Martin Dies Jr. State Park

The kids have decided to fight for possession of the baby laptop

I was a little late on the Memorial Day campsite booking wagon, so there were some slim pickings.  We ended up booking at Martin Dies Jr. State Park in Jasper, Texas.  The only other time I had heard of Jasper was when a man was dragged to death in a racially-motivated hate crime, so I didn't go into this with high expectations.

The last time we camped in early April, Moses parked the camper in the side yard when we got back.  Then the rains came.  I don't even know how many inches of rain we've had, but we had a lot of mud in the yard.  He got the camper hitched up alright, but the wheels kept spinning in the mud.  Then he got it unhitched, but the truck was stuck.  He put a couple of boards underneath the back tires, and all that did was sand down the board and make the tires bald.  We ended up having to call his grandpa to come over with the tractor to haul it out of the mud.  We've GOT to get some gravel down for the camper, but first we have to move the dog pen, and we have to wait for the mud to dry up first.  So sick of mud.

I spent all day Thursday packing up the camper and making food.  I was pooped.  Moses had planned to not go into the office and make it a four-day weekend.  I ran to the bank while he hitched up the trailer again.  By the time I got back, it was raining, so we were pretty cold and miserable by the time we actually got on the road.  I think we left at 11am.  The winds and rain were making us sway a lot, but that subsided once we got to the other side of Dallas.  We stopped at Buccee's in Forney, where we had lunch in the camper.  Bazinga picked out M&M's, I got a chocolate cream pie in a cup, and Moses got a bag of turtle cookies.  All were delicious.  Max got a short walk and potty break.

Texas in general has had some flooding problems over the last week, so there were a couple of places where we had to drive through water.  Other smaller cars were making it okay, so we were fine, but it was a little nerve-wracking.

The babies trotted through the camping loop several times

We finally pulled into the park at about 6:30pm, and there were a couple of deer right by park headquarters.  Our campsite was on the island across the highway, where we saw several more deer.  I think I stopped counting around ten.  It rained all night, and several campsites were under water, but we found one that was dry and about three spots down from the bathrooms.  Dinner was hot dogs cooked on the cast iron skillet and corn on the cob baked in the oven.

I didn't sleep well Friday night.  I was awake around 3am when I heard a small boom and the power went out.  No power means no air conditioner.  This made Saturday uncomfortable.

Saturday breakfast was french toast casserole cooked in the oven.  Bazinga found some kids camping next to us, so she had a blast playing with them.  She also found her whiteboards, so she scribbled on those for a while.  2.0 tried to, but he's 15 months old, so you can imagine what that looked like.  He did enjoy kicking the soccer ball around, and he yells, "Ha!" every time he takes a swing.  Moses took Bazinga up to the nature center at 10am for some sort of educational thing.  He picked up a Junior Ranger backpack while we were there.  2.0 took a nap in the playpen and I knit.  I got the fire going while they were gone, and lunch was baked potatoes.  After lunch, Bazinga and I drove back to the nature center for a watercolor craft.  While we were in there, we saw an electric company truck drive past.  Shortly after that, Moses texted to say that he'd been told that power should be back on in an hour.  It was about three hours later, actually.  Did I mention it was hot?  And muggy?  We smelled lovely.

Dinner was french bread pizza cooked in the oven.  We were at the neighbor's campfire when Bazinga ran up and said her tummy hurt.  Then she went in the camper and came back to say she'd thrown up.  We think she just played too hard, didn't drink enough, and certainly didn't eat enough.  She threw up three more times in the camper with me, took a nap, and felt fine when she woke up.  Early bedtimes for the kids and me.

Sunday breakfast was pancakes & bacon.  We took Bazinga back to the nature center for a snake feeding and rattlesnake craft.  She was selected to show everybody a rattlesnake skin.  She took her duties very seriously.  I declined to pet the dead snake bits.  Then everybody got to pet a live snake.  I declined again.

Somebody had to take pictures, right?

She took her duties very seriously

After we got back, I laid down in bed with Alex to try to get him to go to sleep.  That took a while, because it's a lot of fun to climb over Mt. Mommy.  Once he was finally out, I turned on the oven and baked some enchiladas.  Moses took Bazinga and Max for a hike, which took a very long time.  The enchiladas were cold by the time he got back, but they were still tasty.  I put 2.0 in his stroller and we did a loop around the island.  Dinner was black bean & corn chili cooked in the crock pot, followed by smores with the neighbors.  Bazinga stayed up way too late playing with the other kids, and she had a meltdown at bedtime.

Breakfast Monday morning Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls from the freezer.  While they were tasty, the caramel made a huge mess to clean up, so that pan rode hom with a bit of water in the sink.  We got everything packed up and were back on the road at about 11:30am.  We stopped for some fuel and Moses got a deep-fried chicken/sausage/onion kabob.  It was tasty.  I pulled out some guacamole & chips and we snacked on that.

We stopped at a rest stop north of Jacksonville, Texas.  Here's the panorama from the scenic overlook.

Bazinga was more interested in less scenic views.

Another stop at Buccee's on the way home, because who can resist Buccee's?

Since it was Memorial Day, Pie Five Co. was giving away free pizzas to veterans, so we stopped there and split a pizza and salad.  We pulled in our driveway around 8:30PM.