Pinconning, Michigan

Pinconning Park Campground

July 8th through July 10th, 2011

Friday, July 8th, 2011 - 85/59°, Mostly Sunny

    I was able to take a half of a vacation day today, which allowed me the opportunity to come home early enough that I could finish up the vast majority of the packing before Tara got home from work, with a little help from the kids, of course. By the time Tara did get home, we only had a few small things to take care of before we were able to get underway.

    Leaving between 3:00 and 3:30pm, we really only ran into trouble in one spot: the bridge on the entrance to I-75. We could see it was beyond backed up, as usual at this time of any weekday, but especially bad on a Friday. We circled through a parking lot, taking an alternate route to connect with I-475. We did hit a couple of construction zones along the way, but overall it was smooth sailing.

    We arrived at the campground around 5:00pm and pulled up to the office to check in. Tara went inside to take care of business while the kids and I waited in the truck. While we were waiting the kids spotted a deer walking through an open area near the bathhouse. It was a very neat sight, and a clue to just how rural this campground really was.

    Once Tara returned to the truck we made our way into the campground to look for our site. We spotted Jeff’s truck first, and we knew we were getting close, as our site was only two spots away. We didn’t have any trouble finding our site, and with a little help from Jeff (he not only helped us get backed in straight, he also was kind enough to hold back a tree that was leaning into our site so I could get situated) we managed to get the camper parked where we wanted it.

    Once we had successfully unhooked the camper from the truck (I guess success is a relative term… we forgot to level the camper side to side, so we had a bit of a lean that we decided we could live with for a weekend) we proceeded to undertake the process of setting up camp.
Jeff was here with his boys, Thomas and Andrew, but Becky hadn’t arrived yet. We socialized a bit while working on setting up until she joined us later on. Once she got there, we began the process of making dinner for the 10 of us. Tonight it was hamburgers and hot-dogs, depending on your preference. We cooked dinner on Jeff’s charcoal grill – no campfire cooking tonight... you can tell Jeff has really settled in to this “seasonal camper” thing! Dinner was ready about 8:00pm, but there was still plenty of light out to eat with.

    We settled around the campfire after dinner to relax a bit. Of course the kids had to have s’mores as well, even though we ate so late. It is always amazing that kids can be soooo full from the stuff they are supposed to eat for dinner, but they always have room for dessert afterwards!

    The rest of our night was spent catching up around the campfire. We did manage to get couple of the kids showers to night (in the pay showers, no less!) before we all headed inside to call it a night. I’m not certain, but I think we finally called it a night around 11:00pm, mainly because the mosquitoes were getting pretty bad!

Saturday, July 9th, 2011 - 86/62°, Sunny

    I set my alarm for a 7:00am wake-up call this morning so that I could get Tyler, Samantha, and Drew up to go fishing with Jeff today. Tara wanted to sleep in, but Jayden woke up too so she ended up staying awake as well. By the time I actually managed to get the kids out of bed, dressed, and something in their stomachs it was time to head out the door. Jeff was ready to go, so we loaded into his truck to make the drive to the marina where he keeps his boat.

    Before long we were on the boat and underway. It didn’t take us much time to head to the spot where the fishing had been good for the past week or so, but the boat ride out was apparently a bit too bumpy for Drew’s taste, as he started complaining about a sore stomach. We found a spot to fish and set out the lines (well, Jeff did anyway…). It took us a while, but we finally managed to get a bite. Drew, being the youngest, got the honor of reeling in the first fish, and it turned out to be a keeper, even if just barely! It didn’t seem to take too much longer before the second fish was hooked as well, with Samantha taking the honors with this one. It too turned out to be a keeper. We went quite a while before catching anything else, though quite a few of the worms disappeared off of the hooks in the meantime. Finally Tyler got a chance to reel one in, but it turned out to be too small to save, so back in the water it went. We did manage to net one more fish, which Sam reeled in, but it had to be tossed back in as well.

    During the down time between the first two fish and the last two fish Drew started to feel a little worse. He went inside to try to lay down for a while, but later came out complaining of a sore throat. I didn’t have any medicine to give him, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway as he wound up throwing up overboard a short while later. It could have been a bug; it could have been sea-sickness; or it could have been the massive amounts of Twizzlers that he ate. I suppose we’ll never know…

    Meanwhile, back at the campground, Tara had gotten up and moving, taking Jayden for a jogging stroll on the road leading to the campground, going a little over 2 miles on her journey. She showered before her and Becky took the remaining three kids to A&W for lunch.
We decided to head back in as it got closer to lunch time. The kids were getting a little restless with the lack of action, and Drew still wasn’t feeling the greatest. He had perked up some since he “fed the fishes,” but he still wasn’t feeling the greatest. We parked the boat in the slip and closed things back up before heading out. We made one pit stop, at a gas station to get something cold to drink, before heading back to the campground to eat lunch ourselves. We made sandwiches to eat today, and had some chips to go with them.

    After we finished eating and the others returned from their journey, we all climbed into our vehicles to head off to Northwood’s Wholesale Outlet to do some shopping. This store has a little bit of everything on the shelves, and we bought a little bit of everything today as well. Sunglasses for the kids ($2.00 each), a water nozzle wand ($1.00), Nerds-on-a-Rope candy (3 for $1.00), new wheel chocks and a folding basket for the camper, and much, much more that I am forgetting about right now!

    After our tour through the Northwood’s store was complete we headed out to make a stop at Wilson’s Cheese Shop. We bought a couple of pounds of super-sharp cheese, and Jeff bought his usual supply of squeaky-cheese. His family goes to this shop so much that the employees recognize him!

    After we completed our cheese purchases, it was back to the campground to relax for a bit. The kids passed their time by riding bikes and playing with the toys at Jeff & Becky’s campsite while the adults took the time to sit back and take a deep breath. Before too long Jeff and I were breaking out the turkey fryers to start dinner. Tonight’s menu consisted of a little bit of fresh walleye as well as some frozen (a contingency plan in case fishing didn’t go so smoothly), in addition to perch and smelt, along with french-fries and onion rings. Jeff cooked the fish, while I made two different kinds of fries (regular and sweet potato) in addition to some onion rings. Even though we made too much fish, dinner was delicious – at least the perch and walleye was… smelt is way too bony for my tastes!

    We settled in around the campfire once again tonight, but cut the activities short a bit to get the kids showered and in bed. I think it was lights out for the kiddos around 10:30pm, which made for a long enough day for them, considering the early hour they woke up at this morning. The four adults returned to the campfire a bit later on to talk some more about life and it’s deep meaning. Or not. We called it a night before midnight tonight.

Sunday, July 10th, 2010 - 90/72°, Mostly Sunny

    We did our best to sleep in this morning, even though we probably shouldn’t have since it is checkout day. It was almost 10:00am before we crawled out of bed, which wiped out any chance we had of making a big breakfast with Jeff & Becky. We finished off whatever we could find for breakfast this morning before beginning the dreaded task of tearing down the campsite.

    Before we completed the task of packing up camp, we decided to take another short shop trip. On our way out we stopped at the office to ask for a later checkout time, because we knew we wouldn’t be making it out on time. Our first stop was at a store called Norman’s, which apparently specializes in the all too popular specialty of Day-Glo clothing… it appears that you can buy just about any piece of clothing you need for being visible while working here – vests, coats, boots, you name it. In all honesty, I did find a couple of things I would have bought while I was here – a pair of Reebok Pumps, for only $15! They were white, which isn’t my favorite, but for the price I couldn’t say no. Alas, the smallest size was an 18. Apparently this store is for giants who crave Day-Glo colors! They also had some Red Wings work boots, but they too weren’t right for me. They had my size, but in a shoe that was much too wide for my foot. They also were much more than the $15 the sneakers cost, so I couldn’t even learn to live with the width for the price.

    We also made another stop at Northwood’s on our way back to the campground to pick up a few items that we forgot to look for yesterday (air for my airhorn, a tube for Sam’s bike tire). We found everything we wanted at the store, and we even picked up a very special hat for Becky as a gift while we were there!

    On our way back into the campground we stopped at the restrooms to let Drew use them. We didn’t tell him to meet us at the campsite, so Samantha volunteered to stay and wait for him. He came out about the same time Sam got out of the truck, however. While Drew opted to ride with us, Sam chose to run alongside of us. It was on our way that we spotted a tiny turtle crossing the road. Sam went to pick it up, and instantly fell in love.

    Once we returned to our campsite, we started making lunch. Today it was pie-iron pizzas over the campfire. After everyone had their share, it was finally time to pack up camp. It was close to 5:00pm by the time we pulled out of our site, stopping at the dump station on our way out.

    In order to avoid the construction that has southbound I-75 down to one lane, Jeff & Becky led us through Saginaw in order to take M-15 south instead. This worked out fine, keeping us moving at a steady pace all the way home. I did stop for fuel and to get something to drink once, so they got to their destination before we did ours. We pulled in to our driveway around 7:00pm, unloaded the camper as best as we could for the night, and went to pick up dinner before working on getting ready for the workweek that lie ahead of us!

Trip Summary

    We had a great trip, despite the lack of fish caught. The kids all had a great time playing with each other, and Tara & I enjoyed catching up with a couple of great friends.

    I didn’t spend much time exploring the campground itself, so I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. In general, what I saw seemed to be a nice, quiet campground that seems to be primarily occupied by seasonal campers. The kids managed to find a few trails to explore either on foot or by bike. While our campsite was a little narrow, it was perfectly fine for our needs. It would have been nice to have been right next door to Jeff & Becky, but being one site away wasn’t so bad since the site in between wasn’t occupied this weekend (it has a fifth wheel on it, but Jeff says he has never seen the people that occupy it). We wore out a path in the grass between the two sites, though, so if that person does return they might wonder what was going on!

    While I still prefer full hookups, we have gotten used to making it for a weekend with just electric. Thank goodness Jeff has extra hose to reach across the street, because we did run out of water on Saturday, forcing us to refill our tank in order to finish washing a sink full of dishes. We did use the showers, which are pay-showers here, costing $0.25 for whatever the predetermined time was. While the showers are nowhere near as nice as the ones at the state park in Bay City, they weren’t unusable by any stretch of the imagination.

    I do know that the kids, Tara, and I are looking forward to camping with Jeff, Becky, and the boys again later this summer, as well as often in the future!