We went Camping!

One Saturday afternoon we were driving down the freeway, and I saw an REI. "What does REI sell in Dallas?" So we went into the store to see if they had any great ideas for camping locations and other outdoorsy insider information for crowded, cramped, urban Dallas.

Once we got there, we found a handout that said, Local Climbing. "Local climbing in Texas?" When we got home we looked up the locations, and all but one were at least 5 hours away. But there was that one that was only 1.5 hours away, which was totally do-able. So this past weekend we ventured out on a camping trip to check out the local climbing.

One thing I absolutely hate about Texas: In Utah, you take I-15 to get wherever you need to go. Yes, there is I-215 as well, but I-15 is all you need to know. Let me give you the brief run-down of how we got to the state park: We got onto TX-161, then TX-183 W to I-820 S to Tx-121 S to I-35W S/US-287 S/US-377 S to I-30 W/US-377S to I-20 W to Cleburne Hwy/S Farm-To-Market Rd 51/FM-51/S Main St/Tx-171 to Palo Pinto St/US-180/US-80. And the destination was on the right. Holy cow. Give me a break. What is worse, is we left after Nate got off work, and it was dark while we were trying to navigate. The funniest incident was when we got off the wrong exit, and as we were sitting at a stop sign, looking up into the cement-filled sky, all you could see was overpasses going in all different directions. Nate points to what seemed to me to be a random freeway and says, "That's the one we need to get on." How he picked that out of the haystack, I have no idea. So we followed under that road into some random run-down town until we found a place that we could get onto the freeway. He was right.

It was fun taking Mackay camping this time around, because she is old enough to look forward to something. At the beginning of the week we were looking through some flashcards, and I showed her a picture of a tent and explained to her what it was. She thought that it was so cool that you can sleep outside. So the entire day she was excited to sleep outside in a tent with her monkey, Mooch. Mackay fell asleep quickly in the tent, and Nate and I had a nice relaxing evening camping next to the scout troops. (Not as bad as you would think). When we eventually went into the tent to go to sleep, we looked at the sleeping bag and there was no Mackay. She had somehow gotten out of the sleeping bag, rolled off of the mattress, and was sleeping soundly on the cold, hard, rocky ground. She woke us up in the morning jumping all over, so excited that she had slept in a tent.

We packed up our stuff and went on a little hike. Mackay did really well in the backpack, as long as she had Mooch with her. We had to tell Mackay to put her hands down after this picture. I put my camera away, we started hiking, and I looked up and saw her still holding her hands in the air. She is so obedient.
We forgot to bring any water bottles with us. Oops. We did have a large jug full of water, so on the hike Mackay drank her water out of the lid. I think she thought it was kind of like taking the sacrament at church, and loved her little "cup".
Mackay and I. While we were in Utah, Grandma Linda became "Mommy" and I became "Mom."
What isn't pictured from our camping experience is the awesome rock climbing that we found! I'm pretty sure Nate was salivating when he saw it. Although bouldering isn't allowed, he couldn't help getting his hands on the rock. After Mackay saw her dad, she wanted to rock climb too. Nate, the beaming father, coached her on the best holds. Eventually, she got scared and started saying, "Woah, woah, woah." (That is what I say when she is doing something dangerous.) I had left my camera in the car and didn't have the energy to run back and get it.

On our way back home, we drove through this cute little town. Nate said, "Kalli, do we need to stop so you can take pictures?" "No, I'm fine." "Really?" "Yes, it's okay." "Are you sure? Because we can stop." "Okay, that would be great." What a nice husband I have. After a few minutes of taking pictures I could tell that this was not a tourist town. EVERYONE was staring at me and my camera.
We went to lunch while we were there. It was between Chickenscratch and the Weatherford Downtown Cafe. I chose the cafe. We walked in and everyone stopped eating to watch us walk in and sit down--very awkward. I wanted to take a picture of the menu, but Nate thought that would be rude. This was a real small-town Texas cafe. I couldn't decide between the fried zucchini, fried pickle, fried cornbread, or fried chicken. The special of the day was fried liver and black-eyed peas. I really don't know what black-eyed peas are, though I know there is a music group called that. I ended up getting the chicken fried chicken, and couldn't believe that the chicken wasn't in the shape of a circle. It was good, but honestly, I prefer the frozen circle that's been reheated.

And of course, you have got to get a picture of the Texan Pride. Benches painted with the Texas flag.