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We arrived at Martin Dies Jr. State Park on Friday at about 1:00.  It was a fairly easy, uneventful drive, me navigating and Connie driving.  She loves to drive the truck and trailer. 

The park is split into two units.  The Hen House Ridge Unit is on the south side of US 190 and the Walnut Ridge Unit is on the north.  We drove around Hen House and almost settled on a site but decided to go over to the other side to check it out before making a final decision.  We ended up in the Walnut Ridge unit because the sites were a little larger and the waterfront sites were available.  In fact most of the sites were available.  There were only 6 other campers and us in the whole 139 sites.

The whole campground is heavily wooded with large pines, magnolias, oaks and other beautiful trees.  Connie mentioned to the conservationist how beautiful it was.  She told Connie "You should have seen it before Hurricane Rita, we lost 40% of our trees."

Connie backed the trailer in and I got it set up and hooked into water and electric.  I put the slide out and turned on the water in the kitchen sink.  I should say I opened the faucet because there wasn't any water coming out.  I checked to make sure everything was hooked up properly and then tried all the faucets.  The only ones working were the hot water ones.  Next I turned on the pump for the self contained system.  Same results.  I pulled the access panel off of the pump/water heater cabinet.  After trying to find a blockage in the lines there with no luck I decided we would just use the campground facilities.  I wasn't about to pull the belly pan off in a campground.  I don't even want to do that in our driveway.  Something is moving around and blocking the water lines at various places and it is making me crazy.  I will definitely get it figured out before we take another trip.

We saw plenty of wildlife. Rabbits, squirrels, birds, armadillos, deer and even a bobcat early one morning.  I didn't realize the kids had never seen a live armadillo before.  They really are suburbia kids.  I'm glad we can take them on these trips.  They get to spend time in nature areas where there is something other than concrete and manicured lawns.

The deer were small.

This guy was wearing velvet.

We mostly hung out and relaxed.  The kids did a lot of bike riding, even talking me into taking a ride with them.

I'm the fat old guy without a shirt if there's any confusion.

We spent a lot of time just clowning around the campsite.  Connie and I introduced the kids to the Blues and helped Chase write his first blues song titled "I've Got The Detention Blues".  He's learning to play the guitar so it may be a while before the song is available on iTunes.  At least the lyrics are set.

A future Muddy Waters?? Stevie Ray Vaughan??

Megan is the family athlete.  She's playing volleyball these days but her heart is in softball.

Look out Jennie Finch.

Megan grabbed the camera and took a couple of pictures of us.............

On Sunday we all went on a hike on one of the nature trails.  We didn't see much in the way of wildlife in the woods. I think it was because it was very hot and they were holed up for the day.  Either that or the animals heard us coming from a mile off and left the county.  The trail was about a mile long and we were all panting by the time we finished.

Being such experienced hikers we were all wearing our hiking flip flops.

I think they were trying to lose Sam and I.

The park had a class on alligators on Saturday which I took the kids to.  It was very informative and we all learned a lot about 'gators.  Sunday Connie took them to a class on reptiles where they watched the snakes get their weekly meal of frozen mice.

Connie took most of these pictures and the two following.  I just hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button in picassa so they will probably be even better when she has time to fool with them a little.

These were taken from the waters edge at our campsite as the sun went down.

Of course no camping trip would be complete without the nightly campfire and smores.  Have you ever tried to get two kids to settle down and sleep after they eat a bunch of those sugar bombs and wash them down with Dr. Pepper?  Thank God I brought my Kindle.

It was a great trip for us and I think the kids enjoyed it.  They came away with memories and a couple of "camp stories" I hope they forget. 

Adios for now, enjoy the day.

--Rod