Texas threw its best winter weather at us this past week. For three nights we camped thru temperatures hovering around freezing, constant sleet/rain, and a couple epic thunder storms. The last night, as the lightning was getting brighter and the thunder was getting louder, I woke up thinking we should go wait out the storm in the car. Instead, I fell back asleep before acting on the thought, only to be awoken a few seconds later by another sequence of roaring thunder. The cycle kept repeating itself for hours and we never actually made that trek to the car. Though in my dreams we did. Twenty times.
This is one of those camping trips that is a good memory because it's funny how bad our luck was. Just as we started breaking down camp on Saturday morning, the sun burst thru the clouds for the first time in four days and the weather was absolutely perfect. A few more hours and we wouldn't have had to pack up a wet tent!
Even with the cruddy weather, we still had a great time camping. We were only two hours away from home and could have quit at any time but for the most part we were enjoying it. The cooler never needed ice. There were only a few other people camped in the park. We had prime lakeside real estate. The Dutch oven cooking was delicious. And I wasn't at work.
New Year's Eve was celebrated with Smothered Green Chile Pepper Chicken and Cherry Cobbler while listening to all the fireworks in the area. We got a new 8" Dutch oven and chimney for Christmas and both proved their worth. Plus, since we got to camp so late, we actually made it to midnight! It was a little anticlimactic, though we heard people howling somewhere on the lake and joined in for fun.
This cardinal was our campsite pet. He would come begging for food breakfast-lunch-dinner, landing just inches away from us.
Bacon! It was our food splurge of the trip.
We went hiking everyday. One of us decided against bringing their waterproof hiking shoes and had a very soggy experience on the last hike.
It was Greg.
Fish farm! We happened upon a fish farm but I only barely saw two fish. Would you look at this water though? Looks natural. The highlight of the fish farm was the heated bathroom. The toilet seat was hot! I loved that bathroom.
Getting a fire lit in the misty rain was a challenge. And I accidentally smothered our hot charcoals while making dinner the second night but didn't notice until I checked the food, expecting it to be done. All in all, we sat around that pit, cooking and stoking a fire for three hours before we were actually able to eat. Fail.
Blackeye Pea Gumbo and Best Ever Cornbread.
Dinner the third night went a lot smoother and the fire was more respectable. Vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili.
The circus tent. I haven't pulled out the circus tent since a beach trip at least four years ago. Greg complained about a lack of space in the car when I asked him to load it up. BUT, it was the most valuable shelter all weekend. We were able to cook and lounge without getting utterly soaked and it made our days comfortable.
Teagan for the win.
Roscoe was a better-than average camper, considering that even he was freezing and ducks were ever-present. Add ducks to the list of animals pups cannot coexist with.
One night, I woke up and looked around to check on him...mostly to make sure he hadn't added another doggy-door to the tent and escaped. Instead, the poor dude was curled up on the sleeping bag we'd laid out for him shivering. I made him come lay between me and Greg and covered him with a blanket. He didn't even fight me on it and stayed there for the rest of the night.
And here we have it...the sun coming out! This is what the week could have been like.
Not pictured: my hair after being shoved in a hat nonstop for three days. Also, the several hours we spent in the car/IKEA one afternoon just so we could be warm without working for it.
The trip had its highs and lows.
Have a great day :-)
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