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/

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?