Walter J. Hayes State Park, MI (August 7 - 9th)

After spending night at Brian and Lori Lee's house, we spent the next couple of nights at the best site in Walter J. Hayes State Park in the Irish Hills.  Great site in the woods!!  Visited with Mike Crowley and Mary and Ryan; then onto Dan's in Delton near Battle Creek.  Also visited with dad and Uncle Doug.

Next we are on to Gaylord for our free camping at Beaver Creek!!!

Sterling State Park (MI) August 1 - 5th, 2010

Time was well spend with Kohut family members:  mom, Panchenko's, George and Dianne Kohut, Gary and Linda.
No shade in the park but we had a great site on Lake Erie!!!!  Also visited Rachelle's new home!!

Time to move to the Crowley family side at Walter J. Hayes State Park.

Maumee Bay State Park (OH) July 31, 2010

What a nice park this is.  The set ups are spacious and I think there isn't a bad site in the place. There are 256 sites in this campground.  The park was packed when we called; but there were two openings when we got there.  Once we were set up, we got on our bikes to ride around and figure out where we had camped there before a while back with our annual camping friends.  We think we found it; but we will have to check with our group to verify.  We rode to the beach and low and behold; the Lake Erie beach had a water advisory posted as well.  It was not up to the state standards and they were recommending that the elderly, children and ill persons not swim in the lake.  What is going on here??  All our lakes are being polluted right before our eyes.   There was an inlet lake that people were swimming in but we passed.  We stopped at the lodge which was beautiful and tried to get in to swim at their pool but they said they only allowed it on Sunday - Thursday at $12.00 per person.  And here we thought $4.00 was high when we wanted to swim in Franklin D. Roosevelts park in Georgia.   At the lodge they were getting ready for a wedding and we thought what a pretty setting they had for a wedding.  We rode back and went to the local Catholic church for mass then into Toledo for a rib barbecue.  By the time we got there it was pouring rain so we opted out and had a deep dish Chicago pizza in a local restaurant there.  Driving to this park, I remarked that this was our first overcast day since we left in April of this year.  It was always sunny down south.  But it was nice to enjoy the cooler weather and get out of those high 90's.
Well, we are now off to Sterling State Park in our native Michigan.

Harrison Lake State Park (OH) July 29 - 31st, 2010

Harrison Lake State Park was a slightly different campground then St. Mary's.  In fact, it was very nice and quite packed as well.  There was basketball, volleyball, hiking trail around the lake and even a doggie swim area.  There  was a beach also, but once the DNR mentioned the rain run-off water dumps into the lake making it muddy looking; I could only think of St. Marys and their "run-off" problem.  So we did not swim in this lake either.  Very clean and nicely set up this park was.  We walked/rode our bikes around the camps because it is fun to see the various set ups and you rarely find one alike.  Again there was the north campground which we were in and a southeast and a southwest campground in the park.  I think the shower set up was the best of all the setups we have seen in the campgrounds down south.  Our 2nd day Mike did some work on the motorhome and I worked on my insurance project and finished another novel.  The night we had new neighbors right across the street from us who had a very noisy dog and they did nothing about it.  This went on from the time they got there until after 10:00 p.m. at night.  I made a little visit to the host to put in a complaint after that and it was quiet by the time 11:00 p.m came around.  I felt sorry for the elder couple set up right next to them and knew they went to bed early.  The next morning it started again.  We were so happy to pack up and get out of here fast -- onto Maumee Bay State Park.

Grand Lake St. Mary's (OH) July 28 - 29th, 2010

Well, while our visit was supposed to be 2 nights; it was abruptly halted due to hazardous conditions of the Lake.  The air smelled awful (like manure which we thought it was).  However, the reservationist told us it was the lake that smelled because it was full of algal toxins.  In otherwords, the lake was closed down due to the algae toxins in it from sources such as high levels of nutrients from livestock and row crop agriculture, use of lawn and garden fertilizers, failing septic systems and other minor sources.  Because the lake is warm and slow-moving it became a breeding ground of this toxic algae.  No swimming, no boating, no fishing.  There were dead fish along the shoreline, geese do-do all over the campgound and it smelled bad.   Over 200 sites and there were maybe 10 campers -- five of them being hosts.  Thank goodness it rained that evening which forced us to stay inside the camper.  We left the next morning for Harrision State Park in northern Ohio.

Wouldn't recommend this campground to anyone.  STAY AWAY IN THE SUMMER MONTHS!!!!!

Brookville Lake Mounds SP (IN) July 26-28th

From the RV Rally we drove though downtown Louisville and crossed the Ohio River into Indiana's back-roads on the eastern side of the state to Brookville Lake Mounds S.P. Another lake dammed by the Army Corp. of Engineers back in 1975 for flood control in the Whitewater Valley and contributes to the reduction of flood flows in the Ohio River. This campground by far the largest we have stayed in so far with 368 sites; of which 56 sites have full-hookups, which we ended up with and rest are electric only, paved, or tent sites. The park is clean and well maintained and it had plenty of hiking trails to choose from .7 to 16.5 miles long. In order to get to the bench you have to drive about 2.5 miles all within the park. On our last day here I decide to kayak the East Fork Whitewater River starting at the tailwaters. Buddy wouldn't let me go without him.  We went as far as where the East Fork meets the West Fork Whitewater River and then we radio'd Darlene to rendezvous at Morgan's Canoe Livery. It's not the best time of year kayaking this  river because the water level too low going though the rapids. So you know who had to get out, and he didn't mine it at all. We seen plenty of ducks, geese, cranes and hundreds of different kinds of Trout. Some good keepers I might add. Too bad I forgot my waders in storage. Told those Trout I'll be back someday. We're northward bound and over one state into Why-O Ohio!!


                             For More Information Go To:   www.camp.IN.gov.
                                                                             www.lrl.usace.army.mil/bvl/
                                                                             www.morganscanoe.com

Louisville, KY. RV Rally (July 21 - 26th)

Arriving at the RV Rally (celebrating their 100 years in RVing) in Louisville, Kentucky at the Exposition Center which was just Big and beautiful.  It sat right next to Six Flags Amusement Park which had closed this year and filed for Bankruptcy -- another sign of our ailing economy.  We arrive for our official packet and we were assigned to Lot 3 which was about 1 mile away.  I do believe that our RV at 32' long; we were probably one of the smaller big boys in the lot.  However, through the complete 4 1/2 days we were there, we had shuttle buses transport us back and forth and we have no complaints -- they did a great job.  The day we arrived there we toured lots of Class A motor-home dreaming for an upgrade.  Not this year though -  we will keep what we have for now.  Spent all three hours just walking through the hundreds of coaches they had in the center.  The next four days we sat in seminars most of the days.  We enjoyed all of them and even though we have been RVing for a few years; there was always something learned in each seminar.  Things like:  Learning how your suspension works, Maintenance Care and Tips,  Awnings 101, RV exterior care, full-timing experts with their experiences, computer safety and security, generator care, insurance and even Mexico travel, and a whole lot more, and they even offered local tours. The highlights of this experience was the night time entertainment of Bob Newhart and Kevin Spinner and Darlene winning a $250 visa gift card at an insurance seminar.   Darlene was even fortunate to have a picture taken with Kevin Spinner and his autograph on his first released CD.  Kevin Spinner was the humble guy who won 1 million dollars on the Americas Got Talent show.  When the judges asked him what he did for a living he honestly said he chased chickens and they all laughed.  But when he sang his song and played his guitar they were no longer laughing but were very touched.  He went on to Win that show.  He is from Kentucky so it was a nice surprise we received on the last evening.  We met some great people, survived the 115 degree heat index, and Buddy even fell in love.  We thoroughly enjoyed the rally and would love to attend next years Rally in Redmond, Oregon.