Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Monahans Sandhills State Park

Days 2 of 13
Two Week May Trip 2015

We had about a 3.5 hour drive from Abilene to Monahans where we ate lunch and had some fun before getting back in the car to head to Guadalupe National Park.







This is Mr. T
I really wish I thought about the lighting better when I took this picture so that you guys could see his face better. Mr. T has been working at Monahans State Park for the past 15 and he has such a fun, friendly character that I could see in his face too :)




Monahans SP is marked off our list!
Since this was only a quick visit I will not be providing a review on the park at this time.
I will say it was fun though!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Abilene State Park

Day 1 & 2 of 13
Two Week May Trip 2015

Its Saturday, May 16th
We loaded some of trailer yesterday but we weren't able to finish all of yesterdays last minute errands. So today we had to drop off the animals and the bring the boys to get their hair cut before we ended up hitting the road at 12pm. The plan was to get the trailer and car packed and leave by 10am at the latest... Oh well, plans change.


Here we are, Abilene State Park. We only stayed one night here.
When we arrived a majority of the campsites were already being used by a cub scout pack.
We ended up picking site 48 which was a pretty good site for us.
We set up our tents, started dinner, and I set my hammock up but oh yay...
I hear dads phone and a few of the phones over at the cub scout sites go off with weather warnings.
At first we were under a severe thunderstorm warning then 10 minutes later we're under a tornado watch and within the next 45 minutes we were the only ones in our little campsite cluster. The scouts had packed up and left because they were worried about the weather. That's the fastest dad and I have ever seen a group that big pack up and leave.
I had to take my hammock down and sleep in mom, dad, and keala's tent because it did end up raining a little bit. It didn't last long though. The warnings and watches were gone within a hour and a half.



Good morning! Eggs and yesterdays leftover waffles, which we smeared some Nutella onto, for breakfast. Mom never buys us Nutella then we go on this two week camping trip and we have 2 jars of it! One per week! Anyway, I have some of dads coffee with some sugar in my ladybug mug, the red one with white dots, and I watch Justin play with the Rubiks cube.


I don't remember what time we headed out but I think it was sometime around noon. We did have to jumpstart Aunt V's car since the battery died overnight. After that we were more careful about being in and out of the car and not charging the phones and tablets when the car wasn't on. We drove around the park before we left. Checked out the yurts they have that you can stay in. We didn't see inside them but they are pretty much canvas tent that are, from what the website says, furnished and have a flooring.



So there was the 'about our stay' part. Now for a little about Abilene State Park.
You can swim in the lake or the pool at certain times of the year.
They have bicycle, nature/interpretive, and hiking trails.

Our site was a tent site with water and electric, no tent pad, but there were good places for the tents. It was a little small but I'm not complaining. I'd stay at that site again.
They do offer sites with sewer as well as cabins and screened shelters for those of you that prefer that option.
The Bathrooms... Uhm, while there was no privacy for the boys showers (no door or curtain) we did have curtains in the womens bathrooms. Dad said it was one of the worse SP bathrooms he's been in.
I'm not complaining about the womens bathroom but at the same time I don't usually complain unless Something is pretty bad. I make do with what I have when camping.
The water treatment pad, or whatever its called, was sort of near our site and it did make a buzzing sound most of the night which bugged a few of our people.
The ladies at the front desk we're very nice and I enjoyed listening and talking to them.
The gift shop was pretty small but on the way out we did see a volleyball pit, playground, and a pretty cool field which I would have played ultimate frisbee in if we had enough people and time...
And now on the road for a 6 hour dive to Guadalupe National Park with a lunch stop at Monahans SP.


http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/abilene