YEP, HE'S HOOKED

Mid July in Central Texas can be a scorcher.  This was no exception, but I had reserved a campsite at the state park just outside of our home town for the whole weekend.  We were up late the night before putting everything together, sometimes forgetting we were going to be about 4 miles from home.  Within thirty minutes of me getting home from work, we were packed and pulling out.  What a great adventure this was going to be.  

We arrived at the park, picked out our site and got registered in.  I had bought one of the awesome pop up tents, so once we figured out which direction the door was, we popped that baby up in less than two minutes.  This was when we discovered that it would not hold three air mattresses.  So, I had to make a quick trip home to bring more bedding and sleeping bag for Elisha's bed  on the ground between his mom and me

We made at least a hundred trips up the incline to unload our gear, plastic crates of cooking utensils and ice chests of food and drinks....in 110 degree heat.  That was the first clue that we just might have over packed.  

I got an awesome fire going in the fire ring just before sunset and Elisha got to roast hot dogs over the fire.  Building a good fire is one of the most important arts in camping.  It can mean the difference in being cozy warm or freezing, having a hot meal or eating cold from the can and coffee.  We'll get into some of the many ways to start and maintain a good fire in another blog.

Showers taken, we settled into our beds totally exhausted and feeling rather proud of our achievements of the evening.  Thank goodness, this site had electricity and I remembered to bring a fan.  

The next day we did some hiking before the temperature soared to triple digits.  We had to take turns carrying Daisy.  She hadn't got her hiking mode going yet.  The trail we took was pretty primitive and I started getting an uncomfortable feeling, so we only went around a half mile before turning back.  We were almost to our campsite when one of the park hosts stopped us to let us know that she had just seen a bobcat on the trail we were on.  That's when I decided that hanging out at the campsite would suite me just fine.  Daisy totally agreed.

Elisha had such a good time and was a great camper on his first adventure.  He couldn't stop talking about it for days, so I found another park and reserved another weekend.  We were all hooked on the smell of burning wood, the sound of crickets and coyotes at night and the great owl calling out through the trees before dawn.  Yep, there's no doubt.....girls can camp, too!