Day 4 - Webster City to Marshalltown

Here we go again. Another very HOT day. We all woke up very early another attempt to get ahead of the heat. However, it only works when we assume we start out cool. That hasn't happened all week. But away we go.

Great support vehicle route - 4 lane interstate the whole way. Got there quick. Marshalltown was very organized and I found a good spot in a park under some trees to camp. Next to showers and bathrooms - a MUST.

Got all the tents set up with help from a neighbor. Went to do a load of laundry. It was a pretty easy support day. I get back to the site and the heat is still pretty intense but the shade helps. As everyone is getting in and cleaned up, we are searching for food and a cool space to land. The Marshall County Democrats were hosting a cooling spot so we visited with the President.

I knew that storms were possible so was in constant communication with Curtis to see what was going to happen and what we could expect. A big group of us decided to head to HyVee about 2 blocks from camp. While we were there the first storm rolled in. Heavy rain and wind lasted for about 20 minutes. We headed back to camp to assess the damage and some of the tents were a little damp, but so far so good. I went to the car to find a radio station to see if the storm was over. Unfortunately it was not. The organizers evacuated the campground to the old middle school we had been using for a shower and bathroom facility. The police determined it wasn't safe due to the tear down so they moved the whole campground into a neighboring church. We rode the next bit of the storm out - 70mph wind gusts and heavy rain again.

After about 30 minutes we headed back to the park to discover that two of our 5 tents did not make it - Wade and Joan and Meghan and Tessa's tents were destroyed. So off to Walmart they go to purchase tents and the rest slept in the church for the night. My tent and Erin and Joe's tents faired very well - we stayed in our space that night with the rain and the wind lulling us to sleep.

The next morning we all assessed the camp damage and had a big morning of cleanup. We were late getting out of town for our next leg to Cedar Rapids but every one was safe and we only lost a few things that could ALL be replaced.

Oh - and it was much cooler!!!