The Clear Lake kite festival makes for a fun Saturday. People and dog watching is half the fun. The afternoon experience was our first. The temperatures were a little better but the crowds were horrific! Which is what leaves me scratching my head after seeing these off and on for 10 years. Clear Lake and Mason City are sister cities (Clear Lake being the hot sister that everyone wants to date) nestled in in the far north outskirts of central Iowa.

This event I believe draws around 10,000 people to their town in the dead of February. You’d think they might make some accommodations to the thousands of people coming to spend the day and their dollars! Not Clear Lake. In fact they go out of their way to make it a headache. Lake Front Drive ends up where pedestrians are crossing the street to get on the lake. People being the oblivious so-and-so’s they are make a continuous stream across the street so cars never get to take their turn! You end up with traffic unnecessarily backed up half a mile!

Put a cop out there for 2 hours at the busiest time and get rid of the traffic snarl up! This ain’t tough. You have 1 public restroom in the park for the entire downtown. You have another city one literally across the street that’s closed! “Well that’s the way we’ve always done it!” Well change! You’re funneling 10,000 people through 1 restroom! Right off the lakefront in their main street that consists of vacant buildings and shops that don’t open for the biggest Saturday of the winter?! I just don’t get it. I’m old enough to remember when businesses wanted to make money.

One winter there was 6 inches of new snow that morning and the businesses on main street didn’t even shovel their walks! Generally small town Iowa is the best.