were just torn down. The plan is to rebuild them some day and make it a nice tourist draw in Mears which is just south of us. It is 107 feet tall and if your adventurous you can climb the 139 steps for a great view. It has a third order Fresnel lens which you can see in the picture below. A first order lens is the largest so this is a very large lens. The other lights we have been docents at have had fourth order lens. This is a beautiful light tower due to the masonry brick work that was done when it was built in 1874. It is open to the public in the summer and you can climb to the top for a small fee that helps with upkeep. So if you're in the area, stop over and enjoy some of the Great Lakes' history.

That's all for now. It's nice to be back home for a while. Been nice to see family and visit friends. We have already had lots of company but if we are here and not working we always enjoy visiting. Remember, just like a light house, until next month, we'll keep a light on for you.

Camp Verde Arizona March & April 2017

I know I'm really late this time. As you can see, I have combined March and April together. March was busy and April was a travel month. So here we go. Our friends Jackie and Larry who we have known since our first work camping job in New Mexico came out for a visit. This is them by Montezuma  Castle. We did the normal tourist things. and had a great time.

Here is Jackie and Holly at Tuzigoot National Monument. The picture below is Holly and I enjoying the sunshine that we finally had. The weather in January and February was cold, windy, and rainy.

We went to Sliding Rock State Park. Oak Creek runs through it and the run off from the mountain snows by Flagstaff really had the current flowing and cold.

It is called sliding rock because you can jump in farther up and slide down on the rock bottom, like a natural water slide. There wasn't much sliding going on this day because the water was so high from the run off. People were jumping in but were not staying in because it was so cold.

We had received three free nights in a park in Yuma Arizona so we met up with our friends John and Barb and drove down. What the heck, free is free. I worked with John in the concession stand last year and we became good friends. That's what's nice about work camping; you get to meet the nicest people and even become good friends with some of them.

We visited the Yuma Territorial State Prison. This is not the place I would want to be. It was hot when we were there with more hot to come as the summer developed. The buildings were all built by the prisoners themselves. It started with only seven prisoners then as they built more cells more prisoners were brought in to help.  Here you can see prisoners 001, 002 and 003. They don't look like they are ready for work but then maybe they just arrived.

Here are prisoners 001 and 002 checking out the accommodations. Don't worry ladies, the brochure states that all the rooms have a desert view but no A/C.

This is a model of the prison that is in the museum. It was interesting to say the least. You go there now and it is in the town of Yuma but when it was built Yuma wasn't much of a town and anyone trying to escape had a lot of desert to cross to get any place called civilization.

Just before we left to come home we thought we would make a little trip up to the Grand Canyon... after all, it was only a couple of hours away. We were about ten miles south of Flagstaff when we ran into a snow storm. No I did not use black and white pictures to be more dramatic. These are color shots. Of course being raised in  Michigan my whole life and driving in many snow storms I said what the heck, and promptly turned around and went home like any smart Michigander would do.

The next day we tried again and the roads were clear, the sun was shining and we had a lovely drive up to the canyon. We have been there before but  every time feels like the first. It is absolutely beautiful. It's so hard to imagine that this place exists way out here.

The rock formations along with the trees and the way the shadows flow along the canyon from the clouds floating high overhead. The scenery is changing constantly. Below is one of the trails down in the canyon and yes there were people down there (silly people). It's a long walk down but I will almost bet it's a longer walk back up.

This was our walk for the day. No wonder the dogs and us were exhausted  by the time we left there.

The only thing I can say about these two pictures is wonderful, beautiful and unbelievable.

Here is Holly showing off again by walking out on a ledge over the Grand Canyon and yes this was very much straight down. I won't tell that she pretty much crawled back... I wouldn't want to ruin her dare devil reputation. Me on the other hand prefers to stay far from the edge and hang on to something solid. Yup I'm pretty much chicken plus dreadfully afraid of heights.

We left Camp Verde in our dust at the end of March and headed out on the old trail towards home. We stopped and spent a few days  in Tombstone Arizona. As you can see by the visitor center it was a rough place in its hayday. The main street now looks different from when it was a wild mining town. Back then there were more bars and brothels then anything else.

We were out wandering the streets and looking in many of the shops when I turned around and Holly was missing. After asking around I finally found her here. I won't tell what she was in for but it's a good thing they take Visa. I don't carry that kind of cash on me.

We went to a gun fight, sort of. It was more of a comedy show but we enjoyed it and they cast was very good. This is the bad guy (boooooo). Then there is the sheriff (yay). Don't pay an attention to that bottle in his hand, he has a very stressful job.

Here is the bad guy and his partner the bad girl, notice the red sash on them (had to have seen the movie). That's the old prospector in the middle. Yup, by the time it was all said and done they were all shot and dead.

When we left and went looking for a place for lunch we saw Doc Holiday and the Earp brothers looking for a fight.  The last I heard they found one, too.

We went to Big Nose Kate's for lunch. Yes there really was a Big Nose Kate. She served pretty good food too.

We drove over to Bisbee which was also a mining town, just not as famous as Tombstone. We toured the Queen Mine where they mined copper. Here we have minor Holly, sorry I mean miner Holly. All fitted out to go down in the shaft. Always said she was a little shafty. or was that shifty.

Here is the entrance to the third level, the main entrance required you to stuff yourself into a cage with about 15 other miners and be lowered down into the mine. We got to ride down into the mine on the mine train (toot, toot). The pictures I took inside didn't turn out very well so just take my word, it was dark and those battery operated lights they gave us came in handy.

After we left Tombstone we stopped in Elephant Butte State Park  New Mexico where we worked our first real campground host job. Then it was on to Albuquerque for two nights so we could sight see and have breakfast with friends we met while working in Elephant Butte.  Then it was on to Arkansas to spend a few days with Penny and Bill. We worked with them in Schulenburg Texas and have been great friends ever since.

We made it home in time for Easter this year and were able to spend it with some of the family.

This is our granddaughter Mikayla. She is all dressed up for the high school prom. She is even practicing her pose for when she goes to college in a couple of years and joins a sorority. These darn grand kids of mine are growing up way too fast and making me feel older then I should. It will be worse when that first great grandson arrives in June. I've always said I was a great grandpa now I'll be one for sure.

Well that's it. Two months in one post. We will be headed to Whispering Surf Camping Resort in Pentwater, Michigan in a week so it will be back to the grind stone. I will leave you now with these words of wisdom from my tulips. Have a great summer and we will see you next month.