Chuck & Terry’s Camping Journal    

Lake Mineral Wells State Park – April 7-8, 2001

Saturday, April 7, 2001 – Mineral Wells State Park

For our inaugural trip in our new Coleman Santa Fe Popup, we chose a location close to home, Lake Mineral Wells State Park. In the DFW metroplex we are very lucky. We have over 20 state parks within a two-hour drive. After getting everything ready, we pulled out around 11:30 arriving at Lake Mineral Wells State Park about an hour later. It was very overcast with temperatures in the 80’s. The sun was trying to peak out every once in a while.

Terry and I had heard all sorts of nice comments about the park and they were all true. It is a wonderful facility and we’re planning on several return trips. Since this first trip was just for one night, we, (I), decided to bring our dog Bandy along. Since mom had broken her hip the Monday before, we hadn’t spent a lot of time with him the previous week. We both figured the time spent with us would be good for him. To say the least, we (Terry) were not very optimistic about bringing him. We thought he’d bark all night long and I’d have to make a quick run home to drop him off. To our amazement, he was a perfect gentleman! Bandy had a wonderful time exploring and gathering all sorts of new smells.

The park was sold out but since it is very large, 2300 acres plus, we never felt crowded. We were assigned to site number 72. It was a very nice site, heavily wooded, and far enough from our neighbors so we felt alone. One interesting fact; when you drive to the campsite area, you get to drive below the lake on the spillway. If you look in your rearview mirror as you drive by the lake, it looks like the lake is higher than the car. It’s pretty cool. The park has a wonderful area for water sports, swimming and rock climbing. It’s a very popular place. There are all sorts of watercraft available for rental; canoes, kayaks, and motorized rowboats. Next time we come we’ve decided we’re going to rent a rowboat and go around to the other side of the lake where all of the rock climbing takes place. This is one sport Terry and are definitely observers only. The park is also on the Trailway. It is a trail that runs some 20 miles from Mineral Wells to Weatherford. Horses, bicycles and pedestrians are all that are allowed.

The first time setting up the camper took us a little longer than expected. We’re still finding the perfect place for all of the necessary “stuff” inside the camper. Over time, there is going to be a lot of shifting around of stuff until we find just the right home for it. We both worked on getting the camper opened up and the stabilizers down. After that, Terry went inside to setup our new little “home.” I stayed outside and worked on getting the utilities set up, water and electricity, plus all of the outside stuff, lights, stove, etc. Terry wouldn’t let me come inside until she finished fixing up our little house. It looked beautiful and all the colors were coordinated. We had our fan going and soft music playing in the background. Now this is camping!

Other than leaving a few necessary items at home, we did OK. The trailer pulled perfectly the whole way down. I’m really glad we went with the Coleman models since they all come standard with electric brakes. Since we are novices at pulling a trailer, the brakes are good insurance in helping avoid an accident. We’re both learning to back a trailer but that “art” will come in time. After getting everything set up, we measured all of the little “cubbie-holes” to see what is going to fit where. Before our trip to Daingerfield in May it’ll be time for a run to the Container Store or Target to get some bins to hold all of our stuff. Having bins will keep everything together plus make it easier to pull stuff out. The bins will also keep everything in order when the trailer is going down the road.

We were planning on eating lunch after we got everything set up but it wasn’t until around 3:00 when we finished. Instead of eating lunch, we decide to go explore and grab a snack at the camp store. We drove over to the lake and Terry walked the dog and took him on an adventure while I ran into the store to get us something to munch on. The store is nice and has the necessary selection of the camp foods; pancake mix, sausage, eggs, hot dogs and buns, popcorn, foil, marshmallows, chocolate, etc. Since it was sort of warm, I picked us up a couple of ice cream bars.

We continued to explore and drove through of the rest of the camping area. There are some fantastic sites that face the lake. Next time we come, we’ll know more about the park and what site to try to get in. The park has regular sites as well as premium sites. You can’t reserve a premium site; they are available on a first come basis. Also we thought it was interesting that they don’t have an area for full-hookups. All the park offers are tent sites with just water, or sites with water and electricity. Even the tent only area was very shaded. There are close to 100 camping sites in the park along with camping shelters and a dining hall that can be reserved for large groups. Probably around 20% of the sites would be ones that we wouldn’t choose for one reason or another, mainly because of little shade or not enough room to put our canopy out. While we’re on the subject of the canopy, we learned a lot putting it up. The canopy made big difference in how cool the camper stayed. We’re really glad it was included on our camper.

After exploring it was time to get back to our site and start dinner. Normally we fix dinner around 6:30 but we decided to go on and get everything started around 5:00. For our first camping dinner in our new home, our menu consisted of: 

·        Omaha steak filets

·        New potatoes grilled with onions

·        Zucchini and squash (Italian style)

·        Salad

·        Hot rolls

·        Wine and tea

Was it good! We had dinner inside at our little table on our new dinnerware. It felt like the best meal we’ve ever had. Probably one of the neatest things was cleanup. When we were tent camping, after dinner, we’d have to put a pot of water on to boil for cleanup. Even though the water was nice and hot, the dishes had to be washed again when we got home. Our new little home has its own hot water heater and refrigerator. It’s pretty cool having hot and cold running water. The refrigerator, although small, holds an ample amount of perishables. It was great to be able to unload the ice chest and transfer it to the refrigerator. It sure saved on buying bags of ice!

After dinner, Terry and I relaxed and worked on projects for our jobs. We’re both snowed right now and never can seem to stay caught up. It was quiet a site in the camper, me with my laptop out and papers spread out all over the place. We enjoyed looking out on the beautiful camping light that Bill and Jane, Terry's parents, had made for us. They learned about making them while they were on the road. If you look closely, you'll see that it is plastic planter pot turned upside down. They have drilled holes for a pattern and glued colored beads in the holes. It is very beautiful during the night time hours. We leave it on all night on so that it "marks" our campsite. We're able to identify our site much easier when on the way back from the restrooms in the middle of the night. Terry and I were both beat from the traumatic week with my mom breaking her hip and little sleep, we turned in early to our new king sized bed. It was pretty comfortable. Coleman has done a very nice job on their mattresses. We slept like a rock and woke up Sunday morning very refreshed.

Sunday, April 8, 2001 – Mineral Wells State Park 

Sunday we had our obligatory breakfast, pancakes and all the trimmings. It was wonderful having regular pancakes for the first time in a long while. The Jenny Craig pancakes aren’t bad, but they’re nothing like the real thing! Terry took the mutt-dog for a walk around the campgrounds while I relaxed and caught up on some reading. It was a very relaxing day overall.

Around 12:30 it was time to start lunch. We had grilled Omaha Steakburgers and all the fixing’s. I wonder why food always tastes better when you’re out camping. We started breaking down camp around 1:00 and finally pulled out around 2:30. It took us a little longer than it will in the future because we’re still learning about the trailer and all of its nuances. As time goes by, we’ll be pros and be able to put it up and take it down in record time. One of the nice things was, as Terry was closing up the inside, she was able to turn the air conditioning on. To close the camper up, all of the flaps have to be zipped. That is the same procedure we did with the tent. When it starts getting hot and humid, it can really get unbearable in the camper with no air circulation.

About 30 minutes before we started breaking down, she went on and zippered up all of the windows we had open, turned on the AC and it ended up being comfortable inside. It’s really going to be nice this summer since we now have AC. Before we only went camping a couple of times a year because of the Texas heat and cold. With the Coleman we’ll be able to go more often since we’ll already be packed and we’ll have the AC for the hot summer months. In the wintertime, we’ll be using a little portable heater that puts out a lot of heat. It should keep everything nice and toasty.

We arrived home, backed the trailer into the garage, unpacked and wished we were back camping again. We learned a lot during this trip. First off was we should have bought a larger gray water tank instead of the smaller one. We’ll have to dump the small one every day. Oh well, live and learn. Next time we buy one; we’ll buy the 15 or 20 gallon that can be pulled behind the Explorer. We have our next trip planned for the middle of May. We’ll be going to what we call our “little bit of heaven,” Daingerfield State Park. We’re counting the days until we leave.

Daingerfield State Park – May 17 – 21, 2001

Thursday, May 17, 2001 – Daingerfield State Park 

It was fun planning our annual anniversary trip. Last year we took a cruise. This year we’ll be spending it in the great outdoors of the beautiful piney woods of East Texas! I don’t know which one will be better! The best part is that we’ll be spending it in our new Coleman popup camper.

After a late night the night before getting everything ready, Terry and I spent a half-day at work and finally got on the road around 1:45 p.m. We made really great time and arrived at the front gate of Daingerfield around 4:45 p.m. I don’t know what it is, but there is a feeling of “you’re home” when we turn off the highway and drive down into the lush greenery of Daingerfield State Park. It gets so quiet and the air feels and smells so good. We get that feeling every time we arrive. It’s funny, when we were checking in, a scoutmaster was there getting ready to check his troop in, and he asked me a question. “This is my first time here, I hear that this is the best state park in Texas.” I replied, “You bet it is, we call it our ‘little bit of heaven.’” I know he and his troop will totally agree with us after spending time in the park.

Terry and I have decided to try and visit all of the state parks in Texas and do a travel log. I don’t know how long it’s going to take us, but we’ve got a lifetime together to accomplish it. It’s going to be a fun project. As I mentioned before it’s nice is that we’ve got over 20 parks close to us and within a two-hour drive of the DFW metroplex.

This time when we set up there was lots of stuff to stow. Over the last month we’ve been buying a lot of the necessary mix of items to stock the camper so we won’t have to run into town to purchase this or that. It’ll take us a while but we’ll finally get the items we need stocked and put in just the right place. I now know what Terry’s parents mean when they say, “you have to be very careful what you take along and always put something back in the same place when you finish using it.” They are full-time RVers and have really gotten it down to a science after three years on the road.

We finally started dinner around 6:30 p.m. Since it was so late and we were both dead tired, we kept it simple. We had Omaha Steakburgers, all the fixin’s, chips, cokes and Oreo cookies for dessert. We sat for a while enjoying the cool evening air and finally turned in around 9:30 p.m. The air was unusually still so it was sort of sticky. Daingerfield is strange at times. We’ve been here when it was 100° in May and we’ve been here when it was in the 60’s during the same time of the month. There is nothing like Texas weather to keep you guessing. We slept like a rock and woke to the birds singing around 7:00 the next morning.

Friday, May 18, 2001 – Daingerfield State Park 

A cup of hot coffee, a beautiful cool morning in the piney woods, time spent with the most wonderful woman in the world, it just doesn’t get much better than this!

Before this trip, I had made a purchase of something that I had been wanting for quite a while, a Coleman oven that sits on top of a regular Coleman stove. Terry was unconvinced as to the merit of the purchase. She just knew it wouldn’t work. I purchased it so I could expand our menus a bit to include biscuits; hot cinnamon rolls in the mornings or baked potatoes and rolls at night. I decided to break it in by baking a pan of canned cinnamon rolls.

It was almost a disaster. I ended up getting the oven too hot and burned the bottom of the rolls probably due to the sugar coating them. I know now that there is going to be a lot of experimenting on temperatures and the placement of the rack in the oven. At least I was able to cut off the bottoms of the rolls, frost them and we ended up enjoying a wonderful breakfast of cinnamon rolls, coffee, juice and milk.

We cleaned up after breakfast and headed out for a day trip to Caddo Lake State Park and Marshall, Texas. In December we already have reservations for the first weekend to experience and join in the festivities of the “Marshall Lights.” Since Caddo is only 15 miles away from Marshall, we’re going to stay there. It’ll be a much shorter drive late in the evenings when we’re coming back to camp. The town is now up to 10 million lights that decorate the town and town square. From Thanksgiving to the first of January, over 1 million visitors will come to the Marshall area to experience the beautiful light displays. It’s not only the town square that decorates; the neighborhoods also join in and try to out do each other. They even have an outdoor ice skating rink set up. The first Saturday in December is really the main kickoff with the big-lighted Christmas parade. We’re really looking forward to the trip. It’ll be a wonderful way to get in the Christmas mood.

Shortly after 11:30 in the morning, we arrived at Caddo State Park … well sort of. The first time we drove right by and had to stop at a service station to ask directions. The lady looked at Terry real strange when she asked, “Where’s Caddo Sate Park?”  The lady replied, “Right next door!” We looked out the front window of the car and we were staring right at the front gate. I can’t believe that we drove right by!

Caddo Lake State Park	Terry on the dock of Caddo Lake

We explored the park for around an hour looking at all the great camping spots that the camp has. We wanted to get the “lay of the land” before we visited in December so we would know what area we wanted to be in. We found several spots that were easy to back in to and also well shaded, not that it’s going to matter in December. But we did want to see what the park was like. The last time we visited Caddo was right after a huge storm and the park was a mess. Tree branches and limbs everywhere. One little side note, Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas. Every other lake in the state is man-made. Caddo is very eerie with all of the Cypress trees and moss everywhere. Also last time we visited, Terry remembers a sign that said “Watch our for the snakes.” Terry and snakes don’t get along too well. We figured in December, it would be a lot safer than in the middle of the hot summer months.

From Caddo we headed to Marshall to check out the city. Terry and I fell in love with the antebellum mansions in the city. There were several for sale. They even came with their own Texas State Historical Markers. If we ever win a big lottery, we’ll be moving to one of the smaller cities in Texas. We just love the feel of them. After an obligatory visit to Marshall Pottery, we stopped at the Marshall Chamber of Commerce to get some more information about the “Marshall Lights” in December. We came away with lots of neat brochures and even a phone book. The people there were extremely helpful and friendly.  That’s one of the things I like about small towns, the people are so friendly and go out of their way to help.

We learned why all of the pottery businesses are located in Marshall. It seems that the soil conditions have just the right amount of clay mix to make a perfect potting mixture. We learned that, other than the famous Marshall Pottery, there are 11 other wholesalers as well as 4 additional retailers. That’s a lot of potters in one small town. Before heading back to Daingerfield, we had a late lunch at a restaurant called “The Jalapeno Tree.” Lunch was cheap with lots of food. I had the flauta lunch and Terry had what they called a “small” order of bean and cheese nachos. The order could have fed an army!

We arrived back at our camp around 4:45 p.m. Since we had such a late lunch, we decided to skip dinner and opt for popcorn, cokes and cookies. Yum! What a great way to end the day! Around 10:00 p.m. we drove up to the showers. We’ve found that it is far less crowded when you shower late at night. It was another “sleep like a rock” night for me. Terry told me she had to get up twice during the night for “nature’s calls.” I didn’t even know it. When we used to camp in our tent with the air mattress, you knew immediately when the other person got up because the air in the mattress shifted so. With the camper and the king sized bed, we can barely find each other!

Saturday, May 19, 2001 – Daingerfield State Park

Our 11^th Anniversary!

I guess the birds must have an alarm clock set to go off at 7:00 a.m. because they were up and right on schedule chirping. What a view we have! Terry and I just love this place! It’s worth the 3-hour drive from Fort Worth.

I decided to try my hand at the Coleman Oven again. I’ve been vindicated! The biscuits were perfect. I worked with the temperature and they came out of the oven, hot, brown, fluffy and scrumptious. They were accompanied with over-easy eggs, bacon, coffee, juice and milk. I don’t know what it is about breakfast cooked outdoors, but it always tastes so good. It’s probably my favorite meal when we’re camping! This is especially true on Sunday mornings when we make pancakes and sausage. Pancakes are the best cooked in the great outdoors. Major yum! After cleaning up it was time to settle in for a restful morning. Terry spent the morning reading and I caught our camping journal up. We did exchange anniversary cards and I gave Terry a Pocket Dragon that said “Happy Anniversary.” Not much else planned for our anniversary except for one of our favorite dinners of fajitas tonight. We’re both looking forward to that. I make awesome fajitas.

We spent the afternoon napping, reading and just doing nothing. I accomplished a major milestone; I finished a book that I had been reading for over a year. It was one of the Anne Rice books, “The Witching Hour.” It was a very good book but in my opinion a hard read. I know Terry would like it. It deals with the supernatural. The novel takes a little getting into but then it flows pretty well. There are a lot of flashbacks to historical times that are sometimes hard to follow. Oh well, its finished now so I can move onto the sequel.

Since neither of us was hungry for lunch, we decided to wait until around 4:30 p.m. to start fixing our special anniversary fajita dinner. While working at Desperados Mexican Restaurant in Dallas, I learned the secret of making awesome fajitas and all the fixin’s, and that is what Terry requested for our special anniversary celebration meal.

Dinner was awesome. It was probably one of the best batches of fajitas that I’ve ever made. Of course, we both say that every time I make them. But this batch was especially yummy. We cleaned up after dinner, watched a couple more of our videos, and then headed to the showers to get cleaned up.

While on the way to the showers, there was lightening everywhere. It looked liked it was going to be a rough night in east Texas. I was talking to one on the guys in the shower and he told me on the Weather Channel they said there were some heavy thunderstorms moving into our area and for us to take cover.

When we got back from the showers, we decided to stow all of our outside furniture in case the winds picked up, which they were already starting to do. We folded up the chairs and tables and put everything in the back of the Explorer for safekeeping. Just as we finished putting everything up the rain started. We had all ready closed up the camper earlier and turned on the air conditioning. I’m really glad we did, because the storm and rain really cut loose. It was brief, about an hour in length, but pretty intense. The camper came through fine, there were no leaks at all and we were safe, dry and secure in our little home on wheels. A little after 10:00 o’clock we decided it was time to turn in. The storm had passed and there was still a little rain. We were concerned for all of our neighbors who were camping in tents like we used to. We know how rough it can be with leaky seams. When the rain hit there were still huge groups sitting around the campfires having a good time. They all ran for shelter real quick when the storms cut loose. Many of them stayed in their vehicles until the worst of the storm blew threw.

Sunday, May 20, 200 – Daingerfield State Park

What a beautiful fresh morning after the storms of last night! The air is so clean and crisp. This is what camping in the great outdoors is all about. This morning we slept in. We didn’t get up until 7:15 a.m.! The birds were at it again, serenading us to signal the start of another beautiful day. Terry made coffee and we sat outside in the cool morning air to enjoy the start of the day. Today the park will be almost empty except for those that are on an extended stay. Most everyone leaves on Sunday afternoons so they can get home and be ready for work on Monday.

Sunday mornings, even at home, has been our traditional day to make pancakes. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, real maple syrup, juice and milk, what else do you need? The only problem with making pancakes while camping is that only one person can eat at a time so the pancakes can stay hot. I normally fry up the bacon and sausage, and then put on Terry’s pancakes. When hers come off the griddle, I’ll put mine on and fix my egg to top the stack of pancakes. We’ve come up with a great tip for those of you camping. To keep the pancakes hot, heat your syrup and butter in a small saucepan. That way you’re not putting cold butter and cold syrup on the pancakes. We’ve found it works real great and the hot syrup and butter mixture keeps the pancakes hot! All foods items will cool off very quickly outside and this little tip will help you to have true “hotcakes.”

After cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I headed out to dump the gray water tank (the discharge from our sink) and go get ice. Before buying the camper, we used to go through 4 bags of ice per day. But we now that have the refrigerator where we keep most of our food we only need one to two bags. The hot water heater, canopy, and the refrigerator were great additions to our camper. I’m glad we went on and got them. The refrigerator is only a couple cubic feet, but it is amazing how much it does hold.

We also made a run into town to buy a couple of things. One of the most necessary items you’ll want to add to your camping “must have” list is a flyswatter. No matter how tight your camper is, you’re still going to get bugs inside. They are very sneaky and will always find a way in especially through the door. I think they just wait for you to open the door to ambush you. We also decided that we need one of those 12-volt car vacuums that plug into the cigarette lighter. It can be used for a dual purpose, for the car as well as the camper. Our Coleman comes with a 12-volt plug inside. This was great thinking on their part.

This morning Terry has been reading and I’ve been updating our camper journal. I don’t know if we’re going to eat lunch or not. We may wait and start our dinner around 4:00 p.m. That is much better for us. However, around 1:00 p.m. Terry has the munchies. It’s time for hot dogs, Fritos and all the fixin’s. The “dogs” are awesome cooked outside.

Another afternoon of being lazy and reading! We’re both getting caught up on a lot of reading that we haven’t been able to do in a while. We went down to the beach a while to soak up a little sun and watch all of the kids playing in the water. Daingerfield State Park is a really super place for the locals to come for $2.00. It’s a real bargain.

It’s close to 6:30 p.m. and we’ve decided to start dinner. Tonight’s menu includes, marinated chicken breasts, hot rolls, grilled vegetables and a tossed salad. The dinner was super and the veggies came out perfectly. We ended up grilling a red onion, a zucchini and a squash. We’re going to have to try this at home on the big grill.

We headed to the showers and notice that the park is almost entirely empty except for only four spots that are occupied. This is how it is typically on a Sunday. At least we won’t have a wait for the showers. In fact when we got to the showers, no one was even in sight. Arriving back at camp after our showers, we played a game of Scrabble and watched a couple more of our videotapes before turning in around 10:00 p.m.

Monday, May 21, 2001- Daingerfield State Park

Our last day in the park, I wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us? I woke up around 6:00 a.m., a little early for Terry on our last day. So I decided to go outside and read for a while. It was light enough; at least I thought it was. I read for around 30 minutes or so and kept noticing that it was getting darker instead of getting lighter. In the distance, there was the sound of rolling thunder. Not a good thing on your last day when you’d like to pack up the camper when it was totally dry. We had planned on staying in the park until around noon or so but decided to try and beat the rain that was getting ready to hit.

This was just another typical day in the piney woods of east Texas. Around 7:30, we started working on packing up everything; Terry on the inside and me on the outside. I had just about gotten all of our outside stuff folded up when I felt the first sprinkles. Then the sprinkles turned into larger drops and from there you can imagine what happened next; it was a downpour! Terry had just gotten through with everything inside but it was now raining much too hard to try to fold up the camper.

We had skipped breakfast in order to try to beat the rain. We had really wanted to get the camper folded up completely before the rain hit, but we didn’t make it. Oh well, nothing really to worry about. We decided to wait a bit to see if the rain would pass. We knew either way we would have to open up the camper once we got home in order for it to dry properly. Instead of waiting at the campsite, we decided to run into town to get some breakfast at one of the local restaurants or McDonalds.

We drove by the local Dairy Queen and there wasn’t a parking place to be had. Apparently this Dairy Queen serves breakfast since it was around 9:00 in the morning. Kim, Daingerfield’s park manager, told us later that the Dairy Queen is THE place to meet everyday for coffee. I guess it’s much like the Dairy Queen in Cleburne where my ex-boss used to go for coffee every afternoon at 3:00. All the guys sit around the table discussing local politics and try to solve the problems of the world.

After eating our yummy blueberry cake doughnuts purchased at the local doughnut shop, we headed back to our camp. At least the rain had stopped. The camper would still be wet, but at least we wouldn’t get soaked while putting it up. We stopped at the front gate before going back to our campsite to interview Kim Ochs, Daingerfield’s Park Manager, for an upcoming column. We spent around an hour with him having a great time learning about what it takes to be a park manager and what life is like living in a state park. Terry and I both learned much about the operation of a state park. It was very interesting.

With much regret, we finally left our “little piece of heaven” around 10:30 and headed for home. We had rain off and on for around an hour or so while we were driving. Also the wind was very rough which made keeping the camper on the road a challenge. We stopped in Greenville at Bodacious BBQ for lunch and finally got home around 2:30 in the afternoon.

The “babies,” our cats, were happy to see us. So was the mutt-dog. The mutt-dog is always happy to see anyone. After unloading, we set the camper up in our driveway to make sure it was totally dry. Since there was a brisk wind, the camper was dry in no time. Terry started washing all of our camping linens as soon as we got home and she was finished by the time the camper was dry so we were able to put everything up where it belonged. We folded our Coleman back up, hooked it back up to the Explorer and backed it back into its little home, our garage. We are now eagerly awaiting our next weekend trip, but happy to be home safe and sound.

All of our weekends are taken in June and the first part of July so we’ll probably not head out until the middle part of July. We’ll probably head to Cleburne State Park or Joe Pool Lake both parks are very close by. Bob Tillman, our next-door neighbor, is wonderful and always volunteers to watch the house and the “babies.” Camping close by will allow us to run in and feed the babies when we need to without bothering Bob. When I book Cleburne, I’ll do it in conjunction with my bi-weekly computer maintenance visits. I can run into the store while Terry stays at the camper and relaxes.

We'll keep everyone posted via our column when we update our journal. We'll also be incorporating some other new features as time allows. Until next time, keep writing and sharing those experiences with us as we camp together in the great outdoors.

Authored by Chuck and Terry Mencke

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