Detroit Lakes, Part 2

Since our camper was already at the Long Lake Campsite in Detroit Lakes, and we were lucky enough to score reservations there again, we went back for the 4th of July weekend!  So on Friday, after taking a half day of work, we loaded up ourselves, the dogs and the Envoy, and began the trek back north. When we arrived, we once again met up with Uncle Jim and Aunt Connie at their campsite with some delicious local beer from 56 Brewing and sat by the fire at their campsite.

Uncle Jim looks so much like Mick Jagger!

FYI, we often refer to Uncle Jim as Uncle Mick because of his uncanny resemblance to Mick Jagger.  Don’t know if he has the moves however.

After the drive and sharing beer while sitting around the fire having good conversation, we decided to call it an early night.

Family Comes to Visit

On Saturday, my brother Kyle and his daughters Gracie and Gwen, came to visit for part of the holiday weekend from Fargo.  Detroit Lakes is only about an hour away, so it was a nice chance for us all to be together. We spent the first part of the day playing at the beach, while my cousin Annika and her friends took turns doing yoga on one of our paddleboards, as Sam and Kyle played with the girls on the other. We grilled hot dogs, splashed on the beach and had fun in the sun.

Zorbaz, Again

Kyle brought his bike and we brought our bike trailer, which the dogs refuse to get into, and our mountain bikes (since we learned from the previous weekend of trying to ride our road bikes through gravel). We connected the bike trailer to Kyle’s bike, loaded up the girls, met up with Annika, and proceeded to ride the same route into town to have delicious food at Zorbaz.  On the way there, Kyle was struggling to pull the bike trailer with the girls so he and I switched bikes and I ended up pulling the girls to Zorbaz.

After dinner, Sam, Annika, and I biked back while Kyle accepted a car ride back to the campsite with Annika’s friends who joined us for dinner.  We returned to the campground where we decided to sit around the campfire and have a few beers and made S’mores.

Kyle and the girls stayed with us in the camper, with the girls loving the idea of sleeping on the kitchen table (the table converts into a bed). We put them to bed early in our bed so they could watch a movie, Buddy kept the girls company while we sat outside.

More Family Arrives

On Sunday morning my parents also came over from Fargo to spend the day with everyone. Sam and I rented a pontoon from campground and cruised around Long Lake with my parents, Kyle, the girls, Annika, and her boyfriend Mitch, and the dogs.

Because Buddy, like most German Shepherds, loves water and tries to lean over the edge of boats to try to catch the water, he has his own dog specific life jacket in case he falls in; it has a handle so we can pull him back into the boat. Gracie thought that was silly and put a people life jack on Toby too. We stopped at the beach across the lake and splashed around in the water.

When we returned to our campsite the girls went in the camper to change and use the bathroom. We were not paying enough attention to what they were doing in there — Gwen kept pushing the flush on the toilet and it wound up completely filling the grey water tank, so much that it backed up into the shower!  Fortunately, the staff at the campground was very helpful and brought out the honeywagon and emptied the tanks for us.

Lunch time!

While the whole family was there, we grilled up some steaks (for the adults) and hot dogs for the kids, and had a delicious camper dinner. After dinner, Kyle and my parents went back to Fargo with the girls.  Unfortunately, Kyle got a flat tire while his car was parked in the guest lot at the campground.  Kyle, my Dad and I spent some time trying to get the wheel off but it was rusted to the axle.  So the owner of the campground came by with a sledgehammer and knocked it loose for us. The owners there are super helpful.  Kyle got the spare on and went home to Fargo.  We spent that evening sitting around the fire with everyone else that night just having good conversation.

The Last Day

Monday morning, once we were up and moving, Sam and I had a nice relaxing morning.  We just kind of chilled through the early afternoon.  Later on, we joined up again with Annika and Mitch and rode back into town where we stopped for an early dinner at the Tavern Brewery.  I ordered a small sized nachos, but it was so enormous that I couldn’t even work my way through half of it.  Oh, and the beers were pretty good too!  As we left the brewery, Annika and Mitch left to see some friends, so Sam and I were going to ride back to the campground, unfortunately, I discovered that I had a flat tire on my bike!  So Sam rode back to the campground while I stayed at the brewery and waited for her to pick me up, where I had 3 or 4 more IPAs.  Once Sam arrived, we both had one last beer before heading back to the campground, I was feeling fine!

Fireworks

By the time we got back, it was time for the annual fireworks display put on by the campground. The dogs were so tired that they slept through the whole thing, noise and all!  After the fireworks, we sat around the fire for a little while before turning in for the night.

Heading Out

On Tuesday the 4th, we had breakfast and began the task of tearing down the camper for the drive home.  It was a very hot and windy day.  The drive home was against the wind and the temperature gauge kept climbing too high and we had to stop twice to let the engine cool down so we could continue the drive home, it took about an hour longer than it should have to get home and when we did get home, we were ready to crash hard in bed ending a super fun 4th of July weekend.