Monday, September 29, 2008

Pomona Lake

We got off for the camping trip about 1:30 Friday afternoon. The distance was quite short as we traveled about 40 miles South on I 35. Really it is 6 miles over to I 35 from our house and then 25 or so down to Ottawa. That would be Kansas, not Canada! Ottawa is sort of small, but is a clean little town right on the Interstate.

From there it is 2 lane road 25 miles West to Pomona Lake State Park. The town of Pomona is about 6 miles before you get to the lake, and the park is actually at Vassar, Kansas.

The park is huge and we drove all over the place trying to find Burning Heart campground. It was suggested by our oldest son Chris as the best group of campsites. They had all three hookups. Sewer in a state campground? You bet. Just like the big commercial places, except,,,,this place has huge campsites with about 50 feet in between sites.

This is the view from the swim beach. The lake is a COE lake and has Core campgrounds as well, but they are lucky to have electricity, and water is unheard of. Core parks are usually really nice, but they are quite crowded, and they were this weekend as well.


The state of Kansas has one of those vehicle pass rules, where you have to purchase a annual pass for $25 or pay three dollars a day. No more expensive than that is, it really keeps folks from using the parks. But then Kansas charges tolls on their freeways too.

Our site was the first one from the front road, and we had a huge front yard. It was loaded with the it factor.


There was only one nice shower house for the whole place and the rest of the bathrooms were just water closets. But they were all flush, and not pit toilets. This kind of looks like an administration building, but it is all shower house.


They have a public marina as well.


In the center of the park is a large frisbee golf course. Or disk golf as they preferred to call it. There were camp sites that lined the sides of this open green area. We are just now seeing some turning of leaves, but you can see it is still mostly green here.


We didn't do anything too important, just the big campfire at night, and the picnic every meal bit.

On Saturday, we set up the Direct TV satellite dish and tuned into ESPN for the University of Iowa game under the awning. It started out quite good for Iowa, but in the second half, the team forgot to play. Northwestern, was not to be denied, so we lost. Put a downer on an otherwise happy camping day.

It was about 85 degrees both Saturday and Sunday. Not too hot, and not cold either. It was cool late in the night around the campfire, as the gals were scrambling for sweatshirts. The guys never changed from shorts and T shirts. You know because we are men! LOL.

All four grandkids played and played. They rode their bikes and lived in the playground. At one point, the oldest boy swang so high that he flew off of the swing and did a face plant in the sand. He spent some time crying, while his mom was washing the sand out of his hair and mouth. But he'll live.

This will be the final family camp out for our three families this fall. Maybe we will get in another jaunt, but cool weather will be fast approaching now and summer play will be over.

Its sad in a way to see the end, but then onward to the next season. Halloween, costumes and such. Then turkey day. Well lets not push things too fast.

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