Tuesday, 11 August to Clear Lake, Idaho

Early start, we are on a mission!  We drove south on the I 35 to Clear Lake State Park.  Experienced a bit of a GPS malfunction on exactly where the park was, but after the false start we found it OK. We were able to choose our own campsite, the park is 'self check-in' and there were lots of vacant sites to choose from, so we selected a nice big one backing on to the bush and close to the lake.  The lake is over 3,600 acres but the average depth is only 12 feet.  Even so you can catch quite a big range of fish.  

Isn’t it handy that the Interstates have separate northbound and southbound (or east and west) lanes!  We drove through miles and miles of road works today, but they just transition you across the other side to use some of opposing lanes while the workers carry on making their repairs at leisure without disrupting the traffic too much. 

We used our fire ring this evening, scavenging some wood from uninhabited campsites so we could cook our S’Mores!   For the uninitiated, S’Mores are Graham crackers, huge puffy marshmallows and Herscheys chocolate all wrapped in tinfoil and heated until the marshmallow and chocolate melts.  Yum!  We have had them cooked in the microwave before, but they are much better around a campfire!

Wednesday, 12 August Des Moines, Iowa

Forgot yesterday to say what our mission was.  We have booked the coach into Freightliner in Des Moines on Thursday for a service so we need to make our way south.

 

We found a RV Camp very close by, at AdventureLand. We didn’t know until we visited the Info Centre after crossing the state line and read all the brochures we collected that this week Des Moines is hosting the Iowa State Fair so we were lucky to get a camp site, especially since we just walked in without a reservation (being mid week and all).

It was early afternoon when we arrived and we spent a very leisurely afternoon lounging by and in the pool.  Being right next door to the Adventure Park there are a lot of kids here and the pool was rather busy later in the day, but they were all having fun.  It is sunny - and hot : )

What we have seen of Iowa so far is that is expansive and flat with a sky that goes forever.  It obviously blows here sometimes as they have wind farms but the fins haven’t been moving much over the last couple of days.  The fields are green, staple crops are corn and soya beans.  The roads all intersect at right angles and give the impression of peggy squares of green land between.

One of Kim's idols, John Wayne was born here and his birthplace has been made into a museum.  The crash site of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper makes it onto the list of ‘things to see’ - a little macabre I think!  More famous people from Iowa include Johnny Carson, Glen Miller, Andy Williams, Ashton Kutcher and Elijah Wood.  

The locals are obviously keen on the odd cold refreshment, the State advertises more than 225 craft breweries and wineries!  Nothing wrong with that I reckon, just a pity we won’t get to check them all out.  Cheers!