Fun with Family and Friends in Frankenmuth

One of the very first camping trips we planned in 2019 happens to be the very last camping trip of the season. Each year, we plan to camp with our friends, Don and Deb. For the last couple of years, we have been trying to join them at Pine Ridge RV Park in Frankenmuth, MI. Something always gets in the way and it almost did again.

My cousin was getting married the same weekend we had planned to camp in Frankenmuth and I thought I was going to have to cancel our trip. It turned out that the wedding was only 20 minutes away from the campground. So, we decided to combine family and friends and all enjoy the weekend together. We had a mini-cousins camping reunion and even brought my mom along.

The weekend started out a little chilly for the first weekend in October but ended up pretty sunny and warm. The campground was super nice and we had full-hook up facilities which is a treat for us. We took my Mom to Bronner's on Saturday morning for a little Christmas fix before the wedding. I may have added a few more ornaments to my collection and started my Christmas shopping while I was there.

Brad and Renee's wedding was simply beautiful! It was at the Durand Train Station in Durand, MI. The happy couple ended the night by literally getting on a train to spend a couple of days in Port Huron. It was so fun to usher them off.

On Sunday, Don, Deb, Jim and I headed off to Northwoods in Pinconning. Northwoods is a wholesale outlet store that has everything you could possibly need for hunting, fishing, camping, Halloween and Christmas. I may have acquired another snowman for my collection too.

This was a great weekend with a lot of my favorite people and a nice way to wrap up the 2019 camping season. It is hard to believe that another camping season is in the books. The husband is winterizing the Pod for its long winter's nap as I finish up this post.

I guess I have all winter to plan the 2020 camping season. I wonder what journeys await us?

I appreciate everyone reading my blog and leaving comments. I started this as a way for me to catalog our travels to all the places that we have camped. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

We'll be counting down the days until next spring when our adventures continue . . .

Site 183 - Pine Ridge Campground in
Frankenmuth, MI

Don and Jimmy - They really do like each other!
Got Jimmy smiling again :)

Mom and Deb waiting for Jimmy to finish breakfast

Great cake topper!

Sending off the Bride and Groom.
Not the best picture but I tried.

G.O.T.L.

Our week's vacation continues with our next stop at Geneva State Park in Geneva, Ohio. It was a quick 2-hour drive from New York. When we take a week off we usually like to sneak in a couple of different parks to get some different experiences.

Geneva State Park is situated right across the street from Lake Erie. They offered a great, paved bike path that connected the campground to G.O.T.L. Geneva On The Lake (get it?) reminded me of  Put-In-Bay. It was a resort town with a strip of stores, bars and carnival-like atmosphere. There wasn't much going on in September, but I have doubt this placing is hopping in the summer time.

Not much was open, but never fear, we did find a brewery at the end of the strip. GOTL Brewing Company had a great outside bar that overlooked Lake Erie. We had the place to ourselves on a random Thursday afternoon for happy hour.

We weren't as busy here as we were in up-state New York. That's ok, as it was nice to sit around the campfire and enjoy the peace and quiet. I didn't take many photos either. Even though we were back in cell phone service land, I was trying to be mindful of disconnecting from my electronics. This was a great way to end our week's vacation.

Geneva State Park - Site 81

We spent a lot of time around the campfire

The view from GOTL Brewing Company.
Another spectacular day for the middle of September.

New York State of Mind

We finally were able to get away for an entire week, yes 10 whole days, with just my hubby and the Pod! I'm not sure we are going to know what to do.  This year has been crazy with work and family, so we've only been able to do long weekends. Better late than never, I guess!

Allegany State Park - Site 129.

For the week of September 15, we decided to head east to up state New York. Surprisingly, it was only a 6-hour drive to some beautiful countryside. We landed at Allegany State Park near Salamanca, New York. What a beautiful area!

We arrived on a Saturday, September 14 to the Quaker Area Cain Hallow Campground to find our absolutely, secluded, campsite carved into a side of the mountain. The campground was pretty full for this time of year, but emptied out on Sunday night. We practically had the place to ourselves on through the rest of the time we were there. The colors were just starting to change and the weather was outstanding! We had one night of rain and the rest of time was sunny with temps in the 60's and 70's.

This is a Bear-Proof box sitting on our campsite.

When we arrived at the park office, the ranger informed me that there were black bears in the area and I had to sign a bear wavier. WHAT??!!!! BEARS???!!!! He went onto to explain about proper food storage, etc. Sure enough, when we arrived on our site there was a metal storage container that you were suppose to put your food away each day/night if you were camping in a tent. Yikes!

Needlesstosay, we didn't see any bears. We figured as much since we drove all the way to Maine a couple of years ago and didn't see any moose, so why would we see bears in New York?

There was plenty to do in the park. There are 3 parks roads that meander through the 65,000 acres of forest. Some highlights include:

• Thunder Rock — an impressive rock formation of huge boulders.

Thunder Rock

Thunder Rock








Thunder Rock

• Bridal Falls — which should be renamed Bridal Trickle. There was hardly any water coming over the rocks. It was a nice little walk down to the stream.

Workin' on our selfie skills. Not too bad if I do say so myself.
Look, Jimmy is even smiling :)

Bridal Falls - Do you see the trickle of water?

• Stone Tower -  a unique stone structure built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Can you see the carved arrow etched in the stone? That points due north.

Stone Tower

Do you see the arrow etched into the stone?

• Butterfly Meadow — a great little area with a good mix of wildflowers.

Butterfly Meadow

Butterfly Meadow

Butterfly Meadow

We finally left the park and visited a few little towns around Salamanca.

Ellicottville, New York

This quaint, little ski town was straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. We had an amazing lunch at Ellicottville Brewing Company and I fell in love with their pumpkin latte beer. I had to bring some home that I'm savoring. It's all my favorite things, pumpkin, coffee and big, bold flavor. Yumm-O!

Flower pots as big as we are!

It was another gorgeous day and we sat on the patio next to flower pots as big as we are. I enjoyed their pulled pork sandwich with some of the best french fries I've ever had. Jim had the cajun halibut sandwich.

Jimmy's IPA Flight

Bradford, Pennsylvania
We stopped in Bradford PA for a quick breakfast and discovered that this is the home to the Zippo Lighter. Who knew? Of course, we had to stop and check out the Zippo/Case Museum.

Zippo/Case Museum

This American flag is made of all Zippo lighters!

Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania

This was probably one of the top highlights of our trip. The reason for visiting Mount Jewett, PA was to visit the Kinzua Bridge State Park. It was well worth the hour drive. This state park is based around the reinvented Kinzua Viaduct. This was once the longest and tallest railroad structure at 2,053 feet long and 301 foot high. A tornado destroyed this structure and some of the support towers can still be seen broken in pieces laying in the gorge. I can only image what this place looks like in the peak of the fall colors. The views were amazing!

Kinzua Bridge State Park

Kinzua Bridge State Park - The railroad track is still there!

Kinzua Bridge State Park

We are standing at the end of walkway. Notice the see through panels
in the floor? No thanks!

 The tornado damage to the rest of structure.
It looked like little toothpicks broken into pieces.

We are getting pretty good at these selfies!
Jimmy is caught smiling AGAIN :)

Here's some random photos from our trip that I felt were worth sharing . . . .

Our campfire on the first night. Doesn't it look like
the peace sign? I took it as a good sign for a great vacation!
And it definitely was one for the books :)

Red House Lake at Allegany State Park.
Such a beautiful day to soak up some sun. 

One final note....

            Do you know what this is?

When we arrived to the campground we had zero cell phone service. I wanted to make a quick call to my Mom to let her know that we arrived safe and sound. We saw this at the entrance to the campground, so we scurried around for all the quarters we could find. I had no idea how much it would cost to make a call from New York to Michigan. To my surprise, this was a courtesy phone since there wasn't any service in the park. It was such a nice touch! 

We had a busy 5 days in New York. We probably could have stayed 1 more day, but it was time to pack up and head to our next destination. Where we were land next to finish out our week of travels? Check back soon for an update!

Thank you Allegany State Park for an awesome vacation!

A Perfect 10

Once again, I've severely neglected by blogging duties. Here it is Labor Day Weekend 2019, and I'm working on a post about our last camping trip that was back in June. Good thing I don't get paid to do this or I'd be fired!

So, let's rewind and go back to the end of June (June 20-June 23 to be exact) when Jimmy and I took a long weekend to Harrisville, MI and stayed at Harrisville State Park right on the shores of Lake Huron. The park was outstanding and so was our campsite, which was site 144. We were one road in from the lake and we could hear the waves lapping on the shore all night long. The nights were cool enough that we needed to fire up our space heater and the days were warm enough for bike riding and walking along the beach. We would definitely recommend this park especially if you are lucky enough to get a campsite right on the beach.  Another big plus about this campground is that they have a paved bike path that goes right into the town of Harrisville. They are definitely a bike-friendly community.

On Saturday, we connected with an old friend that I used to work with at the hospital that lives in the area. We met him and his wife for lunch and then they took us on a sight-seeing tour.  It was so great to visit with them and catch up. All in all, this weekend was a perfect 10!

This summer has flown by faster than I care to think about. So many different things have kept us home during July and August. I'm hoping that September and October bring some great fall weather and we can get out there a couple more times. We have two more trips on the calendar and hopefully we can sneak in some spur-of-the-moment weekend trips too.

Site 144 at Harrisville State Park.

Site 144 at Harrisville State Park. It was perfect!

Beautiful beach and sunset with Jimmy.

Love a good walk on the beach at sunset.

He never lets me take pictures of him
and he does know how to smile!

Stopped for lunch at Alcona Brew Haus.
They had only been open since May.
We had the place to ourselves.
The food and beer were really good.

We visited the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse.
It was such a beautiful day. Check out the color of the sky!

Our dear friends, Gary and Karen.
We had such a great afternoon together!

We visited the Lumberman's Monument Visitor Center
with Gary and Karen.

I just had to take a picture of the firewood vending machine!
What will they think of next???!!

When in Angola.....

This past weekend our travels took us to Pokagon State Park in Angola, IN. This was suppose to be our annual "Friends Camping Weekend," but our friend's truck had other plans (Sorry Don and Deb!)

We had our favorite spot, site 452, on top of the hill and wouldn't you know we had the whole loop to ourselves. It was so nice and quiet despite about 5 inches of rain, severe thunderstorms and the biggest swarms of mosquitos we've ever experienced. 

We have stayed at Pokagon numerous times and know the area quite well. In fact, when we go to Angola we have a set list of things that we need to cover. 

• The Pickle Factory Outlet Store
• Clay's
• Moe's Southwest Grill
• Gays Hops-N-Schnapps Discount Liquor Store
• and now I'm going to add the Pizza Hut Lunch Buffet! (thanks for the tip Doug!)

We also discovered some amazing campsites in the 100 loop. After all these years, I thought this was the loop for group camping, but come to find out, they have 27 electrical sites in this loop too. We are planning to go back in September for the Seaplane Splash-In event and will definitely have to try one of these sites next time. A couple of them have beautiful views that overlook Lake James.

We hope that Don's truck is feeling better and is back on the road again soon. At least we have another trip booked with them this season to look forward to.

Pokagon State • Site 452

I wonder what is in my Tervis?

Always trying to take a picture of the Pod at night
with our lights. This doesn't do it justice, but
one of the better ones I've taken.

We had the entire loop to ourselves. 

Here's our bounty from the Pickle Factory Outlet.
We considered renaming the Pod the Pickle Pod.

Spontaneity at its finest!

If you know me, you know that I'm a list-maker and a planner. I usually have at least two lists going at all times (at home and at work). I'm organized and love to plan! On the other hand, I love to be spontaneous too and just roll with things. This definitely summed up our last camping trip to Hayes State Park for the weekend of May 17-19.

Hayes State Park • Site 160

A couple of weeks ago we returned from our first camping trip in Ohio and we literally rolled home, unhooked the Pod and jumped in the car to head to my Mom's to celebrate Mother's Day. We didn't unpack anything but the things we needed to start the work week. 

Once we got to Mom's, my brother said they were going to Hayes State Park with another couple (Always great to be with you Trina and Noah. It had been WAY too long)  and we should join them the next weekend.  We decided the Pod was packed and we might as well go. I literally made reservations on Wednesday night and we left on Friday morning.  I didn't make any lists or do any planning. Brother told me what to bring and had the food all figured out. I made a quick stop at the grocery store and we headed out. We experienced all kinds of Michigan weather from cold to hot to humid to sunny to rainy all in a short weekend. One of these days, I hope Michigan can figure it out. I also hope I won't have to pack a hoodie in July!

We did have dinner at Jerry's Pub at Wampler's Lake (finally!). We had stopped there a couple of times and couldn't get in because they were so busy. My brother made reservations this time and we were seated right away. If you are ever in the area, I'd highly recommend stopping. Ideally, you'd want to sit on the deck with the view of the lake, but it was cold and rainy when we were there. I had the lake perch dinner and it was some of the best perch I'd ever had. We started the meal with a BBQ Pork pizza to share. It was outstanding!!! I hope they make it part of their regular menu. I'd definitely order that again. 

Even Louie was cold!
Glad he brought his sweater.

Always look forward to my Brother cooking up a good
breakfast on Saturday morning.

Louie may be a little spoiled.

Love a good campfire!