The Knights of Poke'mon in, 'The Thwarted Thumb Operation' (Pt. I)

Hey folks.

We may have overloaded Kris' van with this camping trip. . .

So, as you guys know, we Houghs do enjoy ourselves us some camping during these summer months. Generally, we try and have about three trips per summer (our calendar fills up pretty fast, so that's about all we can manage) and some of these outings - like Jellystone with the usual Midland friend group, or my weekend out in the woods with the ol' high school crew - are annual affairs that we lock in every year nearly six months in advance.

Then you have those random camping trips that pop up from time to time, depending on the year. In the past, these have frequently featured my old college buddy and Sausage Pad alum, Smitty, and his girlfriend, Rita. There have been others as well (with the rest of the Sausage Pad, etc.), but this summer we tried this family favorite of ours with none other than my best friend, Black Paul, and his family. 

Loaded up and ready to roll out of Midland. . .

We've been Jellystoning it up with them for years now, but we've never gone with just our two families, so we figured we'd give that a whirl. Kris has been dying to try out Caseville (out in the the Thumb) and its Sleeper State Park (located directly across the street from a beach, similar to what you find at the Traverse City State Park), based on our friends the Colliers' recommendation, so the DeBoers agreed and we pulled the trigger.

Just like at the previously-mentioned State Park in Traverse City, Sleeper State Park had one of these chain-link pedestrian bridges that leads directly from the campground to a private beach on the other side of the road.

As you're about to see in this post and the subsequent ones, the weekend didn't turn out exactly as we would have hoped: we were slammed with rain half-way through the weekend and decided - reluctantly - to retreat back to our house in Midland for the remainder of the weekend. But - again, like you'll see in the following posts - we had a great time, and even managed to snag some beach time in before that frickin' Rain God got all pissed off like some kinda jerk.

So check it out, folks - the fabled Knights of Poke'mon  and their failed attempt at family camping out in The Thumb. . .

We arrived at the campground around 4pm, unable to check in earlier at our site because this particular campground is kinda strict about early check-ins (which is stupid, but whatever.) The sites themselves, in the website descriptions that Kris had checked out, had been labeled as 'even terrain,' but when we saw them for ourselves upon arrival we noticed that they definitely declined from the roadside down towards the back of the campsite.  Had rain not been in our forecast as much as it was, this might've not bothered us too much. . . but we were in for some heavy rainfall, and sites like this mean flooding. . .

The unloading process begins. . .

About 45 minutes into our camp set up, the DeBoers finally rolled in, and got to see for themselves the site situation. Their site was even more uneven than ours, with a small congregation of trees in the middle of what was supposed to be a 'shadeless' site.

The inside of the Hough Family Tent. Kris and I use this shelving system now whenever camping (despite the fact that she made fun of me for insisting upon it the first time or two I brought it along.)

Abby (on the left) and Alayna (on the right) both insisted on hanging up a partition between their bunks so that they could have some additional privacy.  'Cause teenagers. . .

Taking a breather, post- tent setup, in my fancy-pants camping chair.

Once our living quarters were all good to go, BP and I got to work throwing up our canopies (which would certainly come in handy the following day.)

Alayna, Delia, and Abby. By the time we had finished establishing headquarters, it was dinner time, and we Houghs were in charge of whipping this together. We ended up doing chicken tacos, which is easy because there's no grilling involved - just heat up the pre-cooked, taco chicken in a crock pot and set out a bunch of ingredients. Easy peezy.

After dinner, BP and I cleaned up and had a drink while Kris and Sam took the girls down to this walkway in order to get to the beach.

Alayna's starting to take more 'artsy' pics like this with her phone.  She's definitely turning into a true Hough. . .

Lake Huron

Abby and Delia

Kris and Sam, not getting wet.

BP and I ran out to a nearby party store to grab some more ice for our coolers at one point, right on the outskirts of Caseville.

After mixing up a drink or two, we walked down to the private beach as well. From what I understand, this beach is only accessible to those folks who stay at the Sleeper State Campground.

No question about it, it's a pretty legit beach.  Pretty legit sunset we had ourselves this evening, too.

Abby and Delia had to be repeatedly called back into shore, as a sandbar stretched for quite a ways out into the lake before suddenly dropping off into what could have been riptide territory.

What was really weirding me out here was how few waves were visible on the water. I mean, this is a Great Lake we're talking about here - it's frickin' huge, how are there no waves to be seen?

The Knights of Poke'mon

The Cannonball got in a little bit, but hung out on shore for the most part.  She can be a bit of a princess sometimes.

We definitely took a few sunset pics this evening. . .

Alayna offered to take some sunset pics of Kris and I while we were there, so let her pose us as she saw fit. 

This one actually turned out pretty awesome with the sun behind my face like that.  Not bad for a fifteen-year-old.

Contrary to what you might think, we're actually not walking away from her in this one - she wanted us to 'pretend to walk away' for some reason.  I don't know. 

As the sun continue to set, we started to get bored with the beach and began the 10-minute walk back to our site(s.)

Along the way, one of the girls insisted on taking more of these wide-angle/forced-perspective pictures they're such big fans of.  Here's Kris. . .

Samwise. . .

Yours Truly. . .

. . . aaaaand Delia.

Crossing back over the road (we neglected to take the walkway this time around, it's a little quicker to just run across the road directly into the campground entrance.)

Back at the campground, the twilight weather was starting to cool down enough for hoodies.

BP and I got a fire going so the kids could do the usual s'mores (though I think only one or two people ended up making 'em.)

Our star lights are still going strong, five years later.

Probably going to need to invest in some more of these at some point - kinda weird-looking with just one strung up like this.

Delia makes herself a s'more. . .

At the end of the night, Abby occupied herself with drawing by firelight while BP and I caught up.  We all turned in around 11pm, opting to take it pretty easy this first night of the weekend.  Stay tuned, folks. . .

- Brian