Summer of 18-#20-Trailway Campground, Montague Town & Achievements

Friday July 6th, 2018
We headed out to Trailway Campground, Montague where we will stay for a week.

It was a nice drive and there were plenty of wildflowers along the way.  This picture doesn't do them justice, but there were so many different types and colours.

We got to the small town of Montague.  These Michigan towns are so nice and welcoming.  I love the clocks. We saw these on the East Coast as well.   Can you see White Lake peeking through in the distance?

We arrived at the campground.  We nearly missed it, as it blended in with the other buildings. How cute is that!!!

We had a nice chat with the couple that signed us in and showed us the campsite.  They spend summers here, and have a place in Florida for winters.  They've been coming back here for several years.  The seasonal rate here is very good.

We parked the RV and managed to get a satellite signal.  So far, so good.  The sites are not that big, but with Lily in as far forward as possible, which we needed to do to get the satellite signal, Tilly squeezed in behind her.  

Saturday July 7th, 2018

We watched the World Cup game between England and Sweden which England won 2-0.  They're in the semi finals now.  Hattie, alias Mum, helped me to cheer them on.

Sunday July 8th, 2018

Last night I went to bed a couple of hours earlier than normal, 10 o'clock, as I wanted to get up at 3am!!!  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep that well and the alarm went off sooner than I wanted.

Now, I know you are all thinking Andy Murray must be playing, but no, it was much more important than that!!!!

My first born, Ian, was entering his first cycle ride, the Velothon Wales 140 in Wales.  140 kilometers or 86.99 miles!!! He doesn't believe in working his way in slowly, it's all or nothing!!! 

Due to the time difference, we were 5 hours behind them, I had to get up early to keep track of him on the online tracker.  

Those that know me will laugh.  As I followed along, I made a spreadsheet that showed what his time was at each mile and how many mph he was doing.  What can I say, it kept me awake and I knew he was ok.

There were two stages where they actually recorded his time and it wasn't until he reached the second one that I realized that the tracking was just an estimate.  I thought he had done extremely well as it didn't show him slowing up going up the big hills that I knew were there.  

Kris had sent me pictures of the start and kept in touch with me.  I think she was helping me to keep awake.  Thanks Kris. 

He actually rode by a town that I lived in for 4 months during my first marriage.  Small world!!!

The course.  It started and finished in Cardiff.

Kai giving Dad a good luck hug

The starting line

The first real climb. These are riders in a previous race.

Ian going up "The Tumble". Thanks to Marathon Photos for taking pictures.  You can order pictures from them HERE.

Here's a VIDEO (Thanks Kris) of him going over the finish line.  Yay!!!  What an amazing achievement, we are all so proud of you. xx

Well, as you can see, this took 7 hours of endurance by Ian and the rest of us cheering him on, ha!!ha!!

We didn't do much the rest of the day and I surprised myself by staying awake.  It was a nice day and we decided to take a small walk from the campground to see what the area was like. 

This cycle trail is behind our campsite and so we started to walk along it.  There are a number of different trails for cyclists here.  One went to a lighthouse that we are going to visit, it was 20 mies and I told Bryan, "Ian could do that easily".  We're a different story and will take the car. ha!!ha!!

Looking back toward the entrance to the campground.

This went behind the back of the campground.

It was beautiful. Lots of wildflowers, reeds and berries(not edible).

These birds were singing loudly to each other.

We went across this bridge and found out that we could go around, through a small part of the town and back to the campground in a circular walk.

The following few pictures were the view that Bryan had from this side of the bridge.

and the ones from here were the view from the other side of the bridge, toward the town.

That's the bridge we could walk over on our way back.

A father and his small daughter arrived to fish from the bridge here just below us.

You could put canoes in here.

Across the bridge was more greenery and flowers.

The river through the greenery

Blue sky through the flowers

Flags were flying at a memorial stone

The city limit sign for Montague.  We were going to walk back to the campground along this road.

We crossed the road as there was a sidewalk on that side, and a marina.

Dogs N Suds was a drive in/sit down, old fashioned root beer/hot dog place.  We had eaten before we came out and so we decided we would come back here another day. (Unfortunately, we never did get back there, which is a shame)

The Weathervane Inn looked nice.

Looking back

The campground office is the small building tucked behind the white building with the blue roof.

We crossed the road in front of the campground office, and walked a few steps further to Ellenwood Park, named after the schooner EllenWood and home to the World's Largest Weathervane, which is operational.

Railing around the park.

Across the street there is a farmers market every Saturday &Wednesday during the summer.

It was steps to the campground but those steps went right past an ice-cream stand.  We decided we deserved an ice-cream and it was delicious.  This is a bit to close for comfort, to our house. We'll have to be careful not to give in to temptation too much while we're here.

What an amazing walk and a beautiful small town.

We stayed up until 1am in the morning, which is not unusual for us, however I had been up since 3am this morning so that's 22 hours. That's my achievement for the day, although I'm sure it's going to catch up with me somewhere.  Quite an invigorating day though.