We left Erie, PA, to head for home … butt, first, we wanted to visit Jay’s side of the family in Minnesnowta.
And… since we hadn’t really spent much time on a Great Lake on any of our trips, we decided, “Let’s hit Lake Erie!” One of the many joys of RVing is getting to decide on a dime what to do and when to do it. We cherish flexibility and freedom!
“This is a much better picture than the one of my backside.”
We found a military base right on Lake Erie, that could fit our 45-foot rig into its campsites. Camp Perry is a National Guard Training Facility in Northern Ohio.
We saw this sign on Post and thought, “A bullseye between two parapets. Unusual for a military base emblem.”
Little did we know that 300-acre Camp Perry, with its beachfront property on the smallest (by volume) of the Great Lakes, was home to the second largest outdoor rifle range in the world.
During the Spanish-American War of 1898, the US Government found American gunnery and marksmanship skills were not quite as good as the country needed them to be.
The Congressional Act of 1903 gave federal funding assistance to state militias to provide marksmanship instruction camps and practice rifle matches.
I know you know that Commodore Perry defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. Butt, did you know how Camp Perry, the Base, was born? A Brigadier General was duck hunting in the marshes along Lake Erie in 1905. He looked out over the long expanse of natural light on the shoreline and said, “You know what? This would be the perfect place for a range site. All the firing can be from a common line directed toward that there shoreline! Now, let’s go get us some Duck a l’Orange!”
We were surprised the RV camp at the Base was completely full. We were lucky to get a spot.
When we pulled in, we noticed all the other campers were outside of their rigs cleaning rifles. We had never encountered this activity at an RV park before.
“How strange that this Ohio National Guard facility is such an RV hot spot,” we thought. “And look at all those rifles!”
We tucked Tink into her paved camp spot, which was just a few blocks away from the Base’s small beach on Lake Erie.
Frankie quickly settled into a sunny spot, wedging himself between the dash and the windshield to soak up the afternoon sunshine.Jay put on his Army uniform and hopped on his bicycle to explore the Base.Camp Perry is home to the 200th Red Horse Squadron, which, perhaps not surprisingly, has won many state and national marksmanship awards.
While Jay explored on bicycle, Ziggy and I explored on foot.
By 1909, Camp Perry housed the world’s largest and best equipped rifle and pistol ranges. In WWI, it was a training center for officers and marksmanship instructors.
In WWII, Camp Perry was a prisoner of war (POW) camp for German and Italian prisoners.
On my ZiggyWalk through Camp Perry, I discovered this railroad car, “The Gratitude Train.”
The “Gratitude Train” is a thank-you gift from France. Each of the 49 boxcars from France’s “Merci Train” was filled with gifts from French citizens in appreciation for the 700 box cars filled with $40 million in food and supplies that American citizens sent to France in 1947. The Merci boxcars arrived in New York Harbor in February 1949. One boxcar went to each state, with Washington DC and the then-territory of Hawaii sharing a boxcar.
We had never heard of the Gratitude Train from France. What a great bucket-list trip: to see every one of the 49 box cars from the Merci Train! We’re certainly going to visit the Merci box car in Scottsdale, Arizona.
What a display! Ziggy and I came upon the reason Camp Perry’s RV park was overflowing with campers with their rifles!That’s right! We happened to be at Ground Zero for one of the largest marksmanship competitions of the year.
Ziggy wanted to show his buddies back in Tucson he was at an actual Grenade Launching Range. Thankfully, there weren’t any grenade launches going on while we walked by.
In 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt established a government advisory board to hold National Matches for marksmanship in an effort to improve national defense preparedness. This advisory board eventually became the governing body of the CMP.
CMP Headquarters is at Camp Perry. As part of its federal charter, CMP is provided surplus US Army rifles, like the WWII M1 Garand. CMP’s “M1 Man” at Camp Perry stands almost 12 feet tall and is made from excess parts of surplus rifles. Where do the non-excess parts go? Keep scrolling!Ziggy and I met up with Jay and watched the long range competitions, which were underway. I don’t know anything about marksmanship butt to me, this looked like a hard shot to make.
Naturally, Jay made friends with a CMP professional who was taking pictures of the event.
She thought our story was pretty intriguing, so she stopped by to visit us in Tink.
Before we knew it, we were featured in CMP’s Facebook and Instagram feeds (what’s Instagram?).
And here’s where the non-excess rifle materials end up: at the CMP Stores, one of which is at Camp Perry. The rifles sold here are made from a stock of parts, which are sorted and inspected for quality before being sold to qualified purchasers. Jay salivated over a 1917 bolt-action rifle in excellent condition.
While all the shooting and grenade launching was going on, we did manage to break away and enjoy some beach time. Yes, it was a bit chilly for my thin Arizona blood.
Lake Erie is a perfect habitat for gulls, who feed off the ships that traverse the Lake.
Oh sure. They look pretty when there’s just a few of them.Not so pretty when there are hundreds of them. It felt like we were in a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. A brave, handsome man walked courageously into the defensive line of seagulls on the shore.It would have served us right if we had been “hit” with a dropping or two or three as we were clearly disturbing their dinner time. We returned to our campsite to find Frankie “hanging out.” He clearly wasn’t concerned about rifles, grenades, or seagulls.
The next morning, we took off for the farmlands of Minnesota. We made it to Rockford, IL, by late afternoon and I was able to get in a much-needed workout.
Not only did we find a gym, butt we also found a gem of a Vietnamese restaurant!
The food was so fresh at Pho 815! We had to give our compliments to the owner, Duc (and his daughter!) He told us the story of how he went to Vietnam to learn how to cook authentic Vietnamese dishes. While there, he had a map handmade, with different types of wood native to Vietnam for each of the country’s provinces.What Duc didn’t count on was how big (and heavy!) the map would be upon completion. Getting it shipped back to the United States was a logistical feat!
After a delicious dinner and great conversation with Duc, we headed over to our landing place for the night: a Cracker Barrel, of course!
Another wonderful history lesson from Ace Hillmer. Kerry is familiar with Camp Perry as he grew up in Cleveland. Frankie is a hoot. Thanks for sharing.
Tinkerbell's Travels 
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