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 and headed back to the nearest warm home. But we stuck it out. And we’ve been grumbling about that burn ban and our lousy luck ever since.
So you might imagine our glee as Thanksgiving weekend and our camping trip approached and the Fair and Industrious Trudy checked the Uvalde County web site each day and found no burn bans in effect. Day followed day, and still no burn ban, and our hearts and hopes were warmed.
So when the day of departure arrived and we packed our gear into and onto the car (too much gear), I included a milk crate of kindling and a few bundles of intermediate-sized twigs and sticks and smallish Ash and Walnut and Oak loglets. It’s a habit I got from my grandmother. Walk around the side of our house, and you’ll see another kindling pile already in the making. I was tickled pink to be taking a campfire-ready-to-light along with all our other stuff.
At the Garner State Park headquarters just off US Highway 83, there was a line to check in. And there was a sign taped to the door. A sign … announcing … a burn ban.
When they called my number and I walked up to the woman behind the counter, I innocently asked, “So there’s a burn ban?”
“Yes,” she said, “just came in this morning.”
So here we are, kindling and wood in tow with a cold blue norther descending upon us. Here we are with plans for three days at the campground in late November … you know … when the sun sets at … what … 5:00, and it’s pitch dark at … what … 5:30. Here we are ready to warm our weary bones by three evenings of glowing embers. And they announced a burn ban that morning!