Camping Round 2

Destination: McKinney Falls State Park just about 10 minutes from downtown Austin

Participants: Me, Sherene (sis), Shadae (church friend), Chelsey (classmate), Jen (Chelsey’s friend), Jacqueline (New friend from church), Sid (another church friend), & Daniel (long time HS buddy)

When: This past weekend Friday-Sunday

Why?: Because school is out and we thought camping would be a fun way to celebrate

What: It’s late Friday evening and everyone is late arriving at the campgrounds. It’s nearly 10PM and we are still setting up camp. Pitching tents in the dark is a no no…but try pitching a brand new tent you’ve never seen before in the dark and you’ll quickly appreciate the frustration. 12AM or so we were finally wrapping things up and getting ready to turn in.

Sabbath morning we woke up and had breakfast and then spent some time reflecting on some passages from scripture and talking about creation. Shadae verbally contemplated how beautiful Earth must have been before it’s awesomeness was literally watered down by the flood. Sherene spoke about how we shouldn’t worry, because God provides for even the birds.

My parents showed up around 2pm and brought lunch with them. Very yummy, but that’s no surprise. We then left them behind at our campsite and hiked around the west side of the park to view the wimpy upper and lower falls. After about 3 miles we had my dad come pick us up and we all had nice headaches from the hot sun. Cool showers and power naps were the trick to get us all back on our feet. But even after dinner, things were slow and we all just hung around the camp fire in a lull. We thought rain was coming to test out our camping skills, but it only lightly sprinkled. Thank goodness.

Sunday morning bright and early I woke everyone up to break camp, have breakfast, and then head over to Town Lake. This would be the highlight of our trip – kayaking. This was much more fun than our previous canoe trip and the lake is such a peacefully serene setting that we couldn’t help but relax under the sunshine. I so wanted to jump in, but I’m not fond of swimming with turtles.

Anyhow, to quickly sum things up I would give McKinney Falls an “ahh..not so great, convenient location”, but being so close to Austin was nice. We drove through downtown and within minutes were on the lake kayaking away. I didn’t have to drive back to Houston afterwards, and so the 30 minute drive back home was quick and easy.

I’ll be here at home in Round Rock for the next several days just catching up with family. Camping was a great way to get reacquainted with the hill country, but I think the tents will have a break for a while – Texas heat is rapidly reaching the unbearable mark.

Because I’m Black

Interesting NYT article: Visible Man by Colson Whitehead.

Wow.

There isn’t much more to say. Barack sums up the race card issue extremely well.