Bastrop State Park: After the Fire

Saturday, June 2

Wow! I thought this trip would never get here. Talk about a rough ending to a school year! I finally figured out a few things that made it rougher than usual. Of course the fact that I work the same job at two schools is obvious. Still, I convinced myself that it would be a breeze to shut them down. I based this on my 14 year experience with Carson ES. We got closing down the school to a science where technology was concerned. In fact, closing down Carson went as smoothly as ever, if not smoother than ever before.

What I did not expect was the impact of Braun Station ES. It was as if they have never experienced the end of a school year. I don't mean to imply in any way that it was a problem with them. It was a problem with US. My methods and the ones their previous CITs have used definitely suffered from some kind of profound culture clash. Just the same we got them all checked out at both schools. I have a ton of work left to do at Braun Station. Doesn't matter. I'm off on a trip in the Colby T. My batteries will be recharged, and I will get it all done in stride over the next week or two.

The other thing that packed a wallop was the upcoming technology deployment at Braun Station. While I should have been concentrating on shutting down, I had some pre-planning things to do for the deployment that were really time consuming. All worth it in the long run, though.

Anyway, today finally got here. I set my clock for seven and sprang out of bed like an eight-year-old on Christmas morning. I did my three S's, threw on some clothes, finished my little bit of packing and headed down for coffee. Then I loaded the truck, kissed Rachel goodbye, got gas and ice, and went to Pack Rats to rescue the Colby T.

I had an amazingly easy time of hitching up. Jack suggested using the truck's backing camera system with the tennis balls. They were too short to see over the bed of the Silverado. It was a great success when I did it after the Corpus trip. Today, however, I tried just using the camera without the tennis balls. If you ask why I had never tried that before, I will answer, “Because I am dumb as mud! That's why!” It was so ridiculously easy that I am ashamed of myself for not figuring it out sooner. I was hitched up and sitting outside the gate of Packrats in under fifteen minutes!

The drive up was really pleasant until I reached New Braunfels. Although the weather was really nice all day, there was a crazy wind coming from the east that kept wacking up against the side of the Colby T. It freaked me out so much that I slowed down to 55 for about fifteen miles. I was going to stop at Bucee's to see the new store, but the wind had me too freaked, so I just headed on.

I got to the park in just under two hours. Then I sat at the gate for about ten minutes while some lady with a car load of kids asked hundreds of questions. I really didn't mind. After all, I was safely within the perimeter of the park! The ranger just waved me through and told me to stop at the headquarters to register.

Inside the station, I renewed my park pass, which gave me a discount on my stay. I thought I had done it in Goliad, but I remembered that the lady there told me not to because it would have caused me to lose a month. Anyway, the ranger let me pick out a site, so I picked the one farthest from the bath house. I like it. It has a nice view out both sides of the Colby T, even though the trees are all burned. It is nice and level, even though I have the hitch thingy down as low as it can possibly go. As soon as I got here. I plugged in, turned the AC on, unhitched, and drove off to meet N1S at the Roadhouse. He came over to get some rent checks from me, since this is only about 30 minutes from Austin. He had asked if I could go there, to which I said, “Oh, HELL no! I'm on vacay buddie!”

We had a great lunch at the Roadhouse, although I am sorry to tell all my friends who recommended it that N1S said the burgers are “Just Okay”. I had a Greek salad, so I can't really say. It was very good.

We also enjoyed a beer while we were there. I should also say that we sat outside because that place is dinky and was PACKED!!!

I drove N1S over to the Colby T. He had never seen it, and I wanted him to see the results of the fire. You really couldn't see them from the direction he had driven. He stayed about ten minutes before I drove him back to his truck. He needed to get back to Austin and put a deposit down on his new apartment. The cool thing is that he needs my signature as the “guarantor” on the lease. That means he will be back tomorrow. We are going to meet at a different hamburger place that is highly rated on Yelp! Hamburgers are N1S's thing. He and some friends go all over Austin trying them at different places and plan to start a blog about it.

Back at the park, I drove over to the site I used last year in the Casita Jim. Some people were tent camping there, but I took some photos with my Flip anyway. The perimeter was pretty bad, but the actual camp area didn't seem to have too much damage. I will tell you that the rangers have repaved all the roads and redone all the electrical boxes, etc. throughout the park. It really looks good, even though most of the trees are burned.

I headed back to the Colby T to change my shoes and get ready for a hike. I ended up going for two and a half hours. The rangers have hand-written corrections and changes to the map. I didn't read them correctly and ended up lost twice. Not really “lost”, just not where I thought I was. Anyway, it was a great walk. I even went all the way up to the scenic overlook. I tried to match my Flip videos to the ones from last year before the fire.

It is so different now. Even the trails that I had been on seemed new to me. I didn't recognize anything. The pine needles that softened the trails are all gone. Now it seems really rocky. I guess that is the erosion the signs talk about. The bridges are all gone. There are new ones in some places. Other creek crossings involve hopping from rock to rock or crossing small logs. It was challenging at some points. I would come to a place in some trails and not really know for sure where the trail went. Towards the end, I used my phone to find the part of the park where the Colby T was docked and kept my eye on the little blue ball to make sure I was headed for it. I still ended up in a strange area of the park. After a while, I figured out where I was and took the road to the camper.

I rested for awhile. I had to scrub my legs. Where my socks ended, there was about a six inch area of black from the fire ashes. It was like a magic marker drawing, the line was so vivid. In fact, the paper towels I used to clean my legs were so black, I almost took a picture of them, but I settled for a shot of one foot instead. Check it out.

I decided to put all my cold stuff in the fridge. It seemed cold enough. I even filled the freezer with the rest of the ice from the 10 pound bag. Then, in true Jim form, I started to get paranoid. What if it isn't cold enough. What if the chicken breasts I plan to survive on grow bacteria and poison me? I decided I needed a refrigerator thermometer, so I dressed again and went to Walmart. While I was there, I also bought some mustard, some asparagus, and some turkey pepperoni. I like to dip my chicken in a blend of Sriracha and mustard. Asparagus is one of the two vegies I will eat, the other being broccoli. I use the pepperoni in the microwave to make a great low fat and zero carb crunchy chip.

I also stopped at Clint's liquor store and got a bottle of Irish Whiskey. My Glen Livet is on it's last legs and won't last the whole trip. I don't guzzle the stuff. I take a drink in the evening. I was going to buy Scotch again, but Irish Whiskey caught my fancy.

I headed back to the Colby T with my treasures. I was going to find a place to watch the Spurs game, but the hike had worn me out a bit. I guess I am getting old! Anyway, I couldn't watch it on my TV. I ended up downloading an app that let me get an ESPN broadcast of the game on my iPhone. Fortunately, I still have my iCube in the camper, so I got really good sound. Unfortunately, I'm such an idiot that I keep looking at the TV when the announcer mentions something exciting. The Spurs lost the game, and now the series is tied 2-2. I am glad. I want to watch a few more games.

Anyway, I ate my dinner, listened to the game, and worked on getting my stills off of the Flip videos. Then I went ahead and started writing this blog post. In a minute, I am going to transform the dinette into a bed and read for a while. I have a great book checked out from the San Antonio Library with the Overdrive app on my iPhone. It is The Kite Runner. I am really enjoying it. I only have 21 days to read it, but I think I'll make it. That didn't used to be a problem. Now I am an old fart who falls asleep too easily. More tomorrow.

Sunday, June 3

Well, I slept really well last night. In fact, I slept so well that I woke up super early fully rested. I tried laying there for a while, but it was obviously time to start my day. I ate a quick breakfast after converting the bed back to a dinette. I quickly attached the hose to the fresh water input, since I wasn't sure how much more was left in my tank. Then I put on some hiking clothes and hit the trail.

I wanted to hike the trails to the lake. Once again, I took the wrong trail and ended up at a picnic area on Park Road 1C. I went ahead and followed the road until I found the lake. It was really nice. The trees around it survived the fire. They were humming with life as the morning breeze blew through them. There were some people fishing right in front of me, so I just sat there for a long time enjoying being a live and communing with nature. I saw some big whirl pools in the middle of the lake and wondered what they were. [Note: I asked the rangers the next day and they said they were put there after the fire to aerate the lake. When one of the roads washed out, it filled the lake with a lot of crap. The whirlpool thingies are there to help keep the fish alive. Not sure if it worked. Nobody caught anything while I was watching.]

I took the right trail back to the camper. It was different on the trails today. Something about the morning sun. Colors were different, and the shadows where interesting. I saw a couple on the trail and chatted with them for a bit. Nice people. But then, most campers are nice people.

It was about 11:00 when I got back. An alarm went off on my iPhone reminding me to get some work done on my Camp Tech presentation, so I did that until about noon. Then I got in the truck and headed over to Billy's Pit Barbecue to meet N1S so I could sign his lease agreement as the guarantor. We wanted to try another hamburger place, but there were few places open on Sunday. As I passed the Roadhouse, I saw that it was open and more crowded than yesterday!

We ate our meal and then got to work filling out his form. There was quite a crowd in that tiny little place, so we gave up our table and moved to the truck. I had to provide a lot of personal financial and employment information for both Rachel and me. I texted her for a few things I couldn't get off my phone. Then we saw that she had to sign the paper. I told her to sign her name on a piece of paper with a sharpie and send it to us as a photo in a text. Then N1S forged it. I tried, but my handwriting is such crap there was no way I could fake Rachel's beautiful writing. N1S is capable of beautiful handwriting, because his mother forced him to learn it back in third grade. Then the teacher held up one of his papers in front of the class and commented on how “pretty” his handwriting was. That ended that! Anyway, for those of you who consider it wrong for us to forge Rachel's signature- get over it. She was in on it. It isn't like we were doing it behind her back.

N1S headed back to Austin. I headed to Walmart. I wanted a few things again, but can't remember what they were. Oh yeah, paper towels, drink mix with electrolytes, and keytone test strips. I use the strips to test my pee for keytones. On my MEDI plan, I am supposed to stay in keytosis. I got off of one of the trails yesterday and had the worst keytone taste in my mouth I have ever had. Sure enough, I am getting the best color on the strips I have had since beginning the program in November. Of course, scientists will tell you that keytosis is keytosis. Doesn't matter what color the strip turns, as long as it turns.

When I got back to the Colby T, I just messed around for awhile. I hiked up to the trash dumpster. When I was coming back, I noticed that about half of the trailers were missing. Throughout the day, they would just be gone. By night time, we were down to only eight of us! Anyway, I read for awhile and ended up taking an accidental nap. Then I was doing something in the sink and realized it wasn't draining. The gray water holding tank was already full.

I took out my Rhino sewer hose and went to hook it up, only to find that it would not fit. The hole in the ground where it has to go has a little concrete wall around it, preventing me from bending it to a useful angle. Fortunately, I still have the cheap blue one that the dealer gave me when I bought the trailer. I bought the Rhino because RV parks won't allow the cheap blue ones. I was worried about using it because we store them in a black tube on the trailers tail. If it didn't fit in there with the Rhino, what would I do with it? Before using it, I went ahead and tried storing both of them. It fit! It was my lucky sewer pipe day. I went ahead and drained the tank.

I decided to take another hike before it got dark. It was only 5:30, but I had a long one in mind. I hiked from the camper to the new trail that cuts across the ridge to an area close to the Copperas camping area. Then I took the rode to the trail head for the part of the park that I had not been to yet on this trip. Nicky and I hiked that trail last year. It was one of my favorites because it was mostly shaded and the trail was sand covered in pine needles, so it was really easy on my feet. We only had issues on a few unshaded stretches that did not have the needles, because the sand was too hot for Nick. We would go from shade to shade so that his feet could cool off between stretches. Today, it was a different trail entirely.

Every part of the trail was sand today. It was deep sand like a beach and hard to walk in. There were charred roots all along the way. They were about a foot above the new trail surface level. It was almost as if I were walking with a ladder on the ground, stepping over the rungs. Very few plants grew on the ground over there. The trees just stood there in a frighteningly barren landscape. I noticed that there was not a sound with the exception of my footsteps. The wind was blowing a little, but there was no sound coming from the trees whatsoever. It was ERIE. I can't describe it any other way. I am going to get a little goofy here, so you might want to skip the next paragraph.

I am not a tree hugger. You will never find my ass chained to a tree because someone wants it out of the way to build a convenience store. Sorry. I'm just not wired that way. However, I do respect trees. When I walk in a forest, I feel like we are communicating in some weird way. I won't even try to explain it. Just understand that on some emotional and very real level, the trees and I are understanding each other. On this trail, there was nothing. I was so aware that I was the only living creature there, that I actually became overwhelmed for a few minutes and cried like a baby. I don't give a rats ass if a fire is good for a forest. It still broke my heart to walk among the corpses of all my tree friends. Okay, I'm done.

The trail ended back at the scenic loop. It was not dark yet, but I didn't want to take any chances, knowing how many times I had gotten lost so far. Besides, I had my sunglasses on, and they are an old prescription to begin with. I didn't want a repeat of Lost Maples! I decided to follow Park Road 1C past the lake and back up to the pool area. I hadn't experienced the hills. They were murderous.

When I finally got to the Colby T, I filled up my sink, stripped down, and took a sponge bath. Then I put my comfy clothes on. I caught up with email and Facebook for a few minutes before turning on the TV and watching a few shows. I was tired. I was sore. I was so frapping happy to be on this trip, that I almost couldn't stand it!

I converted the dinette to bed mode, poured myself a Bushmills, and lay there reading for about two hours before finally turning out the lights and going to bed. This time, exhaustion from all those hikes caught up with me and I slept long an hard.

Monday, June 4

I woke up this morning at 9:30. I cleaned up the Colby T, got dressed, and took a hike to the park headquarters. I would say it is about a mile away, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I got there and bought a T-shirt. Then I spent about an hour talking to the rangers. They answered all of my questions, and believe me- I had a bunch. It was wonderful. I learned. I learned. AND I learned. I love the rangers in Texas state parks. Why did I not become a ranger? Don't get me wrong, I loved my career in education. But, WHY DID I NOT BECOME A RANGER?????

I hiked back to the Colby T and fixed a quick lunch. Not hard to do when you only eat meat. After a quick clean up, I got ready and headed to Beuscher Park, but remembered that I wanted to go to the Walgreen's first. Okay, too much information, but last night my drawers got sweaty on the hike, clumped up on me, and caused some chafing. I wanted to buy one of those Gold Bond sticks that helps out with that. It seems to me that it is just Body Glide. I wonder if they bought them out?

Anyway, while I was at Walgreen's, N1S called me to say he needed more stuff for his lease. They wanted copies of our bank statements! I was not happy. I mean, come on, he isn't trying to move into the White House. They had all of our personal information. Run a credit check. We are good for the rent. I used the Internet on my phone to get screen shots of my balances. Then I used an app I have to create a fax and send it to the leasing office.

I took the highway to Beuscher, but never seemed to get there. I asked OnStar and they directed me to turn on to some road called KLBJ. I made it to the park, but N1S called again to say that they wouldn't accept my screen shots because my name isn't on any of them. I was ready to blow up. I let N1S log into my account and get a May statement that satisfied them. Then I realized that I was lost in the park! I could not find the park headquarters. OnStar had taken me in a really weird way, which I later learned all GPS related devices do. I called and got directions.

I had another nice visit with the rangers at Beuscher. They told me only six people were camping in the park today. Wow! When you try to book parks online, they are always full. Someone once told me to call instead of booking online. That worked for this trip to Bastrop SP, and is obviously good advice.

I took the map and drove around to see all of the camp sites. They do not have any pull throughs, and only the park host sites have full hookups. There is one camp site that is arranged in a circle. I could tell by looking that backing the Colby T into them would be no problem for me, since the angles would allow me to just back straight in without any turning. I can go fairly long without dumping my tanks, and if I have to, I can just hitch up, dump, and come right back. I could also buy one of those blue tanks that you fill up and walk to the dump site. Anyway, I am up for a stay at Beuscher in the next few weeks, if the house remodeling lets me get away.

I also stopped at the lake and walked out on the grassy berm. It is a much bigger lake than the one at Bastrop. It is in the center of the park, and pretty much the main feature.

I ended my time there with a partial hike of the Beuscher trail. It is almost an eight mile round trip, but I was a little worried about walking that long in the hot sun and humidity. I had plenty of water with me, but it still didn't seem wise, especially not by myself. Knowing that I had a heart attack sometime within the last few years, without even realizing it, has made me a bit more cautious. I wanted to do more. This trail was so lush and full of life. I was overwhelmed by the noisiness of it all. The cicadas and birds were screaming at me the whole way. There were also these loudly buzzing flies. I wasn't sure if I had my own fly that flew circles around me the whole time, or, if different flies took over every few yards.

I took the park road back to Bastrop State Park. It was a nice drive. It seemed to take longer than I expected, but I figured out why. I kept thinking that Beuscher was only five miles from Bastrop. When I got to Bastrop I saw the sign saying, “Beuscher State Park 11 miles”.

Instead of going to the camper, I decided to drive on out of Bastrop State Park and fill up my tank for the trip home tomorrow. I got gas and saw Billy's Pit Barbecue across the way. I remembered seeing that they had mutton, so I went on over and got some for my dinner.

Back at the Colby T, I ate the delicious mutton, dipping it in a mix of Sriracha and mustard that I sweetened with Splenda to make sort of a barbecue sauce. It can be challenging when you don't eat carbs! While I ate, I called Rachel and checked in. Then I cleaned up, got dressed for a hike , and hit the trails for the last time.

I took the same trail I took last night. This time, when it came out by the Copperas area, I stayed on the Park Road and walked back toward the pool area. It ended up being a lot longer than I wanted. All the pains from hiking over the last few days came back. My back was hurting for some reason. I would have to stop and bend backwards and forward to get to stop. Then I had to do it again about every two to three minutes.

Back at the Colby T, I repeated my sponge bath actions from last night. Then I copied the screen shots I had made of apps from my iPhone to my computer so I could work on my presentation while listening to the Spurs game. Since I don't have cable TV in a state park, I have to listen on my iPhone using an app that gives me ESPN radio. In fact, the Spurs just lost the game! Oh well.

While the game was on, I finished my presentation before catching up on this blog. Now I have to process today's pictures from my Flip. More tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 5

I woke up super early again. This time I stubbornly refused to get out of bed until about an hour later when my bladder forced me to. It was about 6:45. It will take several weeks of summer break before my body stops waking up early for work. I decided to take advantage of the semi cool outdoor conditions and went ahead and started some of my “leaving camp” routine. I tried to get as much of the outdoor things as possible. Then I came back in for a quick breakfast before getting to work on some serious maid service. Trust me when I say that the Colby T is cleaner than it was the day I pulled it off the lot! I swept, mopped, scrubbed, and polished. I even took my fan apart and cleaned the blades. Don't forget defrosting the fridge.

Anyway, I got it all done and hitched up for home. I decided I wanted to stop at Camping World. I had only been there once with Jack Funkhouser years ago. I wasn't interested in anything back then. Today it was an “oo/ah” experience. I ended up just buying one thing. It is a book call 10 Minute TECH Volume 2. It has “600 all-new ten minute solutions to fix every maddening RV problem imaginable!” I figured I better have it in case a problem arises.

From there I went across the highway to the new Buc-ee's. It is huge, but doesn't have anything the others don't have. You just aren't forced to trip over everyone else. I got some turkey sticks and jerky. I like theirs because most of it is carb free.

After a short and uneventful drive, I pulled into Packrats just after 12:30 pm. I backed straight into my spot like normal. I got out to figure out my adjustments only to be amazed that I had actually backed it right into the sweet spot on the first go!!! Maybe there is hope for me.

Not sure when my next trip will be. For those that don't know, we are doing a lot of home repairs and remodeling this summer. Some of it includes new windows, new floors, rebuilding the stair way, painting the whole interior, a new kitchen, a new guest bathroom, and turning our shower into a closet and putting a walk- in shower where the tub is. I think I will be fairly tied up with all that. I may be taking some one-nighters just to stay sane!

Until next time!

Oh, I forgot. You can see my pictures from this trip at this link:

http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff433/jjjandrbaker/Bastrop%20State%20Park%20June%202012/