~Thursday, July 1, 2021~
Day 382 (Travel Day)
Today, we’re headed more longitude style as we drive straight up from Indiana to Lake Leelanau, MI, in the uppermost west end of “the mitten”, if that helps. Heading to Lake Leelanau, MI. Sorry Indiana, you had to be a tease visit, but we’ll be back. After packing up, we paid a visit to our hostess, Maureen, and learned all about the family business. Maureen married into the family business where their farm has been successfully growing produce for over 5 generations. Their farmland is approximately 300 acres where they grow 19 different varieties of apples, cabbage, squash, peaches, corn and of course pumpkins. The Fall harvest has quite a visitor turnout where patrons can catch a hayride, tour the orchards or visit the farmer’s market. Their charming country shop is full of produce from their local farm, a few nick-nacks, and locally produced goodies such as honey, jams and pies. We selected a few things for the road…….apple butter, broccoli, and a cheese ball made by the ladies from Goshen’s First Baptist Church. We had a lovely chat with Maureen before leaving, as she asked where we were headed and had all sorts of recommendations of what to see and do in Michigan since she’s from the Cadillac area. Like everyone’s been telling us….”you are going to love Michigan!”.
On the initial part of our drive, I guess we already were right near the border of Michigan because it only took about 25 minutes to see the sign for the “Great Lakes State” and white license plates that read “Pure Michigan ''. We also crossed over Hwy. 80 which stretches from New York to California. It was kind of surreal to think we could just hop right on it and head straight over to California. It is certainly tempting as we miss our peeps, but we’ve got a few more states to check out before we head back to the “Golden State'' in December. Driving Hwy. 37, the scenery became more foresty on our 6- hour drive. We even passed through my old hometown of Grand Rapids where I lived a few years when I was a toddler. Even just driving through brought back fond memories of those cold, cold snowy winters watching my mom and dad digging out the driveway, scraping snow/ice off the windshield and patiently helping us in and out of our snow clothes, as my sister and I couldn’t make up our minds of whether to stay in or out.
We arrived to Wild Cherry RV Resort at about 4:30 where the staff was ready to escort us to our site. The park with its own 4-acre lake is in a lovely setting in the heart of cherry and wine country. In fact there are over 24 wineries, plenty of hiking and biking trails and 4 historic villages in the area. We were told that due to their labor shortage and delays in getting materials, Wild Cherry RV Resort hasn’t quite completed their section of added sites, where we’ll be. They’re usable, just not completely dialed in. In fact, as we drove in, you could tell some of the concrete pads had just been poured and weren’t even cured yet. We’re on a dirt site as the lawn hasn’t been planted yet, but at least we have a cured concrete pad. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain as the inside of the trailer would be a muddy mess. Some RV parks have volunteers that lead you in completely, even assisting you with backing in your rig. Others leave you to your own business. Much to Jeff’s dismay, we were escorted in completely. Jeff says he does way better when he can do everything on his own. It doesn’t help either when you have a neighbor only feet away watching your every move. But then again, he was there first. And I must say, we’ve never been the FIRST to use a campsite. Everything was brand new; fire ring, table, hookup station, etc. After we completed the backup process, Jim gave us a few tourist tips from where to eat, to the best hiking and biking trails. Can’t wait to check it out.
Since this is a newly expanded area void of trees/shrubs, there won’t be a problem meeting your neighbors. At least the sites are spaced far apart. The neighbors to our left are from Michigan and own a hunting/fishing lodge in Ontario, Canada. Unfortunately, because the border is still closed, they’re unable to run their business which would normally be at its peak season right now. So they’ve just been traveling in their RV ever since COVID began. The other couple to our right is also from Michigan and at the last minute decided to book a site here, so they could join their friends for the holiday weekend.
It was great to talk to Hannah and the grandkids as they were having a pretty active bathtime. Easton was so expressive telling us all about the tomato watch (tornado watch). Gosh, I never want him to lose his cute pronunciations. Anyway, Hannah had said they had a tornado warning a few weeks ago, and that a tornado actually touched down 😳 in Mahomet but across town, and was short-lived thank goodness. Then Jeff proceeded to tell me that a tornado did touch down in Michigan as well a few days ago. Of course he waited to tell me AFTER we arrived.