the Murphy's Law Vacation

yes, that is what it has been titled and will forever remain in our memories as....

I won't bore you with details, buuuuuuuuuuuuut, it was one of those trips where nothing went right during the travel....I hereby give you a small itinerary/what happened on our journey....

June 12th-yes the 12th, my husband's boss graciously gave him an extra day off and we decided to leave early and drive halfway and stop over night. Hubby said, leave by 1 pm....we left at 1:30 pm...got to the first rest area on US 127 (probably 75 miles from home, if that) had a flat on the truck towing the camper....okay, no big deal, hubby changed it. He now notices he cannot do more than 55 mile and hour, took him til 4:30 to get to the Clare Rest Area. I said, lets not go any farther than Grayling, I know you wanted to go to Indian River, but, lets just stop at Grayling and decide what to do from there...(he is also not able to maintain speed going up hills, which says to me we are having a transmission issue)....made it to the Hartwick Pines State Park exit, hubby gets off exit, turns right, blows a second tire on the truck....limps it to state park entrance and changes tire, (we only brought two spares, now they are both on the truck) Make camp...beautiful campground, if someone is ever looking for a nice place to camp midway up the state, I highly recommend Hartwick Pines, although in all fairness, i do have to say it is one of the more expensive parks...we decided that we would go to Gaylord in the a.m. and see about buying two new tires for the truck. around bedtime, I realize, my son did not bring his sleeping buddy a.k.a. Kitty! she is at home. enter bawling child, because he doesn't have his stuffed animal. (how i managed to forget Kitty is beyond me, but i sure feel like a horrible mother, really, what kind of mom forgets their child's favorite stuffed animal that he won't go to bed without!) so i load up in the car and start driving home to get her, then remember my friend is coming up so I call her (at 11pm) and ask her to please pick up Kitty and bring her up with her...go back to camp...

June 13th-go to Gaylord. Buy replacement stuffed animal for Trenton and buy two brand new tires for Dale's truck....(-$400+ dollars) as we are loading the new tires into my truck, the helpful walmart employee say to my husband "we didn't get them balanced right, you need to have someone else balance them, but they should be okay to get you the rest of the way up north," at camp, I look at the receipt and see they CHARGED us for balancing the tires! okay, whatever, deal with it later, only ten bucks, let it go. Dale puts on new tires while the rest of us pack up. 1 pm, on the road for Brimley, truck is all over the road, can't maintain speed..get off at Waters exit and take Old 27 to Mackinaw....over the Bridge!!!! finally make it to Brimley about 7 pm...set up camp....go into Sault Ste Marie, had an awesome dinner at the Country Kitchen....another highly recommended place to eat, not to expensive, portion sizes are large....drove out toward the east side of the Soo and saw a freighter headed up the Saint Mary's River, beat it to the Locks in time to get some good pictures!

June 14th-stayed in camp for the most part, went and got a few things we forgot as far as grocery items, and went and bought a cord of firewood for the 2 weeks.

June 15th-June 20th-we varied staying in camp with a trip across the International Bridge to Canada and a side trip to meet my blogger buddy Cathy and visit Tahquemenon Falls and Oswald's Bear Ranch. Canada was great, we went to the Lock there, and found a store the sold the tent poles my mom needed called Canadian Tire, (i was surprised that they sold sporting goods stuff) visited Gross Point. On Sunday the 19th, we took Trenton putt putt golfing as promised for his birthday. Monday, we went to the falls, met Cathy, who has an awesome campground by the way, perfect for someone who wants to see the Falls and take in other sights. Clementz Northcountry Campground is located much closer to M-28 and central U.P. then the state parks. Plus, it has a small family feel, and we didn't camp there, but just the welcome I received and driving through, that was the feeling I got. We then went and got some lunch, and drove to Oswald's Bear Ranch, where we fed the bears apples, and had our pictures taken with a cub. Then we drove north toward Grand Marias, and visited Muskallonge Lake State Park, if you are looking for something off the beaten path, that one's for you. coming back I decided to go cross country, as in off the main roads.....yeah well, good thing i ran into someone that knew the roads, and could tell us where we were going....never found Crisp Point Lighthouse, or the mouth of the Two Hearted River for fishing, but we had a good time....oh, and the 19th, we woke up to a flat tire on my truck...ha ha ha...but we were able to get it fixed at Mark's Tire in Brimley....

June 21st-23rd-RAIN, we went into town and went bowling one day....other than that we kinda hung out....except, we discovered that one of the U-joints on my husband's truck was about gone, so he had to fix that...which was probably part of the problem coming up north. We also took those tires that needed to be balanced to Mark's Tire in Brimley and found out WHY they weren't balanced and paid $20 to have them balanced.

June23rd- we moved camp and waited for Carrie and her grand kids to arrive, with Kitty (the all important stuffed animal Trenton just had to have, that he hasn't mentioned since we discovered she was forgotten) Kitty received a huge hug and lots of smile and a few tears...then we loaded up and took Carrie to town so that they could get some snacks and stuff....

June 24th-was engineer's day at the locks....lots of people, interesting things to see. There was a dragon on a sea-doo for the kids, named Seamour, and a safety dog that gave out some neat stuff for the kids...They had the plans for the new Lock that is being built sitting out where people could see it and look at it.

June 25th-we all (minus my mom and Trenton) drove to munising for the Pictured Rocks Cruise...(i have to insert here that gas was $3.54 a gallon in Munising) beautiful is the only word I have to describe what we saw that day. I love it, everyone loved it. It was well worth the long drive....

June 26th-we went to see the Locks one last time, and let the kiddies go swimming in Lake Superior...we all had a blast despite the 45 degree water...that night we enjoyed a big dinner of chicken, fried potatoes, and cauliflower.

June 27th- we packed up for what we hoped would be a nice, uneventful trip home. We left Brimley State Park at 10:30 am...without lights on the trailer, so we headed for the Soo so that we could get a new plug and fix them...on the way to the soo, husband runs over a dead porcupine. we left the Soo at 1:15 pm with lights, but no trailer brakes....they wouldn't work...no matter what my husband did. We stopped at Mackinaw City to buy fudge and take some pictures of the lighthouse and Bridge...and about 4:30 we were 15 miles north of Gaylord on the side of the expressway with a broke down truck....broken throttle cable....took two hours to find the part and replace it....made it down to the first Mount Pleasant exit, and blew a trailer tire. got that fixed and on the road we went.

June 28th-12:30 am....arrived home....total time from Brimley to Home...14 hours! 4 Flat Tires, 1 broken U Joint, and 1 broken throttle cable! and tired...

overall the vacation itself was great, we had a good time, good food, and good sights to see. I was only disappointed that I could not go meet my other blogger buddy Joan due to the having to purchase new tires for my husbands truck. I was happy to meet Cathy and see her campground. I hope I have a chance in the future to stay there...I was so glad my friend Carrie was able to come, she is the bestest friend I could have...I am already looking forward to next year, and we will NOT be vacationing in June, or traveling on a Sunday or Monday....and we will NOT be taking my husband's Ford anywhere over 50 miles from home! lol...