the iowa great lakes

*torrential rains

*BIG bugs

*the kettlehole and ticks



We drove through rain to get to the campground. It was dry and even some sun when we set up our tents. All was well. My oldest, the big guy, crispy and me. Others would be joining us. It was the best 'tent set up session" we have ever had....everything went so well and fast this year.

We put on the radio and listened to weather warnings. I was told to relax by crispy. Everything would be fine.

My Mom arrived. She checks into a motel room.

No one had to tell her to relax, she knew her bed would be dry when she got back to her room.

The storm scooted to the south of us and we ended up with just some sprinkles. I made a temporary rain shelter for us from one of my tarps.

The big canopy was on its way with my sisters. They were to arrive after supper sometime. We went and bought chicken from the grocery store for supper. I don't like to suffer to much while camping.

We continued to listen to the radio...........more storms were coming.

Dang it.

Mom left for the motel about 8:30. They were reporting grapefruit size hail just to the west of us.

OMG !!
The rain started about 9:00 pm........and it rained

and rained

and rained.

no hail, no strong winds....just rain rain rain.

my sisters ended up stopping and staying in the motel with my Mom.

We were mentioned on the weather channel.....I had tractor joe and gwen watching to find out when the rain would stop. It seemed to last forever.

My sisters ended up staying with my mom in the motel.

We made it through the night. I LOVE this camp stove. I can get up a make coffee all by myself and enjoy it all by myself........

I have to be by myself 'cause no one gets up when I do.

I sit and drink coffee and read. While going through the Okoboji tourist book, I found out Big Bugs was on display just up the road from us.... it was free and open to the public...that's right up our alley....

David Rogers made all the bugs and this was its first time in Iowa. We saw 7 different bugs all made out from different kinds of wood.....

There was a dragonfly, praying mantis, grasshopper, assassin bug, spider, ladybug beetle and ants.



And then we went to the kettlehole. It was an earthcache. We estimated the distance across, I went down into it to get an elevation reading on the GPS to see how deep it was....plus take a picture like this one.....

I still need to work on getting this one logged. This kettlehole was formed about 12,000 years ago when a HUGE chunk of a receding glacier broke off and slowly melted here. It is one of the biggest.

The ticks were so bad here. I removed almost a dozen of them back at the camp.

It was awful, just awful.....but I get to log a cache so that makes it all better and this is really interesting to see.