Ann Arbor, MI: 8 - 15 September 2019



The hurricane that moved up the east coast resulted in the closing of James Island Recreational Park in Charleston, SC so our reservations got cancelled.  We made a last minute decision to find another location.  The unusually hot weather in KY definitely influenced our decision.  The coolest area at the time was in Michigan.  We found a campground, Holiday RV Campground, in Grass Lakes, MI.  This small quaint town is within minutes of Ann Arbor and is geographically located about 1 1/2 hours west of Detroit and Lake Erie.  The drive took about 5 1/2 hours up I-75.  The weather there was in the mid 70s and had a nice fall feel.  We really did not have any specific plan on what we wanted to do other than get somewhere that had cooler weather.

Most of the residents in the campground were from down south who spend their entire summer in Michigan then head back to Florida for the winter.  The campground offers full hookups with chargeable wi-fi.  We used a hotspot so not sure how dependable it is.  No firewood can be brought in, but can be bought on site.  The bathrooms were clean but quite old.  Easy access from the highway did allow for quite a bit of road noise.  The further up the hill in the campground the father away you get from the road noise

Ann Arbor is a typical northern college town with a lot of college sports history.  This area of Michigan is beautifuly covered in mature forests and farmlands.  The townships are all quaint and very clean and well kept houses and property.  There are many parks and recreational areas as lakes are spread out all over the area.  Fishing, boating and hunting are hobbies found everywhere.  We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of patriotism displayed in flags lining the streets of many of the townships and residences with multiple flags displayed.  There is evidence of segregated European immigrant populations of Russian, Polish, and German spread throughout the Ann Arbor suburbs and rural areas.

We did make a trip to the Canadian border that runs parallel to downtown Detroit.  Had we brought out passports we would have explored some of Canada, but maybe another time.  Downtown Detroit was an experience.  They were hit really hard back in 2008 with the housing market crash.  For years they were known for all the decrepit houses and run down property.  Since then most of the run down houses have been torn down.  This creates a downtown with many vacant grassy lots.  Seems strange to see all those vacant lots so close to the downtown area, almost eerie.

On Friday, 13th we had to make a trip to Hell, Michigan.  A really small town whose claim to fame of course is their name.  We had some fun visiting their tourist attractions.

We took many day trips exploring all parks, lakes and towns.  A really nice getaway.  Not much to do for the kids so I probably would not recommend it as a family destination.




Grass Lake

Dundee, MI

Park downtown Ann Arbor

Small pond at campground

Lake Erie


Belle Isle, downtown Detroit











Jennifer breaking a mirror in Hell, MI

Dundee, MI

Coming home we were in Corinth KY when the inevitable happened.  We had a blowout of my back passenger truck tire.  We were in the center lane and luckily able to work our way over to the emergency lane.  What a mess.  The tire failed and exploded damaging the fender well of the truck.  Emergency roadside service changed the tire and we got home no worse for the wear.  However the truck suffered about $5000 in damages.  I knew breaking that mirror on Friday 13th in Hell was a bad idea...



Next stop Lansing, WV for white water rafting.



.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laurel Lake Holly Bay Campground, London, KY: 12-15 July 2018

Image
I will do the review of Holly Bay Campground first for those that just want to learn about the location.  After that I will write about our experience. Reserving the site :  I made the reservation through the Recreation.gov with no issues.  We paid 40.00 a night.   Travel to site :  From Frankfort, KY it was about a 2  hour drive South on I-75 to the 2nd London exit.  Turn Right and take Hwy 192 for 16 miles which is a curvy 2 lane road but wide.  There are plenty of signs making it easy to find.   Checking in :  Arrived at the campground at 1300, check-in was 1400.  You have to check in at the gate coming into the campground so you may be in a line of vehicles if you check in at peak hours.   They had no issue with checking in early.  Got a mirror tag and reservation tag to affix to our campground pole.  Check-in took no more than 5 min as no one was in front of us.  Check out is 1300. Site:   Our site was H12. 
Read more

Rutledge RV Park, Asheville, NC: 2 - 6 October 2018

Image
Wednesday, 2 October - A 6 hour drive I-75s to I-40 east to Asheville.   Once you get to Asheville take I-26 south for a couple miles to the exit.  The campground is just a couple miles off the exit  We used maps app with the campground address.   Made the reservation by directly calling the Rutledge Lake RV Park .  We paid 35.00 a night which included a military discount.  The campground is on the smaller side with sites pretty close together.  It has a laid back feel with a lot of the campers being retirees.  They have full hookups to include cable with about 30 channels with standard fire ring.  All the sites are all gravel and quite level.  However the whole campground is on slight bank sloped down toward the small lake with the sites placed perpendicular to the slope.  There is a general store with basic supplies but Walmart is only a couple miles away.  Almost all the sites are back-in.  We had #62 which was against the road making backing it a pain.  I h
Read more

Carter Caves State Park, Olive Hill, KY: 9-13 May 2018

Image
We just got back from 5 day trip, 9-13 May 2018.  I will do the review of the  Carter Caves State Park first for those that just want to learn about the location.  After that I will write about our experience. Reserving the site :  I made the reservation through the "All Stays Camp & RV" mobile application using my Reserve America account with no issues.  We paid 33.00 a night.   Travel to site :  From Frankfort, KY it was about a 2 hour drive.  The roads were all highway until exiting off I-64 East at Olive Hill.  For about 7 miles the road was a 2 lane curvy road.  Once you enter the park its a very curvy (about 2 miles) road to the campground.  Entering the campground was very easy with wide entrance. Checking in :  Arrived at the campground on Wednesday at 1430,  check-in was 1400.  The campground had a sign that said you needed to stop at the store to check in prior to moving to designated spot.  Got a mirror tag and reservation tag at our s
Read more