Sunday, June 04, 2006

Urban Camping

Love wisdom, and she will make you great. 4:8

When the kids were little, we used to camp out quite a bit. But somewhere along the line either the kids got too big or the tent got too small. Then one day, while drying out the tent, the wind carried it off to a barbed wire fence and that was the end of that. So we gave up on camping.

Last week Gary and I decided to try urban camping. We drove a total of 4.5 miles to Cedar Hill State Park, located on Joe Pool Lake. To get in we bought an annual pass to all Texas State Parks, then drove past all 350+ campsites to see if there was one we liked. Since it was a Thursday, the park was pretty empty, and we found a great spot right on the water.

Next problem, we had to go buy a tent. Lucky for us, Wal-mart is only 3 miles away from the entrance to the State park. Gary wanted to buy a little tent, but I insisted on one you could at least stand up in. Notice, it is intended for urban camping.We then went back home to pack for camping. We knew we could, but we resisted bringing a microwave or TV, but did bring an electric kettle so we could have a cup of tea (that didn't taste like smoke).

We drove to a place to go for a hike (this is a big park and you have to drive everywhere, just like the rest of Texas) and noticed they had strict instructions for the urban snakes.On day two of our trip, we got too hot and drove home to relax in the a/c during the middle of the afternoon. Good time to upload one's photos and check the email. Back to the park in time drive a couple miles to the other side of the park for an outdoor lecture on coyotes, complete with powerpoint slide show projected with a video projector.Lest you think I'm joking about the urban camping thing, here's the sign at the entrance of the state park:For another account of our vacation, look here.

Overheard:
My cat loves me!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

awww, isn't that cute? But knowing you, i'm very surprised that you went out and bought a tent for a single use (or maybe two nights counts as two uses). As the medical student son, it is my job to try and diagnose this behavioral disorder. I think it's either a manic episode, or more likely (since you're getting old) frontal cortical atrophy resulting in loss of inhibition.

Thainamu said...

I seem to recall it was you and Jesse who last used the old tent and put it away wet, thus necessitating the episode that led to its demise. Maybe you should pay me for it.

And you should be glad that we took my suggestion of buying a tent instead of doing what dad wanted to do--go stay with you for two days :-)

Jennifer Metz said...

Hi! Found your post by searching "urban camping" on Blogger.

Thought you might like to read about some other urban camping types: www.urbancamp.blogspot.com