One week down and less than 600 miles from Centertown.
We found a campground, Harbor Cove RV Resort, only a few miles from the place that will change the axles on our camper. It is on Messenger/South lake/s. The two are fairly small, natural, spring and river fed lakes that cover 120 acres. They were good fishing lakes when we still lived here, but not noted for swimming, even though the idiots running the county constructed a park and public beach on the west side, by hauling in hundreds of tons of sand/gravel to make a beach (Branch County Memorial Park).
The "campsites" along the water appear to be seasonal. People have direct access to the lake and some have a dock for mooring boats. We are parked at the blue dot. There are 169 full hookup sites here.
It took a lot of fill to develop the campground. The pond in the photo below looks like it was a borrow pit. It makes a nice swimming hole. There is a fair amount of playground equipment for kids if they get tired of swimming.
Coldwater currently has a population of 12,200, compared to 11,000 when we left in 1970. Branch county has a current population of 43,500, compared to 37,900 in 1970.
One thing that has always impressed Kathy and I is the number of beautiful old homes in Coldwater. We have been in few towns that could compete. We walked a few blocks on two different streets today and I took some photos of a few of the houses.
We had lunch at the Willow's, a bar on the river/channel between Messenger/South lakes (120 acres of water surface) and Cemetery/North lakes (510 acres water surface). "The Willows" has been running for longer than I can remember.
Masks - You must wear a mask to go into any store. You are supposed to wear a mask between the door and your table when in restaurants. There have been 5 COVID related deaths in Branch county. Michigan's idiot Governor forced the application of the same rules on Branch county as she did on Democratic stronghold counties (larger cities) with fatality rates 10 times that of Branch. There are sparsely populated counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that have had no COVID deaths yet, it appears to me, that they are under the same mask rules as Detroit, a hotbed of COVID, sheer lunacy. Only a "one size fits all" Democrat could come up with such an idiotic policy. Actually it kinds of fits in with the Democrats who are "Land of Equal Outcome" party. (If you work hard and make good lifestyle choices the outcome should be the same as for the slothful who make poor lifestyle choices. Government, not you, should have the freedom to redistribute the money YOU earned, as it sees fit.)
Businesses are expected to deny service to those that refuse.
One of the days highlights was this sign
Politics in Branch county is similar to my impression of rural Cole county. Most people here are conservative and just want government to get off their backs. But there are some around who think the primary job of government is to take from those who work for a living and reward those who won't, or those whose personal lifestyle choices have caused them to be unable to, support themselves.
The problem here is just like we saw in Missouri with the Medicaid Expansion vote. The masses in St. Louis voted overwhelming for more free stuff. Popular votes on issues in Missouri are now like two wolves and a sheep voting on who they will eat for dinner, with the wolves being those whose appetites for government income redistribution will never be satiated. Time to get off my political horse. This isn't supposed to be a political blog.
It was a beautiful day for walks around town and around the campground.
God is good, may He bless you and yours.
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