And The Wind Blew 9/21/18

Van Buren State Park, South Haven, Michigan

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25

Another really lazy start to our day, and not because of rain. We were just plain lazy. I blame it on the malnutrition and dune climbing yesterday. Whatever the reason, we were both in lazy mode.

Eventually, we got moving. Somewhat. We took a leisurely stroll around each of the five loops in this campground, stopping to talk to the campground host, who happened to be outside.

Our new neighbors.
Makes ya wanna giggle. (not laughing at them, just because it’s so cute!) Their car is bigger than their trailer.
We’ve heard that people who buy these just want to camp, without sleeping in a tent. Makes sense.

Well, look what we found.
Surprisingly no smell, though. And ducks were swimming in it.

The guys talked for quite a while – mostly about football – but the host also informed us that 120 new people were scheduled to make an appearance today! It’s gonna be a hot time in the ol’ town tonight! And we vowed to ourselves to stay off the narrow streets until time for sunset. He also told us that there’s a rip current advisory today due to the high winds. Funny. I never thought about a lake having a rip current. I always assumed they were somehow connected with tides.

And yes, they still have a gale-force wind advisory for today. Gale winds are more of a nautical term that covers 39-54mph sustained winds. Today was 40, with gusts to 50.

After our stroll, we rode our bikes to the beach, just to check it out. Nothing much. At least not yet.

We had decided it best to do laundry at this spot, rather than wait. Neither campground has washers or dryers, and South Haven seemed to have a nice laundromat.

They did! It was huge, and all the equipment was functioning, and it was spotlessly clean – even in the corners of the bathroom and the floor along the fronts of the washers and dryers. It was so clean, that chances are, if you dropped your laundry, there was a greater chance of you getting the floor dirty than your laundry getting dirty. And that’s not much of an exaggeration. I made sure to thank the woman overseeing the place (also something you don’t get everywhere). She’s been working there for about 25 years! And said they all try really hard to keep it nice. Success!!

So while I was sitting with the wash, Blaine went out scouting for a nice big beach to fly his kite(s) today. Windier than the last time, it proved to be a more challenging sport for him. Which is what he prefers. 😊

The waves are building.
Blaine took this while he was scouting.

He took this one too.

Another success story! He found a large, virtually empty beach, just waiting for us. And the waves are mounting, too. There was even a kite-surfer in the background. (yes, I had to look up what it was called) And I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that he flew across the water and that there were times he was at least thirty feet above the water! Wow! Kinda scary now though, after looking up what he was doing, I saw an article that said a kite-surfer was killed trying to surf in gale-force winds when he flew 100mph across the water and then was carried inland and into at least three rooftops. But of course, that was in France. It couldn’t possibly happen here, right?

Heaps of sand to hold down the waiting secondary kite.
That, and it’s positioned so the wind shouldn’t be able to lift it.

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Ooops.
That one ended up in the water.
I had to retrieve it. And rinse it off because it was covered with sand. : )

Ha! It looks like Blaine’s flying a different kite. : )
That’s the kite-surfer.

The next video shows how fast that kite-surfer was traveling!

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The next video shows a sample of how hard Blaine was working today. : )

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Weird cloud formation that the picture doesn’t do justice.

I appreciate that my husband keeps his feet in the sand – – at least most of the time. 😊

After he wore out his arms, we trekked back to the Jeep. We had to make a new path, because our tracks were now non-existent after the blowing wind had its way with the sand. It was painful on our calves. We tried to rinse our feet at the foot-washing station, but by the time we returned the short distance to the Jeep, sand was plastered all over our legs – where ever there was water. 😊

Then he took me back to the lighthouse to show me the undulating and splashing sea.

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I keep forgetting to mention the sign we pass every time we go to town, and we’re always driving past it too quickly for a picture. You’ll just have to trust me. It says, “Greater Jesus Lives Here”. What does that mean? Is there a lesser Jesus? Today, we noticed that it’s a church. Which makes it even stranger. We still don’t get it. . . .

Tonight’s sunset is brought to you by gale-force winds! What a grand (and noisy) time we had this evening! It was like hanging out at the Atlantic Ocean, but without the salt, or shark attacks! (They actually advertise that around the Great Lakes – – No Salt, No Sharks.)

Our first view tonight
It was actually much brighter than this and looked gorgeous!
But the camera picked up the sun too much and made everything darker than it was.

It looked more like this – – only prettier.

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We attempted the dune climb again, but after about half-way, we came to our senses and went back down. The sand was just blowing too fiercely. Our tracks were filled in almost as soon as we made them.

Up we go!

You can’t tell in the picture, but his clothes were really flapping! Even the sweatshirt!

Head down, braving the sandblast.

And down we go.

Down on the narrow beach, we (especially me) really enjoyed watching a huge log rolling around in the water. It began on the beach, but the waves just sucked it right off and twirled it around like it was a small stick. The power of water is incredible!