Detroit Lakes, Part 1
Jamey’s aunt and uncle have a seasonal campsite in the Detroit Lakes area so they invited us to bring our camper and spend a weekend camping with them there. Long Lake Campsite is a great, family-owned campground. Jamey’s aunt Connie has been staying there since she was a child. The people there were so helpful and friendly!
Public dock, meet private site
Our first trip up there we had a great big site with stairs that went right down to the dock and the lake. The only downside of that spot was the stairs to the dock were public, so we had lots of kids who just walked through our site to get to the stairs. That was a little annoying. Parents, teach your kids that other people’s campsites are like their yards, you don’t just walk through them, go around whenever possible. It was just worrisome to have kids carrying fishing gear (not paying attention to those hooks) as they stepped over the dogs without a second thought.
Gravel Grinder
I planned a good bike ride using Google Maps from the campground to Zorbaz for some pizza, nachos and beers. Unfortunately, the technology doesn’t yet detail the condition of the roads we’ll be riding. We brought along our road bikes with the skinny tires and the entire route was on very rough gravel roads. We made it there, it was just very slow going – thankfully we avoided getting a flat tire! We were able to take the (paved) city roads back to the campground.
Any time you’re in an area with a Zorbaz, you must visit and eat all the food! Their pizza and nachos are the stuff of legends.
Another Time
We were unable to get camping reservations for the Fourth of July anywhere, so we had planned to spend it at home and I knew Long Lake was booked too. But on a whim, as I walked Buddy past the office, I decided to swing in and see if they’d had anything open up. Turned out, they did just have someone cancel right before I walked in, so we were able to get the site! Bonus, for $1 per day, we could leave our camper there and when we returned the next weekend, they moved it to our new site. That was pretty great! We were able to just load everything into the SUV and head home. Oh, the gas we saved, I’m beginning to see the value of a season site. Maybe in a few more years after we’ve explored more places …
I really enjoyed our stay here, it was quiet, the people were friendly, the owners were so nice and it was neat having family a few sites away. We didn’t have a long enough power cord, so Uncle Jim let us borrow his extra long cord, and Aunt Connie offered us their old outdoor rug that they don’t need anymore now that they have a deck on their seasonal site.
I’m glad we’ll be back to camp there for the Fourth of July.
