Off to the Lost Pines with Nicky

Well here I am, on my third awesome trip in “Casa Jim”. This time, it is just me and Nicky, my dog. It is the farthest trip in the camper so far, and Nicky's first. I wanted some place with lots of trails for him, so we came to Bastrop State Park in the Lost Pines Forest.

Our trip went smoothly, something I really wanted after yesterday's fiasco of getting the air conditioner looked at at the dealer. I had gotten up at first light and run over to Dad's to mow his lawn. He and my sister, Patti, left on Sunday for a Caribbean cruise, and she could not get his ancient and recently unused mower to start. I threw my electric in the back of the truck, got it done, and was home by 7:30 am.

As I drove into the driveway, I noticed a puddle of water under the front corner of the camper. I felt all over the thing hoping for water coming from our gutters or something. It was obviously not coming from above. That made me a little paranoid, so I “popped” it up to see what was going on. Sure enough, there was a puddle of mystery water laying on the floor and draining out the back. I can not explain where it came from. I can not explain why it took 5 days of 100 degree Texas summer for it to start dripping. It did not appear to have dripped from the air conditioner, and I do not use the water system.

I decided to pull it over to Ancira. My salesman had told me after our last trip that I should get it looked at to ease my mind even though he was confident that the leak during the thunderstorms was condensation. I had noticed that the interior housing of the AC was hanging a little loose on one side. Anyway, they found the problem and took care of it. They also installed the defective furnace part that they had ordered for me the day I bought it. I was in no hurry for that, as we don't exactly use heat in Texas during the summer.

When I was driving out to pick it up (Ancira RV is in Boerne, TX) I noticed with amazement that, although my lanes heading out of town were bumper to bumper, there was not one single vehicle coming from the west. Then I saw the problem. One of those glass trucks that has sheets of window glass leaning on both sides of it was involved in a wreck. They had eastbound I10 closed down while a brigade of sheriffs and highway workers all scrambled to sweep up all the glass!

I decided to come back a different way. I took the Scenic Loop through Grey Forest and came home through Helotes. It was a really nice drive that only added about ten miles to my trip. I have to admit it was kind of curvy and bumpy, but it didn't bother me too much. I'm getting pretty used to driving with the camper. My buddy Jack Funkhouser rode with me on my first drive when I was taking it from the dealer to park out at his place. He gave me tips the whole way and really made me feel confident about towing. You might remember Jack from an earlier blog on this site called “Do You Have a Jack?” I tell you- I don't know what I would have done a lot of times when Jack had the answers to my problems. The man is amazing. He knows anything and everything about anything and everything.

So I threw Nick in the truck and headed out today at 11:00 am. I expected the trip to take about two and a half hours or so. There was a lot of traffic on 410 and I35, but not too much on the second half of the trip, once I got onto State Highway 21 to Bastrop. We actually made the trip in two hours and fifteen minutes. The camper towed better than ever. I think it is because I stowed everything, including the ice chest inside the camper this time.

We pulled into a really beautiful camping spot.. I backed in with no problem. I am amazed how easy it has been for me, ever since that man told me what he does when we were leaving Lost Maples.

I tied Nicky to the lantern pole and went about setting up the camper. That was when I had the first of two problems on this trip so far. I could not get the camper to come off of the hitch. I tried everything. I even thought I could just pull the hitch off the truck and then take it off the receiver. That didn't work. The camper just rolled forward the minute I took the pin out and pushed the hitch all the way up into the truck! I ended up doing what I always do when I have a problem I can't figure out. That's right. I called Jack. He told me I must have gotten the hitch “binded up”. He said to crank the camper all the way down so that the wheel was off the ground. He also suggested that I might need to realign the truck or the camper. I tried all of those things, and finally, I managed to get it off.

I was dying of thirst by then. I was pretty sure Nick needed a drink, too. I cranked the camper up enough to gain access to the water bottles and gave us each one before going on. Everything else went smoothly, except that one of the zippered panels was totally unzipped and the attachment to the ceiling was out of place. It must have happened when the AC was getting adjusted. Anyway, I cranked the ceiling back down a bit and did my best to get it all sorted out. Next time I have it at Ancira for warranty checkups, I will have them look at it.

Once the camper was completely ready, I untied Nick and brought him over. He took one look at the door and dug his nails in the ground. He was absolutely not going in. Now, Nicky has always had some interesting issues. For example, when he was younger, he refused to walk on the sidewalks that went over the bridge over the drainage ditch on Coral Springs. Instead, he would try and pull me out into the street whether or not there were cars coming. Also, at my parent's house, Nicky would not leave the dining room or den. They both have the same 1970s splotchy brown scuplted carpet. The Kitchen at one end has white tile. The hallway at the other has wood flooring. I don't know why he was afraid of them. I think it must be something visual.

I finally picked him up and forced him in. It wasn't easy. He had his paws stretched out like a cartoon cat trying to stop me. When he was in, he just stood by the door wanting to go out again. I decided we would spend some time in the camper until he settled down. That never happened. He passed on his favorite treat (rawhide rolled around a liver insert). He wouldn't even go to the back where his water was. When I brought the water closer, he ignored it. His only plan was to get out the dang door.

I finally couldn't stand it anymore, so I put his leash on him, gathered up our hiking paraphernalia, and took him for about a three mile hike on one of the trails. I had to cut it short, because the heat was really getting to Nicky. He overheats easily, even with frequent water breaks. He always has. As soon as we had found our first geocache, we came back to the camper. I let him lead the way. He led me straight to the door, and once it was open, he jumped right in and went to his water bowl. Then he lay down by the door with a loud hrrrumph and took a nap.

I took a nap for a while, too. Then we spent the rest of the evening taking short little walks of about thirty minutes every hour or so. He seems to be totally adjusted to the camper now. I am hoping that we both get a nice relaxing sleep. We are going to bed early, so that we can get up at dawn and hike a little farther before it heats up. The humidity is so bad here, that that plan may not work. I'll let you know.
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Well we both slept well last night. I never heard a peep out of Nick. We got up at about 6:30 and hit the trail by 7:00. It was nice and cool, but the humidity was just as bad as yesterday. I was completely soaked by the time we got back to the camper. I actually had to wring my shirt out and set it on the truck tailgate to dry. I don't carry a lot of clothes with me, and I want to have at least one clean shirt left for tomorrow's drive home. A note to all you people who like to hang your laundry out on the line- that fresh sunshiny smell you all yap about doesn't mean it is clean! I wore that shirt until it was soaked with sweat twice on this trip. When I brought it in from drying, it smelled fresh and clean. The sun lies.

Anyway, our morning hike was still enjoyable, if it was a bit drippy. We stopped a lot for nice cold drinks of water. I carry a small insulated lunch box with four cold bottles of water in it every time we leave the camper. It gets stuffed down in my knapsack with Nick's collapsible bowl and the poop pickup bags. If you read my Lost Maples blog, you know that sometimes that is not enough water. Nick and I aren't hiking nearly that long.

The trail we were following ended at the Scenic Lookout. We grabbed a geocache there, and then hiked back to camp following the camp road. It was all downhill. I knew I was exhausted when we reached the lookout. I just hadn't realized how high we had climbed.

We got back to the camper and Nicky laid down in his cool spot. I stripped, toweled off, put on my comfy “in the camper” clothes. We had breakfast. Nicky had his dog food. I had natural peanut butter on stale whole wheat bread. I always seem to get stale bread from WalMart. I'm just saying! All I brought for me to eat is peanut butter, crackers, bread, apple sauce (natural unsweetened), and chocolate soy milk pudding cups. I don't like to cook when I am camping, and I'm trying to stick with my vegan diet. I don't know why, since I still seem to eat enough vegan crap to gain weight!

After breakfast, I spent an hour or so getting photos off of the Flip video camera. That wore me out almost as much as the hiking, so I hopped on my bunk and took a nice dream-filled nap. I love those. I had dreams about my mom, an aunt of mine, and a place that sells frozen drinks shaped like a giant paper cup. That one was really weird. I remember asking the guy what the best drink was that did not have mango in it (I'm allergic). It was one called the Nabaja. He gave it to me and also handed me some kind of game board paper and a stack of cards. It was some kind of promotion or something. It confused me and I started to fall or something. I realized I was coming out of the dream, and somehow or another, I willed myself to stay there while I drank that great frozen drink as I coasted down some hilly city street. It wasn't alcoholic. It just tasted like frozen peach pie filling.

After nap time, I dressed in dry clothes, loaded up the knapsack, and headed off on another hike with Nicky. We grabbed a couple more geocaches, but after about two miles in the woods, I could tell Nick was over heating. We took another water break and then I let him lead the way. He headed back the way we came. I don't know if he was confused, or recognized that he needed to get home to the air conditioning. We stopped once at the scout/large group camping site. We had water and rested in the shade for at least half an hour. Then we hiked the last half mile or so to the camper.

Once again, I had to wring out my clothes. Nick got in his cool spot for a nap, and I laid on my bunk listening to Carol Burnett read her book “This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection” to me.

Now I am going to eat some pudding and try to get more pictures off the Flip videos. After that, we will have dinner. After that, at about 7:00 PM, we will take another mini-hike on the trails.
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Well, the mini-hike was very nice. We followed the short Carrizo Interpretige Trail. It was pretty cool. They have little signs with paintings that you look on the map to read about something. It only took about thirty minutes to do the whole thing. We added a short hike down the road to the tent camper's campsites, then followed the trail back to the restroom area of the Copperas Creek Campground, where we are staying. We took some time to explore the old CCC building that is there. It is pretty cool. Too bad we don't have something like the CCC to help out our young men of today who are having trouble getting work.

When we got back to the camper, I was soaked again. The humidity is just that bad. The actual walk felt cool to me. I stripped and gave myself a bath with anti-bacterial baby wipes. I can't leave Nicky alone to go to the showers, and, besides, I don't usually use them on camping trips. In fact, this trip, I never even went to the public restroom in the campsite. Can you say, “Pee-bottle”? With that and my little camp toilet, I was able to do all my business without stressing Nick out and leaving him alone. That might be too much information for some of you sillier people, but tough cookies! I was always the kid who asked the docents how the old timey people used the bathroom in those pre-plumbing houses.

I spent a while on the Internet with my Blackberry finding information about hitch issues. I am a little nervous about hitching up tomorrow, but have a plan, if I need it. I'm sure Jack won't mind driving two hours to Bastrop to rescue me! No, actually, I will ask one of my fellow campers. There are only about six of us left in the campsite. Three of us are in pop up campers. Besides, I think I got enough information to explain why I had problems unhitching, and should be able to hitch without a snag. (Note added later: Yeah, right! Idiot!)

The rest of the evening was spent finishing the last of my Flip video photos. I ended up with 89 from this trip. I know that when people look at them, they will say it's just a bunch of trees. I can't help it. I love forests and don't get to spend much time in them.

Now I am enjoying the last of my bottle of Shiraz before watching some of What's Up Doc? on my iPod touch. After that, I'll take Nick out for one more potty time. Then it's time to hop in my bunk and read my book, Smokin' Seventeen, for awhile. We are going to get up early tomorrow, pack up, and hitch up before it gets hot. It will be hard enough to do with the humidity level here. I will be soaked once again, but the AC in the truck will dry me off by the time I hit San Antonio.
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Well, The morning seemed to go pretty well, at first. We woke up at 6:00 without the alarm and started packing up the interior of the camper. Then I tied Nick to the lantern post again and started the take down process. Everything went smoothly until it was time to put the camper on the hitch. I couldn't stop it from rolling, and it ended up going all the way to the license plate. I put the chucks back in place and spent the next thirty minutes getting the truck lined up perfectly under the hitch receiver. Then, when I dropped the camper on the danged hitch ball, I had the reverse of the problem I had when I got to camp. I could not get the latch to close! It took about twenty minutes of jumping on the back of the truck, pulling forward, backing up, and praying for a little help before it finally went in place. By that time, I was exhausted and soaking wet.

I finished hooking up the electricity, tested the signals, and put Nicky in the truck. I drove over to the dumpster and got rid of our trash. Then I gave both of us a good drink of water, took off my soaked T-shirt, toweled off, put a new shirt on, and hit the road for home.

I called just as we arrived at the house, and Rachel took Nicky out of the truck so I could see to back into the driveway. Once again, backing up went great. Then I unpacked everything and went in the house.

I was so drained. My arms were tired from the hitching fiasco, and I was soaked again from the exertion of unpacking in the sun. At least the humidity was better at home. I felt really weak, but wanted a shave and shower before resting.

Before going upstairs, I weighed myself. I lost 5+ pounds on this trip. I am sure most of it was water loss, which was not a good thing. Don't tell Rachel, but after my shower, I came to realize that I had done it again! My body was screaming out for potassium. After all, all I ate while camping was peanut butter and whole wheat bread. I never even thought to take the potassium supplements that I bought after the Lost Maples incident. I didn't realize I had a problem until I was here at the house.

I popped some of the supplements, ate some raisins, and drank a lot of water. After about an hour of laying on the couch, I started feeling better. My heart rate went back to normal, and I don't feel so dadgum fatigued. I wish I would learn from my mistakes!

I'm not taking a trip next week because of the 4th of July holiday. The parks get crowded then. I don't like crowds. Instead, I will wait awhile before heading out to South Llano River State Park. Maybe someone will go with me. I think I need other humans to keep an eye on me in case I forget to take care of myself again! Want to go?

Lost Maples: My First Pop-up Camper Adventure

Since I have no idea who is reading this, if anybody, I guess I need to start at the very beginning. For a very long time now, I have wanted to buy a pop-up camper. I had my eye on a really small one that could be pulled by any car. I moaned about it day and night for a couple of years, but could never get Rachel's blessing to buy it. I knew she was right, after all, our oldest was just about to start college at UT in Austin. We needed some time to get our feet wet with paying for that.

Suddenly, in May of this year (2011), Rachel lost her mind. I know this because three things happened. First was her telling me to just go ahead and buy the camper. I am no idiot. I know how fast a mind can change. I ran to the computer, went to the Ancira RV web page, and looked for my Quicksilver 6.0 in their inventory to check the current price. To my dismay, they no longer had one showing online. The next day, I called out there to see what was up. The salesman told me that they had sold the last one and would not be getting anymore. I couldn't believe it. The only other dealer in Texas was over 200 miles away. When I asked the salesman at Ancira why they no longer carried them, he told me some things about customers with post-sale problems not getting much support from the company that makes the Quicksilver 6.0. That finished it for me. I went downstairs and told Rachel my pop-up adventure was over.

That's when the second example of her losing her mind happened. I told her that there were no other suitable campers (suitable meaning “affordable” and “air conditioned”) which could be pulled with my Chevy Malibu. Her immediate response was, “Then get the one you want and buy something that can pull it. Jared will be driving soon, and you can give him the Malibu.” I am no idiot. I know how fast a mind can change. I got on my favorite car dealer's website (Cavender Chevrolet in Boerne, TX –right next door to Ancira RV) and found the truck I wanted. Then I went out the very next day with my friend Deb and looked at campers for awhile, before going next door and buying my truck. When I was sure my truck purchase was okay, I went back the next day and bought my camper.

I had to wait for the hitch to be put on the truck to tow the camper. I finally went out to Ancira RV on a Friday and got trained on how to set up the camper. Then they towed me to their little camp site so I could try it out overnight. My buddy, Jack, came and stayed with me. We drank his home brew and talked for hours. It was a great night. Then, next morning, we towed the camper to his place. He let me leave it there until I had time to get my garage cleaned out. Unfortunately, it took more room in the garage than I expected, and is now parked in our driveway. Eventually, it will probably go to a storage facility.

Oh yeah, I owed you one more thing to prove Rachel has lost her mind. One day, right before school got out, she showed me a picture of a dog at the Humane Society and told me to go get it for her the next day. This is the woman who has said forever “NO MORE DOGS!” Well, I love dogs and would have a lot more, if I could get away with it. And, since I am no idiot and know how fast a mind can change, I took the next afternoon off and went and adopted little Vinny.

So, okay now. Do you feel like you know what is going on so far? I sure hope so, because I want to tell you about my first camping trip in my pop-up camper (which is now known to Number2Son and his buddy Storm as “Casa Jim”). I am going on with the story anyway, even if I lost you back there.

I waited for what seemed forever to finally get to take a trip in the camper. I invited Jared and his buddy Storm to go with me to Lost Maples Natural Area for two nights. I sent Storm a text telling him what to bring with him, I took both boys to the store to buy food for the trip, and I made sure that I had the last couple of things I needed for the trip. Then Jared and I picked Storm up and headed off to camp.

On the way to Bandera, I casually asked Storm if he had brought his pillow. He told me he forgot. Then Jared chimed in and grumbled that he had forgotten his. That reminded me that I had also forgotten mine. We weren't even twenty miles from home, and the trip was already going sour. Call me a sissy or whatever you want, but I need a pillow. If I don't use one, I have a sore neck for the next few days. I told the boys we could try to find one in Bandera, although I could not remember seeing a Wal Mart or anything else there before. It is a pretty small town.

We stopped at the Super S grocery store because it had a Subway sandwich shop in it. The boys guarded the truck while I went in and got our lunch. I asked the lady about a Wal Mart and she said I would have to go to Kerrville for that. I told her that we had forgotten pillows, and another customer told me to go to the dollar store right down the street. I parked the truck on a side road and hiked down to there, and sure enough, they had some really cheap pillows and pillow cases. They are now the official “Casa Jim” pillows, and will stay in the camper.

We went on to Lost Maples with only a short stop on the way to eat the subs at a picnic area. We were assigned to camping space number thirteen. I rolled my eyes at the number, but decided I wasn't going to be that superstitious. I had my doubts about it when we got there, and I could not back the camper into the space. I tried over and over, but it just would not go where I wanted it to. I finally got out of the truck, unhitched it, and had the boys help me push it in place. It was easy enough to do, and wasn't the end of the world. Still I worried about my future trips by myself. I would need to be able to back that thing in.

Right after we finished setting up the camper, I watched a guy pull in about two spaces down from us. He was pulling a huge trailer with three or four slide-outs behind a great big pickup truck. He drove past his slot, threw it in reverse, and backed that monster in place in about three seconds. Buy did I feel stupid. I made up my mind right then and there to get some help from someone and practice backing up the camper before my next trip.

Well, Storm had promised his folks he would call as soon as we arrived safely at the campsite. Unfortunately, none of us had any cell phone service. The lady at the park headquarters told us we could drive for three miles to the right, if we had AT&T. We needed more ice anyway, so we loaded up and went looking for a signal. Storm made his call, we bought some ice, we ate some popsicles, and drove back to camp.

By this time, I was pretty worn out from the trip and from setting up in the blazing hot sun. We decided to rest in the cool air conditioned camper until 5:00PM, before taking a hike. We figured it would be cooler coming back. So we all settled into our sleeping areas and had a good nap.

At five, we loaded up the geocaching backpack with all our hiking supplies, including 4 cold bottles of water in a cooler, and headed off to hike the East Trail. The trail is 4.6 miles long, and I estimated that we could probably do it at an average of 2 mph. I fully expected us to be back at the camper by 8:00 PM. Boy was I wrong. We added some distance to the hike by going after a geocache that caused us to follow the West Trail for about a third of a mile each way. It was worth the extra distance, because Storm had never been geocaching before, and this was his first find. As soon as we found it, we headed back to rejoin the East Trail. We were making good time until we reached the pond.

Jared and I had hiked the East Trail from the other direction with Jack Funkhouser several years ago. I remember hating coming down the steep hill to get to the pond. I said that, if I ever went back to Lost Maples, I would go the other way. The hill is so steep that it gave Jared and me vertigo on the way down. Add that the path is covered with loose gravel that makes it really hard to get a foothold. Your feet are constantly slipping out from under you. This goes on for more than a mile. This time, however, it wasn't vertigo or slipping rocks that got the best of this old man. It was the climb itself.

I was miserable hiking to the top of that damned hill. I stopped about every hundred steps to sit and rest for a few minutes until my heart rate came back to human levels. I remember being about 2/3 of the way up (after more than an hour of climbing) and thinking I had really bitten off more than I could chew. The only thing that kept me going up was my fear of going down. Jared had problems with the climb also, more due to agoraphobia then over exertion. Storm never seemed the least bit winded. He didn't even break a sweat. Part of my problem was that the only thing I had eaten all day was a six inch vegie sub with no cheese at Subway. The boys had both eaten footlong meatball subs and breakfast before the trip.

By the time we made it to the top, about two and a half hours later, I was ready to just roll over and die. My legs were shaky, my trapezius muscles were cramping, I felt nauseous, and I had a cramp in a chest muscle next to my heart. Let's not even talk about how sore my feet and ankles were. I sat on a bench and looked around the area to see if a helicopter could land there. We finally had phone service way up there, and it might be time to call for help. Instead, I decided I was just tired from the climb, and, for the part of the hike that was up on top of the hills, where the trails were relatively flat, I actually started to feel better. I got that runner's high feeling for a little bit until somehow or another, we missed our turn off, and added another 2/3 of a mile to the hike, because the trail we followed dead ended at a scenic overhang. I didn't even look at it. I was too depressed. It was about 8:05 PM and I was already getting nervous about going down the other side of the hill.

Just before starting our decent, we found another geocache. It was more exciting for Storm, because it was a traditional cache in an ammo container. We signed the log, put it back, and followed the trail to where it started going down. Unlike the way up, this trail was straight down. You pretty much have to go from rock to rock with a few steep slippery gravel patches between them. It wasn't as scary as the other way, because, if you were careful, you could step on large rocks that did not let you slip. Just the same, the decent took over 45 minutes. By the time we got down to flat land, it was getting dark, and I was having trouble seeing where to put my feet. Did I mention that I had sunglasses on? Did I mention that I did not carry my other glasses? OOPS! Maybe I am an idiot afterall.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill at about 9:00PM, we still had about 1.5 miles to go to reach the camper. It was all flat trails and easy going, but I was totally spent. I also felt like I was getting dehydrated, even though I had drank a bottle of water as we left on the hike and two during. I was getting a little anxious and grumpy. I sent the boys on ahead and told them that, when they reached the camper, they needed to hike back to me with warm bottles of water in each of their hands. Storm told me he could drive the truck back and get me when I reached the parking lot at the trail head, which was about half a mile from the camper. I told him I just didn't feel comfortable letting him do that, and that I could make it back. It would just take me a while.

After the boys left me, I felt a second wind for a short time. It was dark, but there was a nearly full moon (this was the night before the total eclipse), and it was considerably cooler. In fact, I was so wet from sweat that I actually felt a chill. I walked on enjoying the animal sounds and rustling of the trees in the breeze, even though I was not feeling well at all. Every once in awhile, Storm would holler something from off in the distance, but I couldn't understand him, and did not have the energy to holler back.

I looked at my GPS and saw that I had eight tenths of a mile to go. I knew part of that was the walk from the parking lot to the camper. I started to regret that I didn't tell Storm to come back with my truck. I knew it was not a good idea. He hasn't even had driver's ed. He tells me his parents have taught him to drive a bit, but I had know way of knowing his skill level. I was glad my moment of weakness came after he had left me. Who knows what might have happened, if I had let him drive. It was then that I actually prayed for the strength to make it back to the camper. I was beginning to think I was more than tired. I would walk about a minute and sit down on the first rock I saw, gasping for air. I knew I was in better shape than that. Afterall, I had been running two miles a day up until a month before when I messed my knee up doing Zumba. Shortly after I prayed over it all, I remembered that I had my iPod touch with me. I turned it on and played the song Further on Down the Road by Mark Lowery. It used to pump me up at the end of longer runs.

I trudged along on auto pilot focusing on Mark's voice. Before long, I realized that I was walking on pavement. The boys started shouting at me that they had found a water fountain at the parking lot. It was a long hundred yards from me, but I trudged on. They helped me fill my empty bottle and led me to a picnic table. I put my head down and wanted to cry. I simply did not have anything else to give.

After awhile, I told them to go on ahead. I got up and slowly walked back to the camp sites. I had about 200 more yards to go, but stopped at an unused site and sat for awhile at the picnic table to rest. I felt relieved that, if I were going to drop dead from all this, at least I was near people who could help with the situation. I was so angry at myself for even thinking I could climb that stupid hill. I was angry for not stopping more frequently and resting. I was angry for not just coming right back down once I had exhausted my energy. On that note, I was angry for not eating more food before taking the hike.

When I finally got to the camper slightly after 10:30 PM, I just flopped onto my bed and lay there for a few minutes. The boys were great. They got me whatever I asked for and were very caring. I felt a little nauseous and did not eat with them. They went ahead and used their self heating camping meals. Me? I just continued to lay there waiting for my coronary to come or my energy to return. I really didn't care which at that point.

I guess I drifted off to sleep for a few minutes. I was rudely awakened by the sound of an alarm going off. It was the carbon monoxide detector. The boys were frightened and wanted to evacuate, but I knew there was nothing in the camper that could produce carbon monoxide. It stopped going off after a few minutes. Just the same, we opened the door, and I asked Storm to dig out the manuals for the camper and give them to me. I tried to find the right one, but couldn't focus on them. I felt even more dizzy when I tried to read, so I decided to go outside for more fresh air. As I was going out, Jared shouted out that he knew what had happened. Their self heating meals had a statement on them that said something along the lines of, “Heating these dinners does not cause carbon monoxide, but may cause carbon monoxide alarms to go off.” The next day, when I heated my meal, I did it outside.

I hiked down to the restroom shortly after the alarm incident. I felt better after that. While I was there, I splashed hot water on my face and cleaned up a bit. I was still a little wobbly on the way back, but I was nowhere near as concerned. Then the cramps started in my thighs. When I got to the camper, I scrounged through our food box and ate some things that were high in potassium. The cramps came and went throughout that night, but I still slept well. In fact, we all did.

The next day, we got up, and I felt fine. I heated water and made the boys freeze dried scrambled eggs with bacon. Then I made myself some coffee and joined them at the picnic table for breakfast. While we ate, we all agreed that hiking was not on our list of activities for the day. Instead, we would get in the truck and go see Camp Verde, where the calvary kept camels at one time in history. Unfortunately, I did not have my TomTom in the truck, and our geocaching GPS device was not set up for road travel in the area. Jared remembered that we had Onstar, so I pushed the button. It wouldn't connect, so we went to the Vander Pool Store and asked for directions. A few miles later, I tried Onstar again. We connected, but she couldn't give us turn by turn directions for the area. Instead, she had me press a button so she could read them orally and record them for us. We never bothered to listen to the recording, because the directions were pretty straight forward.

We got to Camp Verde, and there were a lot of cars there. When we went in, you could smell the most delicious food cooking. Since the last time I was there, about 8-10 years ago, they had totally changed the place. It was no longer a quaint old fashioned general store. It is now a fru fru place that sells all that stuff ladies like to look at when they go to Fredericksburg like candles and crafty things. Even the candy counter was gone. Instead, they had some candy items for sale in a back room.

We took some photos, bought some candies, and got out of there. I thought it would be fun to take Storm to see the miniature copy of Stonehenge someone had built near Kerrville in Hunt, Texas. We stopped for lunch at KFC, and, while there, learned that the Stonehenge had been moved closer to Kerrville. We found it and walked around it taking pictures for awhile, before heading back to camp.

On the way back, we stopped and found two more geocaches outside of Lost Maples. Then we got some ice and went back to the camper. We ate our dinner and the boys played a zombie game on the iPod touches using bluetooth. After that, we all played several hours of Trivial Pursuit before going to bed.

The next morning, we got up and moved everything out of the camper to get ready for take down. I wanted some time with the AC off, so that the places where the humidity drips on the sides would have time to dry in the sun. That didn't take too long in the Texas heat.

The boys were helping me get everything taken down and ready to go when a neighboring camper came over and asked us how our stay had been. I told him this was our first trip in the camper, and that we had a good time. (We really did have a good time, even with the near-deadly hike.) I told him that our only problem was that I didn't know how to back up the camper, and needed to go home and practice before my next trip. He gave me some tips that he thought might help me. He did this hand gesture with an invisible steering wheel, showing me that I only wanted to make tiny adjustments in direction. I figured I would give it a try when we got home.

We had an uneventful drive back to San Antonio. I followed the guy's tips for backing the camper and parked that thing perfectly on the first try! I still want to go and practice, just to make sure I really learned something. I told the boys that, next week, when we take our second trip over to Guadalupe River State Park, I need to try all the hitching, backing up, and unhitching by myself to make sure I could do it. Afterall, I am going on trip number 3 the very next week. That time I am only taking Nicky, my dog. Jared has driver's ed, and won't be able to go with me for a few weeks, but I can't wait to get on the road and spend more time in “Casa Jim”. See you at the Parks!!!