Arriving at the RV-Dreams Social Rally in Hillman, MI

(Forgot my camera's USB cord, so I'll have to add pictures to my blog posts later -- added 7/6)

We got the RV pretty much all ready to go on Friday evening, so we could get a good early start on Saturday. 

We hit the road north around 9am.  For the last several years, we've been taking Highway 127 north to Grayling and then picking up I-75.  We find that it's a lot easier drive, with less traffic.  For this particular destination, though, that route would have added quite a few miles to our drive, so we took US-23 to Flint, where we picked up I-75, to exit 202 (M-33) which took us to M-32 and the Thunder Bay Resort.  We ran into a little construction traffic around Saginaw, and some unexplained traffic around Pinconning, but still made it here in about 4-1/2 hours including a lunch stop at Subway.

We checked in right behind a Mobile Suites, which turned out to be another RV-Dreamer.  It turned out to be a really good thing that we arrived together, because we needed to pull through their site in order to park on ours -- so they just pulled through the parking lot and got in line behind us.  Ted and Jan led us to our site, and despite the tight squeeze, Tom maneuvered us into place with just a few slight adjustments.  Luckily we laid out the electrical cord before un-hitching . . . since we had to move forward several feet in order to reach the post! LOL

Settled into our site, the boys and I got to work setting up, while Tom visited with the neighbors!!  Yes -- he's going to fit right into the camphosting role someday!  Nicolas got right down to business emptying all of the "stuff" out of the garage so that he could convert it into his "Man Cave"!  It turned out really nice, I think!  (OK, I thought I took a picture of it with the back door open, but I guess I didn't . . . I'll have to get one later this week!)  Linda and Howard came over for a quick hug and hello, and Linda came back after we finished setting up to tour the new rig.  Nicolas was trying to hook up the cable TV, but found that our cable was just about a foot too short!  Luckily, Linda was able to save the day by loaning us theirs for the week!

Check out Howard's Journal entry from yesterday to see a picture of our rig on our site.  Now I have one, too!

Tom and I were visiting with Linda, and our neighbors, Richard and Kathy, when our friends from home arrived.  They were staying in one of the villas on the golf course for one night.  They have two boys who go to school with Nick & Bryce, so the boys rode bikes, played tennis, and played football while we visited.  We all had dinner at the Bar & Grill here at the resort, and then walked up to the golf course to watch the fireworks.  We were trying to find the RV-Dreamers, but got a late start, so weren't able to find them before the fireworks started.  Good thing the display didn't last too long, because the mosquitos were going to carry us away!!  Back at our camper, we sat under the awning for awhile, until we couldn't take the mosquitos anymore, and we turned in for the night!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!