7/17/2008  Thursday

Up at 7:00 AM  79 degrees out and very muggy.

By 9:00 AM I am leaving the camp ground.  The dogs have been fed and out on the stakeout.  The camper is travel ready and I have dumped the gray and black water.

By 11:20 AM I have stopped at rest area on Route 23 in Michigan and given the dogs a pee break.

Another long and boring day.  Stopped three more times to get gas.  When I stopped the third time at a gas station in Seney, MI to top off the tank before going into camp, the credit card company had to get into the act one more time.  The poor store owner had to call the credit card company because of their "Fraud Alert" stuff.  It took a while to get a person on the line and then more time while he tried to give them all the information they wanted.  Then I had to get on the line and give them pretty much the same information plus some before they would give the merchant an authorization number for the purchase.  Meanwhile the poor guy had at least 10 other customers behind me waiting in line to make purchases.  Fortunately everyone was patient.

By 6:30 PM I have reached camp.  Chuck and Diane were back from dinner in Grand Marais.  They had seen Thunder Showers on the Weather Channel lined up to strike the camp area so they hurried up their dinner to get back in time to feed the dogs before the rain hit.  They were just finishing when I arrived.  I managed to get my camper set up, the dogs put out on the stake out and fed before the rain started about 7:30 PM.

By 9:00 PM  I am back in the camper after having a visit with Chuck and Diane as they were sanding spackle and calking windows.  We had a bottle of "Special Beer" that I brought and discussed dogs.  It's been raining hard out.  A preliminary inspection of the camper site leads me to the conclusion that I will have to move the dog stakeout and do some precision tree trimming.  However, having done that I stand a chance of getting some of the satellite dishes going on this trip.

By 11:00 PM It's time for lights out.  The dogs are asleep.  Life is good.