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| It was steep! |
As we had a late check-out and Simon hadn’t had the
opportunity to explore the park at all it seemed a wise decision to take on the
three-dune challenge – climbing the three tallest sand dunes at Indiana Dunes
State Park. It was only a 1.5-mile
trail, so how hard could it be? Well, I
guess in very warm sunny weather climbing slopes at an angle of up to 43°
when you take one step forward and slide two steps back can be quite tiring
– hence the word ‘challenge’! We bumped into other people taking on the dunes
which thankfully gave us an opportunity to stop and chat whilst using the time
to catch our breath. There were
lovely views of Lake Michigan’s turquoise waters.
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| View back where we came from.... |
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| Trying to make it look easy... |
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| The plaque where we reached the top of the third dune - success! |
It only took an hour before we were back at the RV to shower
and make a move. A quick swing past the beach (I didn’t want to leave….) and
off we went.
The goal having smashed
through the budget in Chicago is to try to spend the minimum possible for the
rest of the week! We have to fill up
with petrol again to reach our next time-critical point on Thursday, so some
quick research on the gas buddy told me that we had better do that in Indiana
before crossing the border into more expensive State number 44 – Michigan
(right). This also signalled our return to
the eastern time zone, which is where we’ll be staying now until our
departure…. Eek, where has the time gone?!
We made ground towards Detroit for a couple of hours and
headed straight to try a new tactic – overnight parking at a Casino. On the ‘Allstays’ app you can filter the
search to your needs. So, by looking up overnight parking, BLMs and Walmarts in
theory you have a map with potential freebies shown on it.
The Firekeepers casino just outside Battle
Creek was over half way to Detroit and we pulled in to their ‘self-park RV lot’
to find lots of space surrounded by lush green grass... And a teenager on a bicycle with ‘security’
on his bright yellow t-shirt. I called over to him and asked if we needed to go
and register with the casino if we wished to stay the night. He told us that would not be necessary and
just to find a spot we liked and make ourselves comfortable – result! Clearly, the casino relies on the fact that
visitors to their car park will be lured into their shiny, colourful building
for food and gaming excitement to invest lots of money. Well, hah, we’ll show them some good ‘ole
British restraint because we are self-catering and rubbish at gambling! I nearly caved, when I half-jokingly
suggested to Simon that we could do something extraordinary and MAKE some money
for a change by putting all our remaining cash on red and leaving when we were
still up. He gave the idea short-shrift
and instead I set up a camping chair beside the RV in the evening sunshine and
got my puzzle book out. Rock and roll.
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| This cosy parking space seemed like a good idea at the time.... |
Having eaten dinner, we watched a film and turned in. In that semi-drowsy state, I suddenly heard a
loud noise that sounded like someone was pointing a hose at the side of the
RV. We had tucked ourselves right into a
cosy corner of the car park with the back end of Harvey hanging over the lawn. A quick glance out of the side windows
identified that we were sat in between two very powerful sprinklers that were
giving Harvey a free wash. I mentioned
that their lawn was very lush…. That explains that then. As nice as a free RV
shower was, it was not conducive to getting any sleep, so we would have to
move. Meaning that one of us would have
to step outside to turn the switch under the bonnet to start the RV. So, off I
went in my pyjamas, rolled the truck straight forwards into the nearest double
space with concrete around all four walls and turned the switch off again to
settle in for the night. Job done, time
to get some sleep.
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