15 April - Cherry Glen Campgrounds Near Ankeny IA

Our 2016 camping season is officially here.  Woo hoo!  We are on our "shake-down cruise" to make sure everything is working correctly and that we are equipped for the New England journey commencing on 25 April.

So here is Cherry Glen campgrounds, a US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) park, located on the east side of Saylorville Lake just north of Des Moines.  We will be here 15-21 April.  Our son, Dan only lives just a few miles from here in Ankeny.  We enjoy the ACE parks as they are reasonably priced and well-maintained.

Friday 15 April:  This is "opening day" for Cherry Glen and it was obvious they were gearing up for the onslaught of campers rolling in today for the weekend.  We arrived at Cherry Glen about 1030 hrs and with few exceptions, the campgrounds was nearly empty which made arrival and setup uneventful!

 It is a bit breezy but warm and sunny

 Looking west towards Saylorville Lake

 Nana and I watching the Chicago Cubs game

Beautiful view of Saylorville Lake

Nana and her navigation cell at the picnic table, planning our New England journey!
















Friday evening our Ankeny grandkids joined us for an overnighter.  We had a great time at the playgrounds, going for walks, having a campfire and of course, roasting smores!

 Sticker craziness!

 Roasting marshmallows for Smores.  Hailee is experimenting with roasting a Peep, marshmallow Easter candy.

 Calvin thinks this is pretty great!

Calvin with his birthday presents.


















Saturday evening we had a soup cook-off with some friends from the Des Moines Airport Fire Department.  Was great to see Tina Carter-Shields, Fire Chief Tim Whisler, and Marty Smith.