riverrat

LOL Your hubbie sounds like mine! But once I introduced him to the Hill Country he changed his mind...but only when it's cool. He will not do summer camping, even with an AC popup. Oh well. We started with an 8x8 tent and the four of us. That did not work at all. We upgraded to a 2 room tent 9x15 which was some better but then his brother bought the popup, which was open to our usage and we haven't been in a tent since. Sometimes I miss it. We have often talked of spending one primitive overnight but talk is all we've done about it. We love our fire too much and you can't do that out there.

As far as wildlife goes, we've had deer amble right through our campsite (the last one on the culdesac that is higher that the others) early in the morning. The kids' faces that morning when they peered through the screen and saw the deer RIGHT THERE were priceless! Then there was the buck that scared the **** out of me around midnight as I sat by the fire waiting for the full moon to show over the hills. Actually I think we scared each other pretty bad! He was ambling along and I thought it was a raccoon or something like that and when I turned with my flashlight to check out the source, he was only about 12 feet from me! He snorted and reared up and all I could do was stand there in shock! I guess I'm lucky he wasn't any closer. He could have hurt me. I believe he found another way to get down to the river that night!

We've seen turkey near Mystic canyon but the absolute coolest thing we've heard, but not seen, are the barking frogs! They live in the limestone cliffs along the river and they sure do make a commotion in the springtime mating season! And yes...they sound exactly like a pack of dogs barking! I thought the Ranger was pulling my leg when I asked him where all the dogs were that carried on so and he told me what it really was. So if you're there in the springtime, be sure to listen for the barking frogs!