Courageous Joy

A Tale of Two Campsites….

Why does your family go camping? What does your family do while camping? We view camping as a chance to get away “from it all”- as a family. We leave the phones, TV’s, music etc at home. We spend lots of time hiking, fishing, exploring the area, reading around the campfire….but that is not the way ALL view camping.

We loved the Abilene State Park. The center of the park is an awesome brick swimming pool built by the CCC’s in the 1930’s. The pool is not open until Memorial Day but the park was wonderful. For most of the week we were the ONLY ones in our circle…and there were only 3 or 4 of us in the whole park. The bathrooms were a bit of a walk. We were surprised that there were no bathrooms or outhouses IN the camping circles. Mike commented that the parks must plan now that most are “self-contained”. The only circle with bathrooms was the tenting circle (we have a pop up). The bathroom situation insured that I walked at least a mile each night for mid-night runs to the potty and several miles a day….which was “good”. The park had lots of fields for playing. There was a very pretty pond for fishing….though there were also lots of water moccasins around. There was a volleyball pit. We had this paradise to ourselves.

The first day was very hot.

The second day was hotter still. (It was 98* where we were and I hear went over 100* here!) To avoid the heat we ventured to Dyess AFB and checked out the Grand Opening of their BX. We ate at Charley’s in honor of BreAnne.

The third day we survived a very wild thunder storm – in fact the park ranger came to tell us that it may move to “tornado warning” and if so we were to go hunker down in the bathrooms. Does that seem symbolic? {g} I sort of think if I’m going to meet my maker I’d rather do it from the pop-up than a bathroom. We went geocaching this day.

The fourth day it was cool and stormy off and on. We attempted some more geocaching. We discovered that Mike can go 4 wheeling in the mud in a 15 passenger van. It was wild or awesome depending on your age. {G}We found a couple of caches but the ones we really wanted to find were on a road that was barricaded.

The Fifth day was Friday….it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Two huge ROAD WHALES arrived to share the turn around at the end of *our* circle. Haven’t you always heard that these road whales are great because they take no time to set up???? WELL….out of the huge 5th wheels and busses stepped two older couples. Ah – it’d be quiet after all. Then all manner of things began to come out of the recesses of the Road Whale next to us. Tables, strings of lights (red, white and blue), dogs without leashes, new TV’s, DVDs, PINK FLAMINGOS, neon Pink Flamingo lights in the windows…all in all it took them as long as it takes us to set up. THEN kids and grandkids began to arrive. They were a friendly bunch….but oy vey. They seriously broke the “2 cars per spot and 8 people per space” rules. However, today I was able to observe the PINK FLAMINGO DANCE…I kid you not. Zander had a blast with all the kids…and we were constantly hauling him out of the road whale next door. {vbg}

To gain some perspective and relief from the urban camping next door we headed to town and discovered Fort Phantom Hill. This is COOL. We love to explore old forts.

The Sixth day - Saturday we visited Buffalo Gap.

Today we packed up and came home. Disclaimer: despite the Road Whale comments I’d love a nice trailer….and a wi fi notebook....and we love all of you who own Road Whales (just keep your flamingos at home!) LOL

Photos follow this post.....book reviews to follow....