Let’s take a little detour for a moment. I know that we’ve been talking about Ottawa and Quebec and ducks and poplar trees and all that. But it how about this for a moment… Garner State Park. On the banks of the Rio Frio. Perfect spring in Central Texas. Blue skies and sunshine by day. […]
Tag Archives: camping
Camping in the Spring
Wed, 10 Jul 2013, 09:24 PM (-06:00)
I have a lot of things to catch up on, a lot of thoughts scribbled on paper that I ought to convert into bits. This is one of them: some scribbled notes from a late March camping trip to Huntsville State Park… 1. The Night Before It rained a little last night. It was barely […]
Palmetto State Park
Mon, 3 Sep 2012, 08:32 PM (-06:00)
And so we headed south. We had gear in the back of the station wagon. We had a load strapped on the car rack. And we had two dogs excited to be going along. A week ago would have been better for this. In was cool then in comparison to these 100 degree days. But […]
They Both Know
Sat, 1 Sep 2012, 10:09 AM (-06:00)
The ice chests have ice in them. Trudy has begun transferring the foodstuffs from the fridge. And the dogs both know that something’s going on. That Guinness should know is perhaps not surprising. He’s twelve years old and has seen it all before. So in the interest of ensuring that we don’t leave without him, […]
Showers 1 & 2
Tue, 30 Nov 2010, 10:42 PM (-06:00)
1. First Shower On the morning of the second day, it was cold. Trudy and I looked at each other and both said, “I’m not taking a shower today.” But on the still-cold morning of the third day, we saw things in a different light. Trudy walked off and took her shower, coming back happy […]
Editing By Hand
Mon, 29 Nov 2010, 08:28 PM (-06:00)
I’m sitting here with a journal in my lap and a pen in my hand (a fountain pen with green ink, no less). I’m writing the old fashioned way. Trudy says this journal has become our camping journal, since that’s pretty much the only time I write this way, anymore. Such are the downsides of […]
A Squirrel in a Tree
Mon, 29 Nov 2010, 07:15 PM (-06:00)
I watched a squirrel in a tree on the other side of the road the other day as I sat beside our campfire during the day. It was climbing to the tips of the branches, meticulously checking each hull for an untaken, unfallen nut. One by one, it investigated each twig tip, climbing out carefully, […]
Burn Ban (3)
Sun, 28 Nov 2010, 09:08 PM (-06:00)
So here’s the funny thing about the burn ban that they had going in the park when we were there for Thanksgiving. On our second day there, I saw a truck drive slowly by in the morning, and Trudy saw a sign on the side of their trailer that said: Firewood For Sale. In yellow letters […]
Burn Ban (2)
Sun, 28 Nov 2010, 08:47 PM (-06:00)
We didn’t have a camp fire on our first night at the park. The temperatures dropped into the 40s just after sunset, and a burn ban had just been issued. And so after our one-pot-Thanksgiving turkey and sweat potato and onion meal that couldn’t be beat, prepared by the Fair and Industrious Trudy in the […]
Burn Ban (1)
Sun, 28 Nov 2010, 08:34 PM (-06:00)
You see, we have this experience from a few years ago. A New Year’s Eve camping trip gone awry, where a Travis County burn ban forbade us from having a camp fire, even as the temperatures dropped precipitously. It was so cold that we were caught unawares. In the end, even the boys gave up […]