The Mighty Mississippi 8.04.16

Thomson Causeway, IL, our first 3 day camping excursion!

Well, I don't want to keep you in suspense. I know you're all wondering, "Did it rain on this trip?" The answer is an extremely frustrated, "YES." (That's 4 for 4, if you're keeping record.)

Our drive across the state of Iowa was stressful. VERY stressful. A nasty band of storms moved east across Iowa, and it was right on our tail as we left home for Thomson Causeway. We adjusted our route and managed to escape the high winds and rain for about an hour, but they eventually caught up with us. We decided to pull over, eat at a restaurant, and allow the storm to pass us. It was a good move on our part, but our 5 hour trip became close to a 7 hour trip by the time we arrived.

Arriving late and in the dark, we couldn't see much more than the road that led us to the campground, and the number at our campsite. Andy managed to back in, and while we quickly leveled the camper, we didn't bother unhooking from the Escape, and figured we'd do it in the morning.

I grabbed the cooler from the car, put it in the camper, and we managed one beverage and a DVD comedy before zonking out and sleeping til morning, the rain stopping around 1 am.

Friday morning arrived, and we absorbed the beauty of this campground! Holy COW, was it cool! We were on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River, and had the backwaters just feet from the B@r T@b. Lush greenery, plentiful wildlife, and stunning views made this particular spot fascinating!

 Look at this cool guy! If you look closely, you'll see he has a frog in his mouth. Nice catch, buddy! We had views of several turtles, frogs, and birds during our stay.

 This is the view of our campsite from the main road. Our flamingos, Fred and Lucy (their names change later out of necessity) greet fellow campers to our site. We had visits from a LOT of fellow campers who were curious about the T@b. We certainly were unique among the campers...lots of large, beige, mass-produced trailers surrounded us.

 This is the view of our setup from the main causeway leading to the island with the campground. You can see our quirky little setup in the center of the photo. (New addition!) a 12x12 popup shelter that has been unbelievably handy!

We used it over our kitchen area to create a nice bit of shade and a seating area out of the sun. It made an extremely lovely spot to relax and chat...especially when Andy's parents came to visit us!

One of the cool things about this campground (and the fabulous weather we had while there) was that many of the campers walked to the point of the island to watch the sunsets each night. We walked the short trip (about 12 campsites away) and enjoyed some of the most spectacular sunsets ever created, and they were on the opposite bank of the Mississippi, so full river view in the pic! Take a look:

In our walks around the campground, we couldn't help but drool over site #60. It was at the prime spot on the island for sunset viewing, and we're hoping we can book that site sometime in the future.

As our experiences seem to show, the weekend ended far too quickly, and it was time to go. We took the B@r T@b on a drive around the island for this lovely photo op, then headed to the dump station for the less than glamorous side of camping. :)

I'll tell you about it in my next post. Don't worry. It's not THAT gross. :)

Happy camping!
Peggy

Black Hawk Lake State Park 7.22.16

As you can see, we had to wait a WHOLE WEEK in between our camping trips. It was really hard to do it, but we managed. Originally, we had planned on staying home for a few reasons. One, it seemed a bit overindulgent to go camping three weekends in a row. (Ha! We got over that one quickly, don't worry!) Two, we had lots of ignored projects at the house, and three, the weather was unbelievably hot! However, while searching reserveamerica.com, we found a site too good to pass up!

Before I can get to the details about our campsite, I have to tell you that it was MY turn to drive!

So, I was truly excited to be able to drive this. My ultimate goal is to be able to independently hookup, drive, back-in, and unhitch all by myself, but one thing at a time. I was going to drive this thing and back it in to our spot at the campground. Go me!

I'm almost afraid to introduce you to the next campsite, because it quickly made it to "FAVORITES!!" level, and we will go back, likely often. By sharing it with you, it may cause a run to reserve spots, and we won't be able to reserve last minute!

If you promise not to book all the campsites this season, I'll tell you about Black Hawk Lake State Park, in Lake View, IA.

Here's our setup. I was able to back the trailer in to the spot...took me about 5 tries to get the feel for how far to turn the wheel and learn the trailer's responses, but I didn't think that was too bad. I was exceedingly grateful that there wasn't anyone waiting in the loop to get past me, as it allowed me to stay calm and take my time. Once I backed it in and unhitched, we decided to use those adorable little handles to turn the B@r T@b 90 degrees and make our door open towards the lake. Normally, this wouldn't have been difficult, but the campsite (#49 for reference) had brand new gravel piled there, and it was pretty deep. We struggled for a couple of minutes pulling the 1680 pounds through a foot of gravel, until two nice ladies from a neighboring site came over and assisted us. With their help, we did it in about 8 seconds. GIRL POWER!

So here we are, all set up, with a lakeside spot. Look at this view!

I mean, you can't get much closer than this! While the spot wasn't swimming friendly, if we had a kayak, it would have been fairly easy entry.

Friday was incredibly hot, heat index was 105 when we arrived. We sat in as few clothes as socially acceptable, drank lots of hydrating liquids (in between our alcoholic indulgences), and even brought a box fan to move air. We did OK, and when we went to sleep, we enjoyed the built in air conditioning unit!

Saturday, we awoke to rain. Again. 3 camping trips, 3 episodes of rain. Aaarrggh! It was certainly cooler, but limited us in what we could do. After watching some TV indoors and taking a nap, the rain cleared in the afternoon and we had a great time relaxing! Wildlife was present, specifically multiple fly overs by a bald eagle. That's a favorite!

We did take a break from this busy schedule of sitting on our butts to drive around the lake and check out the local town. It was nice. Nothing was too busy, and the town had a grocery store with everything a glamper could need!

Once again, we upped our game on food:

NOT a hot dog. No, it's far more lazy and delicious than that! I asked Erika, owner of the local BBQ restaurant, Edgewater BBQ, to package up some of her delicious smoked brisket, and we took that along for this perfect creation. This is a bbq brisket slaw sandwich, and you should feel bad if you've never had one. So good! And I didn't have to actually cook one thing!

We enjoyed a stunning sunset to finish off a great evening.

Sunday was spectacular! Mid 70s, breezy, all sunny. We delayed our departure as late as we dared, but left around 1pm to head home from another wonderful weekend.

Next trip? How about in the middle of the Mississippi River?! I'll tell you all about it in my next post!

Happy Camping!
Peggy

McIntosh Woods State Park 7.15.16

As we were still getting to know the little guy, we decided our next trip should be fairly close to home, just for ease of hauling and giving us plenty of time to enjoy the camping (not driving) portion of the trip. We chose McIntosh Woods because it was about an hour away, and because we had never been there.

Our trip actually began with an "Oh, CRAP!" moment. As we were driving down the highway, Andy noticed an alert on whatever fancy little thing he has hooked up in the tow vehicle (maybe I'll do a post about that later when I know more?) that the trailer lights had gone out. That means, no brake lights, no turn signals...nothing.

We quickly pulled over on the shoulder, and my brave and daring husband crawled under the vehicle to find the problem.  It took barely any time at all to discover the ground wire was shorting out. What DID take a while was trying to fix it without the proper tools with us. He did manage to get it fixed, and we quickly learned what sorts of things we really needed to carry with us on every trip, even if they aren't yellow. :)

Back on the road, and to the campsite we go!

A lovely setup, yes? We were at the top of a hill, (fairly level campsite) and had no neighbors on one side. Take a look at those chairs! These were an amazing find at Menards...oversized XL anti-gravity chairs! Even though they weren't yellow (sigh) they were a must have for our setup. Anyway, we put out the chairs, started a mandatory campfire, and just sat and enjoyed ourselves.

There's me in my awesome new chair with the cute B@r T@b in the background. This trip, we brought along our collapsible camping table to act as additional counter space for the kitchen. It was handy to have it there!

Obligatory campfire photo. Toes added for perspective...and a wonderful perspective it was...

On an interesting note, guess what I was listening to at this exact moment? Nah, don't try, you'll never get it right because it was the most un-camp like noise that could have been there. The people in the campsite behind ours (in another loop, separated by trees) were playing violins. Violins! Luckily, they didn't play for long. :)

Since we had so much time between the day we ordered the camper and the day we got it, I had spent a LOT of time on Pinterest, finding recipes and camping hacks I may want to use. If you're interested in the kind of stuff I found, you can follow my Pinterest board: Campin'! It's got lots of ideas. But anyway, my point was that we decided we wanted to do some really good meals. We have this cool kitchen...

Why not use it to create meals that are a little fancy? For instance, how about:

Freaking. Fabulous. Fresh. TACOS! They were so good, and such a step up from things like hot dogs and chips. (Nothing wrong with those, believe me! But geez...the kitchen!!) We ate well, and clean up was easy! I planned the meals before we left and I precut all the veggies and herbs, and stored them in small plastic containers in the fridge.  The tortilla shells were fried, right on that cute little stove to make 'em puffy and crispy. Mmmm....

Friday night was nice, and we slept quite peacefully. Saturday we ventured into Clear Lake to enjoy some brew at Lake Time Brewery! We are still in a B@r T@b after all!

Look how "hoppy" we are! Seriously though, this is a great spot. Make sure you stop by!

Saturday night it rained. A lot. We were both awoken by seriously loud alerts on our phones letting us know we were in a flash flood warning. Super. I didn't sleep much, but thankfully, no big floods, just lots and lots of rain! Heh! We joked. Two trips, two rains. Funny! Maybe not so funny if the trend continued, so I guess I'll have to fill you in when I post about our next camping experience!

Happy Camping!
Peggy