Tripometer – 1335 mi
Gas Gauge – 113.987
Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI
Lodging – $16
DOWN DAY!
Not much to report here. Kelly worked, Paul ran a few errands and goofed off. Took a few walks, swam the dog, had campfire drinks and retired early.
I think Ranger’s starting to like this.
Tripometer – 1305 mi
Gas Gauge – 113.987
Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI
Lodging – $16
After work today Kelly and I drove from Mid-state Michigan to the North East corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The drive was beautiful watching the forests become more scrub and the human population diminish. The trip was punctuated by a trip across the Mackinac Bridge, a tremendously high and fairly long bridge similar to the Bay Bridge South of Baltimore. Thankfully the wind was around 10 mph. I don’t think we would have tried the trip across the bridge with this trailer if the wind speed had been much higher.
We arrived earlier in the day than usual. Kelly had to do some more work so I took the opportunity to install the new tongue jack and promptly blew the main camper fuse on the first attempt at jacking. We jumped in the car as quickly as we could to catch the auto parts store closing at 8 pm. With new fuses in hand we picked up a pizza and sat at the Soo Locks picnic area to watch the enormous lakers glide into the lock system.
The sun now takes much longer to set and the light doesn’t truly fade until well after 11pm – This leads to tremendous light shows around dusk. We arrived back at the campground to capture a few easy sunset pics looking out across Monocle Lake.
We are struggling to update LessInTents.com with blog posts as often as we’d like to, so sometimes we’re a few days behind. For more timely updates, including many more photos, please check out our Instagram account @lessintents !
Tripometer – 1096 mi
Gas Gauge – 97.711 (10.7mpg to date)
Location – North Higgins Lake State Park, MI
Lodging – $32
While not the epicenter of entertainment for mid-Michigan we found North Higgins Lake S.P. to be a lovely little campground. (Jen P told me some time later that she had exactly the opposite experience due to large numbers of late night Budweiser swillers.)
Today we took a drive around both Higgins and Haughton lakes. This little lake vacation community looks like it had its hay-day in the 50’s and 60’s like so many other small camping destinations. Some of the homes were clearly lake homes for wealthy Detroit professionals. On our drive we bought an electric tongue jack for the trailer at a local Camping World. While not a necessity it will certainly make life easier given how often and the time of day that we typically use it (late at night after a long days drive). More on that later.
We ended the day with ice cream for P&K and a ‘Pupper Cup’ for Ranger, complete with a Milk Bone.
Tripometer – 1019 mi
Gas Gauge – 80.821
Location – North Higgins Lake State Park, MI
Lodging – $32
Chore Day!
While Kelly worked from a picnic table under the pine trees Paul got groceries, tidied up from the last week of travel and mailed off his signed separation package to Coty! We took a few walks and snapped the pic above of the swimming area at North Higgins. We ended the evening with our first dinner in camp and a little local TV. (We’re both enjoying sampling local programming as we travel from place to place.)
Ranger has never been a dog to nap on car rides. He either sticks his head out the window to pick up on local scents, enjoying what we like to call ‘smell-o-vision’, or he’s standing in the back seat looking dejected. The longest car ride that he’s ever been on is to our favorite campground in western Maryland, about a 3-hour drive. Sometimes, on these longer drives he would look a bit like a horse sleeping standing up, a really awkward pose where it looks like he has locked his knees and is leaning sideways against the seat back. We noticed his discomfort many times and hypothesized that this was a remnant of being car sick as a puppy – perhaps he was still getting nauseous when not looking at the horizon, or perhaps it’s just an odd personality trait. As this trip approached and we saw little improvement we decided that he would eventually get over it. That was until the first really good driving day of the trip – From Akron, OH to Higgin’s Lake, MI, about an 8 hour drive…
By the second half of the trip, he looked miserable. We had spent the night before at our friend Ann’s house and stayed up late watching movies. The next morning Kelly woke up early to get a head start on work and naturally Ranger woke up with her. So, when we climbed into the truck that afternoon for a long drive he was probably already tired. Once we noticed how dead exhausted he was and how he refused to lie down for more than a few minutes we really started to study the issue. For the next few hours of the trip the 4Runner became a mobile dog behavior research facility. Our conclusion? He didn’t like the bumping on his soft little belly. At every seam, dip, or rumble he would immediately jump up to a standing or sitting position.
Off to Walmart we went. One double bed egg-crate mattress folded thrice later and Ranger is now a car napping dog. For the last few days he has adopted the standard dog behavior of passing out cold as soon as we go above 50mph. He’s still exhausted and cranky but now at least we can attribute this to general travel and the need to guard the trailer from every bump in the night.
Sweet Dreams Ranger 😊
Tripometer – 992 mi
Gas Gauge – 80.821
Location – North Higgins Lake State Park, MI
Lodging – $32
Today was a travel day. We moved the rig from Ann’s place near Akron, OH to upper middle Michigan – North Higgin’s Lake State Park. We pulled in well after dark and had a little contest to see how fast we could get set up for bed. Total Time, a little over 30min (almost no leveling needed).
NOTE: This trip has a side story – See ‘The Princess Dog and the Pea’
Tripometer – 602 mi
Gas Gauge – 46.030
Location – Cuyahoga Falls, OH
NEW METRIC – Lodging – FREE!
We traveled from Ohiopyle State Park to Cuyahoga Falls, OH to visit Ann at her new place before she runs off to the San Diego Comicon. Upon finding out she had not been to her nearest drinking establishment we retired to the Brick House Tavern & Tap for dinner, drinks and general frivolity. Ending the evening with ‘East of Eden’ and a bottle of wine we then enjoyed our last proper bed for a while. Thanks to Ann and Bella for a great evening and wonderful hospitality!
Tripometer – 501mi
Gas Gauge – 46.030gal
Location – Pittsburgh, PA
No travelling today. Stratis gave us a fantastic tour of some of the best sites in Pittsburgh. We saw some amazing turn of the century buildings in and around Pittsburgh, visited The Point, The U of Pitt Cathedral of Learning, and rounded off the day at the Pittburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Seeing vintage cars racing on a closed city circuit was a new experience for me! I’ve never seen a Mini-Cooper Van before.
Tripometer – 501mi
Gas Gauge – 46.030gal
Location – Pittsburgh, PA
Visiting Stratis in Pittsburgh. Enjoyed seeing the progress on their DIY project of a lifetime. Seeing the scale of a true old home renovation will give me pause when I complain about my home DIY from now on. Had a lovely Greek dinner on the front porch overlooking the Mellon Estate grounds across the street.