My trailering days are over

jkust

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The family and I decided to finally stop trailering from lake to lake and just buy a second home on a lake. We bought a fully furnished, 2400 square foot lake home on a good sized lake. The only thing I need now is a boat lift and canopy to the tune of $5900 with delivery. I can't believe it but we are now talking pontoons, jet ski's and 4 wheelers. We close end of the month.
 

oldjeep

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Re: My trailering days are over

Nice, but you left out snowmobiles ;)
 

southkogs

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Re: My trailering days are over

LOL - well, that's a way to solve the problem :D

I just got home from a weekend with my family at our family cottage in Michigan. You'll make the best memories up there. Congratulations jkust!
 

jkust

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Re: My trailering days are over

LOL - well, that's a way to solve the problem :D

I just got home from a weekend with my family at our family cottage in Michigan. You'll make the best memories up there. Congratulations jkust!

Thanks, we've been on the fringe of buying for a few years now. Just can't deal with staying with the inlaws at their cabin any longer. They are getting old and the kids are getting too big. They can come stay with us now. Agreed, many of my best childhood memories are at my folks lake place which was just a camper back then. I want the same for my guys.
 

oldjeep

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Re: My trailering days are over

How far away is it from your primary place? For me that would be the biggest barrier to being out there a lot.
 

aspeck

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Re: My trailering days are over

Dad! How have you been? Sorry I have not called you recently, please forgive me! Okay, so when do I get my set of keys, Dad?:)
 

jkust

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Re: My trailering days are over

How far away is it from your primary place? For me that would be the biggest barrier to being out there a lot.


We can do it in 2 hours and 5 minutes on a zero traffic day. That was a big factor in lake selection. My wife didn't want to do a three hour drive. Given she owns her company, here flexibility is up to her and I have ok flexibility as well. Really the only issue to deal with is summer sports and so those are going to have to take a back seat.


Dad! How have you been? Sorry I have not called you recently, please forgive me! Okay, so when do I get my set of keys, Dad?:)


Ha, you'd have to be young to be my son. My kids are all under 12.
 

dingbat

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Re: My trailering days are over

Congrats...thou I don't envy the two hour commute. Been there, done that. The next beach house will be our primary residence
 

southkogs

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Re: My trailering days are over

...we've been on the fringe of buying for a few years now. Just can't deal with staying with the inlaws at their cabin any longer...
Yeah, but now you gotta' mow the lawn and dust it ;)
 

The Rooster

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Re: My trailering days are over

The family and I decided to finally stop trailering from lake to lake and just buy a second home on a lake. We bought a fully furnished, 2400 square foot lake home on a good sized lake. The only thing I need now is a boat lift and canopy to the tune of $5900 with delivery. I can't believe it but we are now talking pontoons, jet ski's and 4 wheelers. We close end of the month.

+1^^^ on the Pontoon & Waverunner !!! You lucky dog !!! :clap2:
 

kenmyfam

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Re: My trailering days are over

Cottage is 5 hours away. Much too far for the weekend getaway so use was at a minimum. Bought a trailer 2 hours away with a lake and docks attached and we are there every available moment now. Never miss a weekend as long as I am not away on business trips. Enjoy every second of it.:D
 
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rogerwa

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Re: My trailering days are over

What area did you buy in? My place is 2 hours and been doing it for 10 years this summer. Pretty glad that's all it is because I have done some up and backs when working up there or had to pull the boat and did not have a weekend to do it..
 

MTboatguy

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Re: My trailering days are over

I might not be 12, but in the right circumstances I can "ACT" like I am 12 if that helps!

LMAO

:)
 

jkust

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Re: My trailering days are over

Congrats...thou I don't envy the two hour commute. Been there, done that. The next beach house will be our primary residence

The lakes don't really start until about an hour and a half from home then there are more and more as you get further north. There's a big lake here called Mille Lacs that to me is the start of the lakes country which is an hour and a half. 2 hours in the scheme of things here is pretty close. I've got friends that drive all over the state every weekend some as far as 4 plus hours which would just be prohibitive to me. Many times they are long time family cabins and so people have just grown accustomed to the drives. As you get further north, the lakes tend to be deeper and clearer as they are a different DNR class of lake and then because of the distance the properties start to get less expensive as well. There's exception to all of those rules though. We've got friends that were relocated from southern states trying to figure out the whole cultural cabin thing in MN. It's a foreign concept to them that everyone in town is gone on the weekend at their lake places.
 

dingbat

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Re: My trailering days are over

We've got friends that were relocated from southern states trying to figure out the whole cultural cabin thing in MN. It's a foreign concept to them that everyone in town is gone on the weekend at their lake places.
It's foreign for us because everything is so close. From my home, it's 2.5 hours (no traffic)to the Ocean, 35 minutes to the mountains and 45 minutes to the Chesapeake. Everything is close enough for days trips.

Our last place was 2 hours away. Spending 4 hours a weekend and a lot of non-scheduled 4 hour trips during the week to prepare for a storm got old. After 2 years we cut back to every other weekend, sometimes longer. Sold that and our primary residence and bought a "gentleman's" farm in the rolling hills of the Piedmont. We're 30 minutes from downtown Baltimore and 40 minutes from downtown Washington DC, yet we have a lot of acreage, horses, a fishing pond, inground pool and view of the sun setting over the mountains to die for.

Another 8 years and it's time for that water front condo in the Carolinas with the boat on the lift:):)
 

jkust

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Re: My trailering days are over

It's foreign for us because everything is so close. From my home, it's 2.5 hours (no traffic)to the Ocean, 35 minutes to the mountains and 45 minutes to the Chesapeake. Everything is close enough for days trips.

Our last place was 2 hours away. Spending 4 hours a weekend and a lot of non-scheduled 4 hour trips during the week to prepare for a storm got old. After 2 years we cut back to every other weekend, sometimes longer. Sold that and our primary residence and bought a "gentleman's" farm in the rolling hills of the Piedmont. We're 30 minutes from downtown Baltimore and 40 minutes from downtown Washington DC, yet we have a lot of acreage, horses, a fishing pond, inground pool and view of the sun setting over the mountains to die for.

Another 8 years and it's time for that water front condo in the Carolinas with the boat on the lift:):)

Sounds like you have it made. Us lake people are all secretly jealous of you ocean people and make due. Regarding distance, there is a sort of intangible 'up-north' feeling as we call it here in MN. Too close and you don't get it, it's hard to describe but you know it when you are there. Some of the lakes at the start of the lakes area that are 1.5 hours away don't have it because they are so massively populated with cabins and boats and the prices are at a premium as well given the proximity. When you look at a map of MN, it's hard to believe but only a small amount of the total population live outside that little dot called Minneapolis/St. Paul. There's no lakes to the south and so we all are forced 'up North'. If it wasn't for the lakes, there'd be nothing to keep many of us here...except the snow. Like everyone else, I grew up going up north to my parents place and that drive was about 2.5 hours (but we lived 45 minutes north already) and many, many a Sunday during the fall we wouldn't get back home until midnight having left late to avoid traffic. A few people on that lake had float planes and could cut the commute down substantially. That would be the way to go.
 

salty87

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Re: My trailering days are over

there's a severe shortage of pics in this thread...

sounds really nice for both months of summer you guys get up there :)
 

oldjeep

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Re: My trailering days are over

there's a severe shortage of pics in this thread...

sounds really nice for both months of summer you guys get up there :)

Well, the advantage to a lake place up here is that it is a year round destination except for the month of slush on either end of winter. Snowmobiling is one of the winter activities, or ice fishing if you are into that. My folks summer place is about 15 minutes from a small ski area, so it works as a good base camp for that too.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: My trailering days are over

.... Us lake people are all secretly jealous of you ocean people and make due.

Us??
Whoah just a minute Buck Rogers....grammatical faux-pas notwithstanding, I've been a "lake-person" for my entire life, 50+ years, and have never been "secretly jealous" of ocean people. Quite the opposite. :eek:
You should speak for yourself, and if that is the case, you might be better off with a time-share on the Gulf.:D
 
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