The Lake With a Deceiving Name

We had low expectations for tonight's campsite, given that it's name was Dam Complex. I mean, who names a place something prosaic like that and expects anyone to stay. If you were staying at a campsite named Dam Complex, would you expect this?

After a long (7 hours) very hard day of driving, we thought we'd be driving into, well, a complex! Instead, it is a great campground with many small semi-private areas of 4 or 5 campsites. After we arrived...

...we took a bike ride around the campground, and saw the many small areas that would be perfect for a family reunion (which is on our minds since we're headed toward one). The circle we are in has something more like 20 campsites; still, we have some nice privacy and are right on the lake. The name of the lake is Coralville Lake, which seems like a much better name for the campgrounds surrounding it than Dam Complex!

Having spent a long time cooking (me) and cleaning up (the husband) last night, we decided to go out for dinner. We'd never been to a Texas Roadhouse before, but it turned out to have great steaks and great sangria with tequila floaters. And we got to come back to the trailer with treats for the pups and no dishes to do. It was a nice break!

However, the drive to this spot outside of Iowa City, Iowa, was a nightmare. We actually had forgotten it can rain this hard. In Colorado, the weather that makes it impossible to see on the road is snow. Somehow that seems more fitting than just plain water falling from the sky. But for several hours, it was raining so hard we could only see a dozen feet in front of us, or so. The husband was driving, so I was very glad I was knitting. I was able to focus on the project and use up some of my nervous energy creating a garment! There was certainly no sleeping to be done! Not for the people, anyway. The dogs slept away and were terrifically well behaved. We would not have been happy to have had to take them out in that downpour.

Our campsites in the past have been mainly state parks, so this was the first federal campsite. As such, we were able to use the husband's senior pass for a half price reservation. So tonight was an incredible bargain! During this cross-country trip, we'll see both state and federal campgrounds, and even a county one in New Jersey, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.