Camping at Lake Poinsett

This weekend was our annual camping trip to Lake Poinsett. We pulled our camper and parked on Bernie's brother's lot by his cabin. He has even put in a special outlet in his shed so we can plug in and use our air conditioner (thanks Rick!). We needed it when we arrived on Friday. It was really hot. We settled in and enjoyed a quiet evening in the cabin with Rick and Kay, visiting. After a good night's sleep, we woke to a nice Saturday morning. We watched as Joel and Sandy Baier, Mary and Jerry Ideker, Grandma Ideker, Steph, Josh and Becca, Angie, Danica and Taber Heibult arrived. Weather held out and we got to enjoy a little time in our chairs outside. But soon the rain started. And it didn't want to quit! Lake Poinsett is very high anyway from all the rain they have been getting and the rain on Saturday added to it. This is the lake that started on Rick and Kay's back yard.

You can see where our camper had lots of water sitting around it.
It stopped and started raining several times during the day, sometimes raining very hard and we even had hail. But we didn't let a little bad weather stop our fun. We had a wonderful supper inside the cabin - we just didn't get the hot dogs and brats grilled, but pan fried.

After the Baiers, Heibults and "other" Ideker's left, we got out the games. Rick had gotten a Risk game at a rummage sale for $4 and Josh's eyes lit up. We played for a couple of hours. It was much more a "guy" game and Josh, Rick and Bernie enjoyed it more than the girls. But we girls were patient and played along!

Bernie loved the little army guys.We moved on to Idiot and played that for awhile. Soon it was time to wade to our camper for one last night in our "old" camper. Next time camping with be in our "new" one! The rain had stopped and we saw a pretty sunset. To get the kids ready for the new camper, we got them new pillows with a tease of what sheets will be on their new bunkbeds. Becca of course is lime, Josh navy blue, and Steph red, which she prefers to call baby pink.Fortunately the rain stopped and we didn't get any more. We heard there was a storm that passed through the Sioux Falls area. Everyone made it home OK. Joel and Sandy said they rode through blinding rain all the way to Sioux Falls to stay with Ryan and family. This is what the water at Rick and Kay's cabin looks like - no beach! Usually there is at least 6 to 8 feet of beach front to enjoy when swimming, but the water is so high it is lapping up on their retaining wall and you can't see much steps that lead to the beach. They suspect it has been higher because some of their sandbags were moved further back and there was much debris on the grass when they got there. Scary! Steph and Josh called today to say that they had siding on their house ripped off and trees in their area were down. Rick and Kay got a picture of Jason's brother's new building near Canistota that was destroyed. Must have been quite a storm in the area. Bernie and I drove past a house the neighbor told us about with a huge weeping willow tree down on top of the house. Bummer! We got lots of rain at Poinsett, but no big winds. We were lucky. And we didn't let a lot of rain damper our fun! Thanks Rick and Kay for a nice weekend.