Nebraska to Iowa - Week 5, part 1

The last time I wrote we had stopped in Firth, NE at a bible camp. That evening we had smores at a campfire, which we all loved. The kids did their best to fill "smore orders" with their "golden brown" marshmallows, but they were burnt 95% of the time. Can't really blame them much, it's an art to get them that way. Even Laura had trouble.

 

 

As I've mentioned before, we seem to carry the rain with us. Well, this day was no exception. Tuesday morning I woke up to people scurrying around the hall we were sleeping in at 6am. Given that I'm a late riser and breakfast wasn't until 7am, I was slightly annoyed at the amount of noise and lights going on at this time of the day. Grudgingly I got up only to find that a large storm front was moving through and everyone was frantically racing to bring in bikes and take down tents for the people who slept outside. Needless to say my annoyance was short lived, and I quickly went out to get my bike and bring it indoors before it started to rain.

Breakfast was inside that morning and our start time was delayed until 8am (which wasn't much of a delay for us...) so we could wait for the storm to pass.

Luckily it wasn't a lot of rain, and we made it through the day just fine.



The day was uneventful as we traveled to Waubonsie State Park in Iowa. However, we had crossed into another State, and travelled over the Missouri river to get there!

After stopping at Wendy's for a 99cent frosty and talking to some folks about the tour (the manager gave a cyclist $100!) we head into camp. After biking for 112km, you would think we wouldn't want any more physical activity, but you'd be wrong. On this day at least! After setting up our tents we head out on a hike to the Sunset overlook. The views were beautiful and the hike felt great. It was definitely a Booy hike because we took the wrong trail back and ended up trekking through the woods until the path led to a road, which we followed back to our campsite :)

While lost in the woods we stumbled upon this hobbit home. Eric was too tall to live in it so we continued on out of the shire.

 

 

At camp we also found these great Katydids! The leaf patterns on their wings were so amazing. The biologist in me was really happy with this day :D

 

 

The next morning was beautiful as we set out of the State Park. However, the views of rolling hills eventually turn from aw and beauty to, "oh no... we have to climb that one too".

 

 

Despite the hills, we had a great day. We definitely took our time that day, stopping at a restaurant for an hour...

 

 

And then playing at a park at the end of the day...

 

The semi made of wood was cool, the jail cell was a bit un-nerving, and then the time capsule made me wonder who made this park, and if the person who made the time capsule got paid... Anyone else think that something looks wrong with that photo?

 

 

We arrived in camp the latest yet, at 5:15pm, but we didn't mind. There was plenty of time to set up our tents and change before supper began! Plus, the dessert was amazing. A local church was putting on a fundraiser and was offering us homemade pie and ice-cream with a free-will offering. It was amazing, and the ice-cream maker was really cool too.

 

The church ladies served us ice cream and pie, which we gladly ate

 

 

The men made the ice-cream.

 

 

 

 

That evening was topped off with a "skit-night" at Peloton, where small groups put together skits which mostly consisted of making fun of aspects of the tour. We all got a good laugh out of it, and the fun would continue on into Thursday evening because so many groups wanted to participate. It was really nice to have an activity for all of us to do together once we got to Camp, rather than sit around or just interact with our own little group. That was definitely the best peloton yet.

 

 

Well, the blog has become lengthy, so I'll stop here for now. I'll write tomorrow about the fun we had Thursday - Saturday, and hopefully you all stay tuned to hear the rest of the story!