It was great to get to introduce Sis & TJ to the fun of geocaching on our first camping trip together out in East Texas. I don't think any of us expected to walk 5 miles trying to get just these three, but it was an adventure and fun!
Taking eleven days to travel thru East Texas this holiday, getting four more "dots" for our camping map, enjoying the quiet and calm of camping for a week+ and getting to see family along the way....
We have SO MUCH to be thankful for.
RDB and I started the adventure Thursday evening after work, heading out to Martin Creek Lake State Park and arriving to our site well after dark. We were both excited to kick off our Thanksgiving travels to a park that Sis & TJ would be joining us at for the first time (we'd tried to camp with them a few times since they go their toy hauler last year, but, well, if you've been following along, you'll know the troubles we've had!)
Sis had to work a half day Friday, and TJ was making his way back in from a work trip to Alaska, so Friday morning RDB and I enjoyed a quiet breakfast in the camper and then a trip out to the local Walmart to grab a few forgotten items.
On our way back into the campgrounds, we stopped off at the Harmony Hill Cemetery that's right outside the park entrance.
I know, it seems like we have a fascination with gravesites here lately, but honestly, these acres are filled with so much history and unique features - and it really keeps you humble to find the resting places of people who are your age - or even younger - so much so that you have to take a moment and, as RDB puts it, be grateful for every gray hair on your head.
Also, thinking of things to be thankful for (get ready, y'all, gratitude is going to be a theme this week!), I put together a little treat bag for the camp hosts and headquarters of the parks we are staying in this week. We dropped off the first of them to one of the camp hosts at Martin Creek and later in the day, he came over specifically to thank us for the gift, saying that no one had ever done something like this before. Well, Camp Hosts/Rangers that found us b/c of those gifts: y'all deserve SO MUCH PRIASE for all that you do to keep our parks beautiful and a place where we can escape to!!
Sis & TJ showed up later in the afternoon. And if you've ever sat back and watched a couple pull into their spot and set up their camp sites, you'll know how much fun this version of people watching can be. It's even better when the couple that shows up is your little sister and her husband.
We started up a fire and talked well into the evening hours. Oh! And just a note, something we learned from the camp hosts - remember the self-pay firewood cages I noticed back at Cedar Hill SP? As we were getting a bucketful of wood from the camp host site, having put a donation into the "iron ranger," he told us that the money from those self-pay cages is split 10/90: 10% of the sales goes to the state-wide park system headquartered in Austin, and the other 90% goes to the company the fills the cages. NOTHING stays in the park that you're actually camping in!! The wood that he sells as a camp host, however, stays 100% in the local park. So, needless to say, I'll have to make sure we have cash in the camper b/c I'd much rather have our "donations" benefit the local parks. As they say: Buy it where you burn it!!
Saturday morning Sis cooked us breakfast (and those were some really good breakfast burritos!!) and then we introduced them to Geocaching. There were three in the park and we managed to find all of them and get some great pictures along the way!
It was really neat to find one that was attached to a wellhead; having TJ with us and getting an education on all things oil and gas right from him.
He kinda laughed that this cache was named "Evil Tree" - the pipes above ground are called "trees" in the industry - so we can guess that whomever placed this one isn't a huge fan of energy exploration. I thought the cache was going to be in one of the actual trees in that area - because some of them were really .... odd!
We took the pups with us for the the final cache (Diesel's off to day-care (boarding) this week, since we know we'll be away from the camper for hours on Turkey Day).
It added a completely different dynamic with old Jack along - as he stopped 18 times to pee on trees and mark his territory. 18 times - we know - because as he and Sis brought up the rear, she'd yell out the number to the rest of us!
Back at the campsites (after 5 miles of walking!!) we settled in for steaks on the smoker. RDB is a master at grilling and smoking steaks, and we were delighted to bring up four bone-in ribeyes from our local HEB (the butcher there is incredible).
I'd show you a picture of the finished steaks, but, well, we devoured them!
Once again, we ended the night around the fire with lots of great conversations and discussions. Sis and I had a chance to catch up about work and career paths, a bit about the family property in Gladewater, and our own thoughts about family in the future and family past. From the little I could hear, the guys were chatting about day trading and, as RDB put it, we all "danced around the fire of political conversations." These days it's incredible to be able to have civil conversations, that very well may end with "well, we just don't agree on that" and it's totally ok! It's especially cool that we can have those kind of conversations with family!
As it is, every weekend, all too soon Sunday morning we were having to pack up and head out - Sis & TJ heading back home and RDB and I heading off for the next leg of our state park Thanksgiving-week adventure.
We were at Martin Lake State Park, Bee Tree Loop, Site #39 (us, white) and #40 (Sis & TJ, black). We had to use leveling legos to get straight left to right - and then watched as Sis & TJ had to do the exact. same. thing! So, be ready for that. Martin Lake is a cooling lake for a nearby power plant - you can see it (and hear it) from the park. It was eerie the first night as RDB and I were setting up - not just hearing the machinery of the plant, but also the trains running coal in - squealing and screeching in the darkness. But, for someone who has a great appreciation for our energy sector, the plant at night, reflecting into the water of the lake, was also majestic and beautiful.
For more camping photos, go here. (LINK - eventually. Cause upload speeds in this park are slower than molasses in Fargo in December.)
We leave out tomorrow for our Turkey Trip, and once again I can't help but notice my two favorite things in the driveway - my hubby and our camper!
Needless to say, washing this one is a bit more extensive than where we started eight years ago!
With the time change earlier this month, the days are getting shorter and shorter. I can't say enough how much I appreciate that RDB does our hauling and parking. We just made it down to Choke Canyon State Park Thursday evening as the sun set. The park has a great "no contact" check in process: I received an email the morning of our stay, requesting that we reply with any changes to the reservation, and notifying us that our car tag would be on the bulletin board outside headquarters. Simple, easy, safe.
Friday morning, while the boys slept in....
I had a bit of office work to do before taking a half day off Friday afternoon. We were encouraged by our manager to watch a Q&A between the president of our business unit and Emmanuel Acho, of "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man." If you've not had a chance to watch his videos (or read his recently released book), I'd highly encourage it. I was challenged to rethink not just being non-racist, but to be anti-racist. Like the title of his series states, it's not a comfortable conversation or line of thinking to address, but it's necessary; lives depend on it.
Once I signed off from work, we rode over to Beeville for lunch. Why so far (about an hour away)? Because the only thing open in Three Rivers was the Dairy Queen! But the trip into Beeville was really fun.
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| Note that Lady Justice _isn't_ blind. |
Returning back to our campsite, we dropped into the Southern Unit of the park; it's day use only and has a great viewing area of the reservoir. The lake was first filled back in 1982, though with the recent droughts, it's only about a third full this fall.
You could tell that the levy area of the park wasn't often visited - and that's unfortunate as the view from there was so nice. It was also unfortunate that someone had spray painted racist graffiti on the backstop of one of the parking spots. It stung in a different way having just listened to Emmanuel's exhortation of breaking down barriers and actually having honest conversations. We still have so far to go.
RDB, Diesel, and I enjoyed taking walks around the park this weekend. Late in the day and once the sun had gone down. It's dark enough here at the park that you can see the Milky Way (and I saw a shooting star the first night! So Cool!)
Also cool? Finding a house hippo in the dirt out by our campsite. I think he'll hang out with us in the camper from here on, hopefully he won't eat all the potato chips!
We also found Thanksgiving dinner.....
....though, they are kinda skinny!
Saturday was a slow and easy day. RDB and I were craving a good Waffle House breakfast, but with no WF nearby (remember, the only thing in town is the DQ) we drove over to the nearest gas station and picked up eggs, onions, and bacon, and added the cheese and cream we already had - and it was maybe the best plate of scrambled eggs ever! Of course, it's always delicious when someone else does the cooking! (Thanks, RDB!)
RDB napped while I did a few crafts. One of the things I love about all the space in our new camper is that I can have a small stock of crafting supplies with me at all times... watercolors and acrylics, paint pens, yarn and a hot glue gun (I mean, you never know, right?).
Sunday morning we woke to significant winds - gusts over 20 MPH. The camper itself is relatively sturdy, but the flag stuck to its side was being battered all over the place! We had hoped to grill out steaks for lunch, but put that plan aside and cooked in the camper instead - no point in tempting fate and causing a fire that burns down the campground! We brought leftovers from my #miniturkeyday last week - and y'all! This was a GREAT idea! No cooking, easy clean up - and tasty!
We're watching our weather app to see when the winds might die down - though the camper is plenty stable in it's camp site, it's more like a traveling billboard going down the highway. Looks like we'll wait till later this afternoon before we head out and go home.
We were at Choke Canyon State Park, site #108. This is an ADA site (it was all that was available when I booked it late last week) so the pad is twice as wide as usual and you'll have a paved sidewalk around the picnic table and all the way over to the bath house. We saw plenty of birds (you're right next to a "sanctuary" bird blind), deer, and javelinas. Also, Saturday afternoon there was a swarm of wasps around the patio cover (did you know they're blind to the color red? Might have to pack a few shirts in that color in the camper, just in case!). Overall, it's a nice park - but is a bit too far away from all the "adventures" we enjoy to consider coming back again. But, you never know!
For more camping pics, go here.
There's no one I'd want to share my life with,
survive a pandemic with,
spend all my nights and days with then you, RDB.
