Yep, that’s me, the tiny pink dot in the middle of that wide, shallow river. I’m paddling my heart out there, but I’m also doing the other -ings these days in northeast Iowa.
Camping
Of course we’re always camping, but this spot feels like real camping, the kind we choose when we can. Normally we’d be at the Elkader city campground where Tracy’s good friend Dave stops in to say hey while he’s working at his and his wife’s brewery and doing maintenance for the town. He’s on his feet all the danged time, so we stay in the middle so we can grab him. Not this year though; there’s a motorcycle rally in the campground, so, after stopping to visit Dave’s parents in Harpers Ferry (always a warm welcome—thanks, Pat!), we discovered this three-site campground right on the Turkey River.
That right there is the entire campground, although the view from our campsite over the river is better.
Birding
Right from our little outdoor rug, we’ve been watching kingfishers, green herons, and bald eagles fish the river, plus great blue herons in flocks, seemingly.
Even a river otter, whom I failed in the photography department, maybe because I was so danged excited.
Paddling
Today is our last sunny, warm day without rain, and Tracy had to spend it replacing a headlight in the truck, so he dropped me and my pink kayak upriver, and I was to float down leisurely for a couple of hours until I got to the trailer.
Literally, the minute I paddled away from the truck, I saw this.
Thunder, rain, and a headwind all made me paddle to the bank and get out and take this danged photo. Now, I am no touring kayaker. Whereas Tracy likes to go on multi-week adventures with a tent and campstove stashed in his, exploring the river and meeting challenges, I prefer my feet up and a few beers under my seat and zero challenges. So I was not prepared for the storm, or the shallow water that kept making me have to get out, drag my boat to deeper water, then figure out how to get back in and get my feet inside and my paddle situated all before my boat got turned around in the current and I ended up facing the wrong way going too fast to right myself.
I kept thinking how proud I would be once I got back, but I was too busy feeling immensely relieved I hadn’t flipped myself under a fallen tree and gotten hurt. I am such an old lady. I did see trout and crawfish under my paddle and bald eagles right over my head, plus now I can say I’ve paddled a river in Iowa during a severe thunderstorm, by myself. That’s a big -ing.
Socializing
We’re here on our semi-annual (bi-annual?) Iowa tour: we hit Dave’s parents in Harpers Ferry, Dave in Elkader, a brother Mike in Cedar Falls, and a sister Molly in Des Moines. Except, Mike is now closer than Cedar Falls, since he owns a bar with his wife nearby. Yes, one brother has a brewery, while another brother has a bar. The sister has created all the beautiful ink on my body, so they’re a trifecta of bonuses when we visit.
More on the socializing in another post, since we’re just beginning the Iowa friends and family tour.
Oh, check this out. On our way to say hey at the bar, we picked up a few kegs they needed for the weekend.
After you empty and clean these kegs, they collapse and can be recycled. Not your mom’s kegs, that’s for sure. Turns out the guy handing them off to us is good friends with the guy who owns a brewery we loved in Austin, Texas, and, get this, he was wearing a Woody Guthrie t-shirt from the Guthrie museum I love so much, that happens to be the same building a friend’s father owned as a warehouse in Tulsa, the father whose obituary I just proofread. It was the second obit for the fathers of friends I proofed in two days, oddly. It’s been a full two days.
Iowa is as lovely as ever in the late summer with fields striped in alfalfa and soybeans and late-summer corn. When I’m not so busy -ing, I’ll take more photos.
I’m fascinated by the collapsing keg, what are they made out of?
Iowa does look picturesque, when you’re not battling storms with a kayak that is.
Friends with bars and breweries are my type of friends!
👍
I have no idea about the keg – it just looked so weird, so I glanced at the label and read that you use some kind of air sucking device to collapse it. Isn’t that wild!
It is. We have a kegerator but I’ve never seen those offered…
Do you guys have a lot of beer-drinking friends over, or do you both drink enough to justify a kegerator? Or maybe you just like to have man-cave types of things. 🙂
All of the above!
The husband drinks more than me, but our friends always like my selection better than his… so it evens out.
Once it’s tapped and on the CO2 it lasts quite a while. Averages 35 glasses per keg
I guess gone are the days when you had to finish off a keg the morning after a party before you return it. Taps these days keep them carbonated?
There’s a CO2 canister in the kegerator. Thats what provides the carbonization. Stays fresh forever.
Man, how handy!
Your set up at the campground looks so nice! Plus, yes, two full days and a small world of all the connections.
Exactly!
Iowa is the state that surprised us the most when we drove through on our 2021 road trip. I did not expect so many rolling hills and otherwise great scenery. Glad you’re making the social rounds!
There were so many blue herons when we paddled the Bark River nine days ago, I was amazed. I’m used to just the random large bird here and there.
Great Blue Herons are amazing enough just one at a time, but in groups they are astounding, right? I lived for a while near a beaver pond where about 20 herons nested in the tops of newly dead tree trunks. The squawking and flapping was gorgeous to see.