Traverse City, MI

Traverse City State Park is perfectly located. On one side is a wide sandy beach stretching around the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay and along the opposite side is the Traverse Area Recreational Trail (TART) bike path that goes downtown and beyond. It’s also just a 5-minute bike ride to Giving Wings Aviation Flight Center where Riley has scheduled several hours of flight time.

The 47-acre campground feels remote with campsites shaded by tall trees and the ground covered with pine needles and mulched leaves but it’s actually located in a pretty urban area surrounded by restaurants and hotels and is just 3 miles from bustling downtown Traverse City.

We stayed here a few nights last fall and fell in love with it. It’s a very different place in the summer months. There are lots more campers, families with young children who love to play in hammocks and argue with their siblings over whose turn it is, bicycles everywhere and lots of dogs. Big dogs, small dogs, barking dogs, lap dogs, you name it.

Access to the beach is a huge bonus. There is a pedestrian bridge over the busy road to a quarter mile beach with swimming, jet skis, kayaks, paddle boards and a nice bathhouse.

An important reason we came here is so that Riley can complete transition training on the airplane he is currently building, a Van’s Aicraft RV-12. The flight school here has an older model of the RV12 and this will be his first opportunity to fly one. He scheduled six sessions over three days to get a feel for the aircraft and to have some time behind the controls before he takes his plane on its virgin test flight.

I think he’s anxious to find out how well his 6’5” frame fits into the cockpit and how comfortable it feels to fly. One big difference in this plane and the Pipistrel he flew while getting his sport pilot’s license is that the wings are below the cockpit rather than over it. This changes the visual aspect significantly as you can imagine.

While he was off flying planes, I waked over to the beach and rented a stand up paddle board for a hour or so. There are people on the beach but it isn’t crowded at all. Trees and picnic tables provide plenty of opportunities to hang out in the shade if you don’t want to soak up the sun. When we were here in October, ducks were our only companions on the beach. The ducks are still here, this time with new broods of ducklings expecting to be fed.

East Bay is beautiful. The water is calm and easy to navigate. There were a few kayaks and other paddle boards on the water and a wide area to explore. I paddled out around the peninsula past beautiful homes with boat docks and watched a boat pulling a parasail over the bay.

The water is cool, but not cold and so clear you can see the bottom. After paddle boarding, I relaxed on the beach and waded in the water while I waited for Riley to return so I could hear all about his first flight.

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It wasn’t long before he came riding up on his bike laughing and said “Well, I just took a flying lesson from my grandson!” His instructor, Jordan Hachenski, is just 19 years old. Definitely young enough to be his grandson, haha.

He said the flight was great and he felt comfortable in the plane. They practiced stalls, takeoffs and landings and everything went better than anticipated. I know this was a big relief. It would stink to invest so much time and money in building a plane that wasn’t a good fit, not to mention that it’s a little late to worry about that now.

Cherry Capital Airport is bigger than Smith Reynolds Airport back home where he’s been flying. Commercial flights by the big boys, Delta, America and United, fly in and out. I’m sure the RV12 feels tiny both in size and speed in comparison, like riding a bicycle on an Interstate.

It was lunchtime and we were both hungry so we rode our bikes on the TART to downtown Traverse City to find something good to eat. The bike trail is smooth and level with crosswalk signals at major intersections.

West Bay, the other arm of Grand Traverse Bay, is adjacent to downtown Traverse City. The beach is similar to East Bay but it’s very crowded and busy with boats, snack bars, people, and traffic everywhere. It makes me appreciate East Bay even more.

There are lots of stores downtown like Lululemon, small boutiques and Cherry Republic where you can find anything and everything made with cherries. But sadly there are almost no restaurants open for lunch on Mondays. I think part of this is pandemic-economy related but for whatever reason there are few options to choose from. We ended up at a little ice cream cafe where we had a cherry chicken salad sandwich and shared a cherries jubilee ice cream sundae. I wasn’t disappointed but it wasn’t the meat and potatoes lunch Riley had in mind.

Riley had another flight scheduled in the early evening so I was in charge of starting the campfire for roasting hotdogs later on. A friendly little chipmunk kept me company while he was gone. I fed him peanuts and Cheerios I picked out of trail mix. He stuffed his little cheeks full, ran off and then came back for more. I was startled more than once when I felt tiny cold feet on top of my own. He’s lucky I didn’t jerk my leg up, sending him flying like I once did to a tree frog in PetsMart. But that’s a whole different story.

While Riley was gone, new neighbors moved in to the campsites beside and behind us. There must be 12 people and as just many dogs and bicycles occupying the two previously open spaces. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. They’re not bad neighbors, just a little closer than I’d like. Also, did I mention the dogs really like to bark?

After dinner we walked around the campground and down the bike path to check out potential restaurants for lunch tomorrow. We scouted out a Mexican restaurant, Red Mesa Grill, that looks promising. All in all it’s been a good day.

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Tuesday was similar to Monday with flying lessons for Riley and paddle boarding for me. I’ve made up my mind I’m definitely going to get a paddle board of my own. I’ve said this for years but never seriously researched it. The first time I tried it was in St John with Gary and Kim Thomas and I’ve loved it since. I think it’s better than kayaking because you can stand or sit and it’s just more fun. I’d like an inflatable one for traveling and a solid one for closer to home. Also, having two means I have an extra one for someone else to do it with me. So, who’s interested?

The weather has been great! I couldn’t have asked for better with sunny skies, cool mornings and afternoon highs in the upper 70’s to low 80’s. I could get used to this.

The Red Mesa Grill turned out to be a good choice for lunch. It’s just a short walk from the campsite down the bike trail. We both had chicken tacos that were delicious.

Today Riley flew to Antrim County Airport to practice takeoffs and landings on the smaller runways that are more difficult than the wide ones at Cherry Capital Airport. He’s really pleased with the experience flying an RV12 and seems excited about having one of his own.

We rode back downtown for dinner at Mackinaw Brewing and shared a cheeseburger and I had a cherry lager. Have you noticed a theme? This is definitely the place for all you cherry lovers.

Afterward we used the Garmin Edge 1030 to navigate to a grocery store to get a few things for breakfast and a firestarter for tonight’s campfire, and then navigated back to camp. I can’t say enough good things about my Garmin. It’s awesome. Much better than trying to use a phone to navigate on a bike.

I’m going to miss this campground when we leave tomorrow. I hope we can make it back again soon.