It's been hot here, high 90s with feel like temps over 100. Talking to some of the locals, 2 weeks ago they needed their fireplaces...now you better hope you have AC.
We've explored the area a bit but are saving the Amana colonies and possibly the Amish for M&T so probably more on their stores later. Our story, on the other hand, continues. The stove vent cover flap on Newbee (yes, the trailer has a name) broke while we were at Cuivre River, so yesterday we found an RV place south of town that actually had one to fit. It had been duct taped closed, and Bruce wasn't too keen about constantly being the one to open and shut it if I was cooking, so we decided to look for a replacement. Bruce did have a fix in mind if one had been unavailable, he was going to make a hinge for the old one, but since we were lucky, now we just have a new roll of aluminum tape. Additionally, we've had an on again/off again unidentifiable leak under bathroom sink. I found a new single lever faucet I preferred to what is in there, so maybe replacing the existing unit will take care of that leak. We can always hope. Anyway, it's always something on a trip like this when you're bouncing a trailer down the road for long distances.
Our site, #1, is nice. We have water and electricity but not much shade. Campground is small, but laid out nicely. I think it's the only one in the Dam Complex that has sites with both electricity and water, and a few with sewer. We can walk to the dam outlet releasing the downstream water for the Iowa River as well as the Devonian Fossil Gorge. We walked through it this morning.
375 million years ago, this area was a tropical marine environment. It was south of the equator and covered by warm, shallow seas similar to the Caribbean Sea today. This was the Devonian period, part of the Paleozoic Era and more than 200 million years before dinosaurs. Later the continents broke apart and multiple geological events shaped the Iowa of today, including the Iowa River. When the Coralville Dam was completed in 1958, upstream from Iowa City, it was primarily for flood reduction on the Iowa River, and has been successful in that respect but for the exceptional years of 1993 and 2008. In 1993, Coralville Lake exceeded its capacity and water poured over the emergency spillway for 28 days straight, washing away a campground, a road and removing 17 feet of soil and rock...exposing the Devonian bedrock that became the Devonian Fossil Gorge. In 2008 floodwaters again swept through the gorge, widening it significantly. If you look carefully, you will find numerous fossils embedded in the rock surface, ranging from coral heads to crinoids and brachiopods. This gorge is a transient thing though. The limestone surface exposed by the floods had been protected from the elements by a layer of sediment, and now that it is exposed to the elements, the rock weathers. Freezing and cooling flake the rock surface, acid rain blunts the sharper features, and vegetation has found footholds in cracks in the rock.These natural processes are unavoidable; they apply to any exposed limestone surface. And of course, having thousands of visitors walking on it, touching the fossils, etc continues the degradation. In the fifteen years after the flood of 1993, weathering, plant growth and foot traffic apparently obliterated many of the fossils exposed in that first flood. The flood of 2008 renewed the gorge, but again, it is only temporary. Today, as my pictures show, nature is regaining her foothold.
Enough of today. We're off to the Amana Colonies tomorrow. I made reservations for their tour, but to have that occur, 2 more people will need to sign up. I am hopeful, but either way, we'll be visiting.
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