Having fun. Even when things happen.

     Its been about two weeks since I have done much posting and that's primarily due to the kids and I just enjoying our time with our bus.  Which frankly was the plan.  However there have been a few things worthy of mentioning.

     After a night of terrible discomfort I went and see a Doc during the week and she said it looks like a torn rotator cuff and to take it easy and not make it worse.  Then I scheduled an appointment with her recommended specialist a few weeks away. fun!

    We have been Camping every weekend and have tried a number of the campgrounds around Lake Mineral Wells.  We have a couple favorites sites now and will definitely visit them often as our quick getaway from the  DFW Metroplex.

     Things have been pretty good and the kids have been slowly learning about catching all the critters we can find, frogs and toads, (both of which have taken trips to the shower with one kid or the other) minnows, lizards and one little crawdad.  It's good to see the kids find so much interest in the nature around them and enjoy the opportunity to get hands on with it.  

     We have also seen lots of deer and both kids have been expressing their own interest in hunting.
I'm not a big hunter in many respects as I just don't have a need to go out and kill a ton of animals every year just to do it.  I have done my fair share of hunting for the purpose of filling the freezer however and I do plan to take them both hunting as the get a little older to teach them the skills and the proper perspective to respect the wild and the animals in it.

    Overall we've spent a lot of time playing in the water where they have been making friends to play with.  There has also been the occasional sand castle and bury the kid up to the chest in sand.  Its been a pretty good few weeks for the most part.

     This last week I had a couple people come and pick up bus seats and I finally got the second set of 4 rows out of the bus.  I simply love the extra room and cant wait to start taking measurements for the interior planning.

     This last Sunday things were going really good we decided to try a campsite that's a little further from the lake but was a more spacious area and had more room for our hammocks.  It also didn't have any electrical so the prices are less and we don't need the utility.

     When we got to the site we had picked there was a very large branch that some previous campers had broken off laying across a good portion of the fire pit area and a lot of debris from it crashing through the adjacent trees.  I called the park ranger for a rake and we got it all cleaned up.  Then we set up our stuff at camp as usual and after a short rest we headed down to play in the lake.

     We had a blast playing with some other folk at the swimming area and finely headed back to our site around 7:30 pm.  My daughter said something to me as we arrived that  didnt quite understand on first hearing but as I looked around the campsite I quickly made sense of her words.

     We had been cleaned out.

     Yep, she said "Daddy the hammocks are gone" with a little bit of quiver and a higher tone to her voice.

     With a lifetime of camping I have never had anything taken from camp before and just thought to myself who takes stuff from a camp.  Really?  I walked around the site in bewilderment at the fact that the stuff was gone.  We hadn't left all that much really just 3 hammocks, the old ropes to hang them, a few extra straps and a couple bungy cords basically.  All totaled probably about $200.  The thing I found strange was that it was all totally gone.  I could see if someone wanted to steal the hammocks that they'd grab them quick and bolt but to go to the effort to take down all the hanging ropes which where made from some old ratty fades rope and two, one clearly broken, sun faded ratchet strap and some cheap bungy's just didn't compute.

     Since it was starting to get dark I made us dinner and then listened to the kids complain all night about not having anywhere to sit with the hammocks being gone.

     The fallowing morning I called the ranger station and asked if by chance they may have come and collected the stuff from the camp thinking it was left behind.  They said no and sent us the park police officer who kindly filled out a report after looking the site over and said that this was the first time in four years that they have had a report of anything missing from a campsite.  I felt so privileged.  OK maybe not.  He said he would let me know if he found anything.

     With that we spent the majority of the day at the lake since our loungability had been reduced and enjoyed what was left of our weekend.