Thursday, 29 and Friday, 30 April 2021
I had a busy couple of days here in the campground.
Thursday's weather wasn't so great after all the rain Wednesday night, and we had actual inches of water right outside the cabin door - neither dog even wanted to go for a walk when they realized they'd have to plunge into that pond just to get out. And none of us had slept very well Wednesday night because of the thunder and all. Thunder doesn't bother me, but I still finally got up at 1:30 AM after lying awake for an hour or so.
I did several loads of laundry so I'd be cleaned up before starting my month in Iowa; took a shower; changed the sheets on my bed.
I cleaned all the RV's windows - no small matter.
I wrote 6 blog posts, to try to catch up before the month was over.
I spent at least an hour retaping the torn screen on my cabin door. I'd wanted to for months, but it'd always been too cold or too windy. Finally, on Friday we had beautiful weather. No wind to speak of, just an occasional breeze, pleasant temperature, sunny sky. So I took this chance to mend that screen. It's getting close to bug weather, after all.
I conquered my fear of not doing this right and finally put up this map on the outside of the RV.
I still ended up putting it on a little crooked, but it's on. I'd had it for at least a month, waiting till I'd worked up my nerve. The directions say to work slowly and carefully because once it's on, it's permanent. I've gotten conflicting stories on that from various campers I've asked - most say it stays on despite the weather, but a few others say they have to keep sticking it down. We'll see.
Of course I also took the dogs for many walks. One of the nice things that happened was that, after all that rain Wednesday night, we heard a deafening chorus of frogs on Thursday and Friday mornings. Seriously, they were incredibly loud, and incredibly varied in their songs. I can't even imagine how many species there were in the area to produce all those different songs. It was great.
And then when daylight came we got a loud chorus of birds - all different kinds of birds - singing as if there were some kind of competition with the frogs to see who could be louder. Such a nice aftermath from all the thunder and rain.
In the campground I saw a flicker and a Red-headed Woodpecker - both of which are great birds.
Friday afternoon, the campground was starting to fill up, so I took the dogs down the road a ways to give them some exercise without running into other dogs. We found a picnic area, and the start of a hiking trail, and some geological information about the area.
One of the reasons the park was named for Gen. Pershing is that, when he was young, he used to visit this area. Stands to reason since his home was only a couple of miles from here, and this would be a good place for a boy to play. Today, the park is the only large wetland area the state owns. They say it's "one of the few remaining northern Missouri wetland landscapes."
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It was while we were walking back from this picnic area that I realized I wasn't feeling well. I had almost no energy and was having even more trouble than Gracie in walking up the slight hill back to the campground.
I finally took my temperature at 7:00 PM and found it was 102.7°. Not an appropriate end to my month in Missouri, let alone an auspicious beginning to my month in Iowa.
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