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

 (contd.)

The next morning, while Yours Truly was setting off for the nearby shower house, the weather was a little chillier out. It was also evident that it had rained a little in the early morning hours. 

A patch of sun in the middle of an otherwise dreary morning.

This water faucet was immediately across the drive from our site, and was our nearest source for water.  Was a pain in the ass to use, as you can promise surmise from this nice, little handwritten note here.

Battenin' down the hatches as a storm system rolls in later on in the morning.  We had known that it was going to rain a bit on Friday, and as the forecast continued to look more and more abysmal with each passing day, we clung to the hope that the bad weather would just pass by us to the south.  As the skies darkened this morning, we realized we weren't going to be so lucky.

The rains hit, and then continue, for about an hour.

There was a break in the storm around 11am, so we decided to pounce on the nicer weather and run into Caseville in order to sight-see and shop while it was somewhat dry out.

We weren't out of the clear, though - you can tell by the skies in these pics here that it was only a matter of time before the rains returned.

The remnants of a touristy shop that Kris and I visited last time we were here.  Maybe it burned down or something?  I don't know.

Abby was on a quest for one of those Key North tie-dyed hoodies, which we ultimately found for her at a shop on the north side of the main drag.  They really embrace the whole 'Key North' thing - playing off  Key West - as if Caseville is even remotely comparable to the Florida Keys. . .

Walking downtown, the skies were looking nastier and nastier. . .

This would have been the sort of outdoor bar/live music/beach food patio environment that we would have 100% been down with had it been nice and sunny out. . .

1910, checks out. Early 20th century saw a huge boom in Civil War memorials throughout the country.

Popping into another souvenir store, I came across this classic play set that's been around for like forty years.  I used to get these on Mackinaw Island when I was a little kid in the mid-80s.

No wonder the rest of the world trembles in fear before the might of. . . Canada.

The rain was coming back as we continued to work our way down the main drag of Caseville, ducking in and out of shops in order to keep dry.

Taking turns at a public restroom house.

This store was weird.  Everything you see in these 'room' pics are for sale, just arranged into different themes. 

As could be expected, it was all ridiculously over-priced.

As if we'd ever turn down the opportunity to get a pic taken in a pirate cutout. Pssh. . .  

Back at camp, the rain was coming down in buckets.  The forecast for the rest of the day wasn't great:  it was basically going to rain on and off (but mostly on) for the remainder of the weekend.

BP fights to keep water from pooling on top of his canopy by the support poles.  Although these canopies kept us from getting soaked, with the rain coming down as hard as it was, we were still getting wet from the rain blowing in sideways.  Everyone was miserable.

Look how much fun Abby is having on this camping trip. . .

Having. A. Blast.

The probability of us having to put away all this camping gear while it was soaking wet was becoming more and more likely, and nobody was looking forward to that.  While the kids hung out in the tents on their phones, bored out of their minds, we adults held council as to what our next move should be.  We ultimately decided to cut our losses and head back to Midland - a short 45 minutes away - for the remainder of the weekend. 

The tear-down process of camping is far from enjoyable, but we moved fast as soon as an opportunity presented itself.  There was a four-hour window of sun in the afternoon, before the main surge of the storm came barreling back down upon us around 6pm, so we scrambled to load up all our camping gear.

Our kids, once their own stuff was packed up, just hung out in the van watching movies and playing on their phones while we ran around tearing down camp.  With pools of water growing in size all over our campsites - including a huge pond growing at the back ends of our sites, closest to the woods, there wasn't really anywhere to hang out that was dry.

We grazed on some pulled pork that the DeBoers brought up for dinner.  We'd just be eating leftovers like this for the rest of the weekend, it was pretty awesome.

When both vehicles were packed up and ready to head out, we decided to head down to the beach for one, last visit before hitting the road back to Midland.  Along the way, Alayna got another series of 0.5, wide-angle shots in.  Here's Abby . . .

Kris. . .

BP. . .

Sam. . .

Yours Truly. . .

. . . and Delia.

One last look at Sleeper State Beach (or whatever it's called.)

(Alayna, without fail, will get shots like this whenever we go to a beach.)

Sky's lookin' a little bit sketch here. . .

Kris was super bummed she was missing out on her weekend at the beach.  She was down for hanging out longer at the beach, but everyone's beach gear was buried in their respective vehicles and it wasn't going to work out anyway.

Preparing to head back to the vehicles.

Crossing the road, coming back into Sleeper State Park.  Upon leaving the campground, I called their office and cancelled the rest of our stay.  We had to eat one night, but they were nice enough to refund us the rest, so all in all we ended up doing pretty good.

No idea.  We find stuff like this on our kids' phones all the damn time.

Upon reaching Midland and home, we began the process of unloading the vehicles and people grabbed showers.  While folks took turns taking showers, food was set out so folks could graze on our prior taco and pulled pork meals whenever they had a chance to.

Not wanting to completely throw all aspects of camping out the window, we decided to have a campfire in the backyard in the evening.  The weather was miraculously good in our neck of the woods - the major storm systems were concentrated more in the Thumb than in Mid-Michigan - so we didn't have to worry about rain at all the rest of the weekend.

The DeBoers

BP makes up some popcorn in some fire-utensil he bought on Amazon and was super pumped to try out.

Some Hough chicks, post-showers.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion, America. . .

- Brian