We've settled into our jobs and we are enjoying our experience here at Sandy Shores Campground. On Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, Selene works in the office where there's always something going on, and Hank does mostly outside work that's needed to keep the grounds clean and neat - a trademark of this campground. On Thursday and Friday, we both take care of the bathhouse/laundry/ pool area right next to us for 8 hours while the regular crew gets some time off. We check things about every hour or so to make sure the floors are dry, and the facilities are clean.....average time 20-30 miutes per hour on busy days. The seasonal campers are responsible for their own yard work, so we make a few rounds in the golf cart picking up bagged yard waste and depositing it on the compost pile in the woods. Monday and Tuesday are our off days. Hank also does the nighttime security walk at about ll:30 P.M. each night to make sure everyone is observing Quiet Hours which start at 11 P.M., and that job usually takes about an hour.
Our relationship with the owners, their sons and our co-workers continues to be very positive . The family as built this campground from the ground up and they have every right to be proud of it. The weather finally warmed up to daytime highs in the low 80's which is average for this time of year. Our first two months here were very wet, but sunny days are in abundance now.
We have a full hookup site on a concrete pad. This is our view from our front window.
The pool is heated and is used from 10 A.M. to 9:30 P.M.
. The biggest draw to the Silver Lake area is Silver Lake itself and the huge sand dunes that surround part of it. "One of Silver Lake’s most popular features is its 450-acre off-road vehicle area. Visitors may cruise up and over the expansive dunes in their own 4x4s provided they’re outfitted with an ORV sticker and a ten-foot orange flag. Alternatively, travelers can rent off-road vehicles specially equipped to handle the unique challenges of driving on sand. The Silver Lake Sand Dunes are the only sand dunes east of the Mississippi River where visitors are allowed to drive private motorized vehicles over the shifting landscape. Silver Lake’s ORV area operates from April 1 through October 31."
Lake Michigan is on the west side of the dunes. The "dunies" love riding their jeeps, dune buggies, various bike, and other 'off road vehicles (ORV) up and down the steep hills, or even climbing up on foot to enjoy the view from the top.
The campground has a private beach on Silver Lake along with a small marina.
The water is fairly shallow almost to the end of the marina and then drops off pretty quick. The summertime water temperature is warm compared to that of Lake Michigan.
This past Thursday night, Thunder on the Dunes was held with a fireworks display from the dunes. Dusk comes late here and this event didn't start until about 10:15 P.M. so Quiet Hours started later that night.
Two personal events have taken place in the last month. Selene got her first smart phone a few weeks ago. Her old flip phone was a 3G phone, and the nearest Verizon tower is 4G. A new phone was in order and she decided to join the modern generation. It continues to be a learning experience for her.
The other event was not pleasant. Hank's main laptop crashed after a series of events attempting to correct a small problem. The final result was that the hard drive had to be reformatted and the operating system reloaded from external media back to original factory condition, then updates to bring it up to current standards, and all user software and data re-installed. HP worked with him, and after a couple of order snafus, he received a new one overnighted at no charge ( savings of about $50). The last 10 days he's been gradually getting things back in order, although some old applications and some data stored in inaccessible Microsoft data spaces will not be recovered. HP stayed in touch a couple of times with offers of help if needed.
That's our life for the last two months in a nutshell. We'll be here until right after Labor Day.
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