Monday, Sept 5
We drove south on US-131 for 150 miles through Grand Rapids to the Indiana state border, where the highway ended. Since it was Labor Day, we saw hundreds of campers on the road, probably heading back home. We made a game of counting them and quickly got to 100 before passing Grand Rapids. In Indiana, we took two-lane state roads for the last 40 miles to the Chain O’Lakes State Park. Less than an hour east of Elkhart, where we had gone to a Grand Design Rally the week before. We passed the National RV Museum during our trip south.
Chain O Lakes State Park
We arrive at The Chain O’Lakes State Park around 3 pm. The state park contains nine small interconnected lakes and 11 lakes in total. These “kettle” lakes are shallow, sediment-filled lakes created after rapid glacier melt and retreat 13,000 years ago. Because this was just an overnight stop, we did not have time to enjoy the park or the surrounding area. I would have liked to have taken their 9-Lake Challenge, where you paddle five miles through all nine lakes.
The campground was large and nicely wooded, with 331 electric and 49 non-electric sites. None of the sites had water or sewage, so we had to fill up with water at the dump station before going to our site. The site I had reserved was so severely sloped front-to-back that it would have been impossible to get our camper level. Since the campground was mostly empty, I ran back up to the entrance station, where they were glad to give me another spot and suggested that I look at one a couple of sites away. That site turned out fine, though we had to use all our leveling blocks in the back to support our jacks.
After we set up, we drove around the park, but there was no paved road access to most of the lakes. We also saw hundreds of caterpillar tents in the trees.
Albion
We then drove up to the small town of Albion and ate at the only restaurant open, Dairy Queen. We enjoyed the murals that they had there.
We were back at the camper around 6 pm.
Tuesday, Sept 6
We packed and left around 9:15 and headed to Versailles State Park in Indiana.