Southwest Michigan: "Down the Shore" (May the Oink be with you!)

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Today was a very laid-back day. We had no idea when we woke up what we would do, or where we’d end up tonight. The only plan I had was to try again at the beach--and when we awoke to shining sun for the first time after 5 days of gray, it was a very good omen. Even the roads in the campground were less puddley, although there were a lot of flooded campsites still. In fact, it was quite amazing how very wet they’d become!

Flooded Campsites

After walkies and breakfast, we packed up and headed down to the beach. Warren Dunes is named that for a reason--there are very large sand dunes in the park, along the parking lot areas. Although there were few people when we arrived at about 10:00 a.m. or so, when we left there were kids climbing up the dunes and then running and/or sliding down them. I loved the commentary left on the sand with pieces of large plant material-- LMAO was undoubtedly an unavoidable response to running down such large dunes.

Our activity was far tamer-- we took a blanket and our dog, parked at the end of the parking lot next to the dogs-allowed area, and walked down to the beach. It was gorgeous-- the sound of the waves breaking, not a cloud in the sky, and the sand was quite white (and very clean) too. We spread out the blanket, and all three of us lay on it and just dozed in the sunshine. It was utterly relaxing and mellow.

LMAO!!

After an hour or so, we were ready for some lunch, so we headed back to the RV. We hung around for another hour, eating and reading our books, but then decided we should “do something.” We really had no idea WHAT to do, but we did have a tourist brochure for Southwest Michigan, and it mentioned a family-owned meat store, Falatic's, which sounded quite special-- all the meats were cut to order; and the article recommended the “chicken brat” and the beef jerky. Well, Joey is a fiend for beef jerky, so that decided it-- and the store was only 1/4 mile from the park entrance. So that is where we went. Sure enough, we ended up buying a steak for dinner, a couple of chicken brats, and a POUND of jerky! Joe says it is fantastic (I haven’t tasted it yet.) An extra bonus was a bright yellow truck parked right outside advertising “Chicago style hot dogs.” I just knew Joe wouldn’t resist it, and he did not. Despite having already eaten lunch, he ate a hot dog anyway. I had a tiny taste--it WAS really delicious!

"There's always room for a hot dog."

After that, we headed south on the Red Arrow Highway, the same road we’d come up on yesterday from Indiana. It runs through lots of little beach towns--this corner of Michigan is sort of analogous to the Jersey shore, but of course much smaller and quieter (and less expensive!) I was looking for something “to do”, and we stopped at a large antique store but it was closed. Then we got down to the town of New Buffalo, which is basically the pure southwest corner of the state--any further south and you’re in Indiana; any further west and you’re in Lake Michigan. And there we stopped at Oink’s Ice Cream and Yogurt Store.

Oink’s was totally adorable--I loved it even before we got inside. The store is painted bright pink with turquoise trim, and the parking lot is surrounded by old metal advertising signs, all of which are either ice cream signs or products with pig names or logos. There is a garage which has a 1953 Ford Courier in perfect condition, and it is being driven by 3 huge stuffed pigs. The rest of the garage is filled with pig-related memorabilia, and over the door is a display of old-fashioned ice cream churns. The windows of the store, as well as the interior, are just packed with more pigs of every description--advertising, toys, whatever. Oh yes, and the selection of ice cream is huge and they had two no-sugar-added flavors for Joe. Needless to say, it was delicious.

1953 Ford and Pig Memorabilia

The back of Oink’s was a chocolate and fudge shop, with lots of pig-related toys and t-shirts and things to buy, as well as chocolate-related “things”, but since the door was locked (the Oink’s employees wold have had to come and let us in) we didn’t go in--we really didn’t want to buy anything, we were just window shopping there. I resisted buying the magnet that said “I made a pig of myself at Oink’s”, but sad to say, it was accurate!

After we left Oink’s, we crossed into Indiana, having decided to return to the Indiana Dunes National Seashore campground. We really did not think the state park in Michigan was worth 3.5 times more money to stay there instead, even if it’s a tad closer to our destination tomorrow. While we drove, I saw a sign for a local winery (there were a number of those in Michigan as well) and decided to stop and pick up a bottle of local wine as our usual “souvenir” for Beth and Joe. By that time, I was driving, since Joe had gotten quite tired after Oink’s.

The winery was our last stop, and we came back to Indiana Dunes. It is really quite a nice park, lacking only electricity to make it perfect, in my opinion. (Well, and wifi, but we haven’t had wifi since we left home!) Like I said before, you can’t beat the $12.50 price for a night. One thing about this campground and also Warren Dunes is that there is a freight train track running right up the coastline here, and we hear trains all night. It’s not a problem, but it’s surprisingly loud.

Although by crossing back into Indiana here, we went back into Central Time, we are pretending to be on Eastern Time, because we want to get out of here in time to get to Elkhart Campground tomorrow before noon (we were “assigned” a morning check-in time of 8am-12:00 for the rally.) So although it’s 9:30 local time, it’s 10:30 according to our “schedule.” So we have our phone alarms set for 6:30 a.m. Central Time (the phones change automatically), and I’m going to go to sleep so I can wake up and we can get out of here. I will probably upload this blog tomorrow after we get to Elkhart Campground, where there IS wifi, and I won’t have to use our date plan. We have already gone through $45 extra dollars, I think, of data on this trip. It’s crazy but we use the phones all the time for directions, wifi, and email, plus reading the internet for entertainment and information. Between the two of us, it’s quite extreme, and when we get home, I will have to look into getting a new plan of some sort.