From a 98-degree-day a week ago to possible freeze warnings for tonight meant different wardrobe choices for this camping trip than the rest of the summer. We are at Shady Creek, a Corpse of Engineers campground on the Mississippi. I have been here many times in the past but not for the last several years. The purpose of this trip was twofold: camping with Don's sister-in-law and brother-in-law; and a lot of fishing, including teaching me to fish.
Shady Creek is a nice campground: cement pads with lots of big trees--a characteristic missing in a lot of Iowa campgrounds the last few years. But I'm sorry to say the shower house is a D+ at best. There are two showers in both the men's and women's sides. One is quite small and the other larger, serving also as the handicap facility. On the women's side, the handicap shower has a push-button control which requires a fair amount of pressure to depress, and the the water only runs as long as long as the button is pushed in. And it doesn't get warm. Not the best set up for a handicapped person. The other shower has a push button control that stays depressed for about a minute and the water does get warm, but the floor of the dressing area is lower than that of the shower. Therefore there is about an inch of standing water in the dressing area all of the time. If you drop your towel on the floor (as I did) you're in big trouble. There are two barely functional hooks in each shower. On second thought, maybe it should be a D- shower house.
But I know you're dying to know about the fishing lesson. It happened and it was successful! Tuesday, we put the boat in in Muscatine and spent a couple of hours trolling below the dam. It was windy but not unpleasant. And I caught a fish! I made Don hold it for the picture--the wind had really done a number on my hair. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Shallow water near an island caused us more trouble and we finally hung it up for the day.
It's been perfect weather for evening campfires. We've enjoyed one every night and it's been great to visit Don's inlaws. We went to Muscatine last night for a little Italian food and lots of leftovers. Lola is a delightful golden doodle who gets very excited when Joan says "Daddy's home!" It all makes me very sad as the end of the season approaches.
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