It’s been a long time since our last post. In fact, most of 2022 we were not using the trailer mostly due to sports conflicts. We did take it out to the country for deer season, but really didn’t even go out and stay there much in the fall either. We committed to using it more in 2023 and hope you’ll see the corresponding posts as we go through the year.
We planned this trip to correspond with the TPWD’s (Texas Parks & Wildlife Department) release of trout in the pond at Fort Richardson. North Texas only gets cold enough in the winter for trout to survive here and the TPWD does a great job farming and releasing them from December through February in multiple locations. Bryce and Luke are cultivating a love for fishing and with the long President’s Day weekend, it was a great opportunity to start our 2023 camping year.
We picked up the kids early from school on Friday and headed west to grab the camper from the country. We’d left it there from the fall intentionally as Fort Richardson is just outside Jacksboro. We packed the bikes behind the truck, so I ended up dropping the family and gear at the camp and got the camper with Jerry. CC and Papa had come to camp with us as well though unluckily were only able to get the spot next to us for our second day. There was a small herd of deer hanging out just beyond our camper, so I had Bryce go take some photos. There were deer roaming all over the park and Papa said he saw two bucks messing with each other Sunday morning.
Saturday was very cold and windy, tough to fish in for sure. We tried though, with no success. Park Rangers were out there handing out coffee, hot cocoa and metals to kids who ventured out. Both boys loved the metals they received, but not as much as the cocoa. We headed back to campers to get warm and play some games. We played a kids version of Charades in which we were all had a blast. Even Reese was able to do some acting and was very good (see more on instagram!). Later on, the kids went to the park while dad went out to fix his deer feeder. We ended the day with a campfire and s'mores. Bryce enjoyed it the most since he had been begging to do a campfire all day.
Sunday started with some breakfast and more fishing. I was able to catch one small trout (no photo though), and Bryce seemed to be getting some bites. Luke became frustrated and ended up riding bikes with Papa. After lunch, we took a small hike through the park before heading out. The weekend was cut short because of the kids had to make up a day at school on Monday due to ice a few weeks before. We enjoyed it though and hope we are out more in 2023.
