Spring Break 2009 Palmetto State Park

From Saturday March 7th until Tuesday March 10th the GuidryPeas joined Vicki's brother Larry Jordan and his children Mitch and Jenna for a camping trip at Palmetto State Park just outside the village of Ottine, Texas.

The trip started just as any camping trip we go on with excitement in the air after days of looking forward to going. As many of you know I have my excellently prepared camping checklist to make sure you don't arrive without something very important.

We got to Palmetto around 12:30 in the afternoon, found Larry and the kids and checked in to our camping spot. We unload our bikes, took out the ice chest and other boxes out of the back of the truck to get to our tent so I could set it up before we began to REALLY relax. I had spread a tarp out to be the base for the floor of the tent and took the tent out of the duffle bag. Then Vicki asked one simple question....."Did you bring the poles?" The answer was no. The last time we camped the tent box finally fell apart and I put the tent in a duffle bag and, in hindsight, not so wisely put the poles in another place.

Okay....what do you do? Sleep in the back of the truck? Sleep out in the open as Vicki suggested would be okay with her (probably trying to keep me from being upset at myself). Nope....you put on your engineering hat and make the best of what you have.

A pole, a tree, 8 tent stakes (luckily they were in the duffle bag) and we had a FEMA tent for the trip.

As with all our camping trips Vicki and I always go to Mass. We went online and found St James Catholic Church in Gonzales, TX that had a 5:30 Saturday evening Mass. What we also discovered is the pastor there is Fr. Paul Razz....the priest that married Vicki and I 22 years ago.

It was really good to see and talk to him again.

We had our infamous breakfasts (chocolate chip waffles + a new treat fresh blueberry waffles provided by Larry). I ate eggs every day with our usual finale of steak and eggs on the last morning.

Vicki got to do a first in life for her. She went canoeing. We rented a canoe and paddled around a small lake in the park for about an hour. It's neat to be able to say you have done something new after a trip.

We had our nightly campfires, our dominoes and pokerkub games, as well as a round or two of Yahtzee. The weather was nice....a little windy but relatively dry (couple of small showers that didn't amount to much).

As we were leaving Larry's, excuse me Mitch's truck wouldn't start. It had drained the battery the night before and we jump started it from my truck.....started back up in the morning before we began to pack....and was completely dead when we were ready to go. It took a couple more jumps to get them on their way and they made it home safely.

Pictures below illustrate the fun....

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How about a quick look back at our first Spring Break trip to Buescher State Park in 2004