2019 Summer Journey – Alabama, Kentucky & Michigan – tinyTowable.com – All about campgrounds and small travel trailers

The Journey Continues

After relaxing a few days in Mississippi, we continued on to Alabama for a weekend of visiting in Birmingham before heading to Michigan. This is where Fay and I met when we were both living there back in the early 80s. Fay's dad was the pastor at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral there when she was growing up, so attending church there on Sunday is always a highlight and chance for her to see many old friends. We stayed with an old business partner of mine, so got a break from our little trailer for a few days.

Our Favorite Campground

When we pulled out of Birmingham, we headed up to Lake Guntersville in north Alabama for a couple of days at our all-time favorite place to stay...Honeycomb Campground. This is the ideal place to be in the shade, overlooking the water, with mountains in the background. As usual, we had a great site right on the water's edge. While people at campgrounds are generally quite friendly, folks in Alabama and the rest of the deep south are always among the friendliest we meet. This time we had the chance to make new friends from nearby Muscle Shoals.

Time to Get Serious

When we left Lake Guntersville, we had already been on the road for a day short of two weeks. It was Tuesday morning, we generally drive backroads, we keep the speed down to 55-60 mph, and we like to drive no more than 4-5 hours each day. We still had over 700 miles to go to reach our main destination in Michigan, with a good bit of it through the mountains on two-lane roads. So, it was time to get focused on making some progress.

We drove almost 8 hours on Tuesday and ended up near Lexington, KY. We spent the night at Fort Boonesborough State Park outside of Richmond. It was a very nice place, although it felt more like a very large city park than a state park. The campground was a large grassy area with paved roads and decent pads. The bathhouse was one of the nicer ones we've come across. (Be sure to check out more photos in our campground review.)

We Went a Little Crazy

Our plan was to leave Kentucky on Wednesday and make it to Fort Wayne, Indiana. We were going to stay at Johnny Appleseed Campground. We stayed there a few years ago and liked it. It's at a nice city park and would leave us a pretty short drive for Thursday.

However, Fay got up at 6:00 am and we were on our way quite early. We decided to eliminate one night on the road and drove an 11 hour day. We made it all the way to our destination in Grand Haven, Michigan. It was a long day, but we were glad to be here.

Grand Haven has a very nice, upscale place to stay called Eastpointe RV Resort. It was built just a few years ago, so everything is nice and new. It's a bit pricy compared to most places we stay, but it's located on the river and right in town. It's really convenient to everything.

They have a large pool, jacuzzi, tennis courts, playground, very nice bathhouse and laundry, and a gym. While we don't often use them, these things are certainly nice when you are going to be staying for a while. (Be sure to check out our review to see a lot of photos.) We like to do a lot of bike riding and walking around when we are here, so we decided it was worth the price.

Grand Haven is a small town on Lake Michigan where I, my dad, and my grandparents grew up. I left here when I was 15, but still have close ties with a lot of childhood friends. Being where the Grand River meets Lake Michigan, it's a popular summer tourist location with a lot of things to do. I'll write more about it with plenty of photos during the next several weeks.

Our First Weekend in Michigan

As I mentioned, we know a lot of people here. We were blessed to be invited to spend our first weekend further up north at friends' cottage. It's on Bass Lake, with a lot of focus on the water. In addition to spending time on the lake on their deck boat, we also spent Saturday evening out there fishing. Fay's never been interested in fishing with me in the past, but she got pretty excited when she caught a nice one...maybe she'll have a change of heart next time I suggest it.

Denny Johnson

After having spent most of our adult life in Orlando, my wife Fay and I moved to Knoxville, TN in 2020. We are loving the change of seasons and being near the mountains. Plus, this part of the country is loaded with great places to camp.

We camped years ago with a pop-up camper, but got serious about it when we purchased our Casita in 2014. There was a lot to learn as we started traveling with it, and a lot of conflicting opinions on line. That's when I decided that creating a website would be a good retirement project. I started tinyTowable.com to share things we've learned along the way that have worked well for us in hopes that the information would be of help to others.

However, since moving to Tennessee, I've gotten involved with new hobbies (you can check some out on my personal website at https://www.softrite.com) and we haven't camped very much. So, at the end of 2023, I made the tough decision to stop updating this website.