DAY 2: CMU trip, arriving at Indiana Dunes

Saturday morning we took our time as our drive today was not going to be real long. I talked to the lady next to us and they had been at Tin Cup for several months as they were working in the area. As we were walking the dogs we met the couple on the other side of us. They were on there way home from a trip to Alaska. They had left Ohio on June 4th and traveled to Alaska and were only one day from home. Nice couple-great adventure!

We left Tin Cup mid to late morning for Indiana Dunes State Park. We traveled north on I57 then crossed to I65 on US24. We did this to avoid the Chicago traffic and more particularly the toll roads which really get expensive when you have 4 axles. Everything was fine and going to plan when we started seeing signs about road closures at the intersection of I65 and I94, right where we were headed! While getting fuel at a Flying J we asked about the construction and got a lot of different suggestions from the drivers that were standing there and from the people behind the counter. Apparently there was construction and road closures on some of the side roads too! After sorting through the suggestions and checking Google and maps we found our way to the park without too much trouble.
After, we set up in site 18, I needed a break. While Cindy read, I napped for a bit.

Although the campground was full the sites we large so it did not seem that crowded. Compared to most state parks this campground seemed to have lots of large family groups.

After my rest we walked to the beach. There is a trail at the end of our camp road that leads to the beach. The trail is wide and easy walking, it is about ½ mile long.

On the way back we just had to climb over one of the dunes.

After several rest stops I made it to the top and had a wonderful view of the beach pavilion and lake beyond.

After struggling to get to the top in ankle deep sand, I have you know that I had absolutely no problems going down the other side!

This is what it looks like from the beach pavilion looking up. This is called 'Devil's Slide'. It was fun to watch the little one's squeal and laugh as they rolled and tumbled down through the soft powdery sand.

When we got back to the RV, we needed to take the dogs for a walk. So we decided to be the typical nosey campers and checkout the other campers. There are actually two loops to the campground. For some reason it seemed that in our loop we were the minority with many large Hispanic families, mostly in tents. In the other loop there were more RV's. We liked our side since the walk to the beach was closer. Before we got back to the RV it started to rain. It was a light and short lived rain, but enough to quiet the campground.

Cindy called to check in on the boys, then we did some pork chops on the grill and called it a night. With the temperatures so cool and the breeze from the lake, we find it really comfortable sleeping with the windows open.