Bug Smacker

We are currently up at the Little River Casino in Manistee, Michigan. We come up here more for a place to relax than a place to lose our cash. Don’t get me wrong I have been known to drop a bill or two into a slot machine on occasion. In fact I just walked out with $198.00 dollars that took me around ten minutes or so to coax out of the noisy video gambling box. After that we made our way over to the casino ticket counter to inquire about seats for a comedy show that we had heard about. The show was to be held tomorrow night and we figured it would be fun to check it out. While in line the lady behind me stated that she had a couple of tickets for the show that she could not use. When I asked how much she wanted for them she replied “nothing, she was unable to attend and just wanted to do something nice for someone else”. I thanked her and told her how much we appreciated her kindness.

Boy my luck was just pouring out all over the place!!!

Terri and I have ended our little vacation at Holiday Park Campground in Traverse City, Michigan to meet up with some of our camping friends for the Memorial Day weekend.

While here we took a trip back to the Underground Cheesecake Company and also toured Building 50. We stopped at the Turtle Creek Casino to try our luck.  I lost all my cash, while Terri increased her’s by 675%. At the casino we ran into my daughter-in-law’s parents, Kevin & Dianne.

Last night all met at Boone’s Long Lake Inn for a little snack before gathering around the campfire for some interesting conversation. It was great to see everyone again.

It is Friday the 13^th and we decided to try our luck and make our first RV trip of the season at a casino. That was a big mistake! Not that either of us are big time gamblers, but we both went into see how the 13^th would treat us this time. We both dropped a twenty in our machines and pressed our buttons. It was at that point that things got weird. My machine broke and I could not hit spin anymore. I then moved to the machine next to us and tried to continue with that one. That machine was broke as well. The spin button would not light up. Terri asked if I remembered to cash out of the first machine at which I replied “my bad”. I leaned over to the first machine to cash out when I realized that there was no cash to come out. Then I noticed that my 1 penny machine was actually a 1 dollar machine. I don’t like to waste time at the machines like my wife does so I tend to select the max button when I play. This is when the machine sucked in my $20 and spit out lemons. Oh well, I didn’t waste much time today. One spin and I was done!

The rest of the weekend was actually quite nice. The weather was great for this time of year with only a little rain on go-home day. The Prime Rib and Seafood Buffet was excellent as usual. The place also had the water turned on at the campsites which we hadn’t expected.

We stopped back at Big Al’s for what we now believe is our favorite pizza. We decided that this year we will set out to try and find a pizza any better than this one. It won’t be an easy task.

On Saturday, we took a short day-trip down town to Manistee and saw a ship that had run aground near the mouth of the river. It was a 579-foot integrated tug and barge vessel which grounded in Lake Michigan early that morning and began to take in water. When we were there, the 579-foot vessel, known as the “Invincible,” was still blocking 30 percent of a channel near the North Manistee break-wall.

I guess the ship wasn’t all that “Invincible” after all.

Whenever we asked anyone if they knew of a good place to camp near Munising the first place we would hear about was Munising Tourist Park Campground. So I called ahead to check if they had any spots. I was informed that they plenty available. I then asked if they had any on the water since this is what they are known for. The guy on the phone said they had a couple but only for 1 night. He then said that I should have called several months ago if I wanted a good spot. I asked if he knew anything about Bay Furnace Campground. He said it was about an hour and a half away and not a very good spot.

When we got to the town Christmas, Michigan we saw the entrance to Bay Furnace Campground. It was located directly across from the Kewadin Casino which was also on our list of possible places to stay for the night. We drove into the campground to find almost every spot already taken.The place was nice and right on the shore of Lake Superior.

No sooner than we left the campground within a couple of minutes we were already at the Munising Tourist Park. Not only did the guy lie about how far away they were, but there were no spots on the water either. The place was not as nice as we expected. It was packed with people. The spots were somewhat small and close together. The place was also pricey. Since the people running the place were rude we decided that if you didn’t have a spot directly on the water you might as well not be there, so we left.

We went down to the Kewadin Casino in Christmas. This was nothing more than a parking lot but it did have an electrical hookup. The price was also right. Like the last Kewadin Casino we were at, it was FREE. We were leaving early the next morning to take a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks so this place would be perfect for us.

The Pictured Rocks Boat Tour was terrific . The view is simply gorgeous. We met some really nice people from both Dearborn and Port Huron, Michigan. Here are just a few of the spectacular images we saw. To view more Pictured Rock photos check out our photo gallery.

This is now our trifecta of casino camping. This casino is the same price as the one last night but no where near as nice. In fact it is the worst that we have ever stayed at. I was even surprised to hear that I had to pay tax when we went in to pay for our site. We never have paid tax on an Indian reservation before. In fact why do I need to pay tax if they don’t?

The sites have electric and water. They are gravel and somewhat level. The casino has a restaurant, but the menu is really expensive for what they offer. As for any TV signal, good luck. We were however able to receive a strong cellular broadband signal for Internet.

Just up the road is a phenomenon that the locals call “The Paulding Light”. This is a light that shows up in the sky down an old abandoned dirt road. The local superstition is that the light is from a ghost. If they ever put up a traffic signal around here, I assume the locals around here will worship that as well.