Football, Bikes, and a Breakdown
Labor Day weekend camping in eastern Michigan
The summer months mean travel for my family. It also means that between commentary on life, social issues, and our years living in Texas, I will deliver two to three posts a month about our family’s summer travels until the end of the year.
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Labor day weekend camping as always been a little tricky for us. School is already in session, activities are in full swing, and we often miss the reservation window for our favorite locations. When we were still living in Texas, it was also still beastly hot. A camping trip at the beginning of September meant we were going to spend much of the weekend indoors.
But ever since moving back to Indiana, Labor Day weekend has also meant the start of Michigan football season. In our second year after returning to central Indiana, Jeff convinced me to let him get season tickets to watch his beloved Wolverines play. And that has also meant juggling weekend drives to Ann Arbor between activities for two busy kids. With only two tickets, it usually means one kid gets to go, but a couple of times we have worked to find a second pair of tickets so our whole family can be in the stadium together.
Regardless of our plans for the game, months ago we decided that if Jeff was going to have to travel to Michigan for Labor Day weekend this year, we might as well look for a place to camp in southeast Michigan. That would allow us to keep the family together for the weekend and make attending the game easier for whoever got the tickets.
Last year we discovered Waterlook State Recreation Area, and we liked it so much we stayed there twice last fall and Jeff and our daughter stayed there overnight for a night game. (It was a particularly proud moment for her because she got to help Dad with the camper all by herself and got a full weekend with just Dad.) However, we like new places and new experiences, so we decided to give Sterling State Park on the shores of Lake Erie a chance this time.
Everything was set…then we found out the junior high athletic teams were getting recognized at the Friday night football game in town. Our son, who has been enjoying his first year of full-time football, didn’t want to miss it. Jeff and I weighed the options between leaving right after halftime and driving the four hours up to Michigan or leaving really early in the morning so we could get parked in time for the night game. Both options had significant downsides.
We opted for a late night drive, and after driving through significant storms, we pulled into Sterling State Park at 1:30 AM, the whole family eager to crawl into bed and prepare for some morning relaxation before heading into Ann Arbor.
Instead of spending our first day of camping hiking and biking and exploring, we packed up the truck and parked on the Ann Arbor golf course, for the first time ever pre-game tailgaiting before our son and I took our own seats just a short ways over from Jeff and our daughter. The day was really everything we could have wanted, and when we were finished, we returned to our own home away from home.
We were thankful our weekend wasn’t over, because it gave us a full day to sleep in and explore Sterling State Park. We biked around the large campground and took in the view of the lake. It was just warm enough that we could have gone swimming, but it had already been an exhausting weekend and both kids wanted some time to chill.
So instead of swimming, we took a family ride on the paved trail around the park’s lagoon, bouncing over the raised sections of a trail that could use some TLC. Still, it was a good ride, easy and flat and taking us around the majority of the park as we biked past hikers, runners, and people enjoying the near perfect September temperatures.
After a full month of school, a late night of traveling, and then another late night after the football game, we needed a full day to just be. The family bike ride was enough family time until we got out the washers and cornhole boards for some “friendly” evening competition. (Let’s be honest. We are a highly competitive foursome. It is friendly…until it isn’t.) We wrapped up the weekend with a campfire, Jeff and I cleaning up the site before we went to bed. With a four-hour drive home, we wanted to make sure we got a good start on the morning so we could be home by late afternoon.
But what did that Robert Burns poem say? “The best laid plans of mice and men…”?
When we were just outside of Fort Wayne and about an hour and a half from home, cars passing us started to honk and get our attention. Jeff slowed down and eventually pulled off at the first exit he could, parking in a gravel area a little ways off of the exit ramp. It was then that we discovered we had lost a wheel. Not a blown tire, but the entire wheel.
Thankfully it was nothing like our axle explosion when we were in New Mexico several years ago, since the axle wasn’t destroyed. It appeared the wheel had worked itself loose; the lugnuts and bolts keeping the wheel and tire in place were completely stripped out. But the whole trailer was sagging and the tire on the opposite side of the camper was completely worn down. We had no idea when we had lost the wheel and were thankful the situation hadn’t been worse than it could have been. (Apparently our better truck and massive hitch really do make that much of a difference. However, if we had lost that other tire it would have been a very different story.)
A kind local on his way home from a roofing job stopped by to see if he could help, but we finally accepted we needed a mobile tech to help us with the situation. Two hours after I contacted the mobile tech, he showed up with the right tools to get us back on the road. We would spend over four hours waiting for the repair so we could finally head home.
Camping is our escape, but like with all travel, it comes with risks. The risk this time was the four hours we spent at an exit waiting for repair and the unexpected expense of paying for a mobile tech. And with the busy fall ahead of us, we aren’t sure when we are going to get back out there. With the repairs needed before we get the camper road ready, that probably isn’t a terrible thing.
But we will get back out there as soon as we’re able. And I’m ready to start planning our next summer vacation.
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Ahhhhh . . . . Pure Michigan! Love the photos, takes me back to missing my home state!