Sand, sand and more sand

Today was all about sand. It was sand in the morning, sand in the afternoon and sand in the evening. It only made sense before leaving Silver Lake that we get our feet into the sand. Silver Lake is all about the dunes.

About 80 percent of everyone in our campground has a Jeep or other manner of four wheel vehicle that they take to the dunes every day. Those whippy red flags that fly 12-feet in the air over Off Road Vehicles are literally everywhere. I tried to talk Joan into letting me put a flag on the Tahoe and taking it over the hill, but she said no.

Every other morning we have walked the campground for an hour to get our miles in. Instead I dragged poor Joan, and her titanium knee, up some pretty steep dunes and then back down them again this morning. We probably walked a little over a mile in the sand, which made it seem like a marathon, but except for some minor whining, Joan did credibly well.

I’m going to post a number of pictures here and in another post so you can see some of our sandy adventures today. When we arrived back at the trailer we left our shoes and their sand on the patio and got cleaned up and had lunch.

Joan had a couple of cards to mail so we drove to Mears, looked at a couple stores, picked up some sweet corn for tomorrow night and then headed back to the trailer for an afternoon of reading under the awning.

The never ending supply of spaghetti we brought from home filled us up again tonight and we still have some to take home on Wednesday.

After dinner was the adventure I had looked forward to all day. We headed to Mac Wood’s Dune Rides next to Silver Lake for a late evening dune ride. We piled aboard the aftermarket Ford F-250 Super Duty full convertible buggy and headed for the dunes. There were about 16-20 people aboard and our driver was Lisa.

We entered the State Park through a gate that belongs only to Mac Wood’s and headed up – and down – the beautiful sand trails that make up the attraction. Lisa filled us with facts – and laughter – about the changing dunes and the shrinking lake. The dunes are slowly filling Silver Lake at the rate of about two feet a year. “Soon it will be ‘Splinter Creek’, “ Lisa said.

I took oodles of photos and they will be posted here and on a subsequent post. Once at Lake Michigan, Lisa drove the left side of the buggy through the water which left Joan a little wet and a man in back, soaked.

After all that sun and fresh air I'm ready for just a little more sand. Mr. Sandman, give me a dream.