Dallas
After Austin we drove north to Dallas and spent 2 nights with Twyla, Kendra, Zaeden and Livvy. (Kendra and the kids were visiting Texas while Travis was on a church trip to Guatemala.) We were nervous about Rocky sharing a space with our niece and nephew but thankfully, the kids understood not to go to close and we were able to keep them separated most of the time.
Remember that photo from the first day of the trip? Where the car looks packed to the gills? Turns out, the amount of stuff we’ve been lugging has been a huge source of stress every day: unpacking when we arrive and trying to fit everything back in (or tying it onto the rear basket) when we leave. Then strapping everything in so it doesn’t fall onto Rocky and his tiny space in the back seat. So we somehow latched onto the idea that we should buy a small camping trailer. It would solve the space issue, would save money on lodging, and we’d get to do the camping that Kyle has been dreaming about. We could sell it at the end of the trip to make our money back.
We spent all day Monday driving around Dallas/Ft. Worth looking at mini campers and talking ourselves into spending $13,000. Wait, $13,000? Reality check. Even if we sold it at the end of the trip, the value will have gone down. I did some math and it looks like cheap motels + occasional tent camping is much more economical. A better plan is to ditch some of our stuff for the next leg of the road trip or look into a cheaper mini storage trailer. In any case, we’ll figure it out when we get back in March.
Pedernales Falls
With a week to go before we leave for Asia, we set off on one more leg of our January road trip — and the only camping stop so far — to Pedernales Falls State Park in the Texas Hill Country. What Polar Vortex? Instead of $13k we decided to spend $40 on a tent heater that would make sleeping more comfortable. Despite the chilly weather, it wasn’t as cold as the winter camping we’d done in CA last year, and we had a beautiful campground almost all to ourselves.
We did some light hiking to the falls and in trails around the park. On Wednesday, Kyle needed wi-fi to download some files for his paper, so we drove into Fredricksburg, a town known for its German heritage. We ate lunch at a biergarten and visited a Texas winery (who knew Texas made wine?) before heading back to camp.
During our stay we had a couple run-ins with the wildlife. On one hike an armadillo crossed the trail. Rocky took off after it but thankfully wasn’t fast enough to catch it.
Later that night, I awoke to a scratching noise outside the tent. Kyle had warned me that there were wild hogs living in the woods and I was afraid to unzip the door to find one. But by the time I fiddled with the zipper enough to open it, whatever it was had run off. I should mention that with no bears to worry about, we were a little lazy about locking up all of our food and trash before we went to bed. Rocky’s food canister (secured with a bungee), a trash bag, the cooler, and our latched bin full of food and cooking supplies were sitting out still. Nothing had touched it the first night, so we weren’t very concerned. This happened a couple more times, but it was so cold and the thought of encountering a wild hog was too scary to make me want to leave the tent. I banged on the tent and made noises to scare whatever it was away. But when I was jolted awake again to the sound of nails scratching on the plastic bins and the rap of a bungee cord bouncing off the dog food canister, I angrily unzipped the tent and shined my headlamp out to find a pair of eyes shining back at me: Raccoon eyes. The lid of Rocky’s food had been flung aside and the non-food items inside the bin (a Furminator, flea meds, vet paperwork) were strewn around the camp. Bits of foil from our dinner were now sitting outside of the trash bag, the leftovers picked through. I convinced Kyle brave the cold and wild animals to bring the food inside the tent while I locked the trash in the car.
