Roc The Lake in Clear Lake, Iowa

 

Roc The Lake in Clear Lake, Iowa

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for August 1, 2021

Miss Sheri and I left the boys in Minnesota this weekend and headed down to our favorite stomping ground in Clear Lake, Iowa, to attend a 2 day concert called Roc The Lake.  We were Ready to Roc!

We were met there by some of our familiar Partners in Crime including "Krazy" Kory and no-nickname Joel.  Joel also brought his special friend, Jenn, and she ended up being the most fun one in the whole group!

We rented some rooms in a house via Air-BNB.  This was the first time I had done this in Clear Lake and it was a pretty cool experience.  The owners were also home and we all bunked together in separate bedrooms upstairs.  Even Joel's brother Jake and his special friend stopped by to spend an evening with us.  A good time was had by all with the possible exception of the owners.  I'm not sure they had as much fun as we did.

On Friday night, only one band played, but they were really awesome.  Their band name is 90's Rock Show and they covered a ton of beloved classics from bands like No Doubt, Nirvana, Alanis Morrissette, and Red-Hot Chili Peppers.  We rocked out until nearly midnight which made waking up Saturday morning a bit more challenging, but still well worth it!

We woke up so we could golf 9 holes at my favorite golf course, Oak Hills.  My golf game is awful and hasn't magically improved since last time, but we still had a bunch of fun.

We heard that Young Ben was in town so we went over to meet him and his girlfriend.  She was very nice.  We met near "Freedom Rock" which is a relatively new addition to Clear Lake and is a memorial for Veterans who served our country.  Kory's dad, Gene, is a veteran and had something to do with it being placed here.  I told Kory that the guy in the picture also bears a striking resemblance to his dad, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Eventually we made our way back to PM Park and were ready to spend the rest of the day Roc-ing out!

The first band we saw was an ACDC Cover band called Back in Black.  They were really awesome and played a bunch of classic ACDC songs.  I was Thunderstruck.

Krazy Kory was really enamored with the band and we eventually went over to meet them.  They were a great bunch of guys and were kind enough to take this photo with us.  I'm pretty sure Kory is going to print it out and hang it on his refrigerator.

One of my favorite things about Clear Lake is we always end up bumping into old friends.  There was no shortage of those at Roc The Lake!

The headliner for Saturday night was a band called The Trip.  They are an eighties cover band and played a bunch of classics.  I was pretty impressed with all the bands that played.  I believe this was the first time that the Roc the Lake concert was held, but I think it was good enough to become an annual tradition. 

Back home, we've been up to the usual old shenanigans.  We've been frustrated trying to figure out a way to let Blue climb back on the boat if he jumps in to go swimming.  We thought the lily pad might make a good bridge for him and it actually does.  However, his nails shredded the crap out of the foam so that's not going to be the solution we hoped.  Back to the drawing board.

We've had multiple fox sightings in our neighborhood the past few weeks.  We've heard one of our neighbors is feeding them and there's a family of at least 4 in the area.  I love seeing them.  They are very cute little critters.  This guy actually started barking at Blue as we walked by him which surprised the heck out of us.  I never knew fox barked before.  I guess that answers the age old question, What does the fox say?  It's arf arf yip yip bark woof.  Problem solved.

Back on Bird Island we saw that the Cormorant have kind of taken over the joint.  Good for them.