8 Jun 2020 - Arrived at Little Wall Lake near Jewell IA

8 Jun 2020

Today we moved from Griff's Valley View RV Park near Ankeny IA where we had been parked since the day we bought our new fifth wheel, 26 March.  Our journey today was north up I-35 only about 49 miles to Little Wall Lake campground which is a park managed by Hamilton County. The 249 acre lake was formed by glacial movements across the area thousands of years ago. It was basically a large marsh area until they started to dredge it and manage the watershed.  In 1905-06 and again in 1936-41 the lake was reported to have gone dry.  Now it is listed as one of the top lakes in Iowa and the associated campground is very nice as well.  They have 106 camp sites and also cabins available for rent.

We arrived today about 1000 hrs and quickly got set-up.  This is only the second time we've set-up with this camper so we took our time and actually developed a checklist to use until we become more proficient.  There are two type-written pages of steps involved.  As soon as we get the trailer unhitched from the truck I start my outside chores such as hooking up water, sewer and power, and then Doreen goes inside and sets that up.  She deploys the slides, powers up the satellite dish so it can home in on the satellite signal and align itself, and all the other things inside.  I stay out of her way and she stays out of my way and it all works pretty well!!

Other than setting up we did not do too much else today.  We took a couple hikes around the park and she walked Liberty a few times.  The beach was very busy as the temps reached 90 here.  The wind was very strong so there were white caps on the lake.  That did not prevent some brave kayak'ers from heading out, though.   

The sites are gravel and fairly level which makes it nice.  Here we are allowed to use out mat and that helps keep the gravel and dust out of the camper.

 Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring.  We will enjoy that here are we have some Air National Guard friends stopping by to visit.

 You can see the lake in the background here.  It is just a short walk across the parking lot to the water.  I plan to try some fishing here.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday heavy rains are forecast as a result of the tropical storm coming up from the Gulf Coast.  Thursday we will drive back to Ankeny as Liberty has her first haircut since the virus hit.  We also have a couple packages coming in and hopefully we can see the grandkids too as from here we head north and west and won't return home until 26 July.

That's it for tonight.  We will get back in the routine of posting on the blog nightly, hopefully.