It seems like a long dry spell since I returned from Beed's Lake--actually just three weeks, I guess. We are now at Thomson Causeway, a Corps of Engineers campground across the Mississippi from Clinton, Iowa. Butch and I camped here many times but now it's been several years, and this year the campground was closed until July for improvements. Don likes to fish the river around Clinton and Comanche, so we started making plans for a return.
After much discussion, we decided Don would bring his boat and truck, and I would take Agatha. His camper is more spacious and has several amenities mine doesn't have, but this arrangement made loading my stuff and parking simpler. So we arrived Sunday morning and got everything parked. Ottaways arrived soon after and set up. Halds joined us around suppertime after a grueling day driving home from Kansas City, loading up their camper and driving over here. Rain had moved in and out of our area all day but after supper, the real dampers started to arrive. Harriet found out their bank account had been hacked. We soothed the worry a little bit with fresh peach pie and lemon custard ice cream. The sun setting across the river usually produces pretty and sometimes spectacular results and we haven't been disappointed.
After much discussion, we decided Don would bring his boat and truck, and I would take Agatha. His camper is more spacious and has several amenities mine doesn't have, but this arrangement made loading my stuff and parking simpler. So we arrived Sunday morning and got everything parked. Ottaways arrived soon after and set up. Halds joined us around suppertime after a grueling day driving home from Kansas City, loading up their camper and driving over here. Rain had moved in and out of our area all day but after supper, the real dampers started to arrive. Harriet found out their bank account had been hacked. We soothed the worry a little bit with fresh peach pie and lemon custard ice cream. The sun setting across the river usually produces pretty and sometimes spectacular results and we haven't been disappointed.
Monday morning, Don and I headed out on the river, Ken returned to Iowa City for an appointment, and Vince, Letha, and Harriet took off on their bikes. The fishing was unsuccessful, but it was a lovely morning. We shared the river with pelicans, eagles, herons, and various other wildlife. The afternoon seemed consumed with getting out and putting away lawn chairs, drying things off and starting over. But things cleared off for supper, another lovely sunset, and a campfire.
Yesterday, things got more complicated. We went back to the river and the other four took the bike trail north toward Savanna, IL. Don was hoping for some walleyes but later heard that they hadn't been biting since the shadfly invasion a few weeks before. However, I caught a couple of bluegills, who I sent back to their families. Don says it's my last fishing trip.
About a mile from the campground, we stopped to gas up the truck. Don didn't notice at first that unlike the stations where he usually gets gas, the regular gas pumps had green handles and the diesel black, instead of the other way around. He had put in six gallons of regular gas when he noticed the mistake. Long story short, several phone calls and a tow truck later, the truck is at the Ford garage in Clinton and we're looking at 2 to 3 days for them to drain the tank so it can be refilled with diesel. We only have a site until tomorrow, so in case the repair doesn't happen soon enough, Ken and Don towed the boat back to my house with Ken's truck this morning.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon, back on the trail, Letha's dog Maggie decided to take a dive off the bike, taking bike and Letha with her. Letha hit her head and shoulder and scraped up her leg. We weren't sure whether she needed a tow truck also but decided we'd had enough trauma for the day that it was time to go out for supper. Poopy's is a biker bar in Savanna with a lot of outdoor seating, a music venue, and an interesting menu.
To sum up, on the plus side, this was my first camping trip this summer with these two couples, and they were our original camping group in 2007. The weather hasn't been stellar BUT it hasn't been high nineties and the high winds, tornadoes, and large hail forecast for last Sunday didn't materialize. We have had excellent desserts every night. Thomson Causeway has added water hookups to every site. (Although we didn't know that when we came in and filled up the tank.) We have two local TV stations to get the weather. So things could be worse.
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