Parks and Paths: A beautiful park and fun town

Chris and Pat working on the retractable step.

Chris came out to lend a hand this morning, and lucky for us, pecan caramel rolls from My Mom's Bakery in Ely, were in those helping hands when he arrived. Before Pat and Chris began the projects we all had one. HEAVENLY!!

1. Installed the gadget on Firefly to enable remote access for most but not all things in our RV. It works, maybe, but not with our RV! It must be set up for a different coach. Pat tried to retract the slide and the bathroom light came on. He tried to turn the water pump off and the bedroom light came on!😀 A call to Firefly on Mon. is indicated.

2. The outside retractable step would not retract nor extend. They did some on-line research, cleaned the mud off from a dirt road, oiled it, and it's working again.

3. Chris soldered on a new cable connector on our Tablo DVR after it broke several months ago. Yes, it is working again!

My Mom's Bakery

Chris had plans this afternoon, and Pat and I took my sewing machine in to Inspired to Sew in Cedar Rapids to be cleaned, have the software updated, and a minor repair. It usually takes 3-4 weeks most places, which worked well for me since we'll be back here the beginning of August. I sew (pun intended) wanted to stay and shop.

We stopped in Ely at Dan and Debbie's Creamery for cheese curds on our way back to the campground. Curds weren't fresh, no squeaking, but still good. Curds are made fresh on Tuesdays or Wednesdays they said. They also make ice cream and, despite my good judgment, I couldn't resist a scoop. I think it was Swiss Chocolate Chip. I got it in a waffle cone and I did at least refuse the second scoop.

Dan and Debbie's Creamery. Lots of cyclists there.

Friday's dinner spot

Ely is a growing town that had a population near 1800 in 2010. It is just South of Cedar Rapids. The Cedar Valley Nature Trail runs from Waterloo to Hiawatha to Ely and possibly further. I have ridden on parts going from Hiawatha North and it's a great trail. I remember it well and still laugh about the birds that attacked Chris's helmet! Today we saw LOTS of cyclists going through Ely with LOTS of bikes parked at local businesses.

We walked around the campground tonight a couple of times to try and work off the treats of the day, which included another pecan caramel roll at supper. Didn't walk enough.

Sandy Beach at Coralville Lake is a beautiful campground with lots of trees and spacious sites. The sites have 30 amp electric but no water or sewer at each site. That keeps the cost down and I like it because we see more tents and more people hanging around outside, not shut up in their air-conditioned RV's. It is very humid again today, so we are some of those shut up inside tonight! We took note of several sites overlooking the lake that we might like to reserve if we come back here some time.