Amazing

Amazing is all I can say about the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, where we are spending the 4th of July weekend. During the past month we have not needed reservations, but this weekend is a different story. Almost everyone that owns a tent or RV wants to get out for the Independence Holiday--especially when it provides a three-day weekend. That is especially true for families with children.

We knew we were heading north through Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and we wanted to visit Mackinac Island, so we chose this campground. I made a request online for a large 50-amp site for three nights. They called back and said those were full but they had regular size with 30-amps. We took it.

We've never been in a campground this large. We stayed at Valle del Oro in Mesa, a 55+ resort with 1700 sites (I think), but that is a little different. Here they have 600 camping sites, 200 with full-hookups. They have one mile of shoreline on Lake Huron, sites with views of Mackinac Bridge or Lake Huron (at a premium cost), cabins and cottages and lots of tent sites. I have never seen this many tent campers.

We arrived early Friday, checked in, and were given direction to our site: follow the yellow poles; at "C" turn left; at "J" turn left; drive to big rock; at "5" turn left to site 109, a back-in on driver's side. All we had to do was pay attention--quite a task on narrow roads with RVs and tents, cars and bike riders everywhere. But we found our site and got settled. This is a view from our dining room window down the "alley" between two rows of trailers.



Friday night RVs just kept coming in. There are several different areas where they are parked. Here is part of the line-up coming to our section.



I wake up to the sound of sea gulls. They love to sit on the top of poles when there aren't looking for food in the trash or under campground tables. Isn't this guy (or gal) great?



We can walk to our right along about six RVs to a lawn along the shore. There we can see Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge spans the Mackinac Straits between Michigan and its Upper Peninsula. The straits join Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Here is the bridge from our shoreline.



Tonight we will sit on the lawn (if it doesn't rain) and watch fireworks at 10 pm. There will be shows off the bridge, off Mackinac Island in the distance, and from a town on the right. It should be quite a show, if we stay awake long enough. People were saving prime seating by 9 am, so our lawn chairs are out there, too.

We think Michigan is a very pretty state. For most of the last three months we have been surrounded by trees in most campgrounds and along most highways. Here we have seen more sky and more open views. And the water in Lake Huron is an amazing color of blue on these clear days we have had. Tomorrow we will be on the edge of Lake Superior to the north. This is certainly a great part of the country.

However, we are looking forward to getting out of this "city" on the edge of Lake Huron. Hopefully, many of the families will go home so the parents can go back to work. This weekend has been too busy, and smokey. No family can go camping without building a fire, can they?