Iowa and Intellicast......

Despite the weather, we are getting the chance to explore this area of north-central Iowa. The only reason why I know EXACTLY where in Iowa we are located, including the county, is because of tornado/severe storm alerts! The weather has been a little crazy the entire time we've been here. Thanks to Intellicast, we have been able to skirt around downpours, so we are making the most of things. Raincoats help too! We have been able to enjoy most of what we had planned to do in this area, with the exception of today. It is so blustery and cold, with a hefty enough wind (20mph) that we cancelled the bike ride we were planning on the rail trail here. Other than that, we've managed to explore a bit!

Clear Lake State Park is located right near our campground, and in fact has a really nice campground as well. I'm sure it is wonderful in the summer, with the lake right there for swimming, fishing, boating, etc. Its a nice sized glacial lake, and the surrounding park area is wooded, so it probably helps with the heat in the summer, making it a pleasant respite. I tested the water temperature and it is still a bit chilly!! No swimming yet...at least not for us. The rest of the lake has cottages and many homes around the perimeter, as you can imagine. 

See the birds hanging out on the sign?

Pretty big lake, with lots of nice trees in the park

little waves coming in (along with weather)

Even though it was rainy and cool, we still enjoyed a nice hike through Lime Creek Nature Center in Mason City (the next town over from Clear Lake). There were several different trails, and we walked on most of them, but some were just too muddy. We had so much fun! I know...sounds crazy....but really had a great time. The wildflowers were blooming everywhere, which was really pretty.

bluebells everywhere

closeup

turkey vulture (click on photo to make it larger)

bluebells by the Winnebego River...very pretty

the "bluffs"

hiking past the Winnebego River

Despite the rain,we had so much fun spotting birds and trying to get pictures. We found a clearing near a small pond, and just looked around, spotting several different kinds of birds. We were very patient and had our cameras ready. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. We are not birders, so we had to look up most of them to get the name right.

Hairy Woodpecker (that's its name!)

Yellow -rumped Warbler?

Geese and their brood (they were on an island in the middle of the pond)

Yellow Warbler

Yellow Warbler (these guys are fast!)

zoom in to see the egg in the nest

Tree Swallows

Later in the afternoon, between thunderstorms, we took a little trip to the Kinney Pioneer Museum. It has a few outbuildings, such as the one room school house, the jail, and a little log cabin that housed a family (with 14 kids!) back in the day. The clientele must be well behaved here at this museum....very few of the exhibits were behind ropes, and you could get up close to the displays.

One room schoolhouse

 The main museum building is very large - with displays on everything from toys, typewriters, and washing machines to farm equipment, military uniforms, and such....Some of the displays were pretty quirky, and we had fun investigating. 

 I particularly liked the set-ups of the 1890's prairie women in the home. That lady ironing looks like she is having a really bad day.

Coffee anyone?

Not sure what she is saying, but it doesn't look good...hhahah

Check out the dental office from early 1900's or so.

yikes! (pre-Listerine days)

 
This guy contracted polio and was in an iron lung for 20 years before he died. He toured Europe with his doctor like this, according to the sign.

a good advertisement for getting vaccines!

This museum was huge and had displays on everything. Some were cheesy, and some displays were amazing. There was a US flag with 13 stars! The docent pointed it our to us...I would have missed it as it was in a locked cabinet with a lot of other military items.

Tom with the Conesta Wagon

You know I had to check out fiber-y stuff too. The quilts were amazing, with lots of hand stitched lettering on them (names, dates, good wishes). And of course, looms and spinning wheels.

hard to fit that loom in the RV 

There was a whole section on toys. Some of them I actually recognized. I guess I'm really getting OLD! Anyway, I never saw this...the Dionne Quintuplet dolls. I recently saw a program on TV about the Dionne quintuplets, and how they were exploited for entertainment and to sell products, but I had never seen any of them.

Dionne Dolls

The Winnebego factory is located in Forest City, Iowa, about 45 minutes from Clear Lake. Tours are offered twice a day and its quite popular. Who doesn't love a factory tour? This tour is like the "Back Lot" tour in Disneyworld. It starts out with a movie and then everyone boards a bus, which is actually a converted RV. The narrated bus tour goes around the 22 buildings that comprise the factory. There are only three of buildings that you actually go in, but it is quite something to see. Most of the components of the RV's are made on site as well, such as the holding tanks, sinks, cabinets, furniture, cushions....No picture taking allowed, of course, except in the museum. It was cool to watch how they are put together.

This old RV was in the museum. Our son Chris had a toy model of this RV when he was a kid, and it rolled along with all of his other vehicles. I think it was an exact replica, because I recognized this model in the museum immediately. Hahahah. What a blast from the past!

Inside was cool! 

Hey Chris, recognize this?

A fun factory tour

Winnebego/Itasca owners can park in the parking lot for up to 3 nights for free, including electrical hookups.  There were several RV's parked when we were there. The huge factory complex is across the street, and has a service center with 36 bays. There is overnight parking there as well, for those getting their RV serviced. A couple of weeks ago, we tried to get a service appointment since we knew we'd be in the area, but the first available appointment was for the middle of June! We had our RV serviced at the Winnebego/Itasca dealer down the street - Lichtsinn RV. They have a brand new facility, with a lovely waiting room. I believe you can overnight at their facility as well if you are getting service. We were very pleased with the service.

Winnebego Visitor Center-with RV overnight parking:)

Our stay at this ever-so-peaceful campground (Oakwood RV Park, Clear Lake, Iowa) ends tomorrow. We have really relaxed here, and enjoyed talking with the friendly camp hosts every day. And we are thrilled we didn't have to use the storm shelter!!