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.