21 Jun 2020 - Packing up at Clear Lake

21 Jun 2020

Happy Father's Day!  This was sort of a down day for us.  We spent the morning emptying our tanks, cleaning and packing the barbecue grill; removing the mat, cleaning and packing it, and basically getting ready to pull chocks in the morning and head north into Minnesota.

This afternoon we drove into town and enjoyed pizza from "The Other Place", better known as the "O.P." The first O.P. started in Cedar Falls on College Hill and primarily served the students from the University of Northern Iowa.  Since then it has grown into 11 locations in Iowa and Kansas, specializing in their signature home made pizza and sandwiches.  Since Doreen and I were both from Cedar Falls during that time frame, we both enjoyed the O.P pizza during high school.  We now enjoy the O.P. in West Des Moines and also in Ankeny and of course whenever we come to Clear Lake.  Another one of our high school classmates, Brian Hagenow, is the owner of this O.P but he was apparently not there today.

Both before and after lunch we watched the mass exodus of campers from the State Park here.  Now it looks like a ghost town, like it did when we arrived.  The camp host said they were completely full through the weekend and through most weekends in the summer.  We were fortunate to have secured one of the few full hookup sites here and we are not departing until Monday.  Those leaving today waited in long lines to get to the dump station so they could dump their tanks.

We weather has been pretty good here but we had quite a storm come through this afternoon  which brought a downpour and some small hail.  As I write this the rain has started again and we are to get rain throughout the night.  It should be clear by morning, though, so we should be able to hook-up and depart in the morning without getting soaked. 

Tomorrow we head to Sauk Centre Minnesota where we will be camping for the next couple days.  It's about 240 miles and depending on our stops will likely take us about five hours.  We will update from there!