Looking back on June
It's hard to believe that we are squarely into July now. June almost feels like it is nothing but a blur in our rear view mirror. Sadly, as we get older, the days, weeks, months, and years seem to fly by at lightning speed. It's one of those mysteries of the universe and there doesn't seem to be a way to pump the brakes on any of it.
With that in mind, I wanted to take some time today and solidify some memories from June on the blockchain before they are lost to me forever. While some might consider a post like this "spammy", I can't think of a better time capsule than our beloved immutable blockchain.
I hope you enjoy some of the photos I share. There isn't going to be a particular theme, just a lot of life.
It was made for living right?!
@mrsbozz took this photo of a seagull camping out on top of my trucks tonneau cover. I'm sure he was just looking for food, but I also have to consider the possibility that it was looking for payback.
You see, earlier that day I had smoked one of his brethren cruising down the road at 58 MPH. I don't rate the odds of it surviving as very high, so this fellow could have been looking to equalize my transgression.
Normally, we have a couple that we regularly camp with. Their kids are getting old enough now that they are involved in many extra curricular activities and that means they aren't able to camp with us as much as they used to.
With that in mind, @mrsbozz exclaimed that she wants to play more games together when we have to camp alone. She suckered me into playing Rummy and she handily destroyed me three games in a row.
We might need to rethink this "games" thing!
She'd probably freak out that I am sharing these photos given how messy it is, but when we are camping, this is our home away from home. We actually spend very little time inside of the trailer, but it is nice to have a good dry place to retreat to when the weather is too rainy or cold to be outside.
It gives us a fair amount of space to stretch out and has most all the comforts of home.
This was a cool old church that we came across while we were visiting Cross Village, MI. It's so small it doesn't even have bathrooms inside of it. If you go out the back, there is a small fence with a couple of porta-johns behind it. No thanks!
We also passed through the small town of Bliss, MI. Home of Blissfest, it also housed this interesting church with quite a dramatic roof. I've always kind of enjoyed the A-Frame style. It would be interesting to see what this place looks like on the inside. I imagine it is equally dramatic as the outside!
I promised @galenkp (not directly), that I would share some photos of the garlic that I planted last fall. As you can see, despite the dry Spring we have had, some scapes started to finally jump out. I cut those off and I grilled them up to have with a juicy steak one night.
I put them in some foil and drizzled them with olive oil before I put them on the grill. @mrsbozz didn't feel like they had a bunch of flavor, but I thought they were delightful. I'm looking forward to harvesting my garlic later this year and seeing how well I did. This is my first time trying to grow garlic, so I expect there will be some trial and error.
Back to Cross Village, MI
We had a bit of time to kill after our lunch in Cross Village, so we decided to hit Petoskey Brewing's Cross Village branch for a cold beer.
It's clearly a pretty new building, but the style has an old mission feel that is kind of cool. They were practically dead for the middle of a Friday in the summer and we almost thought they were closed.
It turns out, just the indoors was closed. They had the patio fully open and there were a couple of tables occupied out there.
@mrsbozz knows I know what she likes in terms of beer, so she usually just tells me to pick something for her. In this case, I got her a nice Heffewizen that she absolutely loved. I decided to try their flagship brown ale and it was equally delicious.
I don't have Heffewizens, but they often have a bit of a banana flavor to them that kind of turns me off. In turn, the darker beers like this often have a coffee flavor that my wife doesn't care for.
I am actually not a coffee drinker, I like the smell, but I don't care for the flavor. When you put it in a beer though, a switch flips and I absolutely love it. Call me crazy.
In honor of these two fine brews, I am submitting this as a #beersaturday post sponsored by @detlev
The haze from the wildfires was starting to clear off and we had a wonderful afternoon sitting on the patio enjoying our beers. We didn't try any of the food here, but the people around us did and it looked delicious. The problem is, being so close to the famous Legs Inn how do you not go there anytime you are in Cross Village?
Speaking of wildfire haze, those fires in Canada have been brutal. You might think that is fog in the photos above but it is actually wildfire smoke. There was one day at work the whole outdoors smelled like a campfire anytime you would go outside.
It has been really crazy. I can only imagine how bad it must be up there if it is like this down in Michigan!
I hope they can get some rain and get them under control soon!
Finally, since we are talking about fires, this is one of my favorite parts of camping. I can't count the number of amazing nights I have spent around the campfire with @mrsbozz and our friends. It's been a true joy to share those moments with them.
Given how dry it has been this summer, I started carrying around an empty five gallon bucket. We fill that with water from the campground so we can douse the fire if things get out of control or we are calling it a night.
Typically, we knock the fire down and just let it simmer overnight, but again given the dry conditions, we don't want to take the chance. It's just our way of being responsible for the campgrounds that we have come to know and love!
That's all I've got for you. What a June this was! I hope I can make July just as eventful. Something tells me it just might be even better!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Time does just fly as we get older, as a teenager it seemed to go by so slowly! June is a blur and I can't believe it's July. I have to get busy on a couple projects I've been working on the side before it's Christmas!
Beer wise, banana flavors in beer suck in my humble opinion. Too bad the the Mrs. doesn't like dark beer, they are so good!
I agree, dark beers really are the best. Especially in the winter on cold evenings. I love them! I'm glad I am not alone on the banana thing!
What a lovely post and travel. Enjoy life and try other card games.
Thank you! Hopefully I can just get better at the ones I know!
Forgot the !BEER for u 2
I enjoyed looking at the pictures
The month of June was basically for enjoyment to you
That's a good one!
Thank you!
Banana flavor doesn't sound good to me, but, I have never had one, so I will try hard not to prejudge.
Time does fly, doesn't it? I keep forgetting things that are actually from 5 or 6 years ago, I am still saying a couple of years ago, not counting the covidy times. It is so nice to see people posting their memoirs online, hopefully, they will get read by their great, great nieces and nephews. You'll still be the best uncle and they probably will still be talking about it among themselves.
I would have probably gotten annoyed if someone posted a picture of my camper on the inside, lest they believe I'm a slob. LOL Anyway, June rocked and it looks like July will too.
Enjoy!
Yeah, let's just hope @mrsbozz never stumbles upon this! I really have a hard time with banana flavored stuff personally. I don't know what it is!
I think because I think it needs to be left in a banana. The only thing I can think of offhand is banana pudding.
Nope, can't do that either. Just straight bananas for me.
Have fun out there. I hope the fires are dying down. Must be terrible for those living around them.
Yeah, I can only imagine!
It looks like you had a June to remember.
It was pretty epic, but you know what.... July is going to be even better!
Beats your ass at Rummy then picks on your garlic? Hmm, she's brutal.
I'm always going to like a post that shows fire-making and the fire itself so...✅
This is a good wrap up of June, you did some cool things, except getting your ass handed to you three times in Rummy, and I wonder what July has in store.
She has since told me that I actually won at Rummy, but I think she was just trying to be nice. We try to have a fire pretty much every night when we are camping. Tonight was rough due to a significant rain storm.
The pity win...Nice! 😁
Also...one must have fire as often as possible.
For sure!
I actually have a more philosophic post about the nature of time and memories coming up. The Zen take on the matter, as it were. Or maybe just some rambling on the nature of memory. Haha. We shall see how it turns out!
Anyway, some nice photos and memories. I love that Cross Village sign!
I'll be looking forward to that! That was actually on the side of a building, but I just had to get a shot of it! It's a cool little town.
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June has to be my favorite month and that looks like a fabulous kick-off to summer! I like your camper. We're thinking more and more about that RV, especially after the trip to the North Shore. Here in MN the 4th of July is like the unofficially mid-point of summer and it'll be a blur from this point.
I also agree that the fourth is the midpoint, but before Covid, it was almost like the 4th was more of a starting point. Parks would be near empty in June and we loved that time of year. Now they are just packed all the time. It's gotten better now that restrictions are gone and people have realized they don't really enjoy camping. There is still a bit of an uptick from where it was before. Check out my post tomorrow before you make the decision. They aren't all sunshine and roses, they come with their fair share of issues.
I'm glad it's not as crowded at the campgrounds. I remember big crowds in the 80's too when my parents had their Jayco popup camper. We'd take it to the east coast and Lake Erie in the summer.
I've heard some horror stories about reliability in general. The brand we're looking into, Leisure Travel Vans, have had some issues.
After some of the issues we have had, my wife is thinking she might prefer a cabin somewhere. We always liked the idea of a trailer so we can visit different places. There is something to be said for reliability though.