After a pose with my lucky husband, we returned to Madrid, made a short visit to the Flattire Lounge, and headed back to camp. Ken and Harriet left on their BBQing adventure--cooking all night with a team, minding the smoker, planning the presentation of succulent bits of pork, chicken, and beef, surrounded by glowing fires and murmurs of secret recipes, and we headed for the local laundromat. I will just say that laundromats are the same everywhere.

Some interesting folks camping here-besides us, I mean. Two sisters are across from us in a 13-foot Scamp, one from Kansas and one from Wisconsin, meeting in the middle for a little quality sister time. At the other extreme, RV-wise, there is a motorhome here that is so big, it has three air conditioners on the roof. I think it creates its own ecosystem.

Ledges was filling up already when we got here--a last camping weekend before school? Is it possible that any school district in Iowa has shown enough sense not to have started school yet? I doubt it.

Anyway, it was a great evening with a nice fire and a glimpse of the International Space Station. Today will hopefully include a bike ride on the High Trestle Trail near Madrid and maybe even a laundry run. Ken and Harriet will not be judging at the Nevada contest tomorrow; they will actually be cooking with a team. This is one of the requirements of the Kansas City Barbecue Society to become a Master Judge. Since the cooking process actually starts tonight, we will be left to blunder along on our own.

And tomorrow, I will be doing a book signing from 11-1 at The Book Shoppe at 817 Story Street in Boone. Isn't that a great address for a book store? Anyway, the signing seems appropriate since Ledges is the basis of Bluffs State Park in The Blue Coyote. And tomorrow night oldest granddaughter Brooke, also known as the Princess of Quite a Lot, and her fiance Nick will join us for supper.

One last photo from Walnut Woods above. A dead branch on a gnarled old oak that I thought looked like a Chinese dragon and Harriet thought looked like a deer. Whatever, it certainly was interesting.

...in a campground. Sorry, working folks. I am sitting outside at 7 am, listening to a woodpecker and watching a small hummingbird flitting along our string of lights that look like old fashioned red lanterns. I know he is wondering what idiot would use lights that resemble feeders.
 
Walnut Woods is a small delightful park on the south edge of Des Moines that contains the largest stand of native walnut trees left in the world, as well as some wonderful old oaks. They also have an excellent bird-viewing area where you can watch a huge variety of birds at work on the feeders pictured through a slit in a small building.

Last night we had a great visit with former high school classmate, Lee Wolf, and his wife. We apologize to Lee on behalf of the squirrel who spent the evening raining pieces of acorn down on him from the oak tree above.

As the washer spins and the dryer grumbles away, we puzzle the presence of silver and pink tennies and a black swimsuit and the absence of a good down pillow. We have polished off most of the leftovers from the weekend. Time to make a list of the staples that need replacing and think toward adults-only menus.

The Cousins Camp went well. They all enjoyed the amenities offered at the campground and we will seriously consider going there again, as long as we can get the same spacious spots we had this time. The only drawback were some people across the road who thought that the road was their private parking lot and that everyone surely wanted to admire their four children and three dogs at 6:15 in the morning. Fodder for the next book.

I had forgotten that playing miniature golf is a lot like playing golf while standing on a mattress.

Our next venture, another long one, starts this Friday and will include Pammel Park near Winterset, Walnut Woods on the edge of Des Moines, and Ledges near Boone. I will be doing a book signing at The Book Shoppe in Boone on August 24 from 11-1, so come in if you are in the ar