A Very Good Day

My sister, Michelle, and I set out Saturday morning for our hometown, Owosso, MI, for the 30th Annual Curwood Festival. Neither of us had been there in a while, nor had we spent much time just the two of us. Terry stayed home with the kids, and I got a whole child-free day to myself. So, as we head down I-69, we both had a craving for Tim Horton's, and so we stopped at the M-24/Lapeer exit to get some. Well, it just so happens, that when we were kids, my parents kept a camper trailor year-round at an RV park just North of Lapeer. On a whim, we drove up there, since we hadn't been there since we were kids. We were a little afraid to go back. We knew that often when you spend a lot of time someplace as a kid, then go back as an adult, it is not the same as you remember. So, we drove up, not knowing what to expect.

You see, this was the place we spent our summers. We knew everyone there, including the owners, personally. As kids, we had far more freedom there than at home, because everyone was looking out for us. The park is located on Miller's Lake, a small, shallow lake where no motorized vehicles are allowed. It's clean and clear and a wonderful place to swim. You can wade up to your waist and still see your toes.

We drove in and parked. We were thrilled: the place had hardly changed. We even recognized some campers that used to belong to friends!! We went into the little camp store where, as a child, I had bought swedish fish for a penny a piece. Low and behold, the SAME owners were there!! The place is now run by their oldest son, but Peg and Joe were there, and remembered us. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers and emails (a sign of the times!) and talked for a bit. Michelle and I showed them pictures of our kids and talked about maybe coming and spending a day there with my mom and dad. Of course, we took pictures of everything, although we didn't think to take a picture of Peg and Joe. We think we found our old camper (which was old when we used it!) but it was so trashy looking, I couldn't bring myself to post a picture here! haha. (look on flickr if you want).



 
 After taking another drive around, we were on our way again, now an hour behind schedule, but thrilled anyway. We did the Festival, which was fun. Got to see the OHS marching band perform. Went to the Firestation and saw my grandfather's portrait (he was chief there long ago). We hung out with my cousin, Kim and ate dinner at Jumbo's, home of the best bar-burgers around. We finished off the night by going to the beer tent in hopes of seeing old classmates of ours, but instead we saw girls a few years out of highschool who screamed at incredibly high notes when they saw people they knew, and very sad individuals who thought the beer tent was a place where you dressed to the nines and tried to hook up. I saw no one I cared to talk to, which was a bit disappointing, but the people-watching provided at least an hour of entertainment!

We got home around 1am, and overall it was a pretty good time.