Monday, May 31, 2010: Our mini-get-away was beginning to look truly doomed when we pulled up to the stop light at Grand River and Okemos Road and the woman in the car behind us rushed up to tell us we had dropped our spare tire and it was sitting in the middle of the busy road. It all began when Marv put an aluminum patch on the wheel well which had been damaged when the first tire blew on our winter trip, north of Big Bend. In doing so, he realized that the well on that side was actually not in the right place; it was about an inch too far forward. We most likely had two blow-outs on that side during the trip because of the wheel making contact with the plastic. (We will deal with TrailManor when we get back to rectify that situation!!) But once he had it repaired, Marv felt it was safe to take it the short way we intended to go to camp. He put it all back together after dark, and apparently hadn’t pushed the spare tire “sling” back far enough, allowing the part holding the tire to work itself loose and fall off. We turned left at the light and pulled into the parking lot immediately to the left and assessed the damage. The remaining parts to the sling were bent from being dragged so Marv wrestled off the cotter pins and removed them. Then we rushed back and found the tire, still attached to the sling, next to the road, where someone had dragged it. Once our hearts stopped pounding, we decided there was no reason to return home, since we could carry the spare tire in the back of the truck.
On we went to Green Lake Rustic Campground, between Stockbridge and Chelsea in the Pinckney-Waterloo Recreation Area. We had passed this site many times on our trips to Ann Arbor over the years and had always thought we’d like to give it a try sometime. Arriving on Memorial Day afternoon was a good plan; as we anticipated most people had already packed up and left, so we had our choice of many sites. We found one on the lake and as we looked it over, deciding how to get up the bank to it, the guy next door suggested we pull through his site. That proved to be the best approach. Max turned out to be very friendly and talkative. He asked if Marv was a fisherman because he was looking for a partner. He also invited us over for a cold beer. But we really needed to get the camper up as the threatening rain clouds were gathering. Max was very impressed with how the camper unfolded and we invited him to have a look inside. By then it was starting to sprinkle and thunder so he went back to his site.
We got the inside of the trailer settled and then took a little snooze and played some Cribbage. The rain was pouring down and the thunder was crashing all the while. We got our dinner of a cold roasted chicken, potato salad and sliced tomatoes with slices of mozzarella in between. Quite elegant fare for camping! And it kept raining for a while after we ate. Finally, it stopped and we could get water for the toilet and register. By then the sun was setting so we played the rubber hand of Cribbage (I won), read for a while and then hit the sack.
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