Ottumwa Iowa

This place was a bit different in that probably 90% of campers were all in one spot instead of being divided into several areas like in other towns. It was tent city everywhere you looked.
It rained hard late afternoon but sun came out for a few hours and although the ground was soggy the insides of most of the tents were reaonably dry.

The sounds that eminate from a campground like this are interesting. Just in our immediate area it sounded like what a zoo must sound like when all the animals are down for the night. Miss Sassy reported this morning that she could hear a loud snorer from 50 yards away. That was not so bad--the other night in Red Oak we were real close to a couple who turned out to be screamers--I will take snoring any time.

This was our homestead for the night and how it looked at 6 a.m. The bike and fence served as a drying rack for rain soake d clothes from yesterdy. There was not a great deal of drying going on because of heavy dew and I can tell you first hand that sliding on wet biking shorts will wake you up in the morning. You are definately not sleepy anymore.

Some creative person commandeered the dugout of the baseball field and made themselves a very comfy home.

This was the linefor the Porta Potties at 6:15 a.m. --probably 100 yards on each side. This is the time to practice physical self control/endurance way beyond the normal human experience. I swear that some folks go inside these fiberglass deals and work the crossword puzzle from the New York Times. It is interesting how you get real good at counting the people in front and comparing it to number of Potties and then doing the math while interjecting an average time of 2 minutes and 30seconds per person.

I now really underst nd why one of the greatest sounds in the world is the sound the Porta door makes when it slams as someone leaves it,especially ifyou are at the head of the line for the head.