First Part Of July and Boyne Thunder Up Town Friday Night

                                                                    July 1,2017

We have had more rain, then in past years and when we walk on the dock, we are almost walking on water! When the dock was put in this year, it was about 2 foot above the water. I remember saying the dock was put in too high. I guess not! Even when we don't get rain, Lake Charlevoix gets the run off, of all the rain north, east, west and south of us. Plus if Lake Michigan gets a lot of rain from Wisconsin and all of Michigan, it eventually comes into Lake Charlevoix.

We had an exciting 4th of July (just kidding) having a garage sale. We get a ton of surrounding visitors on the 4th to Boyne City, so a garage sale makes a lot of sense. We are still trying to sell off a ton of stuff we stored during our RVing days. We sold a lot, but still have a lot to sell or take to Salvation Army.

On the 2nd weekend of July, Boyne City is the host to the Annual Boyne Thunder boat races. On Friday night, Boyne City has their Up Town Friday Night for most of the summer. On this Friday night, there was the Thunder Boat show, a car show, plus Up Town Friday Night. These boats are so long, I couldn't get it all in the picture.

Bulmann Docks put up stairs and docks, up and down the street, so the visitors could view the inside of the Thunder boats. This company is a manufacture and sales of docks and boat lifts, located in Boyne city. This picture was while I was on top of one of those docks.

Pretty sharp looking propellers on this boat.

View of the inside of the boat while on top of one of the docks.

Another view on the next dock. I wanted to get a picture of the crowds in our small 3000 population town. We were told 10,000 people came to Boyne City for this event.

Again on the next dock, I had to take 3 pictures to get the entire boat. Picture 1.

Picture 2 -Seven seat boat.

Picture 3

I got this boat in the entire picture because I was able to stand far enough away. Most of these boats are bigger than our 40 foot motor home.

Some of the boats are on lifts that can tilt them clear on their sides, as seen in next two pictures.

This one is not tilted as far as they go.

Joe came down town last year, and saw one almost on its side. (I was too busy doing something else and didn't come last year. This was my first time to come down for the Boyne Thunder Up Town Friday Night).

Just need to add a LA to this boat and it's ours! (For those who don't understand- it make our last name).

With big boats, you need big trucks.

Ive heard of and seen, 150's and 250's, and maybe a 350, but never a 650.

On every corner, local bands are playing, entertaining the crowds, like every Friday night during the summer.

Next we walked out on a big dock to see some of the boats that are not displayed down town. This dock is down town, where you can usually rent boats, and where people can dock their boats, if they come to town by water. This weekend the docks are reserved for the Thunder boats.

Then we went over to the city park to see the boats on the city docks. These docks rent to boaters for the season. This boat looked like batman's boat to me.

This part of the city dock was to narrow than the big dock we had been on. In some places it was so narrow, there was only room for single file. I decided to forgo that dock. The traffic on the dock was at times 2 way. I didn't want to some how end up in the water by some over anxious person.

The next dock further up was at least wide enough for constants 2 way foot traffic.

Some boats had parties going on. Private of course!

The parade of boat gawkers! Us included.

This boat was completely closed in. Another bat man boat.

The engine compartment is open so you can peak.

A 5 seater boat. Most of these boats have a bed and bath area under the front area of the boats.

Another enclosed boat. With 120 entries, there are a lot of them to view. My I phone died at this point. We continued to tour them. Sorry you can't come along. I guess you will just have to come to see them next summer. The race was the next day. the next blog will have a few pictures and videos of the start of the race.

Happenings In June 2017

                                                                June 2017

We had to go to Traverse City for an appointment, and Joe found this boat on Craigslist, so we stopped to check it out! It was a 34 foot boat. It is a start to educate us on bigger boats. Way to big and not well kept!

What a nice way to start your day with a view like this.

While we are north, our kids and grandkids are enjoying their beach home town.

I don't know if I ever posted our home after we sided it. It went from brown to yellow. Much cheerier!

We decided we wanted to buy a wave runner, so we had been educating ourselves on them also.We had been looking at older and cheaper ones, but were told by the mechanic who winterizes our boat that the older models have more issues. On this day we drove to Harbor Springs to look at a newer model on Little Traverse Bay.

Joe brought his life jacket to take it out for a spin.

Off he went. This being the first time driving one, he said it felt a little tipsy.

I like the color because it stands out when on the water, not because it matches our house! You know you want to be seen when out with bigger boats around you. The neighborhood that we looked at this wave runner was very high end, with beautiful big old homes with tons of character. I took a video of the neighborhood as we left, but it doesn't seem to want to work. If it works for you let me know. It is showing up a blank white square for me.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

A summer storm developing just north of us, like always.

It looked pretty ominous!

But all we got was a short heavy down pour which we needed to water our grass. The towns north of us, had high winds and storm damage.

June 23
This year has been a much cooler summer. Joe loves it this way. He says he moved north to get away from hot sticky summers like that of Iowa!

We always get Mayflies in early summer. They cover your cars,

and your house.

All the dots on the house are Mayflies

They are aquatic insects, also called Canadian soldiers in the United States, or Shadflies or Fishflies in Canada or Michigan. Their early lives start in water as nymphs and then emerge from the water as flying insects as adults. Their adult lives are very short once on land. They don't bother you, but are permanent fixtures for a while.

As July approached, the Farmer Market in Boyne City becomes a zoo for parking.

And so does the traffic in front of our house. What once was a quiet street with occasional cars in winter and early Spring, becomes a very busy road with traffic moving way faster than the 35mph speed limit posted out front. Our neighborhood gets in arms about the speeders and calls are made to the city. A sign machine is placed down the road with each cars speed lite up showing the driver how fast they are moving. ( But that doesn't seem to deter their speeding. This evening, Joe went down and took his camera and took pictures of the drivers and the speed they were going. He said it was fun watching the drivers look at him and then  hit their brakes, as I am sure wondering what the "H" he was doing.

Well we did purchase the wave runner, as we knew  someone else was going to look at it the next day, and we were going into high boating season. Nothing lasts too long on the market if it is a good buy during this time of year.

The same day we  picked up the wave runner, we also picked up the kayaks I had purchased a few weeks earlier. I had to have special car top bars put on top of the car at the local dealership. Then  Joe had to add the kayak holders to the installed bars. It just so happened everything was ready to be picked up on the same day, in Petoskey and Harbor Springs north of where we live. We are ready for summer now!

The wave  runner lift that we purchased with the wave  runner was delivered by the broker who sold them to us for the owner.

A few days later, Joe asked one of our neighbors if he could help Joe put the lift into the water.

It went fairly easy, as they put boards on the rock wall and tied a rope to the lift and slid it into the water.

Joe's first time out as a owner of a wave runner. I decided to wait to ride on the back until after he felt comfortable on it by himself. It was enough of a learning curve just docking it on the lift. Once you turn off the motor, the wave runner goes with the waves. At the moment, he is still just throwing the rope to me on the dock, and I am pulling him to the lift until we get this all figured out. Each time he went out, the wave runner felt less tipsy, and he felt more in control of it!