Beautiful Lake View Campgrounds in Iowa - Plus Some Route Planning Tips

Rathbun Lake, Iowa (72 blue skies, lots of pretty clouds)

We are on our way to Colorado and decided to take a different route due to the very crazy weather. Routing our trip  through Iowa and Nebraska seemed like the safest option (sorry Barry ...avoiding Kansas this time) and so far the weather has been very good. We are taking more of a back road approach this time since we are not in a hurry to meet a deadline of a workamping job. Leaving on Memorial Day we passed through many small towns in Indiana and Illinois. Many of them were decorated very patriotically for the holiday with the streets lined with flags. Nice!

Our first stop was a Corp of Engineer Park (COE) near Centerville Iowa. We try to stay at this type of campground as much as possible. Being able to have a lake view site is always a treat and this type of campground is very inexpensive and usually well managed.. This is the view out our front window tonight. 

Buck Creek COE campground

I use Streets and Trips software by Microsoft to help plan our route. I can drop pin sets right onto the map to help find campgrounds. Pin sets are a beautiful thing. There are ones for just about everything ...State Parks,Walmart which allow camping, Elk Lodges, National Parks, Escapee Parks...the list is endless. The   map below is of this area. If you look closely you will notice on this lake there are five Corp of Engineer Parks. Wow! To sort this all out the website RVParkReviews.com comes in very handy . It turns out all of the COE campgrounds here received good rating and we choose Buck Creek because of its location on our route. I use this website a lot when trying to find a campground and oftentimes  add reviews  to help others along the way.

We are spending two nights here. Today we decided to go on a road trip and check out the other campgrounds. Why not join us and come along too. All of the campgrounds were sparingly populated. However, over Memorial Day weekend every site was taken. It looks like from the COE website most of the sites are taken on the weekends too. 

Pretty Eastern Kingbird

Many of the sites in our campground (Buck Creek) would be difficult to level a big rig on. The campgrounds are somewhat  hilly and most have quite a few sites on the water. All five parks provided 30 amp electricity and there are a few with 50 amp. All sites are electric only with water spicket and a dump site  available.  Each campground offers a boat launch.  

This lake is huge and over 21 miles in length. The dam and reservoir were constructed in the 1960's and dedicated by President Nixon in 1971. We saw lots of land set aside as prairie.

Prairie Ridge COE

Bridge View

There is also a State Park here with full hook ups. However, the sites are very close together and the bathrooms are old.  The campground has lots of weeds and had an unkempt look to it.  In comparison the  COE parks looked dramatically different where everything is very neat, tidy, and sites are well spaced.

Horny Creek State Park Campground 

Bridge View Campground

Dam

Island View

Island Vieware  two favorite

After our road trip visiting each of the campgrounds we decided  our two favorites  COE in this area are Bridge View and Island View. The are more level sites and may with  beautiful views of the lake 

We ended our road trip at Centerville, the closest town to our campground. It's a pretty town with many historical buildings and it was once centered around coal mining. We had a delicious dinner at Lucile's Steak and Spirits located in the Continental Hotel established in 1893. Some interesting people have stayed here including Jesse James, Al Capone, and recently Al Gore and Joe Biden. 

Continental Hotel

Continental Hotel

We enjoyed our stay here very much and it will definitely be on our "keeper" list. Tomorrow we are Nebraska bound. and we will be staying at a military campground.  Happy Trails!

Visiting the City of Friendship and Pride and Future Travel Plans

Rochester, Indiana (mostly cold and windy with occasional glorious spring weather)

Round barn was relocated to a golf coarse

Beautiful Rochester courthouse.

For the past month we have been visiting my brother Harry.  He lives in  Rochester, a pretty lake town in northern Indiana. We stored our RV and have  stayed at his  home. It has been a treat. The lake views are terrific and just being able to cook in his big kitchen has been so much fun. We have cooked some delicious meals together for us and some of his friends. It's been great to spend lots of time with him and there have been lots of laughs.  I have enjoyed taste testing a few of his favorite IPA's beers as well.

We are mostly here to try and figure out what is going on with John's knee since his replacement surgery in November. It has continued to swell and is painful a lot of the time. His surgeon in Florida recommended more surgery. We were not sure if this was the right coarse of action so we came up here to see an Orthopedic surgeon Harry recommended.

Harry's house (brown one)

My brother's pharmacy in Rochester

In between a barrage of tests we visited several towns in the area. We enjoyed the spring flowers. and the nice trails near the hospital where most of the tests were performed. 

Nice water bowl along the trail for Jimmy

Jimmy took lots of naps and even got to go on a few boat rides. He liked those a lot and so did we. 

Jimmy and me

My favorite brother Harry

My favorite husband enjoying the sunset

One of our favorite finds was a vintage trailer converted into a cool ice cream shop. A mother and daughter make homemade ice cream and sell it at this recently restored trailer. It has been a big hit in the community and the ice cream was delicious.

Viewing sunsets out on the pontoon boat at night is special. Being able to reconnect with my brother and having this special time together has been priceless. We were stressed at times during all the tests but being here with him helped immeasurably. Harry says being out on the lake helps resets your clock.

At first the surgeon thought John might need to have his knee replaced. However, after extensive tests no infection was found and the surgeon felt John should just give it some more time. He may be reacting to the implant but the hope is his body will adjust to it over time.. 

Lake Manitou at sunset

We will be here over the weekend and looking forward to watching the Indy 500 race. We used to live in Indianapolis and for many years attended this great event. My favorite driver Helio Castroneves will be starting from the third row. 

On Monday we will be turning "left" and heading west. Our plans include visiting a few beautiful places in Colorado for about a month. We then will be returning to Grand Teton National Park to meet up with friends. John's daughter will be flying in for a visit and we have more friends coming in September. We were supposed to work there this summer with GTA (Grand Teton Association) but had to cancel due to John's knee issues. It will be great to visit some of our favorite places. Stay tuned. 

In the fall we will be attending a Newmar Kountry Klub rally in Pueblo Colorado and will be attending a pre rally with a full-timing chapter in Canon City. We recently joined this camping club for Newmar owners. It's a very active club with many opportunities to attend rallies all over the country. 

Then in October we will be joining the Boomers, an Escapee BOF chapter, at the spectacular Albuquerque Balloon Festival.  We attended this great event four years ago and are really looking forward to returning. There are sure to be other great stops in between. 

Right now there have been numerous tornadoes in the mid west so we have decided to head a little further north and go through Nebraska instead of Kansas. This will be a new state for us and we are planning on staying at a few Corp of Engineer Parks along the way. Be sure to check back soon for more lake views. :)

Thank you again Harry for the wonderful hospitality!

Love you to the moon and back!!!