We’re off to Michigan for the fifth annual Mini Lite Great Lakes Rally. After two full days of reviewing RVs, we were ready for a short drive to meet friends.

Wednesday

I didn’t post Wednesday, because really not much happened. I went with Tony to the job site and helped out a little, and goofed off on Facebook a little. I took a while looking through photos to find something for the question of the week, about toll roads. I finally settled on a photo of a highway full of traffic. Perhaps implying we should have paid the toll there? Although, truthfully I think the photo was taken in southern California and that probably wasn’t an option. The only option in southern California is to be stuck in traffic.

We took a lot of pictures, but none we are at liberty to share at the moment.

BBQ party

In the evening, we were invited to hang out with our friends at ABC Upfitters. Well, some of them. Not everyone was there but Stacy likes to plan a party, so a party it was. We had a couple beers, Justin ran the BBQ, and we got to visit with Stacy and Mike’s kids, until Mia had to leave for cheer practice.

We enjoyed our visit very much. Sadly, we did not think to take a single photo. So, this section of the journal has nothing to show, sorry!

Departure morning

We didn’t need to rush, but we did need to pack up to leave our site in Shipshewana. We prepared for our journey to our next destination in Michigan.

We had thawed some filet mignon steaks in our attempt to empty the freezer. Knowing we were headed to join a group and likely not eating alone for the weekend, we needed to eat that steak before it went bad. So, we had steak and eggs for breakfast. I have never ha filet mignon for breakfast before. I felt kinda bougie. But boy howdy, that breakfast was delicious!

A few more RVs

Our first stop of the day was to visit  Ember RV. It felt sort of weird parking our Mini Lite in the lot of Ember. David assured us we were fine, and took us to tour the RVs on display in their campground. Tony has really been in love with one of the models since he first saw it. He wanted me to see it first-hand and see if I loved in as much. While I understand the appeal, there are still a couple features that I don’t think I would like. Oddly, I guess because he’s reviewed this model before, we didn’t take any photos, again. However, he did get to review a new model that reminds us very much of our Mini Lite layout, and that review should be released soon!

Rally, Ho!

Having seen our fill of new RVs over the past few days, it was time for a location change. And a visit with a bunch our Mini Lite friends at the fifth annual Great Lakes Mini Lite rally. Rockwood and Flagstaff fans from all over were scheduled to join up at Van Buren State Park on Lake Michigan for a weekend of fun and frolic.

We were excited to finally meet face-to-face with so many people we have become friends with through Facebook and the Mini Lite/Micro Lite fan club group.

We stopped in Paw Paw, Michigan for lunch. We found easy parking fairly close to The Hot Skillet. The map said it was a waffle restaurant. It was so much more than just waffles! I had the lunch special of Monte Cristo sandwich with sweet potato fries. Tony spied the banana cream pancakes and should think of nothing else. Except he knew he needed to eat some protein. So he ordered the corned beef hash breakfast with a side of pancakes. Holy banana pancakes, Batman! He had a huge breakfast for lunch! They had to serve it on three separate plates. Though, I would have been happy, had I ordered this, to have the eggs and hash stacked. Tony said that the hash needed ketchup (yuk) and that would have contaminated the eggs an potatoes. So we was glad for the separation. I took a bite of those pancakes and they were so delicious smothered in banana slices and whipped cream. My sandwich was also super tasty. We would definitely return to The Hot Skillet.

Van Buren State Park campground

We arrived at the Van Buren State Park campground and queued up with the rest of the incoming rigs. Most of them were Mini Lites and Micro Lites, although there certainly are non-rally people staying here. The campground is actually pretty full, and apparently that is true all the time. Last week we decided to extend our stay by one night, and even Sunday night was pretty well booked up. I had booked a site different from where were spending the weekend. Lucky for us, we would be taking over the site of our friends Tony and Tina. They called and said “let’s just swap sites so you don’t have to move on Sunday.” They are so awesome!

After checking in, our first stop was the water fill, along with almost everyone else. The lady at the gate asked us to wait until there was room at the fill station, so we didn’t block traffic in the street. We didn’t really have to wait, and we pulled up to the fill station right behind Kathy and Steve. When we were filled up, we headed to our site. We passed Tony and Tina and I jokingly said, “Hey, the Barthels are here!” I’m so hilarious. Haha.

Set up was pretty easy. I put down the rug, and unloaded our comfortable chairs. I often skip these steps when we are on short stays. But we brought all this stuff and by golly I am determined to at least it them once on this road trip.

Tony got the Starlink up in the air. This campground has a lot of trees. We were worried for a minute, but our site has a cleaning in exactly the right direction so once the dish was high enough in the air, it found the satellites. Whew.

Tony also put up the ABC feather flag. ABC Upfitters will be onsite talking to the group on Saturday. We will expose our underbelly, so to speak, showing off the power package in real life.

Kathy and Steve

Kathy and Steve invited us over to their site for Kathy’s secret recipe Sloppy Joes. I should note here, that there are signs about the no-alcohol policy at this park. We did have a couple beers, but kept them wrapped in coozies and in the camp site. I don’t imagine that they monitor that closely, as long as everyone says well-behaved. We had a lovely visit with Kathy and Steve. Steve is a musician in a band, and he played some of the band’s songs for us to hear. I connected to their bluetooth speakers and played Steve Brown’s Desert Moon for them to hear.

Meet and Greet

We headed over to the site of Jeff and Karon, the organizers of this shindig. There we received name tags and T-shirts, along with some other goodies in a bag. We met more people and chatted a while, then it was time to end our day. We are really looking forward to this weekend of fun and friends.