Kewadin Shores Casino St. Ignace, MI

I didn't title this post as a "Campground Review" because a lot of people wouldn't consider staying at a casino in their RV as camping.  I've spent a number of days at casinos this summer and I thought I'd review my favorite, the Kewadin Shores.

I'm not sure about the "Park" part but they do have a spot for RV's.

Located just northeast of St. Ignace the Kewadin Shores Casino offers a full menu of gambling activities (with the exception of sports betting) including craps and blackjack.  Blackjack is my game of choice.  I'm not as good as my college buddy Gary who has won thousands of dollars in a single session but I'm a decent low-stakes player and I usually walk out with more money than I came in with.  You of course can't take photos inside the casino but here's a shot of the outside at sunrise:

Cars in the parking lot even at sunrise!

When you "casino camp" at the Kewadin Shores you have two choices, free or pay.  If you choose "free" then you get to park your rig in a parking space in a large secondary parking lot at no cost for basically as many days as you want.  There are no hookups with this option but there is trash service and free use of the casino's dump station.

The Tank exercising the "Free" option.

The "Pay" option costs $15 / night and that buys you one of the approximately 20 full hookup sites on two sides of the secondary parking lot.  The sites are unshaded and gravel but do include a picnic table.  Up until this year the sites were $10 / night which was a real bargain but a casino employee said the Tribe had noticed a lot of people were renting the sites just to recreate in the St. Ignace area and refraining from ever entering the casino -- so they increased the rate 50%.  Pay me now or pay me later I guess.

The "Pay" experience at Kewadin Shores.

The Tank has solar panels so I always go with the "Free" option and feel that I have a $15 daily stake to start with at the casino.  Over the three days I stayed I won $53 so I looked at it with the perspective that the Tribe paid me $17 a day to stay at their facility! Beats the heck (at least monetarily) out of paying $25 / night for a state park site although in their defense the state parks DO offer a better camping experience than an asphalt parking lot.

Anyway that's where I've been for a while, just thought I'd update things.  I want to close out my Michigan swing by boondocking at the Blockhouse Campground in the Ottawa National Forest where I enjoyed the camping last month but  the Upper Peninsula has had several days of rain and I'm concerned about getting the Tank through the muddy forest roads.....we'll see.

Thanks for reading!

Pork Chops!

I wish I could tell you that all my meals in the Tank were this well balanced (or even eaten off a plate!) but I won't lie to you.  It's 87 F here in the Tank while I pen this and that is becoming a very motivating reason to get up to the Upper Peninsula's cooler climate.  I'm going to hit the Anytime Fitness in Cadillac on my way up for a much needed workout (and shower).

Thanks for reading!

Farewell to Midland

I decided to attend my Dad's 88th birthday celebration and changed my plans from camping my way out West to heading back to my childhood home of Midland, MI where my Dad is retired.  I did it in two 180 mile hops which underscored how big the state is (but not compared to Texas).

On one of my walks I ventured past my childhood home up until 6th grade.

Midland is unofficially known as "The City of Churches" because there is seemingly one church for every 30 or 40 persons.  Here's one of the churches with a modern architecture:

Walking here is great because you're almost always in the shade!

My brother Jim graciously let me "camp" in his driveway during the wait up to my Dad's birthday, I even had electrical hookups.

My brother getting ready to unplug the Tank prior to my departure.

 So Jim, two of my sisters who also live in Midland and myself took my Dad out to a great Italian dinner for his birthday and then retired back to his house for a Key Lime themed birthday cake.   So my time in Midland came to a finale, but not my time in Michigan's perfect summer weather (it's sunny and 78 as I write this).  I plan to camp a different route back across the Upper Penninsula and slowly head west.  As it was 102 F in Texas today I'm not in a huge hurry to trade Midwest weather in for that.

Thanks for reading!