Happy Fourth of July!

***edited post, I beg forgiveness for leaving out the rest of the sentence at the end, and it has been fixed! ***

I want to wish everyone a very happy Fourth of July, and to thank the men and women of our military that make it possible for us to enjoy the life's freedom that we have!

Cathy is doing better. She has a severe sinus infection causing the fever and lethargy, so she is on medication for that. The spider bite is still healing well. It will be a while before she's top-notch, and unfortunately missed the holiday festivities, but at least she's on the road to recovery. For those who expressed worries about the brown recluse spider, they are not indigenous to this state and may have hitched a ride in their trailer from Texas, where they spent the winter. And we are careful, especially when I am in the woodshed refilling my wood trundle! Thanks to everyone sending their good thoughts!

Last weekend was our cardboard boat regatta here at Waldenwoods. During my lunch break from the store I ran down to the lake front and took some pictures and a video.

The Rotary Club of Hartland was the beneficiary of all monies raised during the regatta.

The Waldenwoods booth. The sales office attends many shows and exhibitions, giving out free camping weekends to prospective buyers of memberships.

There was a bit of clowning around going on down by the lake...this is Alex, who works in activities. I received my "I was hugged by a clown today" patch after getting a big hug :-).

The marina on the lake, where they do boat rentals and canoe lessons. 

These were 3 of the 10 entries into the regatta. They really are all cardboard! I think they did a great job of making boats for this event. These 3 boats were all manned by Waldenwoods employees. The shark boat was rowed by Peter (activities director), Charlie (maintenance) and Brian Crouse (one of the owners of the resort). The pink "Princess Power" boat was rowed by Robin and Libby, 2 of the girls who work in the sales office. And the green "Butterfly Barge was rowed by Joe ( the son of Debbie, one of the sales office ladies and tour guides) and two of his buddies. This was the heat that I video taped.

It was really a lot of fun, and I was surprised at the number of people who came out for the event. I had to go back to work after the race, but I heard that after a final winner was determined, the real fun was when all the boats took to the water and they had to sink each other! It must have been a real show, and I did see Robin after she came back up, and she and Libby won a medal for "Best Sinking"

After that, the rest of last week was getting prepared for this weekend, Fourth of July. The park was filling up fast, and as soon as I get the video uploaded to YouTube, I have a tour of the resort to show you. It was an extremely busy week, and I have no pictures to show you, as I hardly had two minutes to spare between working in the store and stocking it up! Business in the store picked up steadily all week long, and was really rocking by Friday night, when the resort was almost at capacity. There's about 320 campsites here, several rental villas, rental cottages, and two lodges with rooms, and everything was booked :-).

Saturday was the real busy day here. We had activities all day long, a carnival on the beach starting a 4PM, and fireworks at 10PM. The day was SO HOT, it was 96 degrees by mid-afternoon with the heat index over 100. What made things really interesting was a brief power outage in the late afternoon, plunging the entire resort into "boondocking" mode! We manged to persevere through, and the electric company came out within 2 hours and had power restored for the evening festivities. We were so busy in the store that night, and it was all about the ice cream, candy, drinks, and glow bracelets! I've gotten really fast on the cash register now, and Lorraine and Vicky were pro scoopers that night. Chris kept the whole thing moving well, and we never had to keep anyone waiting too long in line. I'm so proud of the job everyone did Saturday night, my crew is awesome!

Sunday was busy as well, and I think today might be steady, but quite a few people will be heading out of the park today and tomorrow. I have a ton of re-stocking to do, so that is on my agenda today...lists and phone calls. Later in the week as it arrives we'll be placing it into inventory, and be ready to go again next weekend, although everyone tells me that things quiet down after this weekend and it's just a nice steady pace, not the craziness of the fourth :-). 

As a parting shot, my baby robins are all gone now. There were three of them, and two left, leaving behind one. I was wondering why the last one didn't fly away with his siblings, and I was actually calling him "the freeloader" because his mama kept coming and feeding him. he sat on the edge of the nest for two days, and it really puzzled me as to why he didn't head out. Then my neighbor Tonda found him dangling upside down by the nest one day. It seems mama robin used some string in building her nest, and it got wrapped around one foot of the baby. He couldn't leave. They managed to get him untangled, and later that day he flew off, so hopefully his leg isn't damaged too badly. But then I felt bad calling him a freeloader! 

And I also have to sadly report that Waldenwoods is now minus one member of the ground squirrel community. Yes, Casey caught a baby who hadn't learned to stay away from the big red dog. I felt really bad, but everyone tells me it's inevitable, and there are plenty more, but I'm still sad for the little guy :-(.

Thursday we are planning on visiting The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Everyone says its a "must-see", so that's our plan this week. It's about an hour's drive from here, and the dogs are going to "Camp Bow Wow" for the day. I should have some interesting things to write about after that :-).

Again, Happy Fourth of July!

A Quick One

Hi folks. We are extremely busy here at Waldenwoods for the holiday weekend, and barely have time to breathe! I will post next week about all the holiday happenings, but wanted to ask for well-wishes for a fellow workamper. Cathy has been battling a nasty brown recluse spider bite for about 3 weeks now, and yesterday was taken to the hospital as she was doing poorly and had spiked a high fever. Most people know this is as nasty a spider bite as you can have, so I thought our RV community out there could send out some well-wishes for her speedy recovery. Cathy is a ranger here, working with Al, and is a lovely lady. We hope she gets well soon!

Have a happy fourth everyone, and stay safe!

The Shipwreck Coast

Thanks for hanging in with me dropping the last post part-way through our excursion. I am really enjoying my job here at Waldenwoods, but I just lost track of time writing the last blog, and had to scurry around getting ready to go! It's an extremely busy weekend here right now :-).

This is Casey after his grand romp on the beach at the Shallows. He did enjoy his run very much, but an unfortunate by-product of our stroll on the beach was an extremely sandy interior of the cab of the truck afterwards!

As we continued along the road, it veered away from the shoreline for a short while, as it joined with the North Country Scenic Trail. When completed, this will be the longest scenic national trail in the country, stretching 4600 miles between New York and North Dakota. We then turned north onto Michigan 123, and continued to skirt along the coast of Lake Superior, headed to Whitefish Point, the eastern end of Michigan's Shipwreck Coast. We drove through the little town of Paradise ( don't turn away, you'll miss it! ) and saw this neat mailbox along the way:

I think that's a telling sign of how high the snow gets around here! The road gets narrower, twistier, and more remote feeling, with Lake Superior on one side, and marshy bogs on the other. I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for moose, as this county is supposed to be the best area around for a possible moose sighting, but I didn't have any luck. We soon came to the end of the road, and Whitefish Point. It was spectacular!

Whitefish Point Lighthouse, believed to be the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior, dating back to 1849. The original brick tower was replaced by this steel tower in 1861. It was almost 6:00pm now, and we split up to view the two sights: I went up the tower to the catwalk around the beacon, and Al went to visit the Shipwreck Museum.

The Shipwreck Museum was very interesting, rated as one of the best small museum exhibits in the country. The many exhibits show the history of the point, the innumerable wrecks that have occurred here, and has a lot of memorabilia, especially related to the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

The twisty staircase leading up the tower. There were too many steps to count, and I was huffing and puffing as I got to the top. But the view was worth it!

The site of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is about 15 miles off the coast here.

View to the east, and the point

The Shipwreck Museum store to the left, and former Crew's Quarters building, from when the Coast Guard stood guard over the beacon. Now it's a lodging facility where guests can stay over night. Past the buildings in the forested area, is the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory viewing platforms. This is an important area for migrating birds, and an excellent place to view hawks, waterfowl and songbirds on their spring and fall migrations.

We then left the Point, and started our way back south. Our last stop for the day was 10 miles west of Paradise, at Taquamenom Falls State Park. This park is home to some of the most beautiful waterfalls in Michigan, as well as one of the largest east of the Mississippi River. The upper falls has a drop of 50 feet and is nearly 200 feet across. A maximum flow of nearly 50,000 gallons of water a second has been recording flowing over these falls. 

 The view as you walked along the cliffs of the gorge

Getting closer. The copper color of the water is caused by tannins leaching from the cedar, spruce and hemlock trees in the swamps that are being drained by the river.

Up close to the edge after a 95 step staircase down the ravine's edge.

Another shot...I couldn't pick a favorite, so you can choose which one you like!

About 5 miles down river from the Upper falls are the Lower Falls, more of a series of falls than one singular one. 

All of the lower falls lead into the final basin, and the river then flows onwards to Lake Superior

You can rent boats here at the base for canoeing and kayaking, and go over to the far side for some exploring on your own. Unfortunately, it was now close to 7:00pm, the mosquitoes were out in full force, and it was time for us to head back to Mackinaw City. 

A parting shot of the mouth of the Taquamenom River as the sun was going down.

A view of the river from the campground in the park. It was a very nice campground, with several sites right on the river front.

It was about an hour's drive from here back to Mackinaw City, where we had some dinner and packed our stuff up to leave in the morning. We had about a 3 1/2 hour drive back to Waldenwoods in the morning, and then back to work. It was a great side trip!

Coming up next, the Waldenwoods Cardboard Boat Regatta, a video tour of the campground as it fills up for the holiday, and some Fourth of July shenanigans! have a great holiday everyone!