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!

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

Heading out tomorrow!

What's up guys?!
Holy cow... So, we are leaving for this two week camping trip TOMORROW!!!
and I'm pretty stinking excited about it :D
Mom is finishing up the last little bit of shopping but other than that we're pretty much all packed up. All of our tents, bags, sleeping bags, and kitchen stuff is currently strewn about the living room. We plan on packing up the car tonight and the coolers and trailer tomorrow morning before we head out.
As far as meals go, since there are 7 of us we will have teams of two rotating every night for dinner and clean up. Breakfast and lunches are pretty easy so each of us are pretty much on our own as far as making whatever is planned for that day....
Aunt V and cousin E are joining the adventure as well :)
I will probably be too busy having fun or sleeping to post on here until we get back but I will have pictures on the Instagram page @texas_family_sp_adventure throughout the next two weeks so you can keep up with us there.
Also, I don't know how many of my followers use Snapchat but I'm debating on whether or not I should set up a tfspa Snapchat account.
Let me know what you guys think!

Two week camping trip in May

Hey guys,
We have a two week camping trip planned for May!
We will be hitting about 10 state parks and 2 national parks over the two weeks.

Here's a basic layout of our plans. There is always a possibility of this changing.

1 night at Abilene SP
Visit Big Spring SP & Monahan SP
2 nights in Guadalupe National Park
Visit Carlsbad Caverns
2 nights in Hueco Tank SP
2 nights in Franklin Mountains SP
Visit Wyler Aerial Tramway SP
2 nights at a hotel in El Paso (laundry, restock food)
1 night at Balmorhea SP
Visit McDonald observatory
1 night in Davis Mountains SP
Visit Fort Davis
1 night in Seminole Canyon SP
2 nights in South Llano SP

And Casey will be coming with :)

All our reservations are made, now to figure out what we will be eating...

Ray Roberts Lake State Park Rating and Review

If I had to use one word to describe this trip it would be "cold."
It was the first cold weather camp-out I've done but it was still fun :)

When I started this blog I know I was using a 5 star rating system but I sorta fell away from doing that so I'm going to try and stick with it for the rest of the parks.
I will be providing a review and/or rating for the bathrooms, campsite/cabin, Hiking/Biking trail difficulty, and the family activities.

Bathrooms - 4.8
The first thing I said when I walked into the bathrooms was"wow!"
No creepy crawlies, they had soap and a heater, which was super nice when you had to walk to the bathroom at 4am in 38 degree weather, and it was clean!
I will say that towards the end of the weekend some toilet paper did find its way to the floor but it was clean when we first got there!
The showers made me want to take a shower while we were there.
Yeah guys, I camp stinky style. No showers for me on weekend camp-outs. Judge me all you want but I don't feel the need to pack a towel, shampoo, body wash, and all the rest when I'm only gone for 2/3 days.
The reason I'm being weird and taking .2 off the rating is there was no hot water for the sinks... But the heater made up for it!! Just so you guys don't get worried, the showers did have hot water :)

Campsite - 5
We stayed at campsites 2-3 which were more like one big campsite.
There was a field nearby where we played frisbee. Beware of the anthills though!There were some big ones out there. Anyway, back to the campsite. There were not many options on places for me to set up my hammock but looking at the other campsites some of them had no trees altogether.
The bathroom was not super close to our campsite but it wasn't far away enough for us to feel the need to drive to it.

Hiking/Biking Trail Difficulty
We walked down one of the biking trails and it made me want to ride my bike on it.
We walked about two miles and it isn't a paved trail but its not super rocky. There were a few roots and rocks in the trail for tripping on if your not careful. Also, if you are walking down a biking trail one of the big things to watch out for is bikers.

Family Activities
We didn't do any of the activities the park had but I will tell you they were doing zumba in the morning, a nature journal thing, and a wildlife tracking class. The nature journaling looked really cool but at that time of day we were busy exploring the park.

I have some cousins that have been to the Isle De Bois park and here is what they have to say about it.
"We really like the lakeview sites, the fact they patrol often and enforce quiet time at night. We like the boat ramp for the most part, but sometimes it gets crazy as there isn't much supervision by park staff there.
Overall, we really like the park. We do wish they had sewer hookups for the campers, but they do have a dump station." "Oh...and I love seeing the deer! Tons of deer at Isle Du Bois!"

Although we didn't see any deer at the Johnson branch we heard a ton of coyotes both nights which I thought was really cool :)

One more quick thing, there is not a park/gift store. They had one on the map but when we asked they said they took it down about two years ago.

Ray Roberts Lake SP - Food and Pictures

Food? Well, we had to eat and of course we had hot dogs... But that's not all!

We had hobo burgers the we prepared at home. Basically, you make hamburger patties and wrap them in tin foil with some bacon, peppers, onions, whatever you want! And when your ready to eat them lay them in the hot ashes in you fire pit and let them cook for 30-45 minutes.

Apple pancakes for breakfast

"They're not burnt!" I love the slight camping burn flavor :)

Dad made a really yummy (and spicy) rice, chicken, and sausage dish in the dutch oven.

I found out that I like spicy stuff better when I'm outside freezing my fingers off :P

For dessert dad made his sopaipilla cheesecake, also in the dutch oven. Even better than the last time :)

Here are the pictures and I will post my ratings and review section tomorrow. Enjoy! :)

3 of 4 tents. I ended up not using mine (the one in the middle.)

I love my Eno hammock!!!

Just waiting for some food to be dropped...

This is my favorite picture from this weekend :)

He had a pretty big web. Found this little dude while walking around the park.

This is the swimming area. It looked pretty low... And cold.

Yes, we do bring devices to play on. Not all our time is spent on them though :)

I don't know if I've announced this or not but we have a new camping buddy :)
His name is smalls but he gets called little dude just as much.
While he gets motion sickness in the car and doesn't love the cold weather I think he has fun running around all the new places :)

There were some cool mushrooms.

We found these ones on or hike down the biking trail.

Going to Ray Roberts SP (and Colorado!!)

We will be marking Ray Roberts SP off of our list soon!
If you would like to join us on November 7-9 that would be awesome!
For a little more info on it check here
https://www.facebook.com/events/783227928404340/

Also, not SP related but still an adventure, I will be flying, alone and for the first time ever, out to Denver, Colorado for two weeks :D
So expect to see pictures probably in December :)

TFSPA Trailer

Our Texas family SP adventure trailer. It carries 3 paddle craft, 6 bikes, a large cooler, and camping gear. Now we can go on week long trips!
We still need to seal the side boxes, extend the coupler, and paint it.

Social Media

Today I worked on some social media accounts for this blog.
You can follow me on
Instagram @texas_family_sp_adventure
And Facebook https://www.facebook.com/txfspa

If there is any other social media that you guys would like me to make on account on please let me know :)

Mission Tejas State Park

Hello my sweet followers, we originally planned to camp at Purris creek SP but by the time we signed up for a reservation they were already full. So we decided to stay at Mission Tejas SP.

A few new items that have been added to our camping list, my Eno doublenest hammock, a dutch oven, canopy for the rainy days, and the most exciting thing? A trailer that a we helped dad make. It holds our bikes, up to three kayaks, and it has storage boxes on the sides. I will post a picture when I can.

The campsite we stayed at had a lot of space for us to spread out and had a perfect amount of trees. Not too much to where you were bushwhacking through it but not to little to where there wasn't enough shade.

The bathrooms were decent. There was about three or four spiders but not enough for me to feel gross. The bathrooms were not clean-clean but they didn't have a lot of mud, leaves, and such. And there was hand soap! Not all the state parks have that.

Saturday after breakfast and the rain we did some hiking and geocaching. After lunch some of us rode our bikes around and finished goecaching (we found all of them!!) The rest of the day was pretty chill. For dinner dad made fajitas and dessert was sopapilla cheesecake made with the dutch oven. So good!!!

This is the Rice home.

We stopped at Purtis Creek SP for lunch on the way home.

Camping plans!!! (Finally)

Wow... Last post was October 2013... Well, a lot has happened since then. I got a job, tried paddleboarding and loved it, started senior year of high school, and moved to a new church. But no camping has happen! I know, unbelievable. I'm not the one to blame for that. In spite of this horrendous news there is a light ahead of this tentless tunnel.
We plan to mark off Mission Tejas State park in a few weeks. It will be a weekend trip and I will miss my best friend's homecoming dance but hey, camping is fun and I really miss it.
Mission Tejas is a small campsite with a small pond and a lot of hiking trails. They have 12 campsites and 5 of them are rv sites. We reserved one of the last sites so they will be full but at this point I don't care. I want to go camping :) My plan is to chill, read, and maybe do a little bit of hiking. I don't have a camera right now but I might borrow a friends... Well, see :)
I'll post again when we get back! (Sometime in October)

Cedar Hill Family Campout This Weekend!! :D

Hey guys!
I know... It's been WAY too long since my last post. Summer was busy, but fun, so we were not really able to do any camping. Anyway, we have a cub scout family camp out this weekend! :D It will be at Cedar Hill State Park.
I ordered a new one person tent and I'm super excited to use it this weekend!!
More when we get back!! And hopefully some pictures too :P

My new tent - The Eureka Solitaire Tent

By the way, you should go check out the blog that I have with my best friend, Cassidy a.k.a. Cas or Cassie. All you have to do is click right HERE :D We basically post whatever we feel like posting. It's mostly about what we have been up too but I'm hoping to get some book reviews in there sometime :)

Cub Scout Family Camp-out

My youngest brothers is in cub scouts and they have two family camp-outs per year so I'll probably post about those camp-outs too :)
Last weekend we went to Camp Constantin Boy Scout Camp for the family camp-out. It's not a state park but I figured I would post about.

The bathrooms were pretty gross but we made it through the weekend. It was really pretty though. There are a few hiking trails and it's right on a lake. We saw a 3' long snake, we think it was a rat snake, lizards, and there were tons of really cute mini grasshoppers :P

I didn't bring my camera with me, it broke a few months ago, but my friend took a ton of pictures so I'll post those as soon as I get them!

I put myself in charge of the food for the weekend. There was a burn ban so I had to plan stuff that was already ready to eat. I'll post our food plan a little later. :)

Pedernales Falls - Meal Plan

Friday

Dinner - Chick-fil-a - We got a late start and didn't get to camp til late Friday night.

Saturday

Breakfast - Biscuits with Sausage and Gravy

Lunch - Sandwich Wraps

Dinner - Turkey and Apple Stir-Fry - Super Yummy!

Sunday

Breakfast - Homemade instant oatmeal packets

Lunch - Taco Bell - we were on the road home

(Sorry this was late)

Ceder hills

So ceder hills state park was fun. My brother had a cub scout family campout there and I didn't do much exploring.
Here is a bathroom reveiw done by another camper
"The bathrooms were clean and bug free for the most part. Towards the end of the day, some trash was around the stalls but they were clean the next day. One of the 3 sinks didn't work but it never was so crowded that we had to wait for a turn there. The showers, however... The shower curtains were a bit transparent AND backlit by the shower lights which is a rather  unfavorable combo. The water constantly switched back and forth from hot to cold and also when the toilet was flushed and the pressure was pretty light. I'm glad that I brought my flipflops because a previous showering person left a rodent-sized ball of human hair behind and I think I recall the drains pooling a bit. It wasn't a terrible experience but there is room for improvements."
As for our campsite, some of it was on a slope. We had three tents plus a one-person tent and we were able to set up most of the tents on level ground, Just make sure that if you set up your tent on a slope you sleep with your head at the top of the slope :)

Sadly we were not able to make it to Cleburne SP.
We will be taking a little break from camping this month.
More to come :)

Next park

The next state parks we will be visiting are Ceder Hills SP and Cleburne SP.

Pedernales Falls rating & review

Bathrooms - The bathrooms were very nice. We stayed at campsite #11 and it was a little walk to get to the bathrooms but they had showers so it was worth it. Bathrooms = 5

Trails - They had some biking trails and we brought our bikes so Dad and I explored some of them. There are some hills and rocky areas that would be hard for some people. If you want a long trail to ride then you could go on the trammel crossing one. We didn't go farther then the crossing and it was craziness trying to ride back up the hill :) Trails = 4

Activities - Pedernales had no park activities the weekend we were there but there was plenty to do.

Friendly and knowledgeable staff - N/A I was not able to meet any of the staff.

Wildlife - As far as wildlife goes they have a bird blind and I heard, from brothers, that it was pretty cool. We saw a centipede and dung beetles. There were people catching fish in the falls area. We also saw a really cool racer snake. Wildlife = 4

Overall = 5 Fun!

Pedernales Falls

 Last weekend we visited Pedernales Falls.

They do not have any cabins so we slept in tents :)

I think we are going to bring Casey to all our weekend camp-outs.

There are tons of little nooks and crannies in the falls area.

This was a little underground river.

A cave on the other side of the falls.

More little caves.

I think some people call this rock the skull.

Heart :)

Casey enjoyed the water.

You would think that all the rocks at the bottom are slippery but they are not!
It was very nice!

Look at the awesome dam we built!
After building it the current at the end was very strong.

The swimming area.

Dung beetle.
They would walk backwards as they rolled their dung ball.

My way of playing with fire is with photo editing :)

I know I said we were going to visit Enchanted Rock on Sunday but our plans changed,

due to rain, so we will visit that SP another day.