Last night at the Bay City Walmart was a cold one. Our 4-battery setup worked well the night before in Traverse City so we felt pretty good about using power pretty liberally. We still had a decent amount of juice left in the morning but the overcast skies are not really helping with replenishing our consumption.
Last night we spent the night at a Walmart in Traverse City. It is the first night of boondocking since we replaced our batteries in Grand Rapids just before we headed to Grand Haven. I also was able to charge up our pair of old batteries while we were plugged into power in Ludington and connected them via the umbilical cord for extra amp hours. They worked great. It is the first time for us to wake up in the morning after running the furnace off and on all night and still be in the green on the monitors. As we start to head south, we will be able to last much longer without having to run the furnace and get better charge from our solar panels.
Our weekend at Ludington has come to an end and this morning, we are all busy packing up our belongings and getting ready to hit the road again. The girls were sad that their new friends are leaving but we will see them again in a couple of weeks. We are planning to visit them at their homes in Ohio on our way down to Kentucky.
Last night we sat around the camp fire and chatted with our new friends until late even when the falling ice turned into rain. The fire inside the ring kept us warm on the outside while the beer and wine kept us toasty on the inside. As usual, we are getting a late start of our day and the campground was already looking deserted on this Sunday morning.
Our first morning here was great although all night long, the wind blowing on the tree tops made acorns fall and crash loudly on the roof of the Airstream. It sounded like the hail we got when were in Asheville, North Carolina a couple of years ago except it was more sporadic. Every time I hear the rustling of the leaves I mentally brace for loud bangs on the roof.
I can see how Grand Haven State Park can be really crowded during the busy season. Even though the campground is essentially a beach-side parking lot and the sites are small and tight, it is right on the water and is in a quaint and unique city for a relative bargain to locals at only $27 a night. Although when it is cold, wet and windy, it is much less appealing. Our 2-night stop here will come to an end today, not because we wouldn’t like to stay longer but because we have a date to keep at another great state park north of here near the town of Ludington.
The weather called for temperatures to be in the mid 70s today. We were really looking forward to a day at the beach and the beach here in Grand Haven is beautiful. Unfortunately, the wind is howling and does not look like it will let up anytime soon.
We parked at a Walmart last night practically next to a Sprint cell tower. Although there wasn’t suppose to be a 4G network here, we had full bars of 4G with our the modem. Marlene used the opportunity to stream her soap opera and got caught up with the lastest gossip at Port Charles.
Thanks to its 5:30PM check out policy, today we are able to spend as much time as we want to at the Shipshewana Flea Market. It runs every Tuesday and Wednesday from April to the end of October and it is suppose to be the biggest in all of the midwest.
We had originally planned a route all along Lake Michigan starting from Green Bay, Wisconsin and ending in Ludington, Michigan. Since our plans are never set in stone and we hardly ever make any reservations, we made an audible and decided to head straight east along the northern Indiana border instead of heading into Michigan.
We decided to stay one more night here at Indiana Dunes. We have been so busy riding the train into Chicago for the last two days and getting back late in the evening, we thought it would be nice to spend the day just relaxing and catching up with life at the campground and maybe do some exploring of the nearby cities.
Our day in Chicago yesterday was a long one but we decided to head back into the city again today. We have some friends who live near Wrigley field and we decided to visit them so our kids can meet for a little playdate.
