On Thursday the 4th of July, we packed our gear and drove 17 miles to Addison Oaks County Park. We had reservations for the long holiday weekend which were made back in January. This was our dress rehearsal; next time we pull out of the driveway in our coach, we will be full-timing it.

Donna’s done a good job of downsizing her wardrobe and kitchen stuff. She had everything packed into the coach that she intends to take with us. My stuff…well not so much. I just packed clothing for the weekend and essentials in the basement – a few tools, fishing gear, grill and a couple of coolers filled with beer. I loaded the scooter into the trailer but not much else in there either.

I’d pre-scouted our site at the park the week before. Dropping the trailer in the parking space adjacent to our site was going be a bit tricky I thought. Scouting the site was a good idea; I had a plan and no worries about getting myself into a position that would be hard get out of. With Donna directing, I was able to put the trailer right where I wanted it with no drama. Our site had 50 amp service and fresh water, but no sewer hook up.

50 Amp Service

Once we got settled in, we hopped on the scooter to check out the park. By now we were getting hungry so we fired up the Weber Q and put on a rack of lamb and asparagus. We also had sweet potato. As usual, Donna did all the preparation. All I had to do was grill it.

Even though it was the 4th, fireworks were scheduled for the following night. It seems like a Michigan thing where the fireworks start the last week of June and every community has fireworks on different nights all the way up ’til the weekend after the 4th.

Friday, July 5th I was up by 7am and let Donna sleep in. I brought her coffee around 8am.  After breakfast, Donna had some projects she started on while I wandered around the park. I showered at the park facility. The showers were large and clean – 25 cents for 5 minutes. After lunch I took a short nap in front of the TV.

We had guests arriving later for dinner and the fireworks. Earlier I noticed a sign that said no vehicles would be allowed to enter the camping area after 5pm. This could be a bad deal as we were located a couple of miles from the park entrance. So I texted a message to my colleague from work, Justin Rose, and advised him of the situation. He said it wouldn’t be a problem because he and his wife Jennifer would leave as soon as their 9 month old son Andrew woke up from his nap. They expected to arrive around 4pm. Our other guests, Jason and Danielle Bates, would be cutting it a little closer as they were working and had to get the their twin boys ready. We worried that they might not make it, but they entered the park with a minute to spare.

We sat together and visited, and enjoyed appetizers. Donna prepared an excellent guacamole and a spinach dip. Around 7pm, I fired up the Weber Q and grilled Jamaican Jerk Chicken which was served with mango salsa. We also had pasta salad that Justin and Jennifer brought and an orzo pasta that Jason and Danielle made. There were also peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that Jason made; I hear they were good but I missed out. Oh well, I had a milkshake chocolate stout for dessert (Rochester Mills Brewery).

Around 10pm, we walked over to the lake to view the fireworks (it doesn’t get dark until 10 or so around here). We found a trail through the vegetation to a small private spot at the water’s edge and had excellent seats to see the show. It was a grand fireworks presentation and everyone agreed we couldn’t have found a better vantage point.

Saturday, July 6th I was up around 7am again. I watched the news and had Greek yogurt. A couple of hours later, Donna whipped up a great breakfast of jalapeno scrambled eggs and cheese between two corn tortillas with salsa and avocado on top. I decided to take the scooter and make the 35-mile round trip back to the house to pick up a Netflix movie from our mailbox. After I returned, we rented a pedal boat and went fishing. The lake had a lot of aquatic vegetation and was a little hard to fish in some areas but with the boat we found a good spot. I caught a few largemouth bass; two of them were really fun as they had some size and put up a good fight on the light tackle. We also caught several bluegill. We released all of the fish we caught. The boat rental seemed to be expensive at $5 per half hour. I checked my watch and told Donna we were going to go over an hour. We couldn’t make it back in time so we decided to go ahead and use another 1/2 hour. When we returned the boat, I was charged only $5 total!  Not sure how that worked but I didn’t question it.

Breakfast

Every day the clouds would threaten rain at times but for the most part it was sunny and warm. The rain seemed to detour around the park every time. The humidity was high so we had the A/C units cranked up all day. Sunday, July 7th that changed. I woke up to rain and we had drops off and on all morning. After breakfast we started packing up. Donna worked inside the coach while I took care of the outside – packing up basement stuff like the outdoor carpet and coolers, fishing gear, etc.  I rolled up the awning and loaded the scooter in the trailer. We had everything packed up, slides in and ready to roll in an hour. This wasn’t bad considering Donna also cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the coach during that time. We dumped the holding tanks on the way out of the park and had an uneventful drive home.

After unpacking the coach and trailer I started working on getting things organized in the garage. I moved my tool box into the trailer and realized how much more stuff I would need to jettison. The lady running our estate sale came over so we could discuss pricing of a few items and what needed to be done by Thursday. By Saturday evening, with any luck, we will have an empty house and I’ll spend my last work week in the RV in the driveway.

I know this is a long post, but I had some catching up to do. My goal once we hit the road is try to post daily.