More rain

Friday, Aug 10, 2012

It rained all night long.  And it was a really heavy rain.  Before we went to bed last night we pulled in the one slide that had a sometime leak. I didn't want to worry about it during the night. 

It was still raining buckets in the morning.  We were suppose to leave today and head East.  After a couple of phone calls it was decided we would stay in place one more day even it meant losing one nights deposit on the next place.  We are planning on staying at a Michigan State Park and they have some funny rules.  If we "cancelled" today and just moved the three nights we were planning on staying it would cost us the one night cost ($33) plus a $10 cancel fee plus an $8 reservation fee.  If we just didn't show up today but make it in before 3:00 PM tomorrow we would only lose the one night fee ($33).  The campground we are currently in said our sites were available for tonight and we would just have to pay for that one night.  Since the boys didn't want to go out in the pouring rain we decided to stay and lose the $33.  Se all settled in for a cozy rainy afternoon.

Around noon the rain suddenly stopped.  Checkout time for this campground is 2:00 PM.  Bill and Terry decided to chance it and get on the road.  This meant I had to call the office here at Alice Springs and let them know we would be leaving after all.  I also called the State Park in Monroe to tell them we were coming in after all.  They got everything unhooked and put away in record time.  It was sprinkling a bit but there was standing water all around.  A row over from us was completely underwater.  I should have taken a picture of it!  There were about 3 trailers that you couldn't even step out of without your entire foot going underwater. 

Once on the road the weather was not bad.  We did hit some rain when we turned South for awhile but nothing major.  It did look terrible all day though.  We made it to our campground with no problems.

But let me tell you the problems that happened when we got here.  We are at Sterling State Park in Monroe, MI.  I know some State Parks are having money problems but these guys are ridiculous.  I made our reservations on-line and had to pay an $8 reservation fee for both sites.  OK, I have had to pay a fee like this before.  Now the sites are $33 a night.  I picked this park as it would be cheaper than the private park down the road.  Little did I know.  When we reached the entrance to the park we were told we had to pay a park fee.  OK, I have also done this before and I figured it was a small fee.  HA!!!!  As non-residents of Michigan we had to pay $8 a day for the motorhome.  That's right, $8 a day for the priviledge of parking my motorhome on top of the daily site fee!  We plan on staying 4 nights so that is $32.  Luckily, they offered an annual pass for only $29.  Oh, and then we had to pay $6 for the tow car!  We paid $35 just for the priviledge of driving into the park!  And we still have the $33 a night that were charged to my credit card when I made the reservation!  So instead of the park costing me $33 a night it is really $43.75 a night.  Gee, the private park down the road with the swimming pool, spa, manicured grass, clubhouse, etc is only $47 a night.  Guess I picked the wrong place.  But at least I have an annual pass for Michigan state parks that expires at the end of the year.  Like I am going to be able to use it again.  All of this was in the fine print on the bottom of the reservation form that printed out but I guess I mis-read it.  I know one thing, I will NEVER again stay in a Michigan State Park.  The fees are stupid!  I will also be posting a review of the park and spelling out the fees.  I checked the reviews and everyone said it was a nice park but nobody mentioned the stupid fees.  Oh, it is located on Lake Erie and I will take some pictures this week. 

Anyway,  we got in and finally got setup.  Since we really hadn't planned on moving today Lydia and I decided we would go out to dinner.  There is a Cracker Barrel close by so that is where we went.  The food was really good and hot, which we needed on a cold day.  Lydia saw the people on the next table pocket the tip money that was on the table when they sat down.  Can you imagine, stealing a poor waiter/waitresses tip?!?  She told them, "Shame on you for taking a hard working persons money!"  They didn't put it back and they didn't leave a tip for their meal either.  She mentioned it to the waiter for that table and he said the couple were regulars and they never left a tip and they were never sure but thought they had taken tip money like that before.  It was an older couple and they sure didn't look like they were that hard up for money.  Some people. 

After dinner we drove around town a bit and checked it out.  The world headquarters for Lazy Boy furniture is in Monroe.  There is also a museum there that we are going to try and visit on Monday.  We also found a grocery store and picked up some things for dinner tomorrow.  Back at the campground we curled up and enjoyed the evening. 

That is all for today.