Wild Cherry RV Resort | exploRVistas

If it seems like our posts have been a little spread apart this summer, you are correct in that observation. Our plans for our time in Michigan this year included a few renovations with our rig and finishing up Diana’s mom’s business. We also hoped to spend more time just enjoying Leelanau and sharing our discoveries here on exploRVistas. We did accomplish what we had planned, but there were a few obstacles thrown in to make life interesting. Top that off with an extremely full resort and…well…there wasn’t much time for writing! Things are settling down though, so here’s a summary of our past few months.

After spending the last half of April and the first week of May in Grand Rapids (doctor visits and working through Mom’s business), we headed north to Wild Cherry Resort near Lake Leelanau. We knew that we had two renovations we wanted to get to this summer…new carpeting and a new kitchen countertop and sink. Before I could get to either of those, Diana and I were looking at our entry steps, as there was a loose piece that needed some attention. As we were inspecting them, Diana noticed several cracks in our frame. That lead to having quite a bit of welding done to our rig, something I covered in detail on our post, A Solid Foundation. When I was finishing up that job, I noticed that one of our leaf springs was completely worn out.

That’s the new spring on top of the old one. I purchased four new springs and, with the help of my neighbor Tom, we installed them in an afternoon. It sure was nice having his help, along with the use of the resort’s tools! Just about the time that job was completed, we were hit with a doozey of a hailstorm.

A solid 10 minutes of marble to golf ball sized hail. Both of our vehicles sustained damage, along with all three of our slide room toppers. Several people in the park lost all of their roof vents, but those of us with MaxxAir covers did just fine. Unfortunately, my tonneau cover on the truck looked like someone had taken a ball peen hammer to it.

Thank goodness our insurance covered it all. In the midst of getting the vehicles fixed, I decided that I’d better get going on the countertop, if I had any hope of getting it done this summer. I used to make them for a living in a factory setting; this was going to require field work. Fortunately the resort has a table saw in the barn. Jim let me build the top there and I had it installed in short order.

We are happy with the way it turned out!
As soon as that project was complete, we called a local flooring installer and started the process of having our carpeting replaced. I had been worried about a soft spot in our floor that I wanted to fix, so I told him I would remove the old carpeting. Upon doing so, I noticed that the RV manufacturer had cut a hole in a perfectly good, one-piece subfloor.

Not sure why they did that, but they evidently thought that putting a hundred staples around the edge would hold it in place. The portion over the heat duct had nothing supporting it. I removed the board and built a support structure below it with square aluminum tubing. After re-mounting the board, the repair was as solid as the rest of the floor. Problem solved.

The carpet installation process took a week, as the installer had to subcontract the binding on the edges that hang off the slide rooms. That meant cramming our vehicles full of the stuff that normally was in our rig. We kept the Escape driveable, but the truck was completely packed. Jim let us store our loveseat and dinette on a utility trailer in the barn, which was a huge help.

Again, we were really pleased with the results! Nothing like soft carpeting between your toes! 😀

So while it’s been a busy time, it’s been a great summer in Leelanau. Autumn is fast approaching, and there are several things we would like to do before we leave. Stay tuned to see what’s next!

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We have returned to Wild Cherry RV Resort on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula for another season….and it is good to be back. We arrived Friday afternoon, set up our rig and locked onto one of the best satellite signals we’ve ever pulled in on our DirecTV. Life is definitely good. 🙂 We were greeted by Patti and Lane, and also JoAnn and Paul. It was great to see them all again. While I was setting up, Rex drove up in his pickup to say hello. He and Jim (the resort owner) spent the morning getting the riding mower ready to go, as Rex will be starting to mow on Monday. He had set up his 5th wheel earlier in the week and was having a little issue getting his Dish Network signal locked on, so he asked if I would help him with that. Diana and I jumped on the golf cart and headed down to his and Nellie’s rig. To remind everyone, Rex will be 92 years young this summer, and his charming wife Nellie will be 90. They proceeded to pour us a drink, as we all know that aiming a satellite is easier with a vodka and tonic. 🙂 Rex and I headed outside to move the dish, while Diana and Nellie stayed in to watch the signal meter on the screen, calling the numbers to us through the open window. Factor into this that Rex and I are both somewhat hard of hearing…and you basically have the makings of an ‘I Love Lucy’ skit. Even with my Dishpointer app on my phone, we were only able to get the meter to about 50%…which I was sure wouldn’t be enough. I called Dish. After telling the tech that “the neighbor moved it” …with me being ‘the neighbor’, he worked a little magic on his end and suddenly Rex and Nellie had great reception! They insisted on taking us out to dinner to thank us, so we headed into town for a bite to eat. Just getting to spend time with these two is a treat for us. Let’s change that earlier statement to life is definitely better than good! 🙂

Saturday morning came early, as Diana and I had agreed to dive right in and work. JoAnn and Paul had been covering the place since May 1, so they headed downstate to their daughter’s place for Mother’s Day weekend. Rod and Mary will be here this coming Friday. Paul and Jim had set up most of the picnic tables already, so I finished that project. I also helped Jim with a new drain tile along the entrance road. He handled most of that with his John Deere front end loader, something he is a master at. Diana started in on the paperwork in the office.

And once again, the woods surrounding the resort are filled with trillium! The trees are starting to leaf out and soon our wooded tent sites will be filled with campers.

The flowering trees are beginning to bloom, and the apple and cherry blossoms will soon be covering the hillsides throughout Leelanau County.

On Saturday, I picked up where Paul left off on edging the patios. As you can see, our lakefront sites are wide open right now, so it’s a perfect time to come up and spend a few days. The only thing you will hear is birds, frogs, crickets and…during the day…Rex mowing those hills. 🙂 Shoulder seasons in Northern Michigan are magical.

Mosquitoes are rarely a problem here. It’s also very dark at night, so if the sky is clear, the stars are insane!

The wineries, shops, and restaurants in the surrounding villages are all open for business. People are taking to the woods in their annual hunt for morel mushrooms. We hope to get our trikes on the trails soon, as the weather has been warming up into the 60’s in the afternoons. And this is a fabulous time to explore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Leelanau Conservancy preserves.

Leelanau was calling us, and we are really glad we got up here as quickly as we could!

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Wild Cherry RV Resort
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