Bay City, Michigan

July 15th through July 17th, 2005

Friday, July 15th - 88°, Partly Cloudy

    We were supposed to be arriving at the campground, the Bay City State Park Campground, shortly after the 3:00pm check-in time so that we could get set up and get dinner ready to eat when Jeff, Becky, and Thomas arrived. Due to a total lack of motivation on our part, that didn’t happen. We got all of our stuff into the fifth-wheel and pulled out of Dad and Mom’s driveway just shortly before 5:00pm. We caught up with Jeff and Becky on the expressway, north of the I-75/475 split. The remainder of the drive went smoothly, without any stops.

    After checking into the campground, we parked our trailers into an “L” shape and began the process of setting up and cooking dinner. Because we were so late, we changed our original dinner plans from burgers and hot-dogs to just hot-dogs with chips. Rather than waiting for the fire to get ready, we cooked the dogs on the grill. After dinner we started a fire, made some s’mores and relaxed for the night. We were backed up to a playground, so the kids could also wander over to it whenever they pleased. Late that evening everyone took turns going to the bathhouse before turning in for the night.

Saturday, July 16th - 85°, Partly Cloudy

    Since it was a fairly late night last night, no one was in a hurry to get up this morning. Once we were all awake, we had a light breakfast (cereal, muffins, and blueberries). Since we didn’t have any prior plans for the day, we decided to try out “Deer Park” in Pinconning. We loaded into our respective trucks and headed out. “Deer Park” was kind of like a small petting zoo where the only animals available to pet were four fawns. There were other animals in cages, such as a parrot, a monkey, an alligator, sheep, a llama, and goats. We bought a box of popcorn to feed the animals with, but the only ones that actually ate it were the fawns, goats, and sheep. The sheep and goats had to be fed through a fence, but you could enter into the area with the fawns. I had my shorts and shirt chewed on while feeding them with Tyler and Samantha, while Becky almost had her popcorn box stolen by one overanxious fawn. Based on our other experiences in petting zoos, Sam surprised us by actually petting a deer or two. But true to form, she became scared and started screaming for some unknown reason (the deer weren’t even very close to her at that time). We left the deer area and explored the rest of the park, letting the kids play on the playgrounds for a while. After playing, Tyler and I went back to feed the baby goats and deer the remainder of our popcorn. I didn’t get my clothes ate this time, but one deer did manage to get hold of one of the box tops and eat a good chunk of paper. We took a quick stroll through the gift shop before leaving.

    Since we were in Pinconning, we decided to head to "Wilson's Cheese Shoppe". We bought a little sharp cheddar cheese before going to find a place for lunch. We stopped to eat at Burger King in Standish before heading back to the campground. On our return trip we stopped at “Frank’s”, which is a hunting/fishing store on M13. We also stopped at a small fresh fish store to buy perch for our dinner.

    Upon returning to the campground, we started to prepare dinner. While everything was getting ready, Tyler and I rode our bikes across the road to the larger playground area that was part of the park, but not the campground. It was nice, with lots of things to do. After playing for a short while, we headed back to check on dinner. Since there was still time before dinner, I tried to get Sam to ride her bike over with us, but that only lasted long enough for her to get her feet on her pedals before she started crying. I wheeled her off the road to the campsite and Tyler and I went back to the playground for a while longer. When we returned, dinner was just about ready, so we cleaned up. We all sat down to perch, potatoes (baked over the fire), and corn-on-the-cob.

    After eating we followed pretty much the same routine as the night before. The fire was still burning from dinner, so we sat around it for a while. It wasn’t too long before the kids were asking to roast marshmallows again, which we did once again. We also took turns showering before turning in for the night.

Sunday, July 17th - 84°, Partly Cloudy

    Today was checkout day, which was to occur no later than 1:00pm. Tyler was invited to a birthday party at 2:00pm today, so we were planning on leaving by 11:30am. Once everyone was awake (sometime around 9:30am) we ate breakfast once more (cereal, muffins, and berries again). Tara and I started the process of getting everything put back into the trailer, from the awning lights, rugs, to the bikes. It took some time, but we managed without any complications to get everything done. We said our goodbyes after the truck had been hooked up, and piled in. After one last stop at the dump station, or ‘sanitation station’ as it was called at this campground, we headed for home.

    We had another smooth drive today, with only one request for a bathroom stop, which we made at a rest area. We made it back to Dad and Mom’s at about 1:4opm, leaving just enough time for Tara to drop me, Samantha, and Drew off at home before heading to the birthday party. Of course it wasn’t that smooth – we had a message saying the party location had been changed due to a threat of rain (that didn’t occur). Since the new location required us passing Dad and Mom’s once again, we all loaded back up and the three of us stayed there to unload while Tara and Tyler finally went to the birthday party. None of this would have been bad had we known, but coming home to this information made it pretty hectic!

Trip Summary

    This trip turned out to be very nice. The weather wasn’t the best – although it wasn’t always really hot, the humidity was terrible. We could barely move without breaking into a sweat. My sunburned back certainly didn’t help my situation any.

    The campground wasn’t as bad as Tara and I had been prepared for. Without water we weren’t really sure what to expect, but for a weekend trip it wasn’t too bad. You just have to conserve a little more than we are used to doing. Our sites (#96 & #98) were right in front of a playground with swings, a slide, and a sandbox. It was also near the bathhouse, which made it easier to take the kids to the bathroom instead of using the one in the trailer. The site sizes were large enough to allow us to park our trailers in an “L” shape. This worked out well, giving us a lot of room for the kids to play. Tyler also rode his bike in this area when we weren’t available to take him for longer rides around the campground, which we did quite frequently.

    I only had two complaints. One was the dirt around the sites. For the most part it wasn’t really too bad, but on occasion it got dragged into the trailer on our shoes. We’ve had this problem at other campgrounds as well, so it certainly isn’t a deal breaker. The other complaint was the mosquitoes, but that is beyond the control of the campground, so we made due with it.