The Falls

The last couple of months have been long and confusing. And I was about to max out my vacation time (not be able to accrue) so it was a forced minication.

We intended to leave early Saturday morning, but I'd been fighting an ear infection for weeks and I was miserable and we left after noon. The car ride up to Marble Falls felt like an 8 hr drive and as difficult as it was for me, I don't think Dp had any fun watching me writhe. *Our plan was to camp but there was still a burn ban in effect and no, just no.*

When we got to the hotel I immediately crawled into bed. Felt safe cause at least I wasn't in the car. I pulled on the blankets to get nice and cozy and physics happened and my phone flew at my face and hit me in the eye and I spent the rest of the trip with a swollen eye. (I don't bruise and it is annoying. I can bump into the corner of a table, fall to the ground and think that is definitely going to bruise. Nothing. But sometimes the wind will blow and it will give me a bruise on my knee. ?? Basically if I get hurt something terrible said body part refuses to bruise. So no, I didn't have a black eye.  But the next time Dp kisses my forehead, watch out.)

Anyway after a thrilling night of pouting, ice packs, Alaska State Troopers, and an upset tummy I decided I was never going anywhere ever again. I was going to live in a bubble, become Howardette Hughes. But in the morning we went hiking because I can't tell Dp no. Nothing is worse than a grumpy David. Not even hiking with an ear infection (later I found out it was two infections, in the same ear).

Surprise! It was pouring rain when we got to Perdenales Falls SP. Most of the park is heavily wooded so it was still a pleasant hike. Changing leaves, water falls, lots of deer and birds.

Back at the hotel I took a warm shower and drank hot cocoa. "We" rested up a little, I think Dp played on the iPad. And we went to Ginger and Spice for the best yellow curry I've ever had. I know it sounds wrong, Thai food in Marble Falls, but it is just right.

The next morning we tried to go to an olive ranch but the owner was very rude, told us we were fools for looking into olives. I hate dream killers. Just let people dream.
So we went to New Braunfels instead. Of course we went to the Gristmill and Nalgein's, cause you have to.
We were trying to burn sometime before coming back to Houston so we'd miss rush hour traffic. We went down to the Comal river, rolled up our pants and stuck our feet in the water. I think this was my favorite part of the weekend. We didn't talk and didn't have to. We just sat. Watched leaves float downstream, and skipped rocks.

Walking back to the car I was so relaxed like leaving a spa relaxed.
We drove back into Houston in the rain
eating gingerbread men fresh from the oven.

camping gear - loves/wants/necessities

Favorite Things "Camping Gear"

My family used to go camping as our summer vacation until this very unfortunate trip to the Smokey Mountains when it End of the World rained and water came in the tent and everything was wet and everyone was miserable. After that the camping thing sorta tapered off dramatically.

I thought I knew everything there is to know about camping and gear but I've learned so much doing it on my own. What to bring, how to pack, where to go, tool and tips. Most of the time I sit back, let David split logs and enjoy the fresh air.

COLEMAN TENT
When David came into the picture so many things about him needed to be fixed. He had 1 button down shirt and a pair of khakis and 6 inappropriate tshirts from Hot Topic. He couldn't name the Beatles. HE COULD NOT NAME THE BEATLES, he didn't even know how many there were. I'll give you a minute to pick yourselves off the floor. He also had never been camping as a child.

After the Beatles catastrophe and an introduction to the collared shirt I knew we were going to be camping folk. And my parents gave us a Coleman tent for our wedding gift.

Our tent has held up very well, it fits Dp which is also a chore for every.thing.in.life. Coleman makes great camping gear. If we ever get a new tent (this past trip I trying to remember how long we had been married and in 2015 we will be married 10 years! that tent is almost 10 years old? when did that happen??) which we certainly don't need cause it is like new, I think we will get a shorter ceiling so it is warmer in the cooler months. Even though we already have a pretty low ceiling compared to some of the monster tents people drag out into the woods.


SWEATY BANDS

I have a small head. In addition to my tiny head aliment, I have thin straight hair that doesn't stay in a ponytail or behind my ears and elastic headbands shoot off my head like missiles.

The Sweaty Band has velvet on the inside and it grabs hold to your hair. They stay on forever, through runs and hikes and even putting on sweatshirts!! I dont have this cute chevron one but I want it!

These are my new favorite thing ever.





SOAP ON A ROPE
My mom is a certified genius. She always packed a soap on a rope for the camp because there is never soap in a state park bathroom.
This is how my mom did it and this is how we have our SOR set up.
Take a knee high or the leg of a pantyhose; stick a hotel bar of soap in the toe; tie a knot at the top of the hose. Soap on a Rope! We keep ours tied to our water dispenser which we keep close to camp so running water and clean hands are always near by.

OTHER NECESSITIES

• We pack everything in one 116 gallon tub. Bugs/moisture stay out and it keeps the campsite clean and orderly.
• A nice hatchet and camp shovel. I'm not sure how you can function without one.
• We always bring extra freezer ziplock bags when we go hiking, if we see litter we pick it up and hike it out.
• I got Dp a camelbak for Christmas in a discontinued color and snagged a super deal. He loves it. Then he got all excited about me getting one too, and since the brand makes lady packs I looked into it and found my very own discontinued color - Mountain Fudge... wonder why they decided not to keep a pack with a name like that. ewwww. It is the best fitting backpack I've ever had! I think it is supposed to be a tiny pack on a normal sized human but it is just normal everyday sized on me, compared to past my butt in every other backpack I've ever owned!

CAMPING STOVE
Want one so bad. And after the cooking disasters we've had recently we can say we need on. Cooking over open flame is trickier than it looks...
Sometimes I can't believe that MeeMaw learned to cook on a wood burning stove. She was amazing.

the successful failure

David and I spent the long weekend (was I the only one who had President's Day off?) camping at Garner State Park. It wasn't great.

Last week was probably the worst week in my professional life to date. I've never felt so unwanted, unappreciated and villainized in my entire life. I just wanted to spend the weekend in bed, surrounded by kitties and junk food. David made me go camping. Friday night we tried to pull together a menu, get all the gear organized and loaded in the car. I hate rush packing.

The drive was perfect. I love driving. So relaxing and freeing. Open road is the only thing that takes away my anxiety... that and kitties on leashes. (we'll get there in a moment.)

When we got to our site, we realized we were at a trailhead without any trees or shade. grumble. But it was either this trailhead or that trailhead so whatever, did I mention I didn't even want to come? What were the kitties doing without me??? David started to set up the tent and I sat in the car pouting. And I hear

"Awww CRAP"

David looks up and says I split my pants. And not the "woops I ripped the seat of my pants" but in the middle of a lunge he SPLIT THE CROTCH of his jeans! Ok, this got a smile, and a giggle, and a throw-back-my-head-and-explode-in-uproarious-laugher laugh.

David dun split his britches.

So we went on a sewing kit scavenger hunt, found one, sewed up his pants and then had lunch. You know, how every camping trip starts out.

By now it is getting kinda late, almost 4pm and David decides we should try the trail head by our campsite instead of the main, park sanctioned trail. And we started up the trail marked DANGER! LOOSE ROCKS! DANGER ZONE! VERY STEEP. (seriously) And we made it up several hundred feet of pure rock climbing and I think this is insane, I wanted a nice quiet weekend in bed and I am clawing and boulders and scampering up a cliff. So we turned around and came back down. Tried another trail as the sun was setting and ran back to the camp to try and get a fire started before dark. I was pretty much chanting "I am not having fun. I want my kitties." the whole way back to camp.

Dinner was a part success. Most everything cooked. But it was getting pretty chilly at this point and our meat was cooked but turned ice cold the second we pulled it off the fire. We made these Campfire Banana Splits - banana, mallow, chocolate wrapped in foil, A++.

That night IT.WAS.FREEZING.

Well no, that isn't accurate, it was 27 degrees which would make it BELOW FREEZING.

I didn't sleep, and spent the whole night with the tummy shivers and listening to Dp snoring. That is till 4am, when I had too pee and I was crying cause I was tired and so cold and I just wanted a nice quiet weekend in bed with the kitties and this is not fun. Dp drove me to the potty, which is heated by the way, and then we parked in front of the pavilion and slept in the car with the heat running.

At least I was warm and had a couple hours of sleep and was saved by daylight. (insert story here about our hippie neighbors who refused to use the restroom and I got to see bare hippie butt take a morning tinkle 20 feet from our site.) So we started to cook our breakfast.

See image below. Yes. That horrifying thing was breakfast. Otherwise known as charred tortilla.

Lesson learned.

This is when we set out to find coffee for Dp, there was also a tea kettle on fire disaster, and basically drove 14 miles round trip to get him caffiene, and by now I am ready to just pack up and go home. Right? Is this painful to read? But I wanted to see Lost Maples and the park ranger swore it wasn't going to be as cold. So I decided to stay.

We drove to Lost Maples crossing the Sabinal River 6 times (we counted) and right off I saw a cardinal. Cardinals always mean good luck for me. Lost Maples was perfect. Perfect weather, perfect water, amazing views, amazing trails, hopping across rocks to cross streams. Highlight of the trip. We should have stayed there. We only got to hike 1/3 of the park but I am sold. Certainly going back.

Although I gave a compelling argument to abandon everything at Garner and just head home on a high note, Dp drove me back to evil #15 campsite. We had a huge fire, our food wasn't charred, and our marshmallows were crispy on the outside - gooey on the inside.  Mr. Cardinal really turned things around. That night was a perfect temperature, I didn't even shiver once!

Cat on a Leash Story

All those Hill Country doggies have a great life. They get to play in State Parks, walk beautiful trails, drink from spring fed rivers and streams. Every time we'd see a puppy on the trails I'd tell Dp how cool it would be if we had a kitty on a leash. As we were leaving Garner I SAW A KITTY ON A LEASH. *cue squeals of excitement, joy, happiness, and 1 small glare of envy. Ps- it was a Maincoon and it was sniffing tall grass.

its camping not the apocalypse

I have a theory about camping: it should be fun not torture.

We have been watching a lot of survivor shows on Netflicks lately and Dp thinks "mental note, I can boil water in a soda can and eat the stems of water lilies" and I think "why is this man putting himself through all this?" I love being outdoors and in the quiet, but I'm not going to eat wild edibles or use my pee to make condensation I can drink. Its camping, not the apocalypse.

Quick visit this weekend to Hunstville St. Park.

Pretty good park, great trails but way to crowded. I know they gotta make money but, geewiz the sites are close together.

Also, beware the park will sell you moist sappy wood. We had trouble getting a fire going when we first arrived. And even when we got some of the wood dried out we couldn't get a roaring fire to get us warm.

Accomplishments:

• David can really get the tent up fast now. Our first time it took an hour, in the rain and cold. I think it took him 20 min this time.
• We took a pretty nice hike on Saturday, about 5 miles. I could have gone further but we were running out of daylight and I was pretty sure it would take 18 years to get a fire going to cook dinner.
• I hadn't made a foil packet dinner since Camp Fire, but we tried some this time, YUM! We had chicken, red potatoes, onions and bell peppers. So civilized. I tried a baked apple recipe but they were not good. I was expecting apple pie and got warm apple. So we had JUMBO smores instead. Have you seen these Jumbo Jet Puffs? Unreal.
• David has this skill of getting the tent folded just so that it always fits back in the bag. I told him he should work for Coleman. I try rolling sleeping bags and they are 4x the size that will fit in the bag, Dp has room to spare? I guess we all have secret talents.

Why is it always nice to get away even for just 1 night? I feel so recharged and renewed.

On our walk I was thinking how horrible the last few years have been. I struggled with my health, and watched my MeeMaw slip from this world, seen Mary decline and the incredible weight associated with supporting David and Gil, going back to school, losing the GI Bill and my Grandaddy's struggles to name a few. We had so many huge life changes and the difficult kind.

At the beginning of 2012 I was asking (basically begging) God for a break because I am out of steam. But it took most of the year to make it out of the bad stuff. Slowly in the last two months I've felt like the storm is dying down. Not that everything will be perfect, but just less heavy.

Finally, I feel hopeful about the future, even excited about it. That is a true gift.

SFASP

*Optional soundtrack for today's post

I like being outside, listening to wind, and walking on gravel. (everyone loves the gravel noise right?) I would go camping twice a month if it wasn't 9,000 degrees in the summer or rain 5.5 inches in the spring.  Dp & I didn't get to camp in 2011. I've been dying to go.

Friday I notice the weather is going to be nice, so

(9:45:27 AM) Analee:  i want to go camping

(9:45:48 AM) DP: ok. Sounds good to me!

 

We looked into Brazos but they were booked, so we made reservations at Steven F. Austin SP.

 

(Saturday morning I fell after we had finished loading the car, and hurt my knees, wrist and most painful - my pride. I have my wrist wrapped, I'm telling people it is an injury from my MMA match ... with the porch.

 

Carro also is very ill, and we had to stop outside Brookshire to make sure our engine was still attached to the car. Fun. The noise is so terrible other motorists look in horror as they pass us, including motorcyclists.)

 

Just making it to the park was a triumph in my book. SFASP is great - quiet, lots of trails along the Brazos, birds, seriously clean restrooms, quiet quiet mmmm quiet.

 

               Highlights

:: dp got the tent up in record time.

:: weenie roast for lunch

:: walk along fishbone trail

:: armadillo

:: trying to cook dinner

:: camera play

:: katie dog - our 1hr foster dog
:: warm sleeping bag
:: tent smell

:: bacon bacon bacon

:: my birdies -  tufted titmouse, barn swallow, cardinal family, yellow bellied sapsucker, pileated woodpecker, robin, philadelphia vireo & 6,000 vultures

I like taking walks and living in the country is always apealing until I think no mexican food and no mam's. And I haven't picked up my camera in many months and it was good to use that part of my brain.

When we got home- ps thank God for letting us make it - the kitties squealed with excitement, I always enjoy a warm welcome. And then my wrist really started hurt.

  

crowodactyl

Singing in the dead of night

Meet the large, frightening, prehistoric crow that lives in Sam Houston National Forest.

Crowodactyl

I must attract abnormally large birds. (If some of you recall the MONSTERS in Washington) Well, these were the BIGGEST crows I have ever seen in my life. They woke us up early Saturday morning with their booming "CAW CAW." And they stare and shoot death rays. I wish there was some perspective in that picture but the trees are quite large as well.

Let me paint this mental image for you....

4 of them could carry David off with their talons

1 could take me if it got a good enough handful of flesh (I'm sure it could)

I did what now?

I should probably clear up some confusion about me... camping. I grew up camping, and in Washington we would go to our favorite park, if David were home and if it wasn't pouring. But I guess I should clarify how I define camping b/c I am most definitely NOT a wilderness woman.

1. It can not be hot. I hate being hot.

2. I do not "go" in a hole. I don't understand the logistics of it, I must have a facility.

3. I need running water because it is 2010 and not 1300AD.

4. I drive up to my campsite- I don't hike my crap through the woods. That's just silly.

There you have it. I enjoy nature, fresh air, animals, trees, quiet, walks with gravel underfoot, tents, and little camping gadgets.

Glad I still have the ability to surprise some folks.

unplugged

David and I went camping at Double Lake last weekend.

We have been super stressed and stretched as thin as thin gets. And that is just not good for anyone. But I got out of work a bit early, quick drive up, and had the tent set up by 4pm.

Note- if you think you might want to go camping plan early the Scouts had all of TX State parks booked, and we called 3 weeks in advance. But it allowed us to stumble upon little Double Lake. Mee Maw has swam in Double Lake- I couldn't help think of her as a young girl swimming in this lake and sitting under the trees.

It was perfect camping weather. I don’t think I have ever experience such perfect camping weather. I only got sweaty on our walk and never shivered. (It’s hard to keep me a comfortable temperature, I confess I am pretty whiney when I am too hot or too cold.)

Saturday we sat around, and I just let my brain idle, no thinking- no talking- just sitting. It was nice. I wish I could find that in real life. Here I am working on crisis at work, crisis at home, crisis here, there, and everywhere. How do you turn off that noise? Camping.

Please enjoy a couple of photos from our weekend:

JoJo, Jo Bob and Jo Schmo

This is going back in time a little but still a blog worthy story. Before David left we went camping, because there are state parks in Washington like white on rice. Seriously, you could throw a stone from anywhere in Washington and be sure to hit a State Park. They have 120 of them, for a small state like Washington that is a ton. To put it into perspective Texas advertises 115 state parks. (there might be more but this is the number I found at Texas State Park Guide, if you can find a more accurate number I am pretty curious)

Ok, so we go to our favorite Manchester State Park. We go there all the time for little walks cause it is so pretty and quite and there is a great view of Mt. Rainier and the Seattle Ferry that goes back and forth. David and I have a secret spot, that takes a bit of getting to, but when you are there it is peaceful and quiet and you can see the seals, yes seals. One time, I think it was Mother's Day, we saw a seal catch a fish and eat it only a hundred yards away from us. Later that day, a beautiful gray seal with dark spots came 20-50 ft from us and stuck its head out of the water and was swimming closer and closer to us and looked us in the eyes and swam away. So cool.

Anyway, we got inspired by some pretty weather to go camping. David took a week leave, cause he had been gone for a while and now is going to be gone for 2 months. So there was lots for us to do, so we decided to camp for one night. Well, of course the day we registered our camp site it starts raining. This was our first time with our new tent (thanks mom and dad!), so we had to set it up in the rain. And we had planned to cook hot dogs for lunch but couldn't get a fire started. So we cheated and went back into town to get some food. (our park is like 15 min from the apartment) While we were out I remembered we left a bag of ice on the kitchen floor, so we rushed home to clean it up. We didn't start off real well but it gets better I promise. So when we get back it is still raining and so we got in our tent and played Boggle, my new obsession, and ate cherries.

Well the rain does stop eventually, and we hear little scurrying on the tarp. hmmmm what is that. David unzips the window and calls me over. What is it?!? A baby squirrel!!! He lives in campsite #35. Long story, but I named him JoJo. The neat thing was he hung around and I could walk really close to him. I tried to feed him a Frito but he only liked acorns. On another one of our walks I saw JoJo's brother Jo Bob (another baby squirrel), and Jo Schmo the local chipmunk. When we were cooking our lunch the next morning, JoJo was still there. I think he really liked me, which made me happy because who doesn't love teeny tiny animals?

After we had the car all packed and ready to go, we stopped by the volley ball net and played a little badminton. Now, for some reason this was the most fun of the whole trip. I love badminton. You don't have to hit the birdie hard, and well I probably don't play by the rules but I always have a good time. It was really fun.

So despite a miserable beginning the trip turned out really well. And we stayed mostly warm and dry. David and I cannot wait to go back. So camping trip one = a success!!