Sunday,
August 4, 2013
Coldwater
Ohio to Saginaw Michigan
We got
everything together by 10:30am and were ready to pull out of the “VJ Resort”
when VJ and Mert came breezing in, driving their corvette, to say goodbye. We will see each other in about 6 days in
Leland, MI for the family wedding.
Dave had a
great time. He’s related to
everyone! We were sitting at a golf club
in Minster having lunch with his cousin Marsha when a young man drove up in a
golf cart. Dave asked him if he was
related to “Rob” and he said, “Rob” was his father and Dave said, “You’re my
cousin!”
That’s one
example among hundreds of encounters for him.
When VJ and Mert took us to the fireworks, we sat in front of their
friend’s store in front of the fireworks.
Well, this couple is from Kankakee, Ill where Dave lived for 15
years. By the time they finished, “Do
you know….. do you remember ….. who lived here ….. who lived there…..” VJ said
that he knew enough about Kankakee to be from there!
Dave’s now
slipped into obscurity where he won’t be related to anyone until August 10th
when the Westerheide clan will gather in Leland for the family wedding.
The drive
through Ohio and Indiana farmlands was beautiful. We headed out on Hwy 118 to Hwy 29 to Hwy 33
to I-69 around Fort Wayne. In Lansing we
caught Hwy 127 to Mount Pleasant. Nice
driving, not all interstate. Once we got
on the I-69 into Michigan, though, our teeth were rattling in our heads!
Have I
mentioned the jet stream……….how I love where it’s positioned! Temps are in the 70’s dropping to the 50’s at
night! My kind of weather.
We passed farm
after farm after farm driving from Ohio through Indiana to Michigan. Everything looked rich and green. Somewhere around Lansing we passed a wind
farm with about 50 wind turbines slowly turning.
We decided
to stop somewhere for the first night to break up the trip to to St Ignace in
the U.P. Initially we thought we’d stop
in Lansing but we were early getting there so kept going towards Mount
Pleasant.
We were just
looking for a place to pull in for the night, preferably not a Wal-Mart, and
two choices looked very interesting and cheap!
The first one was the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Campground. Here there was water and electric and shady
sites and only $20/night. The second one
was the Isabella County Fairgrounds with water and electric in an open field
for $12.50/night with Passport America discount ($25 full price).
Soon on Hwy 127 we
entered the tribal lands of the Chippewa on the Isabella Indian Reservation.
The Ojibwe
or Chippewa are the largest group of Native Americans-First Nations north of
Mexico. They are divided between Canada
and the US. In Canada, they are the
second largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree. In US they are surpassed only by Navajo,
Cherokee and Lakota.
The Saginaw
Chippewa Tribal Nation government is located on Isabella Indian Reservation and
the tribe owns and operates Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant. The casino has an entire, large parking lot
devoted to RV parking!
The Saginaw
Chippewa Indian Tribe hosts a powwow every year during the first weekend in
August. The competition powwow takes
place on the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Campground or “The Hill”.
Unbeknownst
to us, we headed right to the tribal campground and there were hundreds of cars
parked everywhere and obviously a very large gathering. Had we realized this was going on, we would
have come up here earlier as it would be a very interesting event to attend!
We turned
the MH around, in a tight spot, and headed over to Plan B …. The Isabella
County Fairgrounds. The campground is a large field, but has what we need for
the evening.
ALL THIS SPACE ... IT'S ALL OURS!!!!
At some
point, if we come back through this area again, I would like to camp at the
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Campground. It received good reviews from the RV
Review website and looked to have nice spots under shady trees. It’s probably is a GREAT place when there isn’t
a POWWOW going on!
.
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