Thursday, 4 July 2019
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
It's set to be a hot one here - well, hot by northern US standards, not by southern standards. Upper 80s, they say. And lots of humidity.
I only got 2 hours of sleep last night, I think because people had bright lights on until at least midnight. I'd been sleeping pretty well at this campground the first 2 nights - almost 8 hours a night, which I was really needing. I guess I was able to because it was relatively dark, and with all these people here now, that's just not as possible.
While I was lying there resting my eyes, even if not sleeping, I started wondering why I don't remember last year bringing this much trouble with large numbers of campers & their dogs. That was in New Hampshire, and either tourism is different in New Hampshire or I just got really lucky with the campground I was in. Now, reading my posts from last year I remember that campground well, and it really was a quiet little place, sort of off the beaten path, even for underpopulated New Hampshire.
If I'd known more about Michigan, I might have been able to find a campground in a less popular area of the state. Some of the campers at this campground are from out of state, but most of them are from Michigan, based on their license plates.
I spent a little time this morning considering what difference it might make to the dog situation if we moved over one space - those on both sides of me are among the only vacant ones in the campground, so I've got a little maneuvering room. If I did, one of those campers with 2 dogs would then be directly opposite me, but the other would suddenly be far enough away that we might hope to be able to come and go for walks. The new campsite isn't as nice as the one I've got, but neither is being a prisoner in our RV because the dogs and I can't leave.
Because of all the dogs in the campground, I knew it was foolish to plan to spend the day in the campground - I'd never be able to walk the dogs, which could be a problem. I decided to drive into Muskegon and find some place to park for the day. Online I noticed a hospital near where I'd been yesterday, and I figured the parking lot was likely to be nearly empty on the 4th of July, and the chances were slim I'd be considered a nuisance by security guards, so that's where we went.
The drive into town
I stopped first at a Meijer grocery store. That's pronounced MY-er, and may be Dutch (large numbers of Dutch immigrants settled in this area), and seems to be a big chain in this general area. I'd read online that their parking lot was extremely messy, which seemed an odd thing to find in a review of a grocery store, but when we got there, the mess was the first thing I noticed. Litter everywhere, it seemed.
While I was walking the dogs in their parking lot I came upon a landscaper, who told me (when I asked) that his people have to spend time picking up litter before they can do the yardwork, and it's gotten to be such a problem that he now charges the store $50/hour, instead of a flat rate. He'd figured that'd be incentive for the store to take care of the problem themselves, which it clearly hadn't. Nice guy.
The Meijers were - maybe still are - a major force in this area, with new hospital wings and roadways and things named after them.
Muskegon
Driving into the main part of Muskegon, I passed a building labeled Brunswick. I assumed it meant the bowling people, though it didn't say so, and that is just what it is. I saw when I looked it up that this building is now a state-of-the-art research & development facility. I also found this (attached) history of the company that shows a success story of major proportions. For a company that's been around through the economic fluctuations of the last 100 years, they've proven to be remarkable flexible. www.company-histories.com/Brunswick
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| USS Silversides |
I saw a sign for access to a car ferry and couldn't figure out what that would be about. I keep forgetting the south part of Michigan, as well as the north part, is completely a peninsula and nowhere in the state is very far from a Great Lake.
Muskegon is sitting on Lake Michigan, and it turns out the car ferry was put in service in 2004 as the US's first high speed auto passenger ferry; it runs to Milwaukee at speeds of 40 mph - a 2½ hour trip that avoids Chicago's traffic, aside from everything else. It's spendy - it'd cost me around $100 to put my RV on, if it could make it on which it can't because there's a maximum height that doesn't allow for my guy. But cars aren't a lot less.
The day in the hospital parking lot
I was right about the number of cars at the hospital- not more than a dozen in a really big lot. I had to work, though, to get us a space in the shade. The whole neighborhood is full of medical offices, some with more shade, but they were much smaller areas and I was a little nervous about moving in for the day. The hospital worked out fine for most of the day. I was able to make a start on planning what I wanted to see in Michigan and where I'd be able to camp to do it.
The camping question is hampered, though, by the time of year. I hope campgrounds are so full right now because people are piggy-backing vacations on the 4th of July holiday, and that the numbers will go down a bit as the month progresses. Hard to say though. People I've talked to tell me winters are hard here, and most campgrounds don't open until April, so it may be people are just glad for the chance to be outside.
Here in the hospital's back lot, one time when I walked the dogs we passed a very large crane - even its signage says it's oversized. And I saw a notice on it saying: "It is prohibited to be within slewing radius while in operation." I would never have dreamed that "slewing radius" was a term anybody would use, let alone a technical term meant for those who hang around oversized cranes.
It really got warm today, and for the last couple of hours I had the generator on so I could run the fan. Despite her good brush-out yesterday, Gracie was really feeling the heat.
Back to camp
I passed a billboard on the way back that advertised "Authentic Texas BBQ!" which, of course, I noticed. It was for a Dickey's BBQ, which apparently has a branch up here in Muskegon now.
And back at the campground where there were even more campers than before. It looks like a good family campground and everyone seems to be having a good time, with wet towels and bathing suits hanging from almost every campsite. Just not a good place for us.
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