This past Christmas, I persuaded Nathan to try out a “less things, more experiences” approach to gift giving and we surprised the kids with a weekend trip in San Antonio taking place a month and a half later. We booked an airbnb house at a great price with close proximity to all of our predetermined experiences. It was a 1940s row style house and we had run of the upstairs with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, living room, and a bare bones kitchen. I even managed to save $60 on our admission fees to the Zoo and Aquarium by prepurchasing tickets on Groupon. Woot! With all of that set all, we just had to cross our fingers that fickle February weather would cooperate.

We arrived Friday night by 10pm after Nathan got off work and went right to bed. Good thing the house was as expected and we able to do so. Saturday morning, we started off with breakfast at Lulu’s Cafe and Bakery famous for their 3lb cinnamon rolls. Obviously we ordered one of those along with some breakfast tacos. Honestly, I thought we would make good on finishing the thing, but only got 1/3 of the way through it before all threw in the towel. Thankfully, the restaurant is used to this and efficiently wrapped the thing up for us guaranteeing unrefrigerated freshness for a week.

San Antonio Zoo was up first on the list of to-dos and we arrived about 30 minutes before they opened so we got in some photo ops.

The zoo was enjoyed by all but was lacking. It is easy to say that bird species made up a little under half of the exhibits and birds just aren’t our thing. And 3/4 of the Australia exhibit was empty or undergoing renovation. But! Almost all of the animals were extremely active and their reptile house was massive with lots on display. The weather wasn’t very cooperative changing on us overnight and producing an overcast, chilly day with scattered showers. This may have helped with keeping crowds down at first, but the numbers picked up significantly by the time we left around 1:30.

After eating our packed lunch in the park, we hopped on the train and enjoyed a leisurely ride around Brackenridge Park.

With a couple hours till our dinner plans, Mom and Dad had their time with beer sampling at Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling and Islla St. Brewing. Islla St. made the must revisit list for us. Apparently they rotate their taps weekly and we were there on IPA week (my favorite) and their variety was phenomenal. Now Nathan wants to chance a stout (his favorite) week sometime.

Dinner was lined up at The Magic Time Machine. We picked this place after reading about it online for its whimsical decor and wait staff that dress up like pop culture characters. It was quite an experience! So much so, I didn’t get a. single. picture while inside. The restaurant itself reminds me of something the Mad Hatter and Dr. Seuss would make up with randomness on the walls, ceilings and floors. There were ramps, stairs, twists and turns everywhere. Many of the tables were tucked in little coves surrounded by more randomness. Our server was a young lady dressed up as “Jessie” from Toy Story and she was adorable staying in character the whole time. “Major Pain” came by the table and gave the kids crap about their butt chins and told them to get jobs.😂 “Thor” was the bartender and we caught glimpses of Jasmine, Ace Ventura, Beetlejuice, Starlord, Elsa, Shaggy and Deadpool. Quite eclectic! And as you may have guessed, the scenery is really what this place has going for it. Cheese pizza and french fries for the kids, catfish platters for mom and dad. Meh. But the kids left just mesmorized if not a little over stimulated haha and you should have seen the crowd waiting for a table at 7pm.

Sunday morning started with, yep, leftover cinnamon roll for breakfast and we were off to the Alamo! This visit was mostly for Ashlyn and her increasing interest in history and historic buildings. Besides, remembering the Alamo is always a good idea. The boys found interest in some of the larger than life statues and weapons that were on display, while Ashlyn dove right in reading all the plaques and reliving the history.

Once again, just as the crowd began to file in there, we were on our way out. We did a quick detour over to the Menger Hotel, wandered through the courtyard and peeped in the window of the bar where Theodore Roosevelt made a famous recruitment stunt for his “Rough Riders” regimen by riding his horse into the bar and inspiring the men.

After lunch and a short rest at the house, we hit 3 more breweries! Freetail brewing, Kündstel Brewing and Blue Star. The final brewery turned out to be located along the more recently developed river walk section north of downtown. 4 out of 5 of us were totally down for a stroll! 1 out of 5 (Daddy) opted to drive lol! We walked about a mile past residences and popped up just before the main river walk attraction where Nathan was parked and waiting. 😄 Dinner was at the house and we were all in bed by 8.

Monday was go home day, but after one more experience! The San Antonio Aquarium. Once again, we arrived right before they opened and were one of 8 families in the entire place for the first hour. The Aquarium turned out to be a funny thing. There were probably 10 actual tanks with fish. Everything else were exhibits with actual animals. And quite a mix of them! Kangaroos, chickens, iguanas, a sloth, cavies, rabbits, groundhogs (one was actually hanging out in a tree! What?), llamas…the list could go on. And pretty much everything was up for grabs, literally. Touching all of the critters was encouraged. But, wait! There’s more! For $3 extra you could FEEEDDD the critters! Oh wait! For $20-$40 more you can HOOOLLLLDDDD the critters! Geez Louise. The kids got the “can i’s” out of their system fairly quickly and were happy with the 2 finger touch encounters. Soon a few caretakers came around and actually offered up some hand feedings for free and the kids were thrilled with that. I guess they figured the critters have to eat one way or another and if the place isn’t swamped enough with customers, why not share the fun. I approve. After 2 hours I started tapping my foot ready to get back to the country and pick up the youngest child from the kennel. While the Aquarium didn’t meet Mama’s expectation, it way surpassed the kids’ and Daddy’s and they proclaimed it as the best thing we visited the whole trip! Lol!

Everyone really enjoyed our winter break for the change in pace. We don’t do city vacations very often and we definitely won’t be due for another anytime soon. It was AMAZING never having to drive longer than 10minutes to all of our destinations, but the noise of staying in the city! Wow. Sleep was definitely lost. We did a bunch of touristy stuff, but were lucky/efficient with our timing and always managed to leave just before a crowd showed up, but I still was done with people after 3 days haha. All in all, the kids loved their Christmas present and said it was the best time. We may just have a new thing. 🤞🏻

Now for some time in the woods!

-Lindsay

Saturday afternoon, we had departed Monahans Sandhills and were on our way back east to our final state park of the trip. We scheduled 2 nights for San Angelo State Park due to it’s size and proximity to a donkey rescue that Ashlyn had her eye on for a few years now. On the way to San Angelo, we stopped at the Odessa Meteor Crater.I had only learned of this site’s existence a week before our trip and we excited to experience something new. The crater is the 2nd largest in the United States and formed 20,000 years ago by a supposed 1,000 ton iron meteorite. Impact created a cone shaped crater 100ft deep and 500ft long. Due to wind and rain silting in over history, the crater is now only 6 feet deep but still appears obvious against the surrounding plains.The kids were amazed and thrilled we were able to walk through it. There were signs set up through out explaining geology and history of the area. The most surprising tid bit that we hadn’t explored before is the theory that the result of meteors came from an Earth like planet situated between Mars and Jupiter that broke apart and formed the asteroids in our solar system. Crazy! The kids had a lot of fun Star Wars references for that.

Back on the road, we arrived at San Angelo by 3:00 to our pull through site with a view of rolling hills and the lake. After another easy pop up, we ran into town and hit up HEB (LOVE these stores) for grocery refills. We ended our day with jiffy pop and a small camp fire.

After another night in the 30s, we woke up to a breezy chilly morning, but enjoyed breakfast outdoors watching deer watch us.This park is really big with 2 units on either side of the lake. We were camped in the larger south unit and opted to spend the morning driving the labyrinth of roads to scope out the even bigger labyrinth of trails for what we would want to tackle that afternoon.

We soon figured out this park is ideal for cycling and equestrian trail riders. Many of the paved roads had gravel roads branching out from them that connected a web of trails to one another. While you couldn’t drive from one unit to another without leaving park boundaries, you could get there via 6ish miles of trails

During lunch back at the camper, we settled on a 2.5 mile round trip trail. Mostly because half of it was named the “Horny Toad Trail” and the boys just knew that meant we would see one lol. Our hike was interesting enough winding up and down through changing landscape. We never saw a horny toad but did get passed by 2 mountain bikers and that got the kids’ attentions! They liked how much faster they covered ground!

The breeze had only turned into stronger wind as the day went on and dinner preparation was an out right battle. Fortunately, at about dusk, the wind died down enough for me to feel comfortable with a fire and we put on quite a blaze that night!Our morning consisted of a quick breakfast and break down of camp. We wanted to leave by 8:30 for our visit to the donkey rescue on our way home. Unfortunately, this was also the morning I got to learn another lesson about my camper! It is a bugger to get the hitch to situate on the ball when I’m backed up at an angle such as when you’re dealing with a semi circle pull through site! I finally broke the rule of pulling into the grass, got a straight backed up approach and it set right down. But it was a lot of back and forth before that decision was reached! At least we weren’t terribly behind and arrived for our short and sweet donkey rescue tour in a timely manner.

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is a nationally recognized organization headquartered in San Angelo. They have satellite locations all over the country specializing in the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of abused donkeys and mules. Currently their biggest project is relocating the wild burros of California’s Mojave Desert where they are considered a pest so to speak. Ashlyn has had an interest in donkeys for some years now and was looking forward to her first up close encounter. I figured this visit would educate the both us a bit more on what we would be getting ourselves into adding a donkey to the farm one day.Our tour was not as long or extensive in covering the property like we thought it might be, but our guide was a wealth of knowledge and we learned a lot! The kids thoroughly enjoyed all of the animal interaction and were pleasantly surprised by just how friendly a donkey could be! So let’s just say, our visit didn’t deter anyone from having donkeys around one day!

I could see us coming back to San Angelo eventually. We never made it over to the north unit with it’s numerous points of interest and the park is a good midway break location for venturing farther out west. I think it would be especially cool to revisit once the kids all mastered mountain bike riding and really tackle some trails. Our drive home was steady and easy and while we had dearly missed Daddy, the general consensus was we weren’t necessarily homesick just yet. We could’ve gone a few more nights adventuring and been good with it. Which was great for me to hear! I’m already formulating a plan for the spring!

-Lindsay

We woke up Friday morning and departed Garner State Park in a timely fashion taking only an hour to pack up camp. It was Archer’s 6th birthday and we had a 4.5 hour drive, according to GPS, till we reached what appeared to be a Sahara Desert knock off. SIX hours later of driving through some of the crappiest scenery Texas has to offer (I didn’t think that was possible), we arrived at the sandhills of Monahans. And the pictures didn’t lie. Similar to Lost Maples, the dunes of this 3,000+ acre sand deposit appear out of place in the flat, rocky cactus covered landscape that surround them. Here’s an aerial photo I found on Wikipedia.

The park entrance is right off 1-20 across some train tracks and as soon as you enter the gate, you can tell the park was built in the 50’s. 😀 The most Mid Century Modern architecture I’ve seen in a state park to date.

With our rented “sand discs” aka snow toboggans acquired at check in, we started down the mile and a half park road to the camping area. Initially all we were seeing were short sandhills covered in vegetation and the kids were pissed. “How are we supposed to slide on this, Mommy?!” We’ll get stuck by cactus!” “These are small and don’t look like the pictures.” Then, Bam! We rounded a corner and were suddenly in Egypt!

Our campsite was literally an asphalt pad in sand. It was 2:30 and knowing we would be short on daylight, Ashlyn and I busted out another 30 minute pop up while the boys scampered over a nearby hill dying to explore. When I went to fetch them, they were already fully immersed.

For our initial adventure, we left Sally in the camper. I wasn’t sure what was going on over in the dunes or if dogs were even allowed on them. We soon learned that only motor vehicles are restricted and it was basically a free for all. Pick a dune and take a ride! We found ourselves venturing farther back climbing higher and higher until we were convinced we had found the tallest dune there. And no one was out there! The camp sites were plenty full, but no one was playing. The weather was holding a tolerable upper 60s with a little chill in the wind, but the cloudless sky made for a nice balance of heat from the sun. I decided to let the kids stay on our claimed sand mountain and 10 minutes later, being able to view them the entire time, I returned with Sally and they had built 3 sand castles. 😆

We spent the rest of the evening on our mound. Sally ran around like a wild child, the kids went back and forth between sliding down the hill or just tumbling, and I sat enjoying the scenery after one awesome ride down myself. It got exhausting quick trudging through the sand!

About the time we started to take in the sunset, a sudden chill hit and sent us running for the warmth of the camper! Desert life!

We enjoyed hot showers in probably one of the nicest bath houses I’ve seen in a state park and hoped we got all the sand out of the boys’ pores. I cooked birthday boy’s requested Frito Pie dinner on a camp table erected on our asphalt pad and we dined indoors as the temps hit the 40s. We had been very lucky the first 2 nights of this trip with mild temps at night. But knowing winter was going to catch up with us, I had electric heating blankets prepared in addition to our space heater. And instead of sleeping under them, we would be sleeping on them in our slide out beds. I had recently read a blog post from folks that FULL TIME pop up camp (wow) and they had made the suggestion for how deal with your bed being suspended in frigid air. And it worked wonderfully! It got down to 34 degrees that first night and we had a frost on the ceiling of our slide outs, but we were toasty warm! It was just difficult getting up lol! Fortunately the sun came up in another cloudless sky and dried everything up for us to pack up and be on our way by noon. This time we only had a 2 and a half hour drive to our next park, San Angelo State Park.

The kids were dying for another day of play at this park. While our one night there was a noisy one due to the nearby interstate and surrounding mining and oil industry, we could’ve easily handled another night there. I’ve promised them return visits anytime we’re passing by. Apparently the surrounding geology keeps the Sandhills from migrating, but the dunes are ever changing with the seasonal winds and you won’t experince the same park twice. This place was bucket list level for us and I’m so glad we got to experince such a Texas style winter activity.

-Lindsay

The week before Thanksgiving, the kids and I embarked are our longest and farthest trip to date. We covered 3 new parks and were gone 6 days. This was also our latest in the season camping trip. I had been watching the weather a few weeks before and realized we were just going to gamble with rain chances and overnight lows, but upped our preparedness.

Lost Maples is aptly named for a grove of maple trees that appear to be lost in the cedar/post oak hill country. So the Fall is a particularly beautiful thus busy time of year for this park. Their small camping loop was booked, but we lucked out with availability at 30 minute away Garner State Park. We previously marked this equally as stunning and attractive park off our list in 2015 as tent campers, but Garner isn’t one of those places you tire of easily.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon and had the camper set up in 30 minutes! We learned our lesson after Cleburne to survey the site before backing in and we were able to get level on the first try at each park. With a few hours left of daylight, we opted to explore the Frio River bank behind our campsite. We had a great time burning off energy and stretching our legs after the 7 hour car ride.

Our first night cooking dinner in the dark and doing dishes by flashlight presented its own annoyances that I hadn’t originally accounted for by camping in the Fall, but we managed and turned in early. We had a scheduled day pass reserved for Lost Maples the next day.

I’ve never been to Lost Maples during peak season and was unsure of what to expect, but having the day pass secured made me sure we would at least get in. And we would just hope for the best that we wouldn’t be elbow to elbow with others. I had also preselected a 4.6mile roundtrip hike to maximize our experience. The kids were well warned and we came prepared for a full day lol!

Our hike began in the heart of the maple grove and it was already apparent that our “crowd” was the occasional elderly couple and we were off to a delightful start.

A little over a mile in, we came to a formation named “Monkey Rock” and immediately saw the reason. Weston theorized that this was the result of old river flow AND a waterfall.

Another mile of rock formations and creek crossings, we came to the “Grotto.” This area was fascinating with the ground water seepage causing stalactites and feeding the ferns hanging from the rock surface.

From there, we began our uphill climb. And were rewarded with fantastic views!

Downhill was slow and tedious and fatigue had definitely set in. 1 mile more and 4.5 hours later we had conquered the kids’ longest hike! In the end they were quite proud of themselves regardless of the intermittent whining and complaining throughout the hike. 😉

Once back at the camp in Garner, the kids talked me into letting them wade ankle deep in the river to a rock island.

One more dinner in the dark and then another early bedtime in preparation for our drive out farther west the next day. There was a lot of potential for rain and scattered thunderstorms during our 2 nights and days in the area. It was certainly overcast, but we never were rained on and temps were in the mid 70s and only hit low 60’s. We even ran the AC at night! Perfection. Lost Maples State Park is one of the elites. Along with Garner. We won’t pass up the opportunity to revisit these places in the future.

-Lindsay

In celebration of my inlaws’ 50th wedding anniversary, we put together a weekend getaway with them to Czech country. I had read about a “kolache trail” that had been mapped out some years ago and thought it would be a delight to experience with them. There are 10 recognized on this particular trail spanning all to the west of Houston and as far south as the Freeport area and north as Waco. We selected 4 for geographical and time convenience to achieve on a Saturday.

We left my inlaws’ house in Houston about 8 am and arrived at bakery #1 in Chappell Hill an hour later. The lovely log cabin feel and coffee smell of Chappell Hill Bakery were quickly trumped when we saw the display case. Kolaches and “meat kolaches” for days! Nathan insists that the meat variety be called klobasneks, but I have a heck of a time saying that for some reason, so meat kolache is easy. Archer selected a bacon, egg and cheese “kolache”, and Ashlyn a ham and cheese. They surprised me with their disinterest in the sweeter side of things. Weston went for a monster cinnamon roll and the adults selected cream cheese, poppy seed and peach kolaches. Ashlyn and Archer were very pleased with their savory choices, but the rest of us found something lacking in our fillings. Perhaps not enough? But we were excited to have kicked off the taste test!

Stop #2 was about another hour away in La Grange. We were initially thinking we would have lunch at Weikel’s Bakery as well, but it was only 10:30 and we just weren’t ready yet. Weikel’s was not as grand of a display, but they had quite a variety! Including kolaches the size of a dinner plate! Ashlyn and I selected a cream cheese and chocolate pudding kolache while the others kept to their previous flavors for accurate comparison. The boys bowed out this go around. Shocking! Also shocking was how much better these were than Chappell Hill’s! We had a new leader, haha.

For stop #3, we switched back a little bit to Ellinger for Hruska’s Bakery. This was the busiest one yet. We were lost in a sea of burnt orange…game day I suppose for a certain university ;). We put in for an order of burgers and grilled cheeses and the adults powered through on our quest and selected another round of kolaches. I deviated with a pumpkin pie and cream cheese one while the others kept their consistency. There were no complaints on the baked goods, but they still didn’t have whatever Weikel’s has. The burgers were excellent, though!

At this point, it was only 12:30 and we were 30 minutes from our final destination with one last bakery and our hotel in Schulenburg. I had anticipated the bakeries being more time consuming. Nathan and I quickly pieced together an along-the-way itinerary viewing some of the area’s well known “painted churches.” Yay for being spontaneous planners!

We started the tour with the Hostyn Grotto at Queen of the Holy Rosary Church outside of La Grange. There were numerous shrines and grottos surrounding the church, including a pair of Civil War cannons in memorial of a father and son that fought on opposite sides and were both buried in the church’s cemetery. The main grotto depicting Jesus’ tomb was built in 1925 and was made of rocks quarried from the Colorado River to resemble a shrine in Lourdes, France. We were all very impressed with the craftsmanship of all the structures on the property.

Ammansville with St. John the Baptist Church was our next stop. The Church we saw was the third for the site being built in 1919. The first two were destroyed by a storm and then a fire. And it was pink. A lot of pink! We encountered a tour group at this one and by the sound of it, if you had time in your day and extra interest, I would recommend scheduling and paying the $10/person to Schulenburg’s chamber of commerce for the guided tour.

For our next stop, Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in Dubina, we lucked out with another tour being present and were granted access to enter the building instead of viewing through a gate. It was built in 1912 by the area’s Bohemian residents and they put their bright light and color pallet into it. Incredibly beautiful.

We had to skip one Church after reading online that it was closed for the day for a wedding, but we still had St. Mary’s Catholic Church in High Hill. Except when we pulled the up the parking lot was SWAMPED. Apparently the tour website didn’t get the memo that this Church also had a wedding going on. Oh well. It is supposed to be quite impressive on the inside with statues imported from Italy, stained glass from Germany and a reproduction of Michelangelo’s “Pietà.” Some other time, perhaps.

By now it was 2:30 and we were ready for our final Bakery in Schulenburg. Except Kountry Bakery closed at 2pm. Oops. On to the hotel then. Once situated and freshened up, we headed out to the historic Sengelmann’s Hall for dinner at “Mama’s Restaurant.”

This place is so cool! This 1890’s saloon and dance hall shut down in the 1940s but brought back to life in 2009 to include a restaurant. They do quite the business with weddings now and we counted ourselves lucky they were open for usual business this Saturday. In fact, we had the place to ourselves! Yay for early dinners. Our meal was fantastic and the beer was cold. 😁 After dinner, the kids and I explored and we found our way up to dark dance hall upstairs and out onto the balcony behind the Sengalmann sign. My old timey dancehall loving self was in heaven.

After a good, hard night’s sleep we checked out of the hotel and introduced everyone to the awesomeness that is the Oakridge Smokehouse Breakfast Buffett. In fact, we DID bring Ma N Pa! It was the cherry on top of a weekend full of eating and having not been there in 8 or so years, I was so happy to see not a single thing had changed. I find that refreshing from time to time.

-Lindsay

Our local school district implemented a week long Fall Break this year and while that normally wouldn’t affect us…this particular time, Ashlyn’s dance team took the week off as well and gave us 2 extra weekdays! We had noticed the parks were reaching capacity for weekends in October and gladly booked ourselves a Monday through Thursday stay at Cleburne State Park. I picked this park for it’s less than 3 hour drive from the house and abundance of trails. Other than that knowledge, we hoped for the best on our Fall camping opportunity!

We arrived at the park by 11am, 3 hours before designated check in time for overnight stays, but this hasn’t been an issue in the past. If the spot is already unoccupied, headquarters will just let you get an early start. And thanks to the new online reservation system, I was able to meticulously pick a spot that would be unoccupied as of Monday am and would be without neighbors for the entirety of our stay. Unfortunately, the headquarters staff were not as caught up from the weekend’s surge and only allowed us entrance to the park to await the site’s availability. 🙄 After driving by the campsite and taking a picture to prove it’s lack of occupancy, I decided having some lunch to ward off any potential hangry attitude would be beneficial and give the kid at headquarters a chance to get over himself. The day use area was relatively small but very user friendly with a spread of shaded picnic tables, beach swim area, impressive playground and newly constructed bathhouse with an attached banquet room and pavilion.

A little after noon we had received our permit and got started on setting up camp. TWO HOURS LATER, we had the camper set and level. Turns out the pads were pretty unlevel and my initial positioning of the camper just wasn’t going to work no matter how much I played with the jacks. So after hooking back up, repositioning and fiddling with jacks; we were level enough. Lesson here is, walk the site before backing into it.

Eager to soak up the mild 80 degree weather before a cold front arrived, we visited a bank fishing area before dinner time. The kids didn’t have any luck but got some casting practice!

Dinner time brought another headache when my Coleman stove started leaking fuel. This was not the first time I’d experienced complications with the fuel burning stove and had long pondered investing in a simpler propane burning stove. Having had it with hiccups on our first day and a Walmart 20 minutes away in the nearby Cleburne, I decided no better time than now to commit! Lol We returned an hour later with a nifty grill and stove top combo and whipped up some hot dogs 😆.

Archer ended up having hard night complaining of a headache and running an elevated temp. He opted to stay in bed the following morning while I cooked up bacon and eggs. Breakfast was finished just in time for it to start raining and while we ate indoors, we decided a revisit to nearby Dinosaur Valley State Park would be a good way to maneuver around the forecast.

On the way, we picked up some Tylenol for Archer’s ailments and he soon perked up. Our prediction worked out and we enjoyed the empty park on the back side of the storms. It was especially sweet being back 1.5 years later with the kids and Sally having a lot of then and now repeats.

We returned to camp for lunch and Archer and I snuck in an hour nap while Ashlyn and Weston played Uno. They woke us up when the rain stopped and we felt ready to tackle a trail! Ashlyn requested a 2 mile round trip trail that would take us past the CCC constructed spillway and a lake overlook. Not far into the trail we crossed the below dam section of Camp Creek and spotted some dung beetles doing some up hill work.

We didn’t know what to expect from the spillway except that we had read on the trail description that it was hand dug and carved from a limestone cliff side. The trail soon opened up and gave us a glimpse of a rock ledge and while the view was partially blocked, we were impressed enough to carry on to the next PoI. HOWEVER, as we came around another clump of trees, the view opened up to the entire spillway and we were awestruck!

Ashlyn and Weston immediately clambered down the limestone brick wall and into the gully. Once it was obvious there weren’t others around, I let Sally navigate herself down off leash and archer and I followed. For a small lake, this spillway was massive and elaborate! 3 tiers were HAND DUG by a crew of men out of the hillside and made into retaining wall. The Civilian Conservation Corp. continues to amaze me. I don’t think they make humans like that anymore.

Once we had our fill of exploring the spillway, we continued on to the lake overlook sight. On our way, Archer started to feel cruddy again and didn’t want to go further knowing he still had to double back. Ashlyn still wanted to complete the mission, so I gave her the option to finish the .2 miles on her own and she accepted the challenge! 15 minutes later, she returned quite proud of herself for seeing what she came to see.

After dinner, the kids wanted some playground time which we did until dark. Then it was showers and packing in the campsite for the potential weather that would be hitting us overnight.

We lucked out with this cold front! We managed to be in a break in the line of storms and didn’t even really experience much wind! It was COLD in the morning, though! Archer was feeling much better but, unfortunately, Ashlyn woke up feeling the effects of the apparent virus we were dealing with. Some Tylenol and breakfast later, she was soon up for another trail.

We picked a windy 2 mile round trip trail hopeful for some more cliff side views. What we ended up with was a lot of switchbacks on the side of tree covered hill haha. The scenery was mostly boring for the kids, but I was happy to get moving and get the blood pumping with the new chill in the air.

After lunch we took our leftover hotdogs to the fishing pier and tried some bobber fishing. It didn’t last long as the kids’ attention is crap when they aren’t continuously casting.

We finished off our final night with a campfire and s’mores.

Our morning was easy and relaxed as we packed up camp. The kids showed me the “hollowed out tree” by the campsite they had played in during the week and we stopped by one last CCC structure on our way out.

This park really exceeded our expectations! It’s hidden gems like the spillway and lengthy trails coupled with updated facilities made it an entertaining and comfortable stay. I’m glad we gave 3 whole nights to this seemingly simple park.

-Lindsay

Wanda (the pop up camper) is back on the road!!! After being marooned in Rocksprings for 7 months and a summer spent getting a few modifications by Handy Hubby, she’s better than ever! And what better way to re-inaugurate her than a quick weekend to a park 2 hours away with 5 people and 2 dogs?!

The state park is actually spread out over two units on Jim Chapman Lake. The lake was created in 1991 by damming the South Sulphur river and the entire lake front is either State Park or wildlife management area. We elected to set up camp at the smaller unit to the north, Doctors Creek, and visit the South Sulphur Unit during our stay. Opened in 1996, it is one of the newer parks we’ve visited and we were optimistic for some nice amenities and enjoyable water play in this lingering heat.

Travel and set up at the park went smoothly and I was pleased with the site selection I previously made online. I was hopeful for more direct water access from our site for swimming and fishing, but the overgrowth along that part of the shoreline made it not ideal. After our lunch, we decided a swimming attempt would be the best way to spend the afternoon.

I am learning that the older I get, my level of “water prissy-ness” is only increasing. I NEED to see my feet if I’m going to touch the bottom. I will get in water where I don’t see the bottom, but I NEED to see what’s around my body. 🤦🏻‍♀️ This swimming area was not satisfactory to my NEEDS…. however! I did manage to swipe one the kids floats and keep myself topside while cooling off. Lol! The kids and Nathan didn’t care. Bunch of savages 😉.

The kids received awesome camping hammocks for Christmas last year and we finally had the perfect time and setting to use them! Hammocks for the win! They were laid back in those things any time we were at camp and they weren’t being summoned for something. Archer did flip out– twice– but didn’t injure himself too badly and hopefully has it figured out.

After dinner, we attempted some fishing from the shore near the boat ramp, but fatigue was setting in and attention spans were short. So an hour later, we were back at camp to find 7 additional cars at our neighbors camper and quite the hoorah going down. So much for a quiet evening in the woods. We retired indoors around 8 pm and played a few rounds of uno. By 9 pm we were all ready for bed and didn’t hear anything else from our neighbors after 10pm. Thank goodness.

That morning, we hit a half mile nature trail and Nathan found a geocache! I haven’t really made them a thing when traveling with the kids, but he has always had an interest so I’m glad he was able to share it with them. When we finished the easy stroll through post oaks and pocket prairies, Ashlyn was itching for some more hiking (atta girl!), so she and I took an additional half mile trail to the day use area where the boys met us with the car at a playground.

We returned to the camper for an early lunch and leisurely pack up and were on our way to the South Sulphur Unit before noon. This side of the park was significantly larger! It has 4 day use areas, 2 multiple lane boat ramps, and 4 camping areas including an equestrian site and cabins. The swim area was larger and had a sandy beach entrance. Much of the shoreline made for easy water access even in the camping areas. We picked the day use picnic area for a quick dip in the water. Because it wasn’t an official swimming area, we were able to let the girls play. And they had a ball! Sally was leaping and splashing everywhere while Skye enjoyed a wade.

We would definitely come back to this park for another quick weekend retreat. I’m sure it’s seasonal and the heat as of lately is deterring people, but we mostly had the place to ourselves everywhere we went! Although I found myself missing the charm of a CCC era park, the amenities are on the new side and clean. The next visit, we would love to stay on the South Sulphur side and try out site 68 to be exact. It’s on the end of the camping loop and looks to have fantastic lake frontage all it’s own. We are so happy to have the camper out and about again. This Fall (and part of Winter perhaps) Betty and Wanda are going to go places!

-Lindsay

We were SO excited for this park! Geology Hubby was able to come, this was the kids’ first cave experience having only seen rock shelters to this point AND bonus! the McCrackens joined us as well. The park was just a few miles from the house we had just spent the weekend at and we were able to get in to the first tour at 10am. The tour was almost 2 hours long and chock full of information and history! I’m going to do my best to recap it all.

This Solution Cave formed as a result of the prehistoric “lift up” that occurred when volcanic activity caused the land in Texas that was ocean floor to rise above sea level. Rivers then formed and this area’s river flow dissolved the limestone and dolamite rock bed creating the unique tunnels and spaces below ground. Prior to becoming a state park attraction in 1932; the Comanche, the Confederate Army and party-goers of the 20’s used various parts of the cavern via the numerous above ground entrance points. The state of Texas purchased the property from Rancher D.G. Sherrard and the CCC spent 4 years cleaning debris, washed in dirt and even skeletons of longhorns that had tumbled in. Thus the inspiration for the name!

We began the tour at the CCC created entrance and we had barely gotten over the fact we were under ground and in 68* with 102* up above when we walked into the first calcite deposit in the cave. Holy crystals, batman! 😂

On our way to the main chamber, we encountered our first of many aerial bats! The guide told us this was a real treat as Tricolor Bats are normally very sedentary when in the cavern emerging only every 3 days to eat tons of mosquitoes and then return. But, Fall is mating season! So they were darting everywhere! I did manage to catch one sitting still for a picture! We arrived in the main chamber where the original entrance was once located prior to 1934 and thoroughly enjoyed stories of Comanche rituals, Confederate soldiers mining bat guano for gun powder and elaborate dinner and dancing parties. While the entrance was concreted over after the cavern was established as a state park, there were a number of other remnants of the “days of yore.” Such as the bandstand, the access and pulley system that was used for food service, the spot known as the “Queen’s Throne” complete with broken off stalactite carved names 😳, and a few remaining barrels from the Cold War Era when the cavern was stocked to support 2,000 people in the event of nuclear holocaust.

After a brief hunched over walk, we came upon the stunning “Hall of Marble.” Not actual marble, but dolamite stone. In this area, we got a great look at a 17,000 year old stalactite formation! Fun fact, it takes 100 years for 1 inch of calcification to form and if touched, the oils on our skin will kill the process. Yikes!

We got as far down as 125ft below the surface and the guide turned out the lights! I mean, you expect it to be dark…but dang! Pitch black darkness is intimidating! From there, we back tracked and that was the end of the tour. 11 miles of the cavern has been explored to date. We saw 1.5. Amazing.

For as much work as the CCC did below ground, they doubled it above in this park. They built roads, levees and numerous buildings out of the materials they pulled out of the cave. After lunch, we explored some fine examples of “National Park Service (NPS) Rustic” as we came to learn the style of CCC structures are called. We particularly enjoyed climbing the watch tower and inspecting the original visitor center that was used until 1967. That building was one of the more elaborate I’ve been in for a state park.

There were a few short hiking trails in the park as well, but we were spent and still had a 4 hour drive home. This park is a chart topper, for obvious reasons! The kids said the cave “trail” was the best trail ever. Lol! Weston wants to return to do the wild cave tour where they take you through 4 extra tunnels some of which you’re army crawling through. Stay tuned 😉

-Lindsay

This past weekend we managed to pull off a long overdue vacation with my bestie and her family. <yay!> Our original plan sought more of a lake front style property on either Inks Lake or Lake LBJ, but availability and budget set us in between the 2 on the Colorado River. We selected a waterfront airbnb with a neat layout and plenty of water gear included. It didn’t take us long Friday evening to take a canoe out and explore on the granite rocks scattered throughout the river followed by fishing until sunset.

Saturday morning we explored the water frontage of the neighborhood park located right beside the house. The kids found a shallow pool in the rock bed from the receded river and Nathan managed to hook a 3lb bass out of it! The bleeding heart in the family (Ashlyn) convinced him to release it back in the main river because, “he had already been through enough in that tiny pool.” 😆

Before it got too hot, we took the canoe and one of the larger kayaks out and managed the 1 mile trip up river to check out the Inks Lake Dam.

Back at the house, while I made lunch, the boys managed to catch 2 crawfish from the same shallow pool and convinced me to cook them. Archer chickened out last minute on eating his, but Weston followed through!

By this point in the day we really wanted to swim, but the shallow water in front the house made for a funky sludge bottom that grossed the grown ups out too much. Lucky for us the house had access to the nearby marina with a swimming pier and deeper water. The moms managed to enjoy a float with their babies.

Even better! While our hamburger dinner was being prepared, the moms managed a winery trip in as well! Perissos, a swanky winery 6 minutes from the house for the win! After dinner, everyone wrapped up the fun filled, but gone too fast day in their own ways.

Sunday morning everyone enjoyed sleeping in, but we got on with checking out. We were on our way to Longhorn Cavern State Park! 😁

-Lindsay

We left Lubbock Saturday morning and after a relaxing time with family and a let down park visit on the way, we decided to extend our road trip home with a dog leg over to Wichita Falls. This park is similar in size to previously visited Lake Colorado City and looked to be a good candidate for a daytrip. We had high hopes to recoup an enjoyable park before returning home.

We arrived just in time for a late lunch and quickly got settled at a lake side picnic table. We looked over the maps planning our activities for the visit and thought starting with swimming might be fun as we were already seated at the swim area. That was quickly vetoed, however, as we ate our lunch and I watched a ski boat and jet ski continuously enter and exit the swim area regardless of the “no boats in the swim area” signage. Humans. 🙄 Ashlyn instead settled for getting her feet wet. Weston, Archer and myself passed on another muddy lake. She said we didn’t miss much lol!

From there, we drove around to the “Prairie Dog Town” and tried in vain to spot prairie dogs. While the mounds/holes are scattered all over the park, your best bet for an encounter was supposed to be in their designated town. We did find all of their holes stuffed with bread slices…regardless of the signage stating not to feed them. Humans. 🙄

We then drove over to the western corner of the park where an under road culvert allowed access beyond as the boundary narrowed along the lakeshore. The kids were thrilled to walk through the tunnel, but had little interest exploring further on the shadeless trail.

Our last stop before calling it good was the operational oil pump jack smack dab in the middle of the camping area. Slightly unexpected!

We enjoyed ourselves more at this park than the previous one. I still don’t care to camp here. It’s a small park and virtually no shade in the mesquite mixed prairie environment. The water would provide a cool down, but I guess I’ve prissed myself beyond mud bottom lakes, Haha. We learned that we may have been missing the prairie dogs because of the heat, so its hopeful that humans haven’t messed that up. I tend to be quite the Girl Scout in state parks and when I see so many instances of disregard for the rules, it really diminishes our overall experience. Onward to #34!

-Lindsay