January 27, 2009

Test Drive

We decided that in 2009, we were going do more camping. It is a great way to see new sites, commune with nature, and it is a fairly cheap getaway for the weekend. So last week, we started to piece together our camping equipment. (As a side note, we must say that Bass Pro Shop is the coolest place.) So, after three evenings of shopping we finally felt we had acquired the basic necessities for camping.

We were so eager to "test drive" our new toys that we planned an overnight camping trip. After several hours of perusing the
Texas Parks & Wildlife website, we decided to go the the Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. This park is about 1 hour and 45 minutes east of Dallas on I-30 just before Mount Pleasant -- in the pine lands of Texas. Our friends, Mike And Kelly joined us for the inaugural trip (So, for the purposes of this story "We" refers to Joe, Kristi, Mike, and Kelly, plus our dogs ,Bronte and Mia).

We left Saturday afternoon around 3:00 (because Joe and Kristi had committments in the morning) and arrived just before 5:00. That gave us about one hour to get our tents up and get the fire going -- which we managed to pull off despite this being the first time to assemble our tent.

Did I mention that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 degrees outside? We HAD to have a fire to keep us warm. Although, I am grateful that there was no wind and we were well blocked in by the trees. It took a few attempts, but by 8:00 we had a roaring fire.

There were about 30 camp sites in the
Fort Sherman section of the park. We were at camp site #11 which is a lake side campsite. We were the only people in Fort Sherman. It was awesome! It was as if we had the entire state park to ourselves. We could be as boisterous and obnoxious as we wanted to be (and trust me, we were boisterous after we got a few drinks in our system). Plus our dogs, who also went on the trip, were able to roam loose without bothering anyone -- they had their own adventures.

We stayed up until the wee hours of morning enjoying camp food, drinks, good company, and a warm fire. Shortly after 3:00, we stumbled our way back to our tents. The next morning we enjoyed pancakes, eggs, and sausage while nursing our headaches. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head home.

Our next camping trip will be an overnighter on Saturday, February 7th. Location is still to be determined but it will be close to the Dallas area as we don't want to drive far for just a one night camp trip.

Intersted in going? Email or call us.

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