@mrsbozz was feeling pretty down that we had to cancel our second to last camping trip due to my unfortunate introduction to Covid. While I was feeling good enough by the weekend that I probably could have managed, it's likely best that we gave me that extra time to recover.
It was shortly after that weekend that she asked if I wanted to try and squeeze one more trip in before our last trip. I said sure, and that's what led us to Otsego Lake State Park.
This wasn't our first trip to this state park, though in the past we have usually visited with our friends. Back when @a4xjeeper had his pontoon boat, he would bring it up and we would spend the day fishing on the 1,972 acre lake in the northern middle of Michigan's lower peninsula.
Unlike our trip to Mitchell State Park a couple of weeks prior, Otsego Lake was pretty deserted. There were clusters of campers in different areas and we actually had a couple campers on either side of us, but for the most part, the park was quite empty.
Which honestly is just fine with @mrsbozz and I. That's one of the things we love about Fall camping, despite the cold temperatures, the parks are much less busy and you have a little more room to breathe. We left work around 2:45 PM and arrived at the campground just a bit after 4:00 PM. By the time 5 PM rolled around, we already had a fire going and we were relaxing waiting to start up the Blackstone for dinner.
It was decided ahead of time that fajitas would be on the menu for Friday night. I had gotten the chicken sliced up the night before and marinating in the trailer fridge while we were busy at work. All that we needed to do was cut up the veggies and get everything cooked.
Paired with some homemade refried beans, it was an absolutely delicious meal! It's pretty impressive just how versatile the Blackstone is and how big a part of our camping routine it has become. In fact, so make more room in the bed of the truck for firewood, we decided to leave the charcoal grill at home on this trip and just use the griddle for all of our meals.
After the dishes were done, we settled in for a night around the campfire. As you can see from the opening photo, the first night we were also treated to a pretty awesome sunset. There was some hope that we might get a chance to see the northern lights after a couple massive x7 and x9 solar flares were ejected from the Sun, but unfortunately, those didn't hit the Earth's atmosphere until last night when we were already home.
It ended up being quite cold on Friday night and we had to turn the heat on in the trailer. It's very rare that we ever use the heat in the trailer, but it is there for us when we need it. With so few people in the campground it was a relatively quiet evening. The people across the street from us pulled in just ahead of us and we never saw them outside of their trailer the whole weekend.
We threw some "cakes on the griddle" for breakfast along with some delicious homemade thick cut bacon from my local meat market. After that, we went for a walk around the campground. As I mentioned, the south loop was a bit more full than I had expected, but the rest of the campground was pretty sparse.
The full walk from our site around all of the loops was over a mile, but I didn't get the exact distance.
We had a fire going fairly early in the day and we kept it fed until well into the night when our wood finally ran out. As you can see from the photo above, there weren't that many people in our section of the campground. Add to that the fact that the sites are pretty big in this park and it felt like we had a ton of space to breathe.
Anytime in the summer there would have been at least seven to ten more trailers visible in this photo.
Lunch consisted of some Koegel Vienna dogs grilled on a stick over the fire and some waffle fries heated up in the air fryer. It was freaking delicious. The key is to get the hot dogs with the skins on them so they shrivel and pop when you cook them over the fire. The only thing it was missing was some onions, but I didn't feel like cutting any and I wasn't going to make @mrsbozz do it for me!
After lunch, I put the Tigers playoff game on the TV and watched that while I kept feeding logs into the fire pit to my right.
It was so relaxing I actually dozed off at one point and the fire almost went out! It wouldn't have been a huge deal to get it back going, but I don't like the idea that I was slacking in my responsibilities.
Dinner on Saturday night was another chicken dish that we have come to love on the Blackstone. It is basically just marinated chicken, and cubed potatoes mixed with some cheese and hot sauce. We then add grilled veggies to it and eat it out of a bowl. It's pretty fantastic and the flavor combinations are amazing!
Saturday night was a bit warmer than the previous night and though we still had the heat on in the trailer, I think it only kicked on once or twice through the night. Sunday morning we packed up bright and early in the morning and bid farewell to Otsego Lake State Park. With just one more trip ahead, we will soon be winterizing and stowing away the trailer for the season.
I'm not sure I am ready for it to be over yet...
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