First Camping Trips are Usually . . . : 7/1-3/2011

My apologies for not posting anything lately.  BB, Henri and me (forget grammar - go for the catchy rhyme) found out that we are "cool weather" campers.  Danged ol' global warming (or is it called climate change today?) has dumped a whole lot of heat and dry on central Texas.


Yes, Mingo has AC, and yes, Henri has his monkey to chew on, but everytime we get chased into the cool, BB brings out the Scrabble board and unmercifully beats me into a pulp.  Hurts my ego and my head! So the heck with it; we're likely not going to do much camping this Summer except in places that have a great swimming hole!

So I had this bright idea that if WE didn't enjoy camping so much during the heat of the summer, then surely Shelly, Blake, Lydia and Grant would just LOVE camping. Right - two adults inside a rubber-roofed, aluminum 10 x 20 box, with outside temperature in the 100's, along with two kids who, by definition, cannot sit still!  Plus the responsibility for an RV that doesn't belong to you and absolutely no knowledge of how to work anything in the RV.  Genius - right?

Shelly, Blake, Lydia and Grant
at the start of the
odessy

Regardless, we hooked up Mingo to the truck, met Shelly, Blake, Lydia and Grant, and all convoyed down to Blanco State Park.  Blanco State Park is another excellent facility tucked into the edge of this growing hill country town near San Antonio.  One of the prime assets of Blanco State Park is the Blanco River which is just a short walk from the campgrounds.

Since this was Shelly and Blake's 1st time camping in our trailer, this was a "training" cruise to show them how to set up and use the RV. 

CCC Structure at Blanco SP

While all Texas State Parks are "first come - first served" on camping sites, there were still several nice spots left when we arrived on Friday afternoon.  We unhooked, set up the RV without incident, and gave Shelly and Blake a whirlwind tour of which button did what, which lever not to pull, and where everything was. While the site had electricity and water, it did not have sewer hookups; only a nearby dump station.  (Music begins to turn a little ominous here.)

Local Yum!

Friday night, we all decided to go into Blanco and have a nice dinner.  We ate at a cafe on the Blanco Square, across from the reinovated old Blanco Courthouse, and sampled some of Blanco's microbrews!  Tasty and infinitely better than brews from the "Big 3."

Blanco River and a
Great Swimming Hole!

 As BB and I left early Friday evening, to return to Austin, and while Lydia and Grant were madly dashing around looking for floaties, flippers, and having Daddy blow up the boat so they could go swimming, as we left, I couldn't help but notice a degree of aprehension behind Shelly's brave smile.

Sometime Saturday afternoon, I got a call from Shelly who said "the sink and the shower aren't draining.  Is there a valve or something that I forgot to open?" No, I replied.  Your gray water holding tank is full!  So, BB and I drove down to Blanco and brought our portable gray water holding tank to the rescue.

Blanco River

We emptied the gray water tank, only after a couple of mishaps with the sewer hose connection coming unhooked from the drain valve on the RV, and then at the dump station.  Lydia was a great help by continually coming outside and saying "Phew!!! What's that Smell?, What's that Smell???!"

Finally, after lots of "yuckys" and showers, we got the job done.  The sink and shower were draining nicely and Shelly had a new appreciation for just how small holding tanks are.  So with that crisis solved, off BB and I went back to Austin and Shelly, Blake and the kids took off for the Blanco River!

After we left, but before we got to Austin, I got another call from Shelly, and from her voice, you could tell something upsetting had happened.  Somehow, when the family left the RV for the river, the door to the RV locked when it closed.  Unfortunately, all the keys, both to the RV and to their car, were locked up inside Mingo.  After trying everything they knew to do, she called me knowing that I had told Blake that the key I had left them was "my only key." (I neglected to tell them that BB has a key as well - that might have lowered the blood pressure a little.)

When we drove back to the camp site and I opened the door with BB's key, relief on their part was immense and immediate.  Blake advised that his son Grant had been walking the campsite roads crying "We're Homeless!! Somebody HELP US!"

So another crisis averted, and when we left for Austin again, the brave smile on Shelly's face was beginning to crumple.

No further phone calls or incidents for the rest of the weekend and when we showed back up on Sunday afternoon to pack up the RV and hook back up, everything was cleaned and polished spick and span before we got there.

Before we left for Austin, and Shelly, Blake, Lydia and Grant left for Bastrop, I asked Shelly if she might consider camping in the RV again.  We discussed that with two kids, it was important to go to facilities with good swimming, and with FULL hookups.  With those conditions, Shelly and Blake felt it was worth another try.

So first time camping weekends can truly be interesting (challenging?).  My beautiful, hard-working and talented Shelly summed up her first camping weekend pretty well when she said:

"Well Dad, it was REAL

 and it was FUN,

 but it wasn't REAL FUN."

Sorry Shelly, for all the stress.  We'll do better next time.