July 20th thru 23rd..Camps 110-111 Michigan summer.

Sunday 7-20-14--The last few days have been soooo relaxing! We're hunkered down in Camp #109 at our friend's house. The past 3 days have flown by. Bonfires every night and great gabbing. Last night we had a smoked brisket with corn on the cob and lots of sides. A lot of friends showed up so the time flew. My buddy Jerry is a master chef of smokin' !! His new smoker is huge.

My project for the week is to change out the axle on our utility trailer. Seems to have bent again. This will be the second time I've done this! These axles are rated for 3500# and the trailer, loaded, weighs 2840#. It's getting aggravating. We've had a few people mention the angle of the tires and I could see what they meant. These axles are what is known as a “ dropped axle”. They lower the trailer box about 6” . This time I'm installing a straight tube axle to, hopefully, stop this from repeating.

Our Michigan weather has finally normalized. This week will be in thee high 70's and sunny. Much better.

Tonight we're headed to The Back Door Saloon, Camp 108, to enjoy some music & karaoke. Gonna do some domestic chores today and hit the dump around the corner.

Houghton Lake, Mich. is fully into tourist season and the traffic is quite heavy. Reminds me of Florida during “ season “. Wally World was packed yesterday. I really don't like crowds like that.

7-22-14 Tuesday We pulled out for a day or two trip at about 1000 hrs .. Left the trailer in the yard this time. Seems weird without it. Speaking of weird, used the house bathroom and found myself trying to flush the toilet with a foot pedal that wasn't there..ha ha ha ha.....We got our fishing licenses and LP Gas and gassed up. Heading up to Mio and Mackinaw City to visit Heathers family. It's only a few hours drive. I found a couple of Passport America Parks and will do some 1 night stops.

Met Heather's dad, near his house, at Ma Deeters, a well known Pub in the country and had lunch. He arrived on his Harley, which is all chromed out and beautiful. Nice visit !! Camped for the night at Pine Acres CG for $16. ( Camp # 110 ).

7-23-14 Next day we visited the cemetary to visit Heather's mom's gravesite and then drove the scenic M-33 North up to Cheboygan and lunched a Big Boys..YUM..then to Mackinaw City. Holy Cow was that place crawling with the summer crowd. We scouted the area for RV parking as we're meeting Heather's Aunt & Uncle at their restaurant, The Pancake Chef , in the A.M. Great food coming!! We also drove out to the USCG Ice Cutter, Mackinaw. I hadn't seen the new ship and it's impressive. We noticed a new museum dedicated to this ship so we may do the tour tomorrow too. That'll solve the parking problem too as it's only a block away from the restaurant.

For tonight were at Mackinaw City Park just South of town (Camp 111). $15 tonight.

Really haven't made any plans after this. I guess we'll see what the weather guessers are saying in the morning first. If we drive back to Houghton Lake it only takes about 2 hours.

REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY !!

Charlie & Heather.