by Phyllis McCrossin

King, Petra and I pulled into the campground in South Haven Saturday, a week and a day after leaving California. We spent three days in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, waiting for winds to die down. It was an uneventful trip back to Michigan.

Within the hour of our arriving, our oldest son stopped by to see us. Of our four children he is the most sentimental. I had invited him over for a cookout Sunday, but he showed up Saturday stating, “I was too excited to wait.”  He’s 45 and still needs his Mom and Dad.

I had a different column written yesterday – one railing against the sanctimonious twits of the world, and I even worked on it a little more today. But in the end I decided there was no point. One either agrees with the sanctimonious twits of the world or one does not, and I’ve learned (the hard way) that calling them out on their judgmental edicts does little to the cause of us ”liberals.”

(Sometimes we are called another word, one that combines the word liberal with an offensive R word – to them I say, “excuse me, your ignorance is showing”).

So today is Monday and the rain is coming down steadily. According to our weather app – by which we travelers live and die – the rain is going to continue for another three hours. I can most certainly live with that. There is a degree of contentment in being able to look out the window and say to myself, “I don’t have to do anything but sit and read, write and play around with whatever craft I feel like doing.” In retirement it’s like that every day, but rain brings the feeling home even more.

I’ve been playing around with different craft type things all winter and posting my creations on my Facebook page (which I recently de-activated because of the afore mentioned sanctimonious twits). The campground owner asked if I wanted to set up a booth at their monthly marketplace. It could be fun. I might try it a couple of times. Not so much as a money-making venture, but more of a way to be able to continue with a creative outlet and not have our tiny home overflowing with the fruits of my labor.

We spend our summer months at Kal-Haven Outpost Campground. It’s a newer campground, I think the first season it was open was 2016. The young couple who co-own the campground with their partners work hard to make the place a go-to destination.

This spring they put in a sewer line. I would expect it will bring in even more campers. Besides their now full-hookup sites, there are also wooded tent sites.  They also host a monthly Kal-Haven Outpost marketplace. Vendors can set up their booths to sell their wares, food trucks are brought in and there is usually live music.

Easter weekend there will be an Easter Egg hunt, they are planning a Christmas in July celebration and a Halloween trick or trunk. I’m sure there are other events I’ve missed since I no longer have a Facebook account. Their website is https://kalhavenoutpost.com .

So, despite the cold and the grey Michigan days we are back and content to be here. I’m looking forward to long, lazy summer days. Hope to see you around.

Play nice, don’t call people names (such as sanctimonious twits) and don’t kick sand in the sandbox.