It’s been a great summer for anyone who loves to camp — truly an American pastime.
That’s why a national company decided to honor our country proudly — in a big way.
And you can see just how big right here in Northern Michigan.
Corey Adkins and Michelle Dunaway take you there in today’s Sightseeing.
The stars and stripes. Old glory. The Star Spangled Banner.
No matter what you call it, the American flag invokes a sense of pride, patriotism and love of country.
And flying high above Houghton Lake, this behemoth leaves no question as to how this company feels about the USA.
"To be miles away and see it, and the sun was coming up and hitting it and the wind was just right, it was beautiful. To see a 40×80 flag straight out is just unbelievable."
That’s right, 40×80 feet on a 130 foot pole. It’s one of many flying for Camping World.
"Our company, Camping World, has gone nationwide with all of our supercenters. There’s 100 of them and we are the 44th supercenter to receive a flag. It’s to celebrate our country and our veterans and just honor the community," says Mike Burnside.
General Manager Mike Burnside says he’s been blown away by the response.
"It really caught us by surprise how much of a positive, we knew we would get a good reaction, but we’re still a week later the flag has been up for a week and we are still getting overwhelming response, and people stopping in saying it’s beautiful thanks for supporting the veterans and the country," says Mike.
Being able to fly a flag like this isn’t easy.
"Had to go down 12 feet, and in our case they used 27 yards of concrete, so it’s not going anywhere."
And there’s plenty of maintenance, taking this down every three months to make repairs.
"Rips, tears, a little bit of fraying, we do have two flags so we will always rotate it. It’s a quick turnaround, just a few days we can get the flag fixed and get it back up, but with two flags we’ll never not have a flag up," says Mike.
They’re welcoming everyone to come see it up close.
"We have lighting on it, it’s going to be up most of the time. The only time we’re going to take it down is during severe storms. They can come and see it and take pictures and honor it any time they’d like," explains Mike.
Especially those who know more than anyone what the flag means — and have risked everything to protect it.
"A lot of our customers are older and retirees, and we have a tremendous amount that are veterans, and we can usually tell because they’re wearing their hats or we start talking and they tell us they’ve served in the Korean War, Vietnam, so that’s a big part of our business now, a lot of retirees that served back to World War II," says Mike. "Honor the country, and honor the veterans, and do the right thing."
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