A Return to Shantytown, Pt. III

 (And now for the thrilling conclusion. . .)

The next morning, Kris and I were in charge of breakfast, which consisted of the usual pancakes and smoky links.  I was on sausage detail, which was only fitting.

Folks slowly arise from their slumber to grab some morning coffee.

These camp grills work really well - Kris and I have been saying for years we need to pull the trigger on buying one.

Dads, having some breakfast.

Sitting around a non-existent campfire, drinking coffee and slowly but surely getting their bearings.

Baby Driver and Big Balls

In the late morning, some of the kids wanted to head down to play the campground's miniature golf course.  Beforehand, Erik showed his daughter, Ella, the ropes on how to use a putter.

Rockford's finest.

Tools of the trade.  This is our impromptu Bloody Mary bar (most of the ingredients hidden in that black crate or coolers, but you get the idea.)

Jackson and his friend (forget his name), Ella and Abby on the course.

Abby doing some putting (not sure which wife was taking pictures of this.)

A little after lunch time, once the kids had returned from the miniature golf (and the pool, of course), the adults wrangled up all the kids and we made our way down to the giant-ass Yogi statue by the Ranger Station in order to get our annual Gray Island picture.  Tom designed this year's shirts, which was basically a repeat of what I came up with last year (because I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of it.)  We decided to get a picture of all the kids first, just to get it out of the way, and resorted to the usual Collier setting up where everyone was to stand (he's the professional photographer, after all), with Yours Truly manning the SLR/tripod setup.

Then next we squeezed all of the adults in there (making sure we didn't lose Myles again like we did last year.)

As always, I set my camera on a 10-burst shot with a ten-second timer.  We did two shots of that first.

Then we did a 'fun' one, which honestly is a hell of a lot more accurate for this group.

Once that was all wrapped up, I offered to take individual family shots in front of the Yogi statue, like I did last year.  Here are The Johnsons.

The Bardens (sans Brad, who is a travelling cigar sales rep so he's rarely in town.)

The Butterfields

The Houghs

And a closer shot of The Houghs (since we're the main characters of this blog and everything.)

The Sheahans

The Colliers

The Griffins

. . . and Maddie (the Bos' oldest daughter, who was a guest with the Colliers - her family doesn't camp.)  I didn't get one of the Larsons, DeBoers, and Nadgaudas because they all wandered off right after the group pic was wrapped up.)

Around this time, the kids queued up in line for the daily, afternoon hay ride around the campground.

The Colliers, back at the campsite

Waiting for the hayride - Sophie, Ella and Abby

I had to wait on the edge of our compound for awhile in order to get the perfect series of shots when the hayride passed by Gray Island.  It's these little things my wife surely doesn't appreciate.

Afternoon snacking back at camp following the ride.

Alayna and Lexi, the almost-Freshmen.

At some point, a couple of the younger kids spotted Yogi lurking around one of the other islands and ran over to accost him.

Yogi is rescued from Gray Island youth by a trusted teenager making $8 an hour.

Back at the site - Omkar, Ryan and Tom

The Butterfields are definitely some brave people bringing an infant on a tent-camping trip. . .

Not sure if they're playing around with Ryan or Myles' tablet, here. . .

Teagan, Audrey, and Myles.  Kelli (the Bos matriarch, and our buddy Mitch's wife) brought up Maddie's little sister, Audrey, to hang out for the day.

Watching some cornhole go down from underneath the shade of Lonnie's RV.

Making ankle bracelets - these kids do great with crafts like this, eats up a lot of down time.

It had gotten pretty hot and muggy out as the afternoon dragged on - Erik had finally had enough of it.

Courtney, Tom, Susan, and Mees

The infant child finally gets the better of Matt. . . 

Sophie and Abby, back at making frickin' mud balls and making a thorough mess of themselves.

By the late afternoon, the dads were all getting restless, so we decided to leave Jellystone and go adventuring for a bit.  We loaded up into two cars - with the exception of Butterfield, who was catching a much-needed afternoon nap - and headed out to explore some local attractions.

A bunch of the guys wanted to scout out this local golf course, Forest Dunes, which is a fancier, more upscale golf course than the dingy Black Bear we had frequented the day before.

When we rolled in to the parking lot, Collier decided to hop the fence and hit a ball onto the green (his clubs still being in the vehicle.)

He had to spring over to collect the ball afterwards - nothing like a little trespassing to liven up one's afternoon.

(He had ripped off his shirt on the run back, but I didn't have my camera out at the time.)

Going into the clubhouse to check things out.  The guys are contemplating playing here next year while we're all at Jellystone, which would probably be triple the cost, but almost guaranteed a better playing experience.

The view from the back of the clubhouse.  They were all impressed by what they saw, but I'll have to take their word for it because I don't know shit about golf.

If they do end up returning here, and playing 18 holes instead of 9, I'll sit it out - 18 holes is just too big a chunk out of the day to justify for me.

Poor lighting, on account of the backlighting, but you get the jist of it.

Our next stop was nearby as well, but significantly more creepy - a haunted ghost town at the end of a remote, two-track road. . .

Pere Cheney is one of the most infamous ghost towns in Michigan, and the second-most haunted site in Midwest.  Check it out yourself.

Rumor has it that the entire town was wiped out by a series of disease outbreaks, and that many of the town's original inhabitants are buried here (we didn't drive further down the road to check out the remains of the town itself, which I guess is practically non-existent due to extreme vandalism.)

Okay. . .

Someone keeps up on these gravestones, the only ones that are still remaining. . .

Lots of stuffed animals and toys were strewn about the cemetery, which just added to the overall creepiness of the place.

By far the eeriest thing about this place was this oak tree.  According to legend, the town's ill fortune was blamed on a local woman who lived in the woods nearby and was accused of witchcraft.  The townsfolk strung her up to this same tree and hung her, later burying her under the tree.  Pretty macabre stuff.

This is the thing of nightmares.

Shattered headstones were everywhere.

This huge tree dominates the cemetery, and is definitely the focal point as you walk around.  Fittingly, it's mostly dead.

Someone had nailed a black flower to the trunk of the oak tree where the witch was hung.  Nothing creepy about that at all.

Checking out a nearby mass grave where they dumped a ton of bodies very, very quickly.

Collier relieves himself in the treeline.  Pretty sure a certain witch is going to come and kill him eventually.

Leaving the cemetery.  No ghosts sighted.

The drive on the way out - the forest is almost suffocating at this point.

On the way out, you pass by this overgrown children's playground. . . in the middle of the frickin' woods.  There are nothing out here in any direction for miles - why the f** is this out here, and why is the sign somewhat NEW???

Absolutely terrifying.

I made the guys stop the cars so I could jump out and take a few pics. . . from the safety of the side of the two-track, of course.  Pretty sure this is all straight-up haunted, or otherwise occupied by a serial killer or something.

Anyway, we safely made it back to Jellystone without losing any dads, so we chalked that up as a win.

I was happy to find that the childrens' mud ball collection was being housed on top of my new cooler, so that was cool. . .

The moms all chipped in and bought Kris like four or five pairs of shoes - because she frequently complains she doesn't have any - and a shirt for her upcoming birthday (the moms all celebrate one another's birthdays. . . something us dads don't worry about.)

Burgers and dogs were on the menu for dinner, with Erik and Lonnie handling grill detail (someone brought up one of their Blackstone grills, which make short work out of the grill process for stuff like this.)

Omkar, who doesn't eat pork or beef, wanted me to document his non-meat contributions to the meal as well.

Kris enjoys a good camera in her face.

Matt and Ryan try and troubleshoot a bike chain that had slipped off the gears.  Kids put a lot of wear and tear on their bikes over the course of the weekend.

In the 'kitchen'

Dinnertime at the kids table

The Croc Squad - Nora, Maddie, and Elise

After dinner, Sophie, Ella and Abby went up to play some Bingo up at the Ranger Station . . 

Following dinner, some of the dads decided to go on a walkabout around the campground in order to lurk and peer at other folks' camp setups.  Here's BP, Collier, and Tom. . .

Matt and Erik

Someone brought a pretty sweet, old car up to the campground - not sure if I'd trust that with all the kids zooming around on bikes, kicking up gravel

Back at Gray Island, kicking off one last fire for the year. . . 

We decided to host a couple, single-elimination cornhole tournaments in the evening - first a couples tournament (where Kris and I did pretty good, getting knocked out in the semi-finals), and then a random match-up one where both Kris and I got knocked out fairly early on (thank God - by that point in time folks were getting sick of the whole cornhole thing.) 

Some of the kids sat around doing crafts while watching the adults throw bags - here's Alivia, Abby and Delia. . .

Abby borrows my hat for a pic. . . .

. . . before ultimately asking to borrow my SLR.

The DeBoers take down one of their tents - Delia had her own for the first two nights but for the last night she was bunking up with a few of the other girls.

The girls wanted to play cornhole after the adult tournaments wrapped up.

Saturday evening, as in our previous years, Jellystone once again hosted its big Glow Dance Party, so some of the moms broke out their cache of glow sticks and accessories so the kids could suit up before the evening's finale kicked off.

The dance party is always held down at the Ranger Station  - about a 30-second walk from Gray Island.  Very convenient when one needed to grab an additional bag of ice or two.

Some of our kids (you can spot Abby wearing my hat - still - and sporting the blue/pink glow glasses.)

Damn, these bears are creepy as all hell.

The dads hung out at the dance for all of about, oh, seven minutes, before ultimately heading back to Gray Island to hang out by the still-burning fire, where we listened to old Brocation mixes, had a last couple of drinks, and - as you can see here - began to nod off early.  Aging like fine wine over here, folks.

- Brian