This Spring Break, we planned a day trip and an overnight camping trip. There's a short version and a long version of the week. My smashed up finger which got slammed in a door today is saying short version, but my desire to keep a more detailed history is saying long version. Long version it is.
It all began with a back. My back to be exact. We had planned a week of outdoor adventures and that Monday after I had taught my barre class, my low back completely went into spasm. I could barely walk. I hoped that by Wednesday (our day trip day) my back would be back to normal. Not so. That morning I was debating on whether or not to even go. We were going to Dinosaur Valley State park to hike and see dinosaur tracks. On top of that, it was quite a long drive, and I was worried about sitting for so long. Ultimately, I decided to go (fomo, I guess) but brought a book and a camping chair just in case I couldn't keep up with the hikers (I had been walking so slowly). The drive was okay and the hiking ended up helping my back to loosen up. We had a fun time, and I was feeling pretty good at the end of the day. The next day not so much. I woke up in pretty bad pain and started wondering if I would be able to go camping at the end of the week.
That Friday our plan was to get everything packed up for our campout so we could take off pretty early on Saturday. I was still in pain and moving like a slug, so Chris pretty much took care of the packing. I was really starting to worry about sleeping in a tent. I didn't even know if I could get up off the ground once I got down there. But, Saturday morning we loaded ourselves into the van and headed out. I figured I could hurt at home or hurt in nature. The drive to Garner State Park took us an hour longer than planned because of horrible San Antonio traffic, so we were pretty tired and a little bit grouchy when we arrived. We checked in and headed through an extremely crowded park to our campsite. Upon arrival there was a family parked in our spot with a tent and grilling supplies set up. Chris talked to the guy about why they were in a reserved spot and found out they had set up to use it for the day. We didn't know what to do, so we went to ask a park ranger. By the time we got back, the family had moved into the spot next to us. The ranger still kicked them out because it wasn't a day use area, and we felt like jerks at that point. We were too embarrassed to set up while they were leaving, so we drove to another spot in the park to wait.
When we finally got to our site it was several hours later than we had planned on setting up camp and grouchiness ensued. The park was too crowded. The day was wasted. Blah blah blah. We went to work anyway and set up a girl's tent and a boy's tent. Once Kaylee and I got ours popped up I went inside to find the whole floor of the tent covered in stickiness. It was an old tent and apparently worn out. I was so annoyed by that point, but then I decided, I could either stay grouchy or roll with the punches. Chris was feeling bad because he had been really excited to show us the park and everyone was grumbling and cranky, so I decided to make the best of the tent situation and we went for a hike. We hiked Old Baldy which is basically straight up. I wasn't sure if I'd make it because of my back but decided to hike until I couldn't. Oddly enough, we all made it to the top and my back was feeling better than it had all week. Something about climbing up large rocks and steep trails had been good for the pain. After our hike we went back to camp for dinner. By then the park was mostly cleared out of day trippers and it was much less crowded. We enjoyed the evening and when I woke up the next morning, my back was the best it had been all week. We made breakfast, packed up camp, and then spent the rest of the morning hiking and exploring the park. We left around noon and didn't get back home until 6:00.
Traffic was so bad on the way home that it took twice as long to get home. We were beside ourselves and worried that Alice Clover had leaped out of her cage and torn apart the house or given up the ghost. This was the first time we had left her overnight. After hours of traffic, we finally made it home. The house was in one piece and Alice was alive and well and only a little annoyed that her schedule had been thrown off.
Spring Break was quite the adventure. Even after all the mishaps we had a really fun time. We recently bought a Ford Bronco Sport (it's pretty much the awesomest), and we are super excited to take it on some new camping and hiking adventures.
