Pilot Knoll – Our Birthday Weekend

Date: 2/22 – 2/24/2019

Place: Pilot Knoll Campgrounds, Highland Village, TX

Just 10 minutes from home, but it felt like we were a million miles away! The forecast called for wind and rain, so let’s go camping!! Lol! It ended up not being too bad. Kevin started the reservations Thursday to get in some relaxation time on his days off before we joined him Friday evening. Well, so much for a relaxing Thursday. We ended up buying a hot tub earlier that week, and it was scheduled to be delivered Thursday and before it came, Kevin had to cut the gate to the backyard so it could fit through, then the electrician had to come out and run electricity to it. When that was all said and done, he had to go get Shasta (the RV) and set up camp, which is no easy chore for one person.

He got a great spot right on the lake. That’s the cool thing about this park, so many “on the water” sites.

We joined him Friday night after work/school, and the rain broke just in time so we were able to sit outside and enjoy the lake views & city lights in the distance. Beautiful! Kevin even had the lights all strung up – one of my favorite things.

Getting into the park that evening was quite the ordeal . . . . . Kevin had given me the code (about 1000 numbers and letters long). We pulled up to the entrance and there’s a line of cars about 6 deep with the person standing outside of his car going from the pay kiosk (since the office was closed) and back to his car, and looking very frustrated. Back and forth and back and forth on his phone. About 5 minutes goes by and he’s obviously having trouble, so he goes up to each car in front of me to let them know he can’t get in. No one’s code will work. I try mine and it opens! So I have to put in my code for the arm to open, one car makes it through, the 2nd car right on his tail and the arm comes down and smacks the 2nd car then pops back up. Then I repeat the same process for the next group. Keep in mind the place you put the code in is pretty far away from the gate, so I have to put the code in, run back to my car, scoot it up a spot and put the code in again. Now it’s our turn to go through, so I ask the random stranger behind me to drive my car through (with my kids in the car of course – who mentioned what a “mother of the year” that made me) and his son drives his car through. I run under the gate to get through on foot and the arm comes down on top of my back, it didn’t hurt, but man do I wish I had a video of all of that chaos!! I’m sure this written rendition is not giving a true picture of what happened or probably even making sense . . . . but I digress . . Anyway, back to camping.

Ashley and her 2 dogs (Zach & Zoey) arrived Friday night and we all had dinner together in the camper (Eckridge sausage & mac n cheese). Tried to watch Princess and the Bride, but we all fell asleep.

Saturday we set up the hammocks in a perfect location right by the lake and broke out the bubbles that Kevin found in the camper. Never too old for those!

We rented a 2 person kayak for the kids to try out and the dogs joined in on that too – well, not Chewy . . . he stayed back and kept “Sissy” company. She was the little dog in the campsite next door whose owner asked if we’d watch her while he went to church.

The Pollones, Mimi & Earl, and Cori, one of my friends from work came out on Saturday to celebrate Kevin and my birthday (Yes, only 4 days apart). We had a fish fry, played corn hole, took the dogs on a a walk and more kayaking.

My mom brought a cake and they all sang happy birthday to us (twice, because the first one was way too quiet and slow). Super fun night! After everyone left, Nolan climbed in bed with us to watch Robin Hood while everyone else went to sleep.

We made a big breakfast Sunday morning. Ashley headed back early, and we went on a short hike through the park. It was a shaded trail with lots of thorns, but we managed. They have some primitive camp sites out there, and it struck us how odd it was that we were literally 10 minutes from home but felt like the middle of no where. Then you looked harder through the trees and there was the I35 bridge in the distance.