Our Home For The Summer In Petoskey, Mi

Friday 5/29/2014

We left Bellaire, and took Hwy 131 north to Petoskey.

We went to the Odawa Casino located in Petoskey. We had 2 nights to spend somewhere until our reservations at the Magnus City RV Park was available.

The casino has a special parking areas just for RV's. We could have gone to the Super Wal-Mart in Petoskey, but the casino is a much quieter place than a Wal-Marts. Joe also went in the first night and got a free $10 comp to spend and hoped he could walk away with more money.

There are many casino's in Michigan, especially in the UP that give you a great place for a 1 or 2 night stop while making your way to your next stopping place. We learned this too late last year when we traveled the UP. I read about this from a fellow blogger's blog after we were almost leaving the UP and crossing the bridge to Northern Michigan where the trolls live.

View of Little Traverse Bay of  Lake Michigan from the Odawa Casino grounds.

After 2 nights at the casino, we drove drown the hill toward our campground. I never get tired of the views of the Little Traverse Bay as you come over the hill in Petoskey. Our campground is just on the other side of the hospital at the bottom of the hill.

We just happened upon this park last summer, and fell in love with this park.

The park is not that big, so if you want to stay here for any length of time, you need to send in your request January 1 with your money. If they can not fit you into the park, you will receive a letter back letting you know and your refund. A bike trail runs in front of the park that goes from Harbor Springs through Petoskey, Bay Harbor and to Charlevoix. We got a front row spot in site # 7. Can you see our Nest in this picture.

Now can you see us. We are in site #7 until July 15, then we have to move to Site # 15 for 9 days, which does not have a sewer hook-up. Then we move to site #2  until the end of August. We are hoping by September we will have a new home.

The next day we had an appointment to see another home.

I was excited about seeing this home, because I could see it had awesome views of Little Traverse Bay.

View of the home from the front of the it.

This property has 4 acres of woods in the front and to the side of the home.

Views out your living room windows.

The kitchen was a nice size, and had nice cabinets, but I would put new counters and appliances in it.

I would really enjoy doing dishes in this kitchen. The house has 1,750 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a 2 car garage. The downfall was that the road at the bottom of the hill, at the bay, was  a busy road; so you could hear a steady stream of traffic when out on the front lawn. The side road coming into the drive was also a little busy. Plus the drive has a very deep slope up, and there was no room for the Nest or a boat in the drive. There were also power lines in you line of view from the kitchen window.

Even though there were several negatives, this was the first house that Joe and I seriously thought about making an offer. Before making an offer, we needed to find out how far the nearest lake was from the house. This park at Walloon Lake was 8 miles from the house.

It had a swimming area where I could bring our grand kids to swim.

Up the road another 5 miles there was a boat ramp and another public area for swimming with a dock. Unfortunately there was no area to park the car after putting your boat in. We decided this boat ramp was more for the people who live on the lake, to put their boat in for the season.

There was another boat access on another part of the lake with car parking 15 minutes from the drive of the house.

We drove back to the house and looked at the lots across the street that were selling in a neighborhood called Resorts Gardens. There were only 6 lots, with 3 of them already sold. The lots sell for $119,000 with all utilities in. The starting building packages was $429,000.

They had fabulous views, but you would be above $500,000 without being on the lake.

We went back to the house to talk over our decision, while Mallery rolled in the grass letting us know she was happy with the yard!

I really would like to find a yard for Mallery in her last years! She has been such a good sport being a gypsy dog, and I know the constant moving has been hard on her.

Next we went to the Petoskey city marina to see how much it would cost for a boat slip, since there was no room in the driveway to park a boat. We found out there was a 3 year wait to get into that marina. Next we went to the Bay Harbor Marina to see if there was availability and at what price. Yes, you could get a boat in this marina, but at a $5000 a season cost. Next we checked Walloon Lake. There are no marina's on this lake. Walloon Lake is very exclusive. The only way you get on the lake is to live on it or you put your boat in and out for the day.

Bay Harbor Marina is very upscale. Our small boat (what we would buy when we move here) would look way out of place in this marina.

It's a beautiful marina with beautiful water in the harbor.

We are talking really upscale at this private marina.

Condo's and shopping at Bay Harbor.

A upscale restaurant at Bay Harbor.

A view up the street of Bay Harbor's shopping and condo area looking down toward the harbor.

There is very upscale shopping in this area. The clothing here is way above our present means.

The Cliff Condo's in Bay Harbor in a distance.

Joe and I went home and enjoyed our patio to decide what to do. In all our travels, Mallery has never come out and enjoyed being out with us under our awning. She always wanted to go inside. This was so unusual to see her just enjoying the outside this day.

Joe brought out a beer that a fellow traveler gave me a year ago in this area that I had forgot about. I feel like this female in my chair and shorts enjoying the day with this beer.

I had told the traveler how I had tried a beer up in the UP that I really liked, which had blueberries in it. He said he had a beer that was similar. This beer had blueberry, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. I had saved it for a special day, but then forgot about it. It was an awesome beer, just perfect for the day. So glad I forgot it and Joe remembered it for me on this day.

I think Mallery is in agreement with us, on liking this area.

I left Joe to take some pictures of our park.

View from our side yard.

This is the bike path between the bay and our campsite.

View of the hospital behind our park.

View of Little Traverse Bay from our park.
That night, we got a call from our realtor telling us someone had made an offer on the house and if we wanted it, we needed to make an offer. The house sale price was $275,000 with taxes of $4000 (if homestead) a year. We figured we would want to update the house with at least $75,000. We were hoping we could offer $240,000 for it, but now we needed to offer at least $250,000 to be in the ball park. We figured we would end up in a bidding war, that would push the price up for the other person or us. This was the first house we had looked at in this area, and didn't want to find out a week later, a better house had come along. We still wanted to look at lakefront properties, so reluctantly we let the other person get the house. We decided it just was not suppose to be, and God had a better place just for us! Keep us in your prays that God opens the doors for the perfect home for us.