Some time far later. Actually, Sunday night Aug 14. I had best write this before I forget it altogether. After touring the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore we got back in touch with the Jim and Barb and headed for their cottage in Interlochen. This is the home of Interlochen Music Camp which is quite a huge facility with many campers who are gifted in music and various other arts. It turns out their cottage is just across a rather small lake from the camp and it is very lovely. After touring the cottage, Barb took us on a tour of the camp. Needless to say we were very impressed. We were so impressed that we want to begin discussions about the possibility of Josh (our eldest grandchild) attending next summer to explore his interest in flute more deeply. This is the first his parents are hearing about this (I think). After the tour We returned to their cottage and we had a delightful dinner on their pontoon bout out on the lake. This was capped off with an evening of bridge (an early evening on their part as we had miles to drive and are much earlier people in any event. The bridge was fun and Carol got back into her game better than she expected. I am very rusty but have always loved the game.
Our return to Timber Ridge found stragglers still at the campfire, but we quietly settled in and were soon asleep. In the morning we set off with no real idea where we would get to as we traveled up the peninsula toward the Upper Peninsula (hereafter U P) past Petosky and over the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Bridge. We crossed the U P rather more quickly than I had anticipated as there was little for us to do in a day. We don’t fish or hunt so it is really lost on us. That night we found ourselves in Bayside Campground 16 miles outside of Escanaba, MI. The buildings at the campground could do with renovation by dynamite, but the camping area was very nice. The people we met were very friendly and we made friends with Jean and Garret Mulder who were also on their way to Minot. Jean mentioned, almost in passing that she would like to join the volunteer organization when Carol mentioned that we would be doing that at the Rally. We parted ways the next morning with intentions of seeking each other out once we were in Minot.
The next night we made it to Saginaw, MN. The Saginaw CG has everything possible against it. It sits at a major turn in US 2, between both legs of the highway with a major rail line as its back property line. Across the street is a gas station/saloon/package store. The people we met were very nice. The owner dropped off a large load of firewood in out fire pit for no charge!! And the neighbors, as usual, were friendly. Traffic on 2 is actually quite limited and even the trains were few in the night. We slept well and were ready for an early departure in the morning. This day was nice drive to the Bemidji, MN area followed by a horrendous battle with an unnecessary detour. We had selected Hamilton’s Fox Lake Campground for its Passport America discount more than anything else. (For those new to this blog and not RVers, that is a 50% discount from normal price). We had three distinct sets of directions, two in the campground guides we carry and the third provided by HAL. We discounted the HAL route since the route numbers seemed to indicate improved dirt roads. The other two routes made life confusing. Having selected one, we ran into a “road closed three miles ahead” sign. We had no idea whether our next turn was in more or less than three miles. Fifteen miles later we returned to the closed road to find we could not go back to where the campground turn was and there was no other access to civilization for some distance. There was no way to turn around even if we unhooked the car. I zoomed in the range on my GPS and located some back roads that appeared to provide an “around the block” turn around albeit a several miles long further detour. Finally we got back to the original road closed sign and proceeded though it to find almost immediate access to the turn we wanted. With gas prices high and rising, 30 miles or more out of the way is far more frustrating than usual especially since we would not have time to explore Bemidji. If you wonder why you know the name, it is the home of Paul Bunyan and his great Blue Ox Babe and frequently the coldest place in the US. The campground is delightful. It sits directly on Fox Lake with sites in three rows facing the lake. There is water access and boats to rent and nice level grass sites for the motorhome. We had full hookups and could clean off the bugs and make ourselves ready to join the throngs in Minot.
Wednesday, August 10 found us up early facing our longest drive of the trip so far, 330 miles. In a car that may not seem like much, but by the end of that day we would have covered 1091 miles (detours included) in four days. This is not our usual mode of travel. We got up early and set out for Minot. Somehow both of us were ready for shorter driving shifts than usual and we found ourselves stopping and changing every 90 minutes or so. I took the last shift and extended a bit as I did not want to stop until I saw a gas station with $2.349. It took me a bit to figure out that the high test was cheaper than the regular because it has 10% ethanol. I have 45 gallons of the ethanol loaded fuel to burn off when I leave here and prices are much higher and climbing as we sit. I can easily see a $150 fill up in my future.
We pulled into Swenson’s RV on route 2 in Minot to join our friends from Chavuarat Yehudim in the pre rally get together. Swenson’s is an RV Dealer/Campground that does not know what it wants to be when it grows up. The campground is brand new – carved from a field in May of this year, and it really amounts to a gravel parking lot with side by side hookups. It is not the greatest, but it was available and we were all parked together. The location, five miles from our lot at the fairground, was also pretty good. We joined up with the Elowskis, Topfs, Singers, Dobrins, and Ploessers. The latter couple are not members of Chai, but met the Topfs in Alaska and became close friends. We had dinner together outside the Topf’s coach each bringing our own dinner. We all got into a frenzy of cleaning. I had to make the exterior as clean as I could get it without a ladder while Carol was busy scrubbing the interior. Our friends likewise were busy getting rid of the dirt of travel, in some cases several months including travel in Alaska. By Thursday afternoon the coaches were all clean and the refrigerators and food files were well stocked. We were ready to go into the fairground and we went out to Chinese buffet at the China Star. A couple of us were not real well that night. By drive time in the morning I was feeling much better.
At 9:00 sharp we rolled out of the campground in an impressive caravan of 6 clean coaches and 15 minutes later we were pulling into our assigned slots at the fairground, five miles away.