Today we leave Windsor and return to the US. Because it’s a relatively long drive plus the border crossing we are up by 7:00 AM and complete our morning routine early. After hooking up the car we’re on the road by 8:45 AM and headed into Windsor. Traffic is relatively light and we have no problems getting to the Windsor Tunnel. The crossing fee is only $5.25 for the rig and car. What a deal! After passing through the tunnel, again with no problems, we cross the border, come up on the US side of the river and go through customs. Surprisingly it only took a few minutes and we were out onto Jefferson Ave (MI-475) and looking to get on I-75 for the 168 mile drive up to West Branch.
Traffic is somewhat heavier until we get out of the Detroit area then it drops off considerably. We make one rest stop after 80 miles or so then it’s back into the holiday traffic which is starting to build. Once past Saginaw the freeway is packed with the early holiday travelers. We reach West Branch and pull onto Busn-75 for about a mile, then we turn on Old Hwy 76 for about a mile, turn left onto Crawford St and follow it to the RV Park only to come to a dead end with no sign of an RV campground. Luckily there was a home with a circular driveway so we didn’t have to disconnect the car to get out of the dead end.
Since we had followed the mapquest instructions to the letter it was time to go back to the main highway and call the park. It seems there is a Crawford Lane about 4 miles down Old Hwy 76 but I used Crawford St in my mapquest direction search. Oh well, we got what we needed, turned around and using the new information found Loringer Pines RV Park within five minutes. We set up the rig and called my cousin Drew to let him know we were in the area. He and his wife Deb were still on their way up from Saginaw. Drew told me they were going to put the boat in the lake at 3:00 PM, so we agreed to get together then. Since it was about 1:30 PM we had our lunch and relaxed for a while.
Since I had looked at the area map several times I had a rough idea of where Peach Lake was located. So about 2:30 PM we packed up some clothes, dog food, the dogs, etc. and headed out. We made one stop in town to mail some packages then headed for Drew’s. We drove down MI-55 for about five miles to Peach Lake Road, made the turn, followed it for about a mile and turned into the Peach Lake boat ramp access. As we passed the boat ramp there was a pontoon boat being launched. I told Tina, “That’s Drew and his boat”. She couldn’t believe it. So we backed up and pulled into the launch area and sure enough, it was Drew and his wife Debbie. 
We parked the car and got out – they were just as surprised to see us as Tina was to see that we’d found them so easily! Well, once we said our hellos and the boat was launched Drew and I ferried the boat down to their dock while the girls took the cars to the cabin. We spent the afternoon catching up then took the boat out for a leisurely spin around the lake. When we got back Drew fired up the BBQ and did some ribs up. We had fresh asparagus with ribs for dinner, Yum! After dinner we sat outside around a small fire on the bank above the lake overlooking the lake and watched the sun go down. Tina and I finally gathered up the dogs and headed home around 10:30 PM after a really nice but long day.To see all of our photos click on the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski
Distance for this leg, 180 miles. Total for the trip so far, 7,604 miles.
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