Trees and Rain

About 3 am this morning, after a spectacularly wonderful, warm day yesterday, the skies opened up and the thunderstorms marched across the sky.  You remember the old song about "when the lightening walks about"? Well, it was that kind of storm.  With high winds and lots and lots of rain, it didn't make for restful sleep for us. We got up at 7:00 am, and the sky was still just as black as if it were midnight.  Only about 8 did the light began to resemble a normal morning.  But it was still raining to beat the band!

We caught a break in the weather about 10 and quickly picked up and took off.  Unfortunately that wasn't as quick as it should have been as I left the folding chairs, the LED pink flamingo, and the Halloween decorations out in the rain and had to wipe everything down before storing.  The road out of  Mill Creek RV Park is a bit tight in places, so we elected to hook up Gus just as we exited onto the main highway.  Wrong!  Oh, the hookup went ok, but it had started to rain again, and instantly we were beyond the drip dry stage.  Oh, well, all's well that ends well, they say. Out on I75 heading south we began to see some of the fall foliage the area is noted for.  The trees have not started to change until the last week or so, when the weather cooled. At Gaylord we turned west to reach US 131, which does south through Kalkaska, past Traverse City, and turns into a freeway near Manton, just north of Cadillac, MI.

At every turn we saw increasing evidence that winter is coming.  Gold, green, red, yellow and orange were splashed across the Michigan forest.

Somewhere 50 miles or so north of Grand Rapids, MI, we ran into another major t-storm, slowing traffic to a crawl on the freeway. The speed limit was 70, with the minimum 55, and we were all driving at 45 or less.  Just couldn't see!

We got to the village of Cedar Springs at about the time the skies cleared. Yeah!  So we made our way to the Lakeside Camp Park, just off the freeway at exit 104.  A trip to the office yielded the info that the wifi was not working, they only had one spot available and it was very out of level (in spite of a prior reservation noting our preferences), and another huge t-storm was on the way!  We made our way to site 48c and backed in, only to find our jacks couldn't level the coach.  A bit of jockeying and a half-dozen wood blocks got us set up, with both front wheels off the ground! A bit eerie, but a great time to reach in and pull the lanyard that cleared the air tanks of any accumulated moisture. Oh, yeah, the rain started again, so we found ourselves in storms three times today, both tearing down this morning, on the road, and setting up tonight!

We set out for downtown Cedar Springs and something to eat.  Donna prefers to eat out on travel days what with all the extra work she has to do, so we found a great Mom and Pop called Classic Kelly's with down home comfort food. When we finished we saw a great sunset between the showroom and service dept of Vanderhyde Ford (!)

What a day!