Family, Friends, Fotos

A weekend in pictures, worth a few thousand words......

We were at Lake Ray Roberts State Park Idle de Bois Unit, Site #78. It was a cold weekend, but a beautiful time with friends and family. We enjoyed a great lunch out at a local Mexican food place on Monday before we headed back home.  Mom and G stayed at the LoneStar Lodge at the State park - room #120 had incredible views of the gazebo and lake, and was close to the main lodge lobby.  Mom said she'd gladly come back and stay again - we may have found a way to have others camp with us!

For more camping photos, go here.

for a park drive thru video, go here. 

Bumper sticker, Birthday, Back-in-the-Box, and Buddies

A quick trip to Dallas this weekend to celebrate Bunny’s *ahem*2nd birthday, play games with the fam, and visit with Randshe; RDB put a new adornment on the back of the camper before we left out (and I still need to get the reindeer off from our Christmas trip - though it kinda looks like he's giving a thumbs up about our blog!)

We left out Friday after work and made our way to The Vineyards Campground and Caverns arriving well after dark; we stayed here once before when we came up for Randshe’s Hallowedding. This is Sis & TJ‘s favorite place to stay when they come in to town to visit Dad and Bunny and with a close proximity to Dad and Bunny‘s house, I can’t blame them!  The view from our spot was really great, though we weren’t at the camper much to enjoy it. 

Saturday we all met up at Dad‘s favorite restaurant, Lupes, for lunch to celebrate Bunny, then went back over to the house to enjoy a day of  playing dominoes, watching the Cowboys' late game, and plenty of great conversation. 

I got Bunny a money tree for her birthday and joked that I had promised the tree when I picked it out that it wasn’t coming home with me: Bunny has lots of plants and an incredible green thumb; she’s even rescued several sad houseplants that I have unfortunately brought almost to the brink of death in my care. 

Sis & TJ wanted to teach us how to play Mexican train with the travel dominoes that I had from our camper. It seemed like every other round a new rule - or two - was added to the game. Dad cracked me up at one point when he said “That’s the problem with learning the rules: now you’ve got to play by them.” 

Even little Willow seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the instructions! 

My favorite part of playing dominoes is actually the last round of the night. As a tradition, my family has always played a game called “put them back in the box.” Everyone draws tiles to fill their hand and no pile left over. You start with the highest double, then put each in turn till you are out of tiles - so, 9/9, then 9/8, 9/7, etc.  

If you don't have the next on in order, you draw from someone else's hand while they either try to get rid of one that's _not_ the next in line (if they have it)  It’s part dominoes, part Bullshit, part UNO, all trying to put the dominoes back in the box and not being the person holding the last one. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun bullshitting with our family. And if TJ tells you he has the one you’re looking for, he has it. Indeed. 

Sunday morning we got up and checked out from the campsite, taking the trailer and truck down to Dad‘s so we could park in front of their house, called an Uber, and met Randshe at Winewood Grill in Grapevine. 

Three hours, two bottles of champagne, and one happy table full of friends later we parted ways with plans to get together again next weekend when we’re back up to camp north of Dallas at Lake Ray Roberts. 

Back at Dad And Bonnie’s we just happened to run into Grandma G as she was walking back to her house next door. Of course, we also just happened to bring a six pack of “grandma beer” to put in her fridge.  She may look little, but at 94 years young, y’all, she is something fierce. 

We were in site number #91 at The Vineyards Campground and Cabins. Really great site right up against the water with plenty of space — just be aware of the significant drop off to your passenger side and the backend. If you go off that wall, there’s no coming back.

For just a few more camping pictures, go here. 

Happy Hallowedding

 

Camping itself is always a fun adventure, but when we get to go camping _and_ share in the celebrations of our friends and family, it makes for the absolute BEST of all things.  We've been excited about RandShe's wedding since they announced their engagement over a year ago and being able to enjoy or new camper, over a holiday weekend, visiting family AND getting to go to their ceremony? I mentioned that was the best, right?

I took several days off work so we could go enjoy being up near DFW without feeling rushed.  We had booked four nights at The Vineyards Campground in Grand Prairie earlier in the spring (when we were thinking we'd have a camper and could go camp with Sis and TJ) but since we didn't use those nights, I moved them over to this weekend.  Unfortunately for me, I thought we had moved them for Thursday thru Monday, but I got a call Wednesday night asking when we were checking in? Well, I had my days off and wanted to make full use of them, so we ended up booking another single night at Lake Tawakoni State Park for Sunday night.

With the wedding Friday afternoon, we just puttered around the campground and had a lazy day of it.  I thought that the mis-hap with the booking dates was going to be the only bad luck of the weekend.

Well, I was wrong.

I swear, I was backing up and moving less than 1 MPH, but if you were wondering who wins when it's truck tailgate vs 5th wheel hitch?  Yeah, it's gonna be the hitch. Every. Time.  Grateful for a good insurance agent who helped me with what I needed to get a claim started quickly; bummed that I damaged our not-even-a-year-old truck.

Now, with _that_ out of the way, RDB and I got all dressed up and got in our slightly dented fancy truck and drove over for RandShe's shindig.  And, oh, ya'll, what a fun celebration it was!  The maid of honor and best man walked Kali and Ickis down the aisle (such good pupper doggos!) and RandShe wrote their own vows.... 

It's the first time I've ever seen the traditional unity candle ceremony changed out for making a unifying PB&J shandwich (RandShe's trying to get marital sponsorship from Jif and Smuckers, I'll let you know how that turns out!).  There were sweet words that left you misty-eyed and funny moments that had you crying with laughter.  It was the BEST to see these two dear friends commit their lives and love to each other.  May their biggest concern in life be the eternal debate between crunchy and creamy.  <3

RDB and I were making it a point to get lots of candid photos through the evening - our wedding gift to RandShe was going to be a few photos printed and framed to be given to them at the "After Party" for out of towners the next day along with a USB drive with all the photos and videos we took at the wedding and reception (It was a _huge_ hit, BTW, if you're looking for a unique gift for the couple who has everything.)

MR and MRS RandShe!

Saturday afternoon we were over at RandShe's house for the afterparty - it was great to get to have a bit of time with the newlyweds and the family and friends in from out of state.  Saturday evening Dad and Bunny came up to the campsite with fried chicken for a dinner al fresco.

The campground we were at was our first time staying at an RV Resort with planned activities.  they gave us a folder full of information and a calendar of events the night we checked it.  Holiday themed movies, a costume contest, and trick-or-treating were all on the list.  We enjoyed decorating our camper - along with several others - and going for a spook-tacular walk in the evening after my parents left.

Think they shop at the same store? Ha!

Sunday morning we packed up and made our way over to our next site in East Texas. I was grateful that the damage done to the truck was only superficial - it would have been a much different situation had I messed it up in a way that we wouldn't be able to hook up the camper and pull it to our next destination.  RDB reminded me, and really the whole weekend reinforced this: material things like the accident with the truck really aren't important - as long as the people you love are happy and healthy, you have all the good things you need in life and life will be just fine.

We were in Site #6 at The Vineyards Campground and Cabins in Grapevine.  Our first time in a RV Resort - it was expensive in comparison to our state park stays ($56/night for our site vs ~$22 for a state park full hook-ups) but for the convenience of the location, the clean and very level site, and the fun activities (and lots of amenities, though we didn't take advantage of them), some may find that extra price worth it.  It was neat to be right on the marina and close to everything you could possibly need in the north-western side of DFW.  Very close to the Gaylord and Great Wolf Lodge, and Bass Pro Shops, too. 

For more camping photos, go here.

And for a TON more of RandShe wedding photos go here.  (It was honestly hard to pick which ones to include, so here's just a few more....)

Wow, What a Weekend!

With no client-facing work on Thursday or Friday, RDB and I took off for our first camping trip in Camper #3 to Cedar Hill State Park. Needless to say, I should've checked the weather!

A huge thanks to my RDB for always taking the long hauls when we travel and especially for this trip, since it poured buckets on us the whole way north!

We arrived at the park well after dark Wednesday night, and I didn't realize when we booked this site (#123) just how difficult it was going to be to get into: backing in uphill, and a significant tilt to the drivers side.  We were really impressed with the auto leveling on our new Palomino Columbus Compass Series.

Cedar Hill State Park made for a beautiful "office".....

View from my desk...

 

the break room....

my coworkers....

Even the time clock was reminding me how sweet it is to be here for work this week.

We reached out to Mom & G to see if they wanted to have dinner Thursday night - they came over afterwards to check out our new digs.  It's so nice to have a spot to be able to host other people and everyone is comfortable.  It was wonderful to share this space and a bottle of wine with them.... the label on the bottle says it all:

Friday was a bit of a blur - more work, including applying for a new role at my company (I've been waiting on that to post for _at least_ two months!), and trips to Ikea, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and Target.  New campers require stuff, y'all!

Saturday was a blur of a different kind: we started the morning over at Randshe's new home in Castle Hills. R recently purchased an Audi R8 and was participating in an exotic car Make-a-Wish drive by. He invited RDB to ride along with him, so they took off (and I mean, the _took off!_ that car is a rocket!). S and I stayed back a the house to chat for a bit and then joined them for bunch later.

We're excited to come back up here in late October for Randshe's wedding - 10-30-20! (reminds me of RDB and my wedding date of 11-12-13). We already have a site booked for that one as well. It's awfully nice to be able to take our "rollin' home" with us to visit friends and family!  

Speaking of - it was so sweet to be able to snuggle on Kali and Ickis again - we sure miss those little cuties!

After lunch we came back to the site, packed up the camper, and hauled it over to Camper Revamper Chris Cox.  You'll remember we met him on a Facebook group as we were dealing with the beginnings of the camper crisis this year.  His prices are fair, his ideas are fabulous, and the quality of his work is second-to-none. We had a few items that we needed help with:

Camper mattresses are notorious for bad sleep, and RDB and I have been spoiled by a SleepNumber in the house, so we splurged for a SleepNumber (regular queen) for the camper. Chris helped out by reworking the wiring so that the plug for the base unit would be under the bed rather than plugged into the wall.  He put it like this: when he does improvements or modifications, he wants to make it look like it's always been there. (I'm telling you - Chris does quality work!)

Our unit came with the Wineguard wifi booster roof unit already wired in, you just need to add the router  to the ceiling inside and buy a data plan.  Big thanks to Camping World of Fort Worth for staying open for a few minutes extra on Saturday night - we came sliding into the parking lot literally at 6pm as they were closing, but they let us in to buy the router we needed for Chris to install it.

Again, Chris' mentality of "make it look like it belongs there" meant that instead of just installing the on/off switch on the ceiling (like he's seen some service shops do), he opened up the back of our "brain box" to put the switch in with all the other controls - like you would never have known it was installed post-production.  And watching him snake the wires thru the ceiling and walls with minimal space to spare? He's a master at it!

While he was working on those projects, I took a few quick minutes to use a wood stain touch up pen and finish off a few spots on the slides where you could see the backside of unfinished wood.  It's a little thing, and most people probably wouldn't even notice, but it made me glad to have it done so that when I'm laying in bed or sitting on the sofa, I won't be bugged by that "unfinished" bit of trim.

It was dark-thirty when we left Camper Revampers and headed back to our site at Cedar Hill State Park.  We had left behind our white water hose and stinky slinky, along with the leveling legos - trusting that they would be left alone (we had reserved the spot thru Sunday night, so no one would have been parking there.) Unfortunately, as we turned the corner into the camping loop we could see that our site had been completely cleared out.  BUT! The campers next door came running over to tell us that they had collected all our items, concerned that we had been gone for so long and afraid someone else might steal them. Faith in Humanity: restored.

We decided to extend our reservation thru till Monday, just to give us the ability to sleep in Sunday morning and not have to be packed up and out by noon.  Best. Decision. Ever!  I'm sitting here finishing up this blog post (sans pictures as the wifi (not our new set up yet) is s-l-o-w) and RDB is enjoying the beginning of football season lounging in the living room. 

We'll pack up and head home eventually, but for now? I'm loving the flexibility of working from the camper during the later part of the week, have an extended weekend and fun with friends and family, and truly making this place ours while enjoying all our camping adventures. 

We were at Cedar Hill State Park, Eagle Pass loop, Site #123.  It is an "advanced parking" kind of spot!  Backing in uphill, and not level at all from right to left.  If you can park in this spot, you'll be able to park _anywhere_!  (We're eyeing site #117 in this same loop for the next visit.)  This state park is HUGE!  We were wandering around the park Friday afternoon, trying to get back to our site, being followed by a park Ranger.... when we pulled into a parking spot to grab the map and figure out where we were, he tapped on the window: "Ya'll look like you might be lost?" Huh! Like I'm going to admit to that! Needless to say, I was grateful for his help to get us pointed back in the right direction. (But I think we could've figured it out; after all, not all who wander are lost.) 

We've been here once before, back in our pop-up camper days: Thanksgiving - Part 1, and Part 2

For more pictures, go here. 

__________________

(Post Script: the weekend was bookended with rain; it was storming again as we drove home. Just a note: when you're driving a rig that's nearly 13' tall, it's like driving a broadsided billboard - the wind, though it wasn't much, had us stopping over for a period of time to let the storm pass (just happened to be we were stopped at a Bucees again, go figure.)  Though it made for a longer trip home, I am once again, so grateful that RDB takes our safety seriously.  He's the best kinda camping partner you could ask for.)