Bay City, Michigan

Bay City State Recreation Area

July 9th through July 11th, 2010

Friday, July 9th, 2010 - 84/70°, AM Clouds/PM Sun

    Our first camping trip of the year occurred a little later than usual because we have pushed back our usual Fourth of July family camping trip (there is no rush to have it during shutdown anymore, as my plant typically works during what would be the second week – plus moving it back makes it easier for Tara and Erica to join us). Since this was our first trip, we frantically tried to make sure that we packed everything that we would need at the last minute (why use the entire month of June for that, right?). Of course we didn’t remember everything we needed, but with the exception of dog food we didn’t forget anything that we couldn’t live without for a couple of days.

    We were able to get packed and ready to go in time to hit the road by 3:30pm. Aside from a little construction near Saginaw, our drive was entirely uneventful. We arrived at the campground a little before 5:00pm. Tara headed in to the office to register while the kids and I pulled around to the dump station to empty our tanks (the kids walked to the bathhouse to empty theirs, I emptied the one on the camper) and to fill up the camper with fresh water (which we forgot to do when we stayed here last year!). Once we were emptied, full, and registered we drove off to find our site.

    We were assigned site #5, while our friends Jeff & Becky and their boys Thomas and Andrew were given site #4. We were planning to form an “L” shape, or have one camper in backwards, so that we could create a common outdoor area. Since we happened to arrive first (for once) we opted to put our camper in backwards, and at an angle, so that all Jeff had to do was back straight in. This way he wouldn’t have to try to pull in backwards, resulting in him having a difficult time getting his truck out with campsites set up all around him. We ended swapping sites so that we could accomplish this.

    Once we settled on a spot to park the camper, Tara & I went about the business of disconnecting the truck, connecting the power, and performing general site setup while the kids went about their business of asking to do this and to do that long before it was possible for us to get a chance to get their things ready. Bikes always seem to be the biggest culprit of this… Kids: “Can I ride my bike yet?” Me: “But I haven’t even turned the ignition off yet…”

    About the time that we finished setting up our campsite Jeff & Becky arrived with their camper. The adults finished setting everything up while the kids moved on to playing. Riding bikes and making chalk drawings were a couple of the favorites today. We got a charcoal “fire” going so that we could make dinner, which was hot dogs, hamburgers, and macaroni-and-cheese this evening.

    We ate our meal fairly late tonight, which was pretty much expected since we had to make the drive and do everything else that is involved with the first day of camping. By the time we finished, it was getting close to dark. Jeff started a real campfire, and we spent the evening relaxing around it. None of us were too highly motivated this evening, and it showed. Once darkness actually set in, we worked on getting the kids showered (at the bathhouse). Tyler and Samantha took turns on their own, but Drew and Jayden showered together with Tara’s help. Becky did the same with her boys. Once they were all cleaned and in their PJ’s, it was bedtime for all of the kids. The four adults hung around outside a little while longer, finally calling it a night sometime around midnight.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 - 85/62°, Mostly Sunny

    Today was our scheduled day to go fishing, assuming the weather held out. Thankfully we had blue skies and minimal wind, so we were able to make it out on the water as planned. Since we had stayed up late last night and Jeff had been working long hours at work, we opted against a bright and early start time and chose to just get up whenever and then go out on the boat. For Tara & I it was close to 9:30am before we climbed out of bed, thanks in large part to a rough night of sleep due to the stifling heat in our bedroom and a snoring dog at our side. Having Jayden join us in the middle of the night certainly did little to make sleeping any easier. The rest of the kids woke up at about the same time, so we worked on eating breakfast, which was primarily yogurt.

    After we ate, we discussed the fishing plans with Jeff & Becky. Since Jeff and his Dad had purchased a larger boat since our trip last year, it was determined that there would be enough room (and life vests) for all 10 of us to go out. It was getting close to 11:00am, so we also agreed to pack lunches to take with us out on the water.

    After packing lunches, drinks, and ourselves into the trucks, we made the drive north to Linwood, where the boat is docked. We made our way across the very creaky docks to the boat, and headed out for an early afternoon fishing expedition. Unfortunately the fish weren’t doing much biting today, and because of this the kids tended to get a little bored. They managed to keep themselves occupied and behaved for the most part. In fact, I don’t really recall any yelling or fighting going on! Over the course of the several hours that we were fishing we only managed to reel in 6 fish – two silver bass, two walleye that were too small to keep, and two walleye that met the 15” length requirement. Because the action was so slow we decided that we should head in to land for a while, with the intention of going back out again later in the evening.

    Once we were back on dry land, our first stop was at Frank’s Great Outdoors. Ever since last year when we went fishing with Jeff, Tyler has taken a serious liking to fishing. He had been wanting to get a new pole, but since I know virtually nothing about the sport we figured who better to help us than Jeff? He did a great job, finding Tyler a nice (affordable – that’s the part I like) pole, as well as some lures and a tackle box. Tara and I told Tyler that we would get it all for him, but that it was going to be his birthday present and that he shouldn’t expect anything else from us. He was OK with this, as long as he could use it on our next camping trip (which is before his birthday).

    After leaving Frank’s, we headed further north towards Pinconning to stop at another outdoor store, Northwoods Wholesale Outlet. Tara & I have been on an ill-timed mission to get a turkey fryer for use when camping, and although we found one at Frank’s, we have seen others with more accessories for a similar price. We thought that maybe we would have some luck at this store, but it wasn’t to be. We did find a nice campfire grill though, and I have wanted one so we went ahead and made that purchase. Tyler, Sam, and Drew also got some sunglasses (they were cheap here!) since they either a) lost the ones that they got for Easter already (that would be Tyler and Sam) or b) they tripped, knocked out one of the lenses from their Easter glasses, and couldn’t find it while in a restroom (Drew, who actually had done a nice job of keeping track of his glasses). Jeff described this store as reminding him of the Whoopee Bowl (an old store that used to operate near us when we were growing up) and Tara & I both agreed. We also agreed that my Grandma Beulah would really like this store!

    Our last stop was just a little further north in Pinconning, at Wilson’s Cheese Shoppe. Jeff loves their squeaky cheese, and our kids wanted to try some as well. We ended up buying half a pound of the squeaky stuff and a pound of super sharp. After all of the years that we have been camping with Jeff & Becky in Bay City and buying cheese here, I always thought I was getting super sharp cheddar… apparently that isn’t so. “All Pinconning cheese is Colby” is what we were told. I guess you learn something new all the time!

    After getting our cheese we loaded back into our trucks to make the drive back to the campground. Jeff and I spent some time sitting in the shade listening to the Tigers game, but Jeff later headed inside to lay down in an attempt to get rid of his headache. Since he was doing this and I was running out of steam anyway, we all decided not to go back out on the boat tonight.

    We were supposed to have fresh walleye for dinner tonight (assuming we could have caught enough, that is) but instead opted to make the frozen perch that Tara had brought along with us. Becky, Tara, and I had just finished discussing the various aspects of how to cook dinner and when to wake Jeff up when he came strolling out of the camper looking refreshed and rejuvenated. The sky at this time was looking the opposite of refreshed and rejuvenated, however. Jeff decided that we better head up to cover the boat and put away the things that we had left out earlier in the day.

    Jeff & I drove up to the marina, running into a couple of sprinkles along the way. We managed to beat the rain and get the boat closed before any storms hit. Standing on the dock we could see the downpour to the south, though, so I think we got there just in time. Speaking of the dock, remember my mention of how creaky it is? Well, apparently some sections are creakier than others… one section of dock (the part that runs between boats) collapsed as someone was walking across it sometime between when we left earlier in the day and when we returned. We heard that the gentlemen’s chest looked pretty rough, and his chin took a beating from the fall as well. Ouch! Glad it wasn’t me, or any of the kids for that matter…

    On our way back to the campsite Tara called with a request for us to pick up some coleslaw from the deli counter at a grocery store that we pass on our way. We dutifully made the stop, but this really isn’t much of a grocery store – the first thing that you walk through is a Laundromat! Once you pass all of the washing machines, you actually enter the store. I thought it looked more like a party store than a grocery store, and Jeff thought it looked like a converted cattle barn. Needless to say, they didn’t have what we were looking for, and even if they did I am not sure I would have wanted anybody to eat food made here anyway! We ended up driving south past the campground to the Meijer store, where we were able to find a container of coleslaw that we felt a little more comfortable purchasing.

    We made it back to the campground a little after 7:00pm, just in time to fire up the deep fryer to start cooking dinner. Jeff and I cooked the fish first, and followed that up with the French fries. Becky and Tara graciously took care of everything else that we would need for dinner.
We sat down for dinner and enjoyed a peaceful meal. All of the kids did a good job of eating, with the exception of Jayden. For whatever reason, she still refuses to eat almost every meal that we make with the exception of tacos, and then she mainly eats the grated cheese. I can’t speak for Jeff & Becky, but I know that both Tara & I ate way too much tonight. I really need to start that exercise program!

    After dinner we congregated around the campfire once again. We didn’t really do anything too exciting until it got dark out, and then the kids really started pushing for s’mores. Drew had spotted some gigantic marshmallows at Meijer a week or so ago, so Tara bought them to bring along. We gave them a try tonight, but didn’t have much success with them. Jeff was the only one who truly managed to roast one properly, but even that one was too hot to eat – we needed to be more prepared with a plate or bowl, and a fork! All of the kids roasted them, and most of the marshmallows did get eaten, even though only the outsides were cooked or part of it may have fallen into the fire. Drew even managed to make one into a s’more, but he had a heck of a time actually eating it.

    Once we decided that we had enough of the s’more mess, we started the process of bathing the kids. Sam went first tonight, followed by Tara and Jay. Once they were all done, I took Drew for our turn. Tyler rounded out the bunch. Since we were all clean and it was getting pretty late, the kids all headed off to bed. Tara & I joined Jeff & Becky at the campfire once again for some quiet, peaceful adult time (sometimes it is nice to be able to carry on a conversation for longer than 30 seconds before being interrupted). As midnight neared, we decided that we ought to call it a night if we had any intention of attempting to fish once again in the morning.

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 - 85/62°, Mostly Sunny

    7:00am rolled around much too soon after two late nights with minimal quality sleep involved thanks to the heat (and the dog). When the alarm went off I really started to regret remembering to set it. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had forgotten anyway, because Tyler was already awake and ready to go, so he would have had me awake regardless. I managed to rouse Drew fairly easily, but Samantha was an entirely different story. I finally managed to get her out of bed (after the third or fourth try) so she could get dressed. Somehow we managed to sneak out without interrupting Tara or Jayden’s sleep too much.

    Jeff was awake and waiting for us by the time we made it out of the camper, ready to head off to the bay. Since Drew’s car seat was already situated in my truck (and since we were using his gas on the boat) I offered to drive up to the marina this morning. We arrived at the boat, got everything ready to go, and were on our way in no time.

    We didn’t have any better luck today than we did yesterday, unfortunately. We ended up with two more walleye that were longer than 15”, although the one may have been less than an eighth of an inch longer than that. We also caught at least one walleye that we had to throw back, and Drew managed to reel in a sheephead that we also threw back. Other than that we spent most of our time trying to stay awake (which was difficult for the kids and me at times) and enjoying the sun. After a couple of hours of futile fishing we decided to head back in to pack up the campsites for the drive home.

    I was hoping, but certainly knowing better, that the camper would be more or less picked up by the time we returned, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. Tara did have the majority of the inside cleaned up, but nothing outside was taken care of. In somewhat of a minor miracle we were able to finish the job in about 30 minutes, which is probably a record for us!

    Once we got everything packed away it was time to back the truck in, hook up, and pull away. We made a quick stop at the dump station to take care of the dirty work, and then hit the road shortly after 1:30pm.

    We pulled into the McDonalds located just up the road from the campground for lunch. I saw on their sign that they had orange shakes, and I thought that I really needed to try one. We got one of the orange shakes for everyone to try, but I have to admit I was thoroughly disappointed. I suppose it tasted like it should have, but it wasn’t as good as I would have hoped. The remainder of our drive home was event free, with the exception of one bathroom break to rid ourselves of the McDonalds.

    Once we made it home safely we made a quick turnaround in the yard, parked the camper in the side driveway, and went about the business of unloading the laundry and other items that needed to be dealt with before our next trip on Wednesday!

Trip Summary

    Even though the fishing wasn’t exactly what you would call great, the kids had a blast nonetheless. Tyler is still hooked (no pun intended), and is more than excited about using his new pole – both at home and on our next trip to River Ridge Resort.

    We camped on sites #4 and #5 this year, and aside from being very sandy they were great. This campground continues to amaze me with the size of the sites – if only they at least had water hookups available; full hookups would be even better! The sites we had were well shaded and protected from wind. Although we didn’t have any rain, we were high enough that we would have stayed dry if we did.

    The best part about any camping trip isn’t the site or the activities that you participate in; it’s the company that you are with. Thankfully we had great company this trip. The kids played together wonderfully, and the evening conversation was excellent as well. We are already looking forward to camping with Jeff, Becky, Thomas, and Andrew later this August; and again next year too!