Lush, dense, green, glorious foliage., oh, so beautiful..... but don't let it fool you! Being in nature this weekend was the height of my worst nightmares.....
....because the vast majority of that lush ground cover you see there is my worst enemy:
Poison Ivy.
RDB and I pulled in long after dark to Caddo Lake State Park and were startled to realize the the campsite we had booked was literally surrounded with ivy. Growing up the trees in mature vines, popping out of the ground in little leaflets, crawling criss-cross around the site with no safe place for Diesel to run around and sniff. And just _looking_ at it was making my skin crawl.
Remember the three ways to determine if it's actually poison ivy (and this site had examples of _all_ of them):
Leaves of three? Leave it be!
Hairy vine, ain't no friend of mine!
Leaves like mittens? Itch like the dickens!
Y'all, I was itching just _looking_ at the stuff!! Needless to say, the little time we were at the campsite, I was either in the dead middle of the paved road or hiding the camper. It. Was. Everywhere!
RDB and I took a walk along the only non-ivy-ed safe place: the water! Caddo Lake State Park isn't actually on Caddo Lake, but there are a few ponds within the park. You can even rent a kayak or canoe from the park office if you like. RDB and I just enjoyed walking out on the dock in the cool early afternoon air.
We had plans for Saturday to head over to Sis & TJ's house for a brisket cookout in the evening. They live just 30 minutes away, across the Louisiana state line and Dad and Bunny were there for the weekend, but we hadn't told them RDB and I were coming up, so it was a sweet surprise to show up and be there for the evening with family.
Sunday morning RDB, Diesel, and me slept in, lazily went for a walk, and then off to fuel up the truck before getting ready to head back home. Diesel may not have understood why he couldn't go sniff every tree or step off the pavement, but I really didn't want to have to use my Poison Ivy First Aid kit.
When we got back from our errands, we noticed the lights were out in the camper - come to find out, the entire park had lost power. Bummer. It was a good thing though, because it gave us an excuse to walk one site over and chat with the park host, Chester (hi again!). He'd just moved over to this park about 18 days ago. We talked with him a bit about the surprise of poison ivy everywhere, and come to find out, it's protected by the state as winter food for the birds. Ugh, go figure! He'd already gotten an exposure rash in jut the two short weeks he'd been there, so I shared several packets of the Ivy-X pre-contact wipes Mom had discovered a while back, and I'd added to the camper, just in case.
With the power out, we decided to hit the road and head back home. I'm blogging as we drive and it's been a beautiful day over here in East Texas! Though we may never come back to Caddo Lake (oy, the poison ivy - I'm still shuddering over all of it!) we certainly love the piney woods of Texas.
We were in Site #19 at Caddo Lake State Park. Full hook-ups, three legos unlevel, and a tight squeeze between the tall pines on both sides (once we put the slides out, there was no room to walk between the trees and the camper). Lots of space and privacy between sites and the park was utterly beautiful, green and lush, but the poison ivy literally surrounded the site - you could get to the fire ring and picnic table, but that was it. This park is for the birds, y'all!
For more camping photos, go here.
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