9/1 – 9/3/2018
Location: Possum Kingdom State Park (Site 6)
We were aiming to leave at 8am sharp! . . . Actual departure time: 9:30 (seems to be a reoccurring theme with us). Then, “CRUNCH” went the boat as it hit Yep, I was hauling the boat this time, and that’s how we started our morning. Guess we parked the boat a little too close to one side and ran into that when I took off. No damage done, but crap! This was the first far away trip that we were taking the boat and the camper, so we took two cars and didn’t get to ride together. Cameron and I were in my car and Nolan rode with Kevin (taking advantage of the wifi in Kevin’s truck). God knows, you can’t make a road trip without hours on end of Youtube or Angry Birds (is that even around anymore?) – Otherwise might have to actually engage in conversation or soak in the scenery outside. The other difference this trip was Chewy was staying at home with Ashley and her 2 dogs. We’ll miss him, but I’ll have to admit, I’m kind of looking forward to one less responsibility not having to deal with him there. But don’t worry Chewy, we will not make this a habit.
Upon checking in, they let us know there were only 2 spots left for us to choose from, and both were very small. If we couldn’t fit in one of those, then there was an empty park host spot that apparently had some chain link fence around it and was not ideal.
Kevin managed to shoe horn our giant 40 ft 5th wheel into a spot meant for a 25 footer. He amazes me the way he can maneuver that thing around. If it were up to me, I’d have to pull it in the parking lot in the entrance and set up camp there. Turns out this was one of our favorite spots ever, b/c we were literally RIGHT ON THE WATER! I mean, we could practically fish out the back window. It felt like we were on a cruise ship! The views were gorgeous, plus we had the built in entertainment of boats, skiers and tubers cruising by. The sunrises and sunsets were stunning!
Let’s talk about one of my favorite subjects, the wildlife. This trip did not disappoint. We started off with a deer sighting right after we pulled in. When I say sighting, I mean, she was literally grazing right outside the door of the welcome center and could care less that we were there. Maybe she’s the Possum Kingdom State Park mascot? Or should that be a possum?
Next, there was the cutest little duo of white ducks that we made friends with. We fed them a couple pieces of bread when they swam up to our campsite the first day. Sure enough, they made the rounds everyday, morning and night to see what we had to offer. They paused and made their presence known, just in case we wanted the throw them some more treats.
Most notable, was the skunk that our neighbors brought to our attention the night we were out playing corn hole, pointing to the ledge just 15 feet away from where we were standing. So, we did what every normal person would do, ran inside to grab the flashlights to track him down. Nolan spotted him and said he was a little guy, about the size of a squirrel. I guess it’s used to people, because he wasn’t bothered enough to spray. Amen!
Starving for lunch, we decided to take the boat over to the marina at Fox Hollow Grill. According to Waze (which, by the way, does not navigate you on the lake), it was .8 miles by boat or 22 miles by car. Having never been on this lake before, we grabbed a map to find out way. Easier said than done. . . . We ended up stopping to ask some girls laying out on their dock for directions – We were way off, but managed to finally find it. You think they’d mark the restaurant and gas pump/marina better from the lake, like huge billboard or something. Nope, just a teensy little yellow sign that I could barely read even pulling right up to it. Our lunch was good, fried pickles (homemade ranch :-)), burgers, chicken fried steak – typical bar food. Our table had a great view of the lake. We decided to filler’ up while we were there since we were working on less than a half tank of gas and just heard that the Hell’s Gate was a 30 minute boat ride away!! The attendant stepped up to put the gas in and the boat wouldn’t take it. It kept shutting off and spilling gas in the lake. What in the world?!? According to the map, there was one more marina around the corner with gas, so we headed that way to see if we could make that one work for us. After several attempts at the 2nd marina, we finally figured out if we all stood on the opposite side of the boat from the gas tank, it tilted it enough for the gas to run into the boat and not trip the overflow shut off. Phew!
We made it back and decided to go for a swim right outside our backdoor. OUCH!! So rocky!!! I took off my flip flops and painfully navigated my way to the water, cussing nearly every step, pushing myself on, thinking as soon as I got to the water it would all be better. Nope! I had to army crawl across the rocks until I was deep enough to stand, then still could not find a place to put my feet was semi tolerable. I was dreading making it back to my flip flops and decided that was the last swim I’d do here. I’ll enjoy the views of the water from the camper.
We found a new hobby. Magnet fishing!! One of our past trips, we came across a couple “fishing” from the pier with a giant magnet, picking up things like lures, plyers, keys, hooks and all other metal things. So cool! So we went straight home after that trip and ordered one off Amazon. So this was our maiden voyage with our new magnet. The kids managed to get asmall rachet with a socket, a pipe and a couple of screws – score! Now it’s straight home to order a 2nd one, because if I have to hear whose turn it is next, or that one person had it longer than the next, I might die!
The next day we woke up and made Sister Schubert’s sausage rolls, one of our staples on our camping trips for breakfast. Our oven in this RV does a great job. The other 2 we used in the past burned the heck out the bottom of things while the top was raw. Our mission today was to make the trek to Hell’s Gate (or as Nolan called it – Devil’s Cove) and see what that was all about. I had seen pictures of the of the Red Bull cliff diving challenge where there were hundreds of boats lined up to watch these crazies dive from rocks at least 1000 feet tall (well that’s an exaggeration, but they were really really high). Kevin found an app on his phone that would navigate us the 30 minute boat ride there. Between steering the boat, holding his phone, touching the screen every 2 minutes so it didn’t “sleep” and referencing the paper map, he commented he needed 4 hands – lol! We made it! And pictures and descriptions don’t do this justice. It’s gorgeous and yes, really, really tall! We anchored down near some million dollar mansion and jumped off the boat to swim and took in all that was going on around us. So many kinds of boats, a people throwing balls to dogs in life vests, and houses with stair cases that seemed to go up for miles. Great people watching too! We had a picnic off the back of the boat. Kevin dipped his Cheeto fingers into the water for a rinse and a fish came up and bit his finger – ha! Maybe we should invent some kind of Cheeto covered bait and be millionaires?! The ride home was memorable . . . . Thunder clouds rolled in, the skies opened up and down came the rain. We navigated the waves as they poured over the front of the boat and tried to see with the rain stinging our eyes. Nolan and Cameron rode up front getting pelted by the rain. It was kind of exciting. We passed a sail boat that had tumped over, but luckily they had other people that stopped to help.
We made it back all in one piece and wrapped up that night with chili dogs and a movie in the camper – “The Big Miracle” (meh). This is one of the reasons we upgraded to this camper. There is room for all of us to sit inside, hang out to play games or watch movies without being on top of each other. Of course Kevin and I get the recliners!
We woke up to more rain, which would have been lovely if we could sit inside and enjoy the peaceful sound, but nope, it was time to pack up camp. Everything was soaking wet: chairs, canopies and the rug, etc . . . At least it wasn’t cold, but we were WET!
The favorite part of every trip is always the dump station (enter sarcasm here) and this was no different. We pulled up behind 4 other trailers and waited our turn in line. I had the boat behind me, so was just a spectator, but am pretty sure that this was everyone else’s first time to this because they took forever! We finished up with that to begin the world’s longest drive home. This started with pulling over because the tube nearly flew out of the boat, so Kevin and Cameron risked their lives securing it back in the boat after I pulled over on the side of the highway on a shoulder barely wide enough for us to fit. Then, we stopped for gas, where I tried not to draw attention to myself with 2 cops sitting in the parking lot while the lights on the trailer were still not working. The bikes had to be thrown inside the camper because the carrier failed and they were inches from dragging the ground. After that, we pulled over again b/c I forgot to screw on the gas cap (ugh!). I missed a turn and we had to U-turn with the boat and the giant RV . . . not so easy. Bless Kevin’s heart, he’s always so patient with all of these shenanigans. Just one of the reasons I love him so much. Next was lunch at Dairy Queen. Thankfully, we passed through Decatur with out incident (Kevin was still on his 30 day probation in this town from the speeding ticket he got on the way to Colorado for the wedding). We finally made it home 5 hours from when we started (should have been 2 hrs 20 minutes). Waze needs to learn when I put in a destination, double the time!!
To Have And To Haas 