Wow! It's been a long break between trips. I'll confess that I didn't include our first trip to the Bar-C in Jack County during hunting season, but maybe I'll get to that at some point. We planned this trip in early 2021, far ahead as most of the state parks are completely reserved for months. When we booked this in early 2021, it seemed almost lucky that we could get not only one, but two sites for a weekend. Even better was the fact they were close, only separated by one spot.
Thursday night we grabbed the trailer from Big Guy's place out in Mineral Wells and loaded up to leave after work on Friday. Molly had planned to meet us at the park, so the three kids and I left to meet CC and Papa at Buc-ee's. The kids would much rather ride in their RV than the back seat of the truck, so they switched vehicles, and we were on our way.
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We took the bikes this trip, including Molly's new one and my first mishap was to put all three on the rack that hangs from the ladder at the back of the trailer. At most, two small bikes are a load for it, so I put one bikes in the bed of the truck while we were at Buc-ee's and re-secured the remaining two. They still made me nervous that they might fall, so I was constantly looking back to see if they were still there as we stared heading up I-35 towards the park. Then I heard it...
There was a loud BOOM. My first thought was a bike had fallen and hit a car behind me, but a quick glance defeated that idea as I still saw two bikes in my passenger mirror. A look out the driver’s side mirror and I saw smoke and debris. Of course, one of the trailer tires blew out!
I quickly got over to the shoulder and called my backup, Papa, who though ahead of me, graciously turned around came back to help. We carefully changed out tires with the spare and got back on the road relatively quickly. Luckily there was no huge damage to the exterior of the trailer that we couldn’t fix when we returned on Sunday. We made it safely the rest of the way to the park, setup and had a great dinner. Afterwards we strolled down some of the paved paths by the lake where we caught a great sunset. We even saw some deer on our way, though some members were too tired to walk.
Being mid-baseball season, we did have two double-headers that we attended on Saturday. Both Bryce and Luke hit well and played great in the field. Bryce ended 7 for 7 and Luke hit off the pitcher every time and didn't have to use the tee. Both were also able to play catcher, which they love.
While the boys played baseball, Reese and the grandparents stayed back at camp to explore and take naps.
We came back to camp, grabbed our swim gear and headed to the lake's beach. We played in the chilly water and enjoyed the sun. Luke is part-fish, so he loves the water, no matter how cold it is or how blue his lips get. Reese was not a fan of the sticky sand, but at first but ended up having a good time playing at the beach.
Bryce keeps losing teeth, and he lost his seventh that Saturday night. He does get extremely anxious about it, even after losing six before this one. But after successfully getting it out, he was excited. He wondered if the tooth fairy came to campers, but we decided it would be better if he kept it until he got home to put under his pillow.
Reese continues to build her vocabulary and is such a blessing to us. She's incredibly sweet and affectionate, but still has tons of personality. She enjoyed playing with the cookware in CC's camper, but also ended up tumbling down the stairs on Sunday morning. In fact, all three kids managed to injure themselves somehow along the way this weekend. Luckily, we have plenty of Band-Aids and icepacks on board.
We ended the night with a campfire and s'mores. I think Reese enjoyed them the most of all the kids.
Sunday morning, we had a wonderful brunch, complete with mimosas and bloody Marys. It's amazing the difference a nice bottle of champagne makes for a mimosa (thanks TDCSU!). Though, it's much tougher to get motivated to pack up and leave after drinking before 10 AM. Being so close to home, Ray Roberts is a great spot to come camping and weather couldn't have been better.
