Day 74-August 7, 2016-3 States, Clouds, Corn!
Drove 235 miles in 5 hours.
Nice day, only got up to 77 but a bit humid
Started out on I-90 through the last 10 miles of South Dakota into Minnesota for about 100 miles then into Iowa. Tried twice to go south off I-90 but there were detours both times. Continued to Route 29 which eventually got us to route 4, a nice little county road through corn fields. Not many towns, just bumpy roads and corn. The largest town we went through was Estherville which I think would be a perfect place to be relocated under witness protection. Stopped at a bank parking lot in Emmetsburg, it’s Sunday and nobody’s open. This was also the only parking lot large enough to fit us. Started another book on tape, this one a bit lighter and easier to follow than the last. Went through tiny towns that seemed to be having a contest as to which town had the best sign at the entrance. Mallard had a mallard drake with the saying “We’re Friendly Ducks”, Pocahontas, “The Princess City” and Pomeroy, “ Stay a Day or a Lifetime”. I spent a lot of time looking out the window trying to see shapes in the clouds. The clouds were really pretty, low, poufy and big. Many layers with a sky blue background. And did I mention the corn fields? I read that Iowa is 90% farmland and I can believe it. Not many homes, a lot of silos, didn’t see one cow all day. And very few cars on the road. We did have a hawk fly right in front of us and we both held our breath for a minute ‘til it cleared the windshield. Got to the exit for the campground and, of course, there’s a detour and the road is closed. Got off the next exit and drove about five miles on gravel roads to Brushy Creek Recreation Area in Lehigh, Iowa. Big place, we passed a campground but continued to the ranger station. Good thing, there are three campgrounds here and ours is further down the road. The ranger also told me which way to go out tomorrow so we can avoid the gravel roads. Kind of late, the RV and truck are white with dust. And we left the vents open to air out the RV from the smoke from the campfires at the last campground so there’s dust inside as well. We passed a big lake, a dam, shooting range, boat ramp, couple of picnic areas, bird houses throughout the fields, horse camping, hiking trails, fishing pier, even a bus stop and miles and miles of woods before we got to the campsite. It’s nice, flat, grassy well-kept sites. But the flies are bothersome, small but fierce. They have even put out fly catchers on the picnic tables but they’re still all over. After dinner we took a walk around the campground, it’s really empty. There are 75 sites and only 10 of them are filled. Tried to look at the stars after it got really dark but the mosquitos were worse than the flies. There were dozens of them on the screen door and every time we went to open the door a few more would sneak in, so we decided to forego the star gazing. The mosquitos won.