July 2017 – Chad's Musings

Petoskey State Park 2017

Because of the chigger fiasco from last year in Ludington, we decided to try Petoskey, MI this year. The drive up wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately I had to work the day before we left, so I couldn’t synchronize with the rest of my family. My cousin had to work the day we traveled so he had to set up late, without his son (who’s doing an intern in NYC this summer).

Wet weather:

The weather didn’t really cooperate this year. We didn’t do any hiking or much exploring. It rained and drizzled off and on. We ended up buying a canopy from Dunham’s Sports for nearly 50% off. When it wasn’t raining, it was a little cool, but I knew that before leaving. I didn’t pack much warm weather clothes. The first night, I had to use my sleeping bag liner. My sister said she froze. The next day, I gave her my emergency blanket (it’s basically a tarp with reflective material) and my cousin gave her his moving blanket from his car. The wood available at the campsite was not covered and was damp. It was also not seasoned. Luckily we found better wood from Dunham’s. We were puzzled why the wood from Dunham’s said it was USDA approved or something like that. We shared our good wood on our last day with a young couple on the adjacent site.

Food:

As with previous car camping trips, we packed foil packets for the first three nights, with a to-be-assembled chicken quesadilla the fourth night. Hot dogs and sausages were planned for the fifth night.

We did a dill and lemon version of “catch of the day” foil packet using tilapia. We tried this last year (some with tarragon) and decided it was good enough for a repeat, no tarragon this time.

https://goo.gl/jzTygA

https://goo.gl/zSN2FL

My sister was tired of the hobo dinner foil packet so that was axed this year. She was responsible for preparing the shrimp boil and grilled/boiled chicken (for the quesadillas). My mom ended up preparing the shrimp boil packets and they were phenomenal.

http://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/shrimp-boil-foil-packs/ I’m definitely going to make those on the grill this summer.

As I mentioned last year, we planned on trying pizza made on a camp fire. The French bread pizza was good. The mozzarella made it very rich. I’ll probably use my grill to refine the recipe.

https://goo.gl/SqHUqz

We did burn on of the six pizzas. My sister thought it would be funny to offer the burnt one to my dad. He almost ate it but we explained we were joking. I’m guessing the sauce leaked out on that one and burned against the outside of the French bread.

I’m not sure when it started but we now have a tradition of eating a cheese and sardine sandwich with my dad. This year’s sardine can was better than last year. I better pay attention to brands.

The chicken quesadillas came out OK. I was mad because we bought a big bag of shredded queso fresco and forgot it. We also forgot the hot dogs and sausages, but not the buns.

The night that we were making chicken quesadillas, we found an extra two packets of tilapia. There was a weird guy who goes around the campground picking up bottles and cans. There’s a 10¢ deposit in Michigan. I don’t remember if it who invited him to stay for dinner but it got awkward quickly. I offered him one of the tilapia packets and he loved it. Ana often likes humans more than other dogs. She growled at him big time. That was the first red flag. My sister was taking a group photo and we noticed later, that he was flipping the bird, another red flag. So my dad sternly told him that after he finished eating, he should leave. He returned for more cans and bottles but never for dinner again.

Bay View Association:

My parents wanted to take the free trolley tour through Petoskey. I learned that there is an unincorporated resort community within Petoskey. Bay View Association of the United Methodist Church is part of the Chautauqua movement. None of the owners own the property, just the house. In order to purchase a house in the Bay View Association, you have to buy it outright, no mortgages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_View,_Michigan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua

Equipment:

We weren’t able to set up the hammock this time, which was a bummer but the weather probably would have made it less useful anyway. My dad loved the rocking chairs we brought last time. I replaced the broken one after we returned home last year. REI said it was being recalled anyway, no questions asked. The big thing this year was the big 4 person tent my wife bought from Big Agnes. She said the 2 person tent, with Ana was too small. So now we have enough room for us and our baggage. Furthermore, you can stand up to change clothes, which is nice. It’s actually not too big when it’s packed. It might have a tiny leak at one of the seams but we were dry and warm. My new rain coat also did well. I didn’t forget any flashlights this time. My sister brought her two kayaks and my cousin brought his. The only water they touched was rain. Next year, I’ll hopefully have my own kayak and roof rack. I also want to add a trailer hitch so I can buy a bike rack to bring both bikes. I had only one isobutane fuel canister and was debating whether to grab one after work or take a chance on being able to buy one in Petoskey. My sister had to stop by the sporting good shop for her kayak and was able to buy one canister. That turned out to be a smart move as we did run out of fuel. I purchased a device to punch holes in the fuel canisters so that you can recycle them. My wife and I were planning on getting new phones but couldn’t get them before leaving. It would have been nice to play with a new cell phone camera.

Critters:

Not as many chipmunks. Luckily we didn’t see any raccoons or skunks. Something did tear into our garbage bag one night but didn’t take the burnt French bread pizza. Hmmm. Ana alerted me to a garter snake near my sister’s tent. She was not pleased. My wife got a nice photo of a butterfly that landed on my step-mom’s hand.

Even though the weather wasn’t that great and we had a massive delay in the Tunnel of trees (we apparently took a different route that brought us north of where my sister and cousin were, so we drove an extra 30 minutes farther north, looking for them), it was still fun. We didn’t spend much time looking for Petoskey stones.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dFyWDdD5z2nhAjbB2