Friday, August 9, 2013, Dubuque, IA

We slept in too late this morning.  Considering that Gerri wanted to visit the Hatchlings Office in Des Moines at ten.  I got up at 7:30 and started the coffee, Gerri got up at 8.  Before leaving the park I had to dump the holding tanks at the park's dump station.  Because of the system I use dumping takes longer than with the 3" gravity hose.  I also stopped for fuel.  By the time we were under way Gerri was going to be late. We headed toward the Walmart that I had chosen to park the motor home while Gerri kept her appointment.  We decided that she would take the Jeep and I would drive on toward Dubuque in the motor home.  Gerri changed her appointment to 11 and barely got there on time after we reached the Walmart and unhooked the Jeep.

Iowa Capitol Building at Des Moines

I headed on out with the GPS set for our next designation of Miller's Riverside Park in Dubuque, IA.  I stopped briefly at a rest stop just east of Des Moines.  After leaving the Walmart lot I saw the capitol dome in the distance.  Gerri did more than see it she went by and took pictures.

While I drove on toward Dubuque, Gerri visited some of the the Hatchlings development team in their office in downtown Des Moines.  She also picked up some Hatchlings memorabilia for Margie.

Karen, Mike, Gerri, Abby

Shortly after I left the rest stop traffic came to a stand still.  Traffic was backed up for as far as I could see and it quickly backed up behind me for as far as I could see in the rear view mirrors.  We had some movement but never over about five mph.  Gerri called when she was on the road after her Hatchlings and I warned her of the traffic problems, she was already in it at mile marker 146.  I was at mile marker 152.  Turns out the problem was an overturned semi at mile marker 155.  I went on to the next rest stop.  I had no internet service and couldn't check if there were any caches there.  It was about two hours later when Gerri got to the rest stop.

We hooked the Jeep back up and got back on the road.  We didn't stop at any more rest stops to check for caches because the GPS showed our ETA at Dubuque to be at 4 PM.  We did arrive at about that time and we were set up in site 40A by 4:40.  After cooling off we headed to Margie's for a visit.  Margie is a friend of Gerri's from the Hatchlings game on Facebook.  We had visited her here in 2011.

Yes it had an egg on it.  It also had blue cheese crumbles

After visiting we decided to have a hamburger.  Gerri Googled "best hamburger in Dubuque" and we set the GPS for it.  Turns out the Copper Kettle had excellent burgers.

After eating we headed back to the park.  Even though it is August a lot of the campers had fires.  Some were beyond campfire and into the bonfire area. 

After a little TV and computer time we went to bed.  Gerri and Margie plan to go to a Farmer's Market in the morning at 7 AM.  We will see.