Pedernales Falls Camping Trip

Pedernales Falls State Park

Saturday, January 14th, 2011

Well I am finally off on another camping trip. It has been a long time coming. The last time I got away was the trip I took to the Koyote Ranch the first week of October 2011. I needed that one, too. Daddy had passed away about a month and a half before, and my new dual-school year started at the same time. I felt really drained from dealing with all of it. October through December came with their own issues. I had to do a lot with Daddy's estate, and I managed to finish cleaning out and selling his house. By Christmas, things were settling down, but we still had his memorial to get through. Then, although Christmas break was wonderful, mainly because of Josh being down, mountain cedar attacked and left us with two miserable work weeks, half dead from not really resting much during the holidays.

As I drove my new Silverado Extended Cab off the lot on the Thursday before school started back up, I started daydreaming about taking trips pulling the popup behind it. The Colorado is a great little truck, but face it, it wasn't built to be towing anything! The Silverado was. It was engineered with a complete towing package, including automatic engine adjustments at the flick of a switch.

I realized that MLK Day was coming and jumped at the chance to go on a trip. Unfortunately, all of my close and favorite sites were either closed for hunting or already booked up. I just about called it all off. I didn't want to arrive at a campsite and have to set up in the dark. Then, I remembered that I had Monday off and could just start my trip on Saturday. So, that's what I did.

I didn't do much preparing for this trip. I did do a lot of buying. My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law all showered me with lots of Amazon gift cards. It was hard to think of what to buy. I bought lots of things, including a Keurig coffee maker. But, for the camper, I bought all the things that I had been wanting, but just never spent the money to get. I got a BAL leveler, some bubble levels, a disk that holds the tongue wheel in place, a 6” electric skillet, a 5 gallon water jug with a spigot, and a ceramic heater. Today, I just stuck it all in the Silverado, went to the storage yard, hooked up the camper, and headed on over to Pedernales Falls.

I had been worrying a bit about how different the camper would tow. I thought that since the Silverado was more powerful, I might forget about towing and go too fast. In the Colorado, whenever that happened, the camper would start swaying. That always terrified me. Fortunately, the first time I towed the camper, Jack was with me. He told me what it was, what causes it, how to prevent it, and most importantly how to stop it when it happens. God, I love that man! He knows so much and is so willing to share all of it with anyone who needs his help. Sometimes, I feel bad for taking advantage of him. Today, for instance, I noticed that the front end of the camper was about 3-4 inches higher than the back when hitched to the truck. I called Jack for reassurance that it would be okay. He says I should change out my hitch so it is level, but it won't hurt being a bit off on a short trip.

All my fears were mute points. The Silverado pulled the camper really nicely. I never even noticed it when first accelerating. In the Colorado, you would feel a little tug just as you got started. There never was one iota of sway, even when I was going down hill at 70 miles per hour. It just sort of happened. I still haven't acclimated to the difference in the trucks. What feels like 50 in the Silverado after driving the Colorado, ends up being 70. I have to be really careful.

It was a really nice drive up here, even if it was a bit horrific. The traffic for the first twenty miles outside of 1604 was heavy. 281 used to be a pretty Sunday drive when Daddy would load us in the car as teenagers to go to Marble Falls for the weekend at the military resort on Lake LBJ. I think it was called Camp Arrowhead. We would rent little trailers and spend the weekend fishing, boating, and swimming. I always got to take a friend with me. In fact, my buddy, Jim Gips, went with us once after I had started working in Waeldar. He flew into Austin, I picked him up, we had a great weekend, and I took him back to the airport. Wait a minute... I am remembering it. A blue northern rolled in. It was Halloween weekend. We spent most of our time in the trailer that time playing cards and scrabble with Mom and Dad. Then Jim got really sick. I had to stop about five times on the way to Austin for him to puke his guts up. I wish I could call him right now and confirm all that for sure. His memory is 1,000 times better than mine. At least he tells me it is. Unfortunately, there is not enough bars on my phone to sustain a call from the camper, and it ain't worth driving up the hill for.

Boy did that take me on a bit of a trip. Back to this one... I was horrified because the beautiful country ride is gone for the most part. The scenic views are covered with housing developments, and tacky little store fronts litter the sides of the rode. I think they need to rethink that “Don't Mess with Texas” campaign. It ain't my candy wrapper that's the problem. It's urban sprawl.

Anyway, I finally turned off of 281 and headed towards Austin on 290. The damned Tom Tom told me to take a left turn on a little tiny ranch road. I did it without even thinking. As I drove in about a mile I started to worry that I had turned on the wrong road. This was a one lane road like the one that goes to Long Ranch. It was fully paved, but it wound through a plethora of ranches, and took me through cattle guards and private gates. I kept hoping I would see a place to turn around, but didn't. I finally pushed the OnStar button, not really expecting to connect from the wilderness. The lady that came on told me I was on the right road and only had about seven miles more to go. Sure enough, it came out on a bigger road that took me to the Park Road turn off after about a mile and a half. I have to admit that it cut off a good twenty miles instead of going all the way to Johnson City. Just the same it would have been nicer had Tom Tom said, “Left turn onto a ridiculously small ranch road that you will be convinced is not the right way.”

I just turned on the ceramic heater to see what it does. It is thermostat controlled, so I am hoping I can keep it warm in here. It is only just now starting to get a little chilly outside. I am not using the gas heater, because I am a chicken. I just feel that I will either blow my head off or die from fumes. Yes, I know it is a totally irrational fear, but I can't help it. Anyway, the lighter I brought with me, just in case I wanted to try it, is broken into three or four pieces. I find it humorous, that when I first got here and finished setting up the camper, I had the rooftop fan on high and all the windows open. It wasn't “hot”, but doing that made it perfect.

When I got here, the ranger gave me a few choices to select from. This spot, number 60, is right next to the bathhouse. In fact, it has its own private trail through the woods to get there from the site's picnic area. She told me it was a good site, but that there were about 100 Boy Scouts camping around it. I took it anyway because I noticed it did not have another site right across from it. That meant I could pull further forward before backing up. That's how I do it best. Even then, it took me four or five tries to get it right today. At least nobody was looking and laughing. In fact, I haven't seen any of those scouts at all. For all practical purposes, I am alone in the woods. I did see another man in the bathhouse, but he is not camped anywhere near me that I can see. There is a tent caddy-corner across from me, but it is set back behind some bushes. The sites at this park are fairly private.

Well, I'm gonna to turn the heat down now, as specified in the instructions. After about five minutes of running, it's toasty enough to make me woozy. “According to the maker”, it will now come on and off automatically and maintain this temperature. I hope it does, but I am a doubter. It claims it will heat a 200 square foot room, but it is the size of a box of Kleenex!

I just took a writing break and cooked my first ever meal in the camper. It wasn't much, but it was good! I had ¼ pound of 96% lean hamburger with some Egg Beaters on a pair of Carb Balance whole wheat tortillas. Yummy. All I had before that was an Atkins bar for lunch. I'll be having the same meal three more times during this trip. I'm not much for cooking while camping. I usually just eat something out of a can. This is much nicer.

Well the jury is still out on the new heater. It is heating the camper well, but I'm not convinced the thermostat works. When I followed the instructions and turned it lower until it shut off, it never came back on even after 10 minutes had passed and the temperature had turned cold again. Now, it has been running forty minutes solid without going off. Unless of course, it is leaving the fan on and turning the heat off and on. I don't know. It is more than 70 degrees in here right now. I'm not sure what the outside temperature is. It feels cold to me, but the phone keeps going in and out of 1 bar so I can't check Weather Bug. I know it is going to get really cold, because there is not a cloud in the sky. I walked over to the bathhouse a minute ago, and the Milky Way was hanging over my head. Okay... Weather Bug came on for just long enough for me to see that it is 54 degrees in Johnson City, which is about 10 miles to the west. It is forecasted to go down to 37, which won't kill me, even without the heater.

I took a little trip up to Johnson City earlier this afternoon. I wanted to go to Walmart and get some shorts. I have some of those short PE ones, but I only wear them around the house- not out in public. I didn't expect it to be so warm today, and neglected to pack any walking shorts. The Tom Tom said there was a Walmart in Johnson City, but it actually turned out to be in Marble Falls. I didn't feel like driving another 40 mile round trip just to get back to Johnson City, so I blew that off and started looking for a liquor store. I wanted a bottle of Scotch to help me sleep this evening. It is hard enough to sleep with these allergies, let alone in the cold and on a hard camper bunk. I thought a little nip would take the edge off. Tom Tom lied to me again, and the Hye Spirits liquor store was actually in another town called Hye. It was about a ten minute drive from Johnson City. Nice place. I talked myself out of buying a bottle of Scotch at Gabriel's last night, but this place was a LOT cheaper.

When I got back from my little jaunt, I walked around a bit and took some pictures. Then I remembered that I had neglected to buy ice all day. I only need it for those Egg Beaters and the pound of hamburger that I mentioned earlier. During the summer I carry a cooler full of ice for drinks. I keep a few bottles of water or Gatorade in it, but mainly use it for the ice itself. When it's colder, I just drink water at room temperature. I walked about 100 yards to get the ice from the park host. I took a wrong turn coming back and got lost for about five minutes. In July, I would have arrived at the camper with a bag of lukewarm water. Today, in spite of the sunshine and comfortable upper 70's temperatures, it stayed frozen solid.

Since the ice trip, I have alternated between writing, reading, and making dinner or coffee. I did NOT bring my Keurig. Hence, the coffee sucked. I don't remember the correct amounts for this little camper pot. I had it written on the container last time, but I dumped what was left back in the big box. This trip I just threw the big box in my back pack, since I don't use it at home now that the Keurig addiction took over my life. I'm actually using so many K-cups a day that I feel the need to hide them at the bottom of the trashcan. Not from Rachel, but from prying eyes of the trash men, even though they use those super-super deluxe auto jumbo can dumpers now. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, we have huge garbage cans that get picked up by machine and dumped just like those huge trash dumpsters behind businesses. One is recycle and the other is waste.

Well, I just took a nice long walk around the park in the cold of night. I got to see all the stars and listen to the awesome sound of campers around their campfires. I saw a glow on the horizon to the south that my GPS says is San Antonio. There is a smaller glow to the east that must be Austin, even though I think I am closer to Austin geographically. It smells like a summer barbecue out there. Even though it was 9:00 when I was walking, people were cooking their dinners over the fire. Other people were arguing with small children who don't agree that it is bed time. I guess Moms and Dads want some of their own quiet time under the stars.

I saw several popups here tonight. All of them are bigger than mine. Some are huge! I would say the majority of the people using a camper tonight are actually in popups. The largest group is the tent campers. The Boy Scouts are responsible for boosting their numbers. I passed lots of them on my walk. They seem to be fairly disciplined. I did have an incident with some little ones standing on each other's shoulders so they could peak into the men's room window. I hope they enjoyed the view of my back as I peed. I'm not sure what they were hoping to see. Just hijinks I guess.

I have no idea if the heater has turned off and on. I do know that it is now holding the temperature at a comfortable 69 degrees. It is 50 outside now. I'm pretty sure I will be okay. I wish I had a snack, though. Pork rinds would be good. Guess I'll just crawl into my bunk and read before going to sleep.

Sunday, January 15^th, 2011

Well, I won't say that it didn't get cold in the camper last night. I got up in the middle of the night feeling a little chilled. I got Jared's sleeping bag, opened it up, and threw it over mine. Then I got back into mine and actually zipped it up. Boy was I shocked. Last time I used it, it was uncomfortably snug when it was zipped up. Now after losing 45 pounds it is nice and roomy. Anyway, that made all the difference. I slept very well. The thermometer I keep in the camper never dropped below 50, so the heater was helping.

I dug out all the owner's manuals today and tried out the gas heater just in case it gets cold tonight. It was supposed to be warmer today, but it was overcast and breezy and never felt as nice to me as it did yesterday in the gorgeous sunshine. Anyway, all you do to turn the heat on in this camper is twist the knob on the propane tank and push the thermostat higher. Everything else is totally automatic. The directions I had read on Popup Portal were completely different. Oh well. Anyway, I turned the gas back off and left it off. I know how to do it know so it is no issue. I'll have to ask Jack whether or not it is okay to leave the gas tank valve open the whole time the camper is set up. It would seem to me like it is okay, since the refrigerator runs off propane somehow, too.

I started my day with a great cup of coffee. I finally figured how to use my little pot again. It was sunny when I got up, so I went out and sat at my picnic table. I slept later than some of the people obviously, because several of them had already packed and left. Thankfully, they were very quiet.

I decided to go and hike the four mile trail across the river. The views were really nice. I didn't realize that I would have to walk through the water to get over there. I kept hemming and hawing over whether or not to do it. Then I finally just thought to myself, “You may never get back here. Do it!” I rolled my pants up, took my socks and tennies off, and waded across the river. It was COLD! Half way across my feet started to ache from the cold water, but I persisted. As soon as I reached the other side, I sat my butt down and dried off my feet with a paper towel. I have been carrying pockets full of them because of the mountain cedar fever. I have a constant trickle of tears running down my face, and use them to blot it dry. Once my socks and shoes were back on, I was ready to go. No harm done.

The hill getting up to the trail seemed to go on forever. I took it really slow, stopping several times to let my heart rate recover. I am a little freaked about over exerting myself when I am alone ever since the doctor confirmed that I had a minor heart attack sometime in the last three years. Believe me- I do not remember having one. The doctor says the EKG doesn't lie. Which in itself is funny because my other doctor saw the same thing a year earlier and said he thought it was a loose lead. Anyway, I try to take care of myself when I am hiking alone.

About two miles into the hike, the wind really picked up and clouds rolled in. I got really worried about crossing that damned river again if it rained. They have all these menacing signs all over the park telling you to leave the river quickly if the water starts to rise because of flash floods. Anyway, I went ahead and turned back. I got the same workout, I just didn't get to see half of the loop. Now that I think about it, that was a stupid thing to do. Going all the way around wouldn't have taken any longer!

Going down the hill to the crossing wasn't much fun. I kept getting the feeling that I was slipping. There were several people on the other side of the river putting their shoes on. I really think they were just wading around or maybe decided against crossing after feeling the cold. I only saw one couple on the trail and never heard another soul. You'd have thought some of those Boy Scouts would have been hiking.

While I was climbing up the hill to get back to the campsite, three men were going down toward the river. One asked me how I was doing. I told him I was fine, but the water was too cold. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “I don't plan on going in the water!” I told him you had to wade across to get to the trail. He just shook his head with a sad expression and kept going down. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one who expected a bridge or something to get me across.

When I got back to camp, I sat for a few minutes processing pictures from the flip video camera. Then I realized I was kind of hungry so I cooked up a batch of hamburger and Egg Beaters. While it was cooking, I heard a loud SNAP. I couldn't figure out what it was. Then, a few minutes later, when I took the lid off the little mini electric skillet, I saw that it had developed a circle shaped crack around the handle. I was not a happy camper. (Wow! I actually got to use that while camping!) This was only the second time I had even used the stupid skillet. It just came in the mail on Friday afternoon. I am going to have to contact Cuilinairre when I get home for a replacement!

After lunch, I took a long two hour nap. It was really nice. I had pleasant dreams. Don't remember them, but I know they were pleasant. The bad ones always stick with me. Like the one I had the other night. My dad suddenly decided he wanted me to call him a taxi to take him to the movies. I couldn't get him to understand that it was a bad idea. I didn't have the heart to tell him he was dead! Yes, my bad dreams stick with me.

It was close to 3:00 when I woke up from my nap. I needed to go to the falls before it got dark, so I loaded my valuables into my back pack, got in the truck, and drove over. I had been there once before during a Cub Scout family camp out when Josh was about 10. Dad and Jared came with us on that trip, too. My memories didn't match up with reality very well. I didn't remember the half-mile hike to stairs which led me down to the falls. It was pretty down there. I took lots of photos, but the walk back up just about did me in.

Before going back to the camper, I pulled into the bird viewing area. It was amazing. There were hundreds of beautiful birds-mainly cardinals in a little garden that you see through a window from the blind. I'm glad I was alone because all those cardinals made me think of Mom and got me teary eyed for a few minutes. I don't think I will ever see a cardinal without thinking of her. She loved them and had them all over her house. I saw some little creatures that looked just like hamsters. It turns out they were cotton mice.

Now I am just hanging out in the camper. It is almost dark now. I need to work on more photos and cook up some dinner. But, for now, I am just going to sit here, drink my coffee and enjoy the sounds of camp.

Well, after dinner, I read and wrote for awhile. Then at about 9:00 I decided to take a walk around the campsites. It was a little warmer than last night because there was a thick cloud cover. It was a whole lot darker, also. In some spots I could hardly see at all and had to turn my flash light on for a second or two just to make sure I was still on the road. About half of the campsites were empty tonight, and some of the ones that were there were dark and quiet. There were two drunk guys sitting by a fire talking really loudly. I won't go in to what they were talking about. It's just funny how people at a campsite forget that they are still in public. I noticed something else, that I didn't see or notice last night. Some of the RV people string lights all over the place and make their sites look like a patio in the city. They even have patio furniture and televisions. I wonder if they even saw the Milky Way last night.

When I got back to the camper, I made a small pot of coffee. Then I sat at the table reading for a few minutes, until I started getting a little tired. I went ahead and got ready for bed, climbed in my bunk, and started to read. I don't know when I fell asleep. I woke up at about 2:00 AM still holding my iPhone with my book on it. I had to use the restroom, so I took care of that and went to sleep for good.

Monday, January 16^th, 2011

I woke up at about 8:30 this morning. It was really quiet. I didn't hear anyone cooking breakfast over the fire or anything. When I went out, I realized why. All of the campers around my site were packed up and gone. It was really overcast and damp, which made me think they knew something I didn't. I was afraid rain was gonna come. That's no problem in the middle of a camping trip. But, when it is time to go home, you have to either wait until the camper is dry, or take it to the house and set it up again until it dries, just like a tent. I packed everything up really quickly, fixed my breakfast, took down the camper, hitched up, and headed home by 10:00 am.

As I left the camp driveway, I saw a road right across from it that said it was going south. I decided to give it try. It went about 8 miles then ended on 290. I'm pretty sure it was the road I was supposed to take on the way in, instead of that tiny meandering ranch road.

The ride home was good, except for the rain. I'm sure glad I got out when I did. It wasn't pouring or anything like that, but the camper would have been a wet mess. This way I was able to go straight to the storage lot and drop it off on my way home. It will sit there until I take it to Austin in three weeks for the TCEA conference. I'll be staying in it for three nights, instead of paying a huge hotel bill. But, don't expect a blog post on that trip. What happens at TCEA, stays at TCEA!