Ludington State Park, Michigan
September 29, 2011
Ludington State Park in Michigan is arguably the best state park in the Lower Peninsula. It has everything that all of the other parks we have visited offer but in a better setting. The dunes are better. The lighthouse is spectacular. They also have salmon that come in from Lake Michigan in the early fall. This park has it all and is a mere six hours from my home. This is as good as it gets within six hours of southwestern Ohio. My only problem with the place is the difficulty of securing a weekend reservation between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
We drove up to Michigan on a stormy September night. I worked that Thursday and Melizza picked me up at the office with the Airstream. Our arrival in Pentwater, Michigan was sometime before midnight. We picked Pentwater State Park for a quick overnight stay because the campground is basically a parking lot on the lake and situated fifteen minutes south of Ludington. I thought that it would be easy to cruise in and park on a Thursday night. We have done it in other places many times before. Late night cruise-ins are normally a piece of cake. Quite frankly, they are a necessity for me so that I can maximize my time away. I just park and transfer the sleeping kids to the Airstream. This night proved to be an extraordinary one.
We arrived to howling winds and pouring rain that night in Pentwater. You could hear the waves crashing against the shore. The campground was largely empty and the front gate was unmanned. I pulled in and quickly found our site. After exiting my vehicle to inspect my pull through campsite, I concluded that the electric hookup was on the wrong side. I thought that I could fix this problem easily by simply pulling in from the opposite direction. After all, the campground was practically deserted and I could just swing around the loop and pull in from the other direction. That was when the problems began.
After looping around the campsite to approach from the opposite direction, I decided to ignore the "Do Not Enter" sign. (Important plot detail) I made a tight turn and drove my Sequoia into the pull through driveway. That is when I heard the scraping sound. The thought of it still makes me cringe. I immediately stopped and looked in my side mirror. To my horror, I saw that I had wedged the Airstream against a "Do Not Enter" sign. The irony of the situation did not escape me. How could I be so stupid?
Melizza and I got out and examined the damage. At this point, the sign was wedged tightly against a side window on my Airstream. The problem was that by moving the Airstream, I could either shatter the window or scrape the aluminum. Moving a twenty eight foot Airstream in reverse is not fun when there is little margin for error. If I shattered the window my long weekend trip would be ruined. If I scraped the aluminum, it would result in a costly trip to Jackson Center, Ohio. After a minor panic attack, I went over every option in my head. I tried to pull the sign away from the window to no avail. The metal sign was jammed against the window and would barely budge. I tried to remove the metal sign from the wooden post by removing the bolts but could not get it off. I contemplated chopping the wooden post down with my axe but thought the fine would exceed any damage we would do by backing it out. I may have teared up slightly but don't quote me on that. At least I didn't have an audience. Finally, Melizza and I decided that she would back the Airstream out while I bent the sign back with all of my might. Slowly but surely, Melizza backed us out of the disaster and we managed to escape with only minor scrapes on our window. There will be no pictures of the damage.
These unfortunate incidents are sometimes the defining moments in our travels and in our lives. By working together, we can always find a solution to the most difficult challenges. If you travel enough, these things will happen. I would have to dig deep to recall a more stressful travel moment but they do exist. I remember that Melizza and I almost lost our minds in India after our flight to the Maldives was cancelled. Spending to much time in India can do that to the most patient person. Also, I remember two long overnights stranded at JFK with four kids while missing our first days in London. However, in both of those cases, I wasn't damaging my own stuff and I didn't cause the problem! After that incident, we were truly grateful for a fun weekend in Ludington with our friends Phil and Kim.
The next morning, the weather cleared and we made our way up to Ludington State Park. We were camped up against the dunes which created an instant playground for the kids. The lighthouse was a nice mile hike from our campsite. It was impossible to take a bad photograph with my Nikon or my iPhone. The place is just picturesque and feels much more isolated than other parks along Lake Michigan that we visited. This will be our Michigan gold standard from now on. We already have plans to return next year.
Here are a bunch of pictures of Ludington from our perfect long weekend. Notice that there are no pictures of "The Incident at Pentwater."
