Some Goods are Better or Best

Last weekend I went camping at the Guadalupe River State Park just south of Blanco, Texas. It seems to be a decent place to camp and the river running through has the bald cypress trees which are quite amazing to see (or at least I thought so). My friends Eve and Peter arrived the day before with my tent and grill cooker so they has an evening and a morning ahead of me.

I LOVE camping. I love being outdoors especially in the Indian Summer weather we had been experiencing. I love hanging out with my friends and have nothing better to do than hike in the woods, explore the river banks and then come back to camp and hang out.

Texas is so funny. One day it can be really warm or even (and usually hot) and then the next day a cold front blows in (this one literally did at 40 mph) and within hours it can be freezing (which it did mid week). But last weekend it was still unseasonably warm and dry.

I was somewhat disappointed with the camp site itself. We have this great state of Texas with all the land one could spread around in, and the camp sites are too close together. I felt like I'd arrived in suburbia. A suburbia filled with overcrowded tenants. The camp site next door was too close to ours and no trees or bushes to filter out the huge trailer attached to a huge truck. People in Texas love to drive huge pick up trucks. There were four dogs; one big enough to saddle and ride; two little black and whites ones that looked like twins; and another terrier. It wasn't so much the dogs, or the kids or the vehicles that were a bother. It was the noise of the leaf blower, the noise of the generator and the blow up kid place scape. I was appalled that a generator was making white noise for way longer than I thought peaceful. And the leaf blower. Wouldn't you think that it being fall and dry and warm, that it would OK for leaves to settle around the camp site? And JFC, just pick up the tent and shake the crumbs out. To use noisy leaf blower inside the tent and around the picnic table is more than I can stand.

Otherwise, I got to hang out with my friends in the Texas hill country and that was a true blessing. Next time, I'm going with the wilderness camp site and walk into camp with a backpack. Maybe.