August 8, 2008 by Tim Enright.

Today is 08-08-08 and we should be at the casino betting on something. Look at me I sound like a big time gambler. We went to the casino on Friday the 13^th to try our luck and I lost the $20 limit we each spend in less than 10 minutes. It was probably a good thing we didn’t go today.

We decided to go to Valley Plaza RV Resort for the weekend. I needed a place with full hookups to flush the tanks out. With rain in the forecast we were not looking to do much camping, we just needed a place to hookup for a night or two.

The conference center was holding an event so the place was quite full. A couple younger guys here for the conference came up to us and told us they were informed that they could not pitch their tent on a site. They were not very happy. They were not acquainted with the differences between a RV Park and a Campground.  I explained this was a common in a RV Park to not allow tents.

I noticed that they have a couple more seasonal rigs spending the summer here this year. You can tell because they have much more stuff than anyone else. They are not allowed to stay all year, so you will not find any porches or sheds on their sites. I believe that makes the place much more inviting to the regular RVers.

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July 31, 2008 by Tim Enright.

The headline this year will read “Aussum Aussie losses title to Sawmill Smoke House”.
 
Today we once again attended the Pig Gig. This is a rib cook-off competition for best in the Midwest. I am sad to say that after a very long reign Aussum Aussie has lost its title as Best Ribs this year. Every year we sample most, if not all of the ribs offered here and this year we were surprised in what we found. Sawmill Smoke House from Freeland, Michigan had a very tender, juicy and flavorful rack of ribs. Aussum Aussie had to lay down their title this year. I do have to add that if you wanted to make a good thing better, you needed to put some of Bar-B-Cutie’s BBQ sauce on top of the Sawmill Smoke House ribs to acquire near perfection.

 
On a sad note the piggy races did not show up this year. We spoke with Event Organizer, Wendy Dore and she informed us that they were booked to participate but did not show up.  We all hope to see the piggys again next year.

As evening came around we decided to head over to a small dive near the Bay City State Park called Mussell Beach Drive-In. We chose this place because it featured “Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream”. We simply love this brand of ice-cream and get it every time we find someplace that serves it. We have been to dozens of these places selling Ashby’s (it is easier now that www.ashbysicecream.com offers a store locator) . We have always been served a generous portion for a fair price, until now. Mussell Beach Drive-In does Ashby’s a REAL injustice. What we were served was somewhat embarrassing.

To begin, they were out of waffle cones. For a beautiful summer evening, I am not sure how they could let this occur but, I guess it can be an honest mistake. To make matters worse, the plain cones they had left were some kind of baby-sized, soft serve cones. When they showed me what they were going to try and perch my beloved ice-cream upon I had to chuckle.  When they asked if I would like a double scoop, I lost it. I laughed and asked if I was on some kind of hidden camera show or something. How in the world was this guy going to pile 2 scoops of ice-cream on this golf tee sized cone?

When I received my single cone, I didn’t trust the balancing act I would have to do to keep from dumping it, so I asked for a bowl to place it in. I was then given a small Styrofoam drinking cup. At this point I was not surprised; they didn’t even spell the word “Mussell” correct in the name of the place.

I do need to make some mention of the park since it is the title of my blog entry.  We stayed at Bay City State Park located in Bay City, Michigan. We enjoyed a very nice stay spent with family. The weather was nice and the county was even kind enough to come through and eliminate the mosquitoes for us.

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July 17, 2008 by Tim Enright.

My wife and I ran over to the Saganing Eagles Landing Casino in Standish, Michigan and guess what….WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!

I won $35.00 on a 2-penny slot machine. I put a $5 bill in and got $35 back after only a couple of spins. That was the good part. The bad part was after winning such a huge jackpot, I had to quit. So I was done for the night. This was the 2^nd time I won BIG money in one of these machines this year, last time it was on Donald Trump’s dime at his Plaza in Atlantic City. I am sooooo lucky. I usually never win anything.

Ok, back to the camping part. We are now at Outdoor Adventures, Wilderness Resort in Omer, Michigan. Of the Outdoor Adventure Resorts, this is one of our favorites. This will be a working-vacation, as we will continue to drive to work from here. This is a very relaxing place to wind down after work.

But then again, don’t lose track of the most important part of this entire blog entry…. WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!

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July 11, 2008 by Tim Enright.

This weekend we are at Petit Park in Clare, Michigan. I adjusted the trailer brakes this week and used this as an excuse to check them out. You see we had to go camping in order to properly test out the brakes. We enjoy coming to this park anyway.

We had just returned from spending a week at Clear Lake State Park up north.  I cleaned out my entire closet in the RV, something that I never do. I always leave a few items in here that I never wear around the house. Well, as you can guess where this is leading, I neglected to put anything back in the RV for this trip. To make matters worse it was an extremely humid evening outside when we arrived at the park to setup camp. I found the clothing that I was wearing had become drenched from just setting up the RV.

With a little laundry soap that we keep on hand, my wife was kind enough to hand wash my clothing. With a small fan and a hair blow-dryer, I was back in business.

A little ingenuity can be a camper’s lifesaver.

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June 26, 2008 by Tim Enright.

It is time again for our 3^rd annual 4^th of July camping trip. Like the last 2 years we met several of our friends and family at the Clear Lake State Park near Atlanta, Michigan. This year we occupied 6 campsites in all. 

On the 4^th we all came together for our traditional potluck picnic. We counted 24 people for the picnic this year. We were even joined by several non-RVers. We enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, meatballs, salads, beans, kabobs, pies and more. It makes me hungry just thinking of all the food. We then played ladder ball and bocce ball. Later in the evening we sat around the campfire and ate Smores. It was a great time.

This year the park introduced a host camper. Not sure exactly what he was responsible for (and either was the park worker I asked) but I think he had something to do with the bike parade. My nephew even won 1^st place for his patriotic bicycle decorations. I think the fact that he was also one of the few riders wearing protective gear may have helped persuade the judges as well.

My brother-in-law talked me into heading into Atlanta to do a bit of canoeing down the Thunder Bay River. Six of us went, including my niece and her girlfriend. I believe the two of them had a little more fun than the rest of us. I have never seen a canoe go down the river sideways before.

While I was off floating down the river, my wife found some Alpena strawberries and made jam. Alpena berries are some of the best in the state. I sure am glad she found them and took the time to make the jam.

In the evening, we took a ride out into the state forest area to look for elk. Along the way we stopped at what we loving refer to as “Enright Rock”. This was a good opportunity to take a couple of quick snapshots.

I asked this young man how he would rate the time he had at the picnic this year.

He gave it his best highest rating!

He said it was simply PHENOMENAL!

This was another good 4^th of July. I can’t wait for it to come around again next year.

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June 5, 2008 by Tim Enright.

We have been back in Michigan for 3 days now following our 2 ½ week road trip. It’s time to go camping again.

This time we decided to go a little closer to home. We ended up at the Outdoor Adventures Saginaw Bay Resort.  The weather was not very nice. We had to put up our awning a couple of times. One time it was up for only 5 minutes when we were warned of 60 mile an hour winds coming our way.

This year the park is stressing a 5 mph speed limit. This apparently only applies to members and NOT employees. The staff zips around so fast that I swear there must be a pit stop set up on one of the camp sites. The speed limit is a good idea and it is good for EVERYBODY.

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May 31, 2008 by Tim Enright.

At 8PM we pulled over on the side of the road to watch our beloved Detroit Red Wings win against Pittsburgh in game 4 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

We then proceeded to the next rest area, Angola Travel Plaza, I-90 - NYS Thruway, Milepost 447. We spent the night here between two semi trucks, one of which was running all night long. Not the best night’s sleep, need I say more?   

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May 30, 2008 by Tim Enright.

We called Onidea Shores Park located just outside of Syracuse New York to make our reservations for the weekend. We were told none would be necessary and to just come on in anytime.

Upon arriving, we found no one around to greet us. In fact we could not find anyone at all. After quite some time we ran into someone who told us where to find the office. We went to the office only to be told that we had arrived too early and they did not have time for us right then. We were told to come back later. So we did as we were told and left, very confused might I add.

We didn’t spend a lot of time at this place due to the fact we had a wedding to attend in town. The park did have water and electric. It was on a nice beach. I figure it must get pretty busy in the summer months.

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May 28, 2008 by Tim Enright.

First thing this morning we headed to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory.

We then headed to the Trapp Family Lodge where the people from the Sound of Music lived.

After that we stopped at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company to watch bears being born.

Finally after a full day, we arrived at Adirondack Adventure Resort, Schroon River. This park is part of Coast-To-Coast and a sister park of Outdoor Adventures in Michigan. We found it to be a lot like the Outdoor Adventure Resorts but not as well maintained. With a little bit of work and money it could be every bit as good.   

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May 27, 2008 by Tim Enright.

Located in the heart of downtown Burlington, Vermont is a campground called North Beach. I found it very strange pulling our 5^th wheel through the busy city streets and even started thinking that I could be getting into a driving situation that I may regret. But when I reached the campground, I found it to be like any other, just a little unusual to get to.

The campground is located on the shores of Lake Champlain. It offered large full hookup sites. There are 137 sites in total. They also provide security at night until 2AM.

We called ahead several times to make a reservation yet no one picked up our calls. When we arrived, we were surprised to find someone working in the office and were puzzled to why our calls went unanswered. We were informed that sewer adapters (sewer donuts) were required on all sewer connections. I do not know how they plan on enforcing this rule when the pipe at the site we were given had no threads and was sunk below ground level making it imposable to use our adapter. I love it when you are given rules that you cannot possibly abide by.

That evening we went to Bove’s for dinner. We had seen an episode on the Food Network featuring Bove’s famous lasagna so we had to give it a try. We arrived only to find it is only served on Wednesdays and this was Tuesday. Just our luck. I really wanted to compare it to the lasagna my wife puts together. I am sure it would pale in comparison. But I guess we will never know.

UPDATE: The following is taken from Bove’s Blog dated June 11^th, 2008

(Just 2 weeks after we were at there for dinner and missed out on the lasagna)

Lasagna Lovers Rejoice–Bove’s Lasagna Available All Summer!

Since the Food Network has aired the special about our famous lasagna, we have been inundated with requests for it. As you know, Wednesday nights have always been “Bove’s Lasagna nights.” That’s about to change . . .

In order to cater to our “traveling fans,” I am making lasagna everyday throughout the summer. Please continue sending me emails telling me that you are coming so I can meet all of you, hear your comments about the show, and hear your thoughts on my lasagna. I want to make sure that you have your lasagna reserved.

People have been traveling from all over the country, and even the world, to taste my lasagna. My family and I are amazed. We’ve hosted people from California, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Canada, and even Tanzania (that one was hard to believe).

I can’t wait to see all of you this summer

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