Freedom Rally 25 is in the books!

The 25th Annual ABATE of Iowa Freedom Rally is all over except for the clean up and tear down. My part of it isn't over yet as I still need to retrieve the camping gear a friend hauled home for me.

This was my 5th Freedom Rally, and the best so far. This was the 3rd year in a row that I went early and helped around the park. I worked as hard or harder than I would have worked at home and had fun doing it!

I got there Sunday afternoon, set up camp, visited with friends camped at Smith Lake north of Algona, stopped for supplies on the way back to camp, then relaxed and went to sleep.

Monday started with campstove bacon and eggs. The cast iron skillet worked much better this year than the aluminum skillet last year, but the stove still sucks. Not fine enough flame control. I think it would work better with about a third less holes in the burner. I'm thinking of getting a Coleman gas stove for next year.

I spent Monday running a string trimmer. Went thru 2 spools of string, and several tanks of fuel. Managed to finish frying the top of my head, even though it was covered. Guess I sunburned thru the do-rag. The big rip in the top didn't help.

While I was weed-whacking some of the guys running chainsaws cut some firewood for me and dropped it at my camp. I didn't actually get around to lighting a fire until Friday night but it was great to have some firewood available. Thanks Duffy, Rambo, and whoever else helped!

A District 2 member (Jimmy) and the friend he brought along to drive him home after the rally (Tree) showed up Monday afternoon. They had a little cold McDonalds left over, which I think was the extent of supper for Monday night.

Some friends from District 3 (Wayne and Cathy) showed up a little later with news of a bike breakdown (Cathy's trike). After some discussion Tree and I took Jimmy's pickup and trailer to retrieve Cathy's trike, and Wayne rode his bike to retrieve the motorcycle trailer he left at the farm where they left Cathy's trike. (You might need to draw a map to follow the story...)

More to come...