Leaving Indiana

8-22-2021 - Sunday

 I rousted Joe out of bed about 8:30 and we were first at the dump station at 9:00. Mosquitoes just swarmed Joe as he did his outside work. After a stop in town for breakfast at Maria's PancakeHouse (large parking lot), we were on our way to Michigan at 10:10. Joe went into the restroom before we left the restaurant and snapped this picture--lol.  I didn't check out the ladies room so I don't now if they were nicer to us or not.

Found another buffalo — in LaGrange. I know there was a buffalo at our campground in Kendallville when we stayed here before, but apparently he has gone missing.

Crossed Michigan state line at 10:55, so no more Indiana buffalo pictures.  We arrived at our campground between Benton Harbor and South Haven about 1:10, but check-in wasn't until 3:00.  The person at the campground station checked us in but said there was about 140 people leaving by 1:30, and there was a back-up at the dump station, which blocked the road.  So they were having people drive their campers down to one of their beach parking lots until 1:30, at which time they thought they could let everyone in.  By the time she got us checked in and all our charges/fees tacked on, it was almost 1:25.  The park ranger had come in so she asked him if she could let us in.  He asked us to wait 5 more minutes, then he thought we could get by, so we just pulled over the the parking lot right there and waited it out.  The dump station was just a few yards past the check-in gate, and there were 7 people lined up to dump.  It looked like they had 6 dump stations right there together, but they were so close together I doubt that more than 2 people could dump at once.  Anyway, we got to our spot just about 1:30, hooked up the electricity, and took a nap.  Neither of us have been sleeping very well, and we were both exhausted (too many late night Mexican train games).  We only drove 143 miles today, but I don't think either of us had many more miles left in us.  We were glad to see that our site is not grassy - we think that's why that last campground had so many mosquitos and gnats, which we fought the whole time we were there, especially the gnats.  We had little bowls of apple cider vinegar/sugar/dawn in the bathroom and the kitchen, and still kept getting more gnats every day.

Anyway, after our little rest, we drove into South Haven.  It's a pretty, beachy town, lots of shops, nice beach and boat harbor.  We crossed this bridge with bright red flowers in planter boxes along the sides, which were very pretty.

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We failed to notice this was a drawbridge.  It's a wonder we didn't end up falling through it when they raised it, although I'm pretty sure there are barriers that come out (if we noticed them).  We made several loops through town looking for a place to eat dinner, and saw the bridge was up the next time through.  Ah Ha.  We did get lucky on that one.

coming down

That little inlet goes right down to the beach and out into Lake Michigan, which was pretty rough.  But the beach looked nice.

beach

There were lots and lots of boats in the harbor, and that inlet goes quite a ways into town and on out of town.  We drove in and out of a couple parking lots to see the water and boats. Some of the boats in the marina were HUGE.

As we drove around town, there were lots of yard decorations and flowers, but I spotted this really cool bicycle planter that I thought Mazie should have.  I think it needs to be some color other than white so it would show up better.

Another interesting site was this building with flowers in boxes on both sides of the entry way.  Very pretty and eye-catching.

There are lots of food places in town, but a lot of them were just snack shops, ice cream shops, etc., and some were closed -- maybe because it is Sunday, but we don't know.  We actually had a hard time finding something open, other than fast food or pizza.  we settled on a Mexican restaurant, which was very good.  They had a nice waiting bench at the front.

We finally headed back to our state park and drove up and down through the roads in the campground.  It was nice enough to sit outside, and the bugs didn't seem to be bothering us, so we got to enjoy the smell of campfires in our 75 degree weather.  I took my computer outside to the picnic table and started working on this blog outside, so Joe got up out of our chairs he had gotten out, and took a couple pictures.

I think the point of this next picture is that obviously I had disturbed him and he had to vacate his chair.

Our weather forecast is a low of 64 tonight (sounds wonderful) and a high of 84 tomorrow with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms both Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are going to explore Benton Harbor tomorrow.  This is a town we heard a lot about when Joe's brother and uncles and cousins were trucking produce back in the day.  Benton Harbor was one of their main destinations, and I think his Uncle Marlin was a melon broker there for several years.  Katie and Tommy had spent a few days here last month on vacation, so it seemed like a place we should check out.  Then we will move on north, we don't now how far.