3 May 2022 - Arrived at Clear Lake State Park

 3 May 

Greetings from Clear Lake State Park in Clear Lake Iowa!  Before hooking up for the trip this morning I drove into Jewell and fueled the big ol' brown truck.  $5.399/gallon ouch, but luckily I only needed to top off the tank.  Yesterday we had prepared for departure in the rain, but the rain held off with just an overcast, gray-looking day. We loitered at Little Wall Lake until about noon since check-in here was not until 4pm and we were only about 68 miles away.   The drive up was nice and traffic fairly light in I-35 towards Mason City. 

We arrived at 1:14 pm and like Like Little Wall Lake, very few campers here.  They turned the water back on last Friday for the eight full hookup sites (ours is one), the dump/fill station and one of the shower houses is open.  This park is 55 acres and there are 161 standard electric sites.  It was built in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration.  Doreen started camping here every summer during her childhood.  There is a beautiful 900-foot long sandy beach area on Clear Lake, but we won't be dipping our toes this time!

As we drove in it was obvious we were not going to have many neighbors.  Luckily our site was vacant so we pulled right in.  The State Park has many rolling hills which adds to it's beauty, but also can make leveling your camper a challenge some times.  But the Lippert auto-level system on our Alliance coach handled it like a boss and we quickly set up. 

This is the site next to ours but gives a perspective of what they look like pulling in

We had to pull to the right as the site dropped off to the left.  The slide just cleared the tree!

  So if any of you have followed our travels for the past few years this site might look familiar!  Here is a hint:  There was evidence on the ground of our previous stay!  No?  OK, how about this - pieces of glass on the ground?

How about these pictures?

  Yep!  This is the same site we were camping in when our dining room window exploded outward in the middle of the night!  It's all better now.  This is also the same spot where we were camping when Doreen caught COVID!  But, me not superstitious!

So we finished our setup and Liberty was ready for some exploring, so off we went.  

Looks like many new fire pits and many new picnic table for this season!

This is the south portion of the park with 74 sites and only one camper here.

Just a hand full of campers on the north side where we are.

That's it for tonight.  While here we are looking forward to seeing our high school friend Mike O'Brien and his bride Narelle.  Saturday we drive a short distance to Forest City IA, where Winnebago RV's are made, to watch our son Dan graduate with his Master of Administration in Organizational Leadership Fire/Rescue Executive Leadership (4.00 GPA) from Waldorf University.  He also received his Bachelor of Science in Fire Science Administration (4.00 GPA) here as well.  We are super proud of this driven young man as he balances time with his beautiful family, his work as Division Chief of Safety and Training for the Ankeny Fire Department, and coaching several youth sports teams.  

Thanks for following along!