We just got back from SLR. We left Friday morning and chose a nice site #49. We've had that one a few times before and I knew it had a good hammock tree. Another family joined us about 4 and the third family 9pm. All of us are in Cub Scouts together. I had already made the reservations and invited folks at our den meeting the previous week. What fabulous weather! Before everyone showed up, we went fishing. My son played in the shallow pools on the other side and caught tadpoles. When our friends came, we returned to the site to help them settle in. The 2 moms took a quick trip into town for some milk and whatever. We had Bertolli raviolli, spaghetti, meatballs, green beans and salad. We could have really used a fire the first night. It was in the upper 30's. As the kids were winding down, our other friend arrived and the kids were crazy again. A woman from a rather nice class a next door came over and asked us to keep it down. Her dog was barking at the kids ( inside their rig) and wouldn't go to sleep. We didn't know what to say to that. A few had to turn away and laugh. We gathered up the kids once we realized just how late it was and sent them to bed.
Saturday we fed the kids first. Cereal, oatmeal, hot cocoa, and fruit. They barely touched their food and just ran off playing and riding their bikes. After our bacon and eggs, we went fishing. I did have a small accident on the concrete bridge. As I stepped over the very low ( shin height ) curb, onto the steep down hill side, my foot slipped and the other skin smacked into the concrete. I fell to my butt and just about cried. A friend offered a cold unopened soda to put on it since it was purple in under 5 minutes. I hobbled down to the water, took off the shoes, and soaked for 2 hours. It didn't keep me from finishing my limit. I did take it easy for the rest of the day and took plenty of Advil. The adults caught their limit, the kids caught a few but couldn't be bored to fish any longer so they went exploring. It was t-shirt weather and clear skies. We all got some sun. Lunch was back at the site. One of the dads took 3 of the kids to the river for a few hours, another dad and son took it easy at the site ( boy got a little too much sun), and the moms took turns napping and showering. We had supper started when the motley crew returned from the river, wet, muddy, sunburned, and happy. Another treat was planned for the evening. I was given an ice cream maker from the other mom, for Christmas. While the majority of the crew was at the river, the one who stayed behind got to help make ice cream for dessert. Supper was Spanish rice, refried beans, salad, taco meat and various types of tortillas. I warmed up some diced peaches to serve with the ice cream. Of course the kids just wanted the ice cream. One dad and son had to return to San Antonio Sat night because dad had to teach Sunday School. They left after supper.
Sunday morning wasn't as cold and warmed up much quicker. We had breakfast and went fishing. We realized the kids weren't going to fish so we dressed them in river shoes, and brought a change of clothes. After spraying them down with sunscreen, they caught tadpoles and built dams with the rocks. (Next time I'll remember my sunscreen , ouch.) I went over to play a bit and caught a nice frog. I had them all gather around me in a circle so they could all see. I slightly opened my hands and he was gone. They got a very quick glimpse. My son wanted to cook a trout on a rock like Survivorman. We brought a flat rock from the river, washed it, and put it on the Coleman. To serve it, I placed the rock on a metal plate, and placed that on the table, (on top of the vinyl table cloth) Can anyone guess what that did to the table cloth? Time for a new one. All the kids thought rock cooking was cool and had trout for lunch. The rest of us had soup and sandwiches. The ranger was a little upset with us since we were half packed and eating lunch at 2:15. Check out is 2. It's hard to pull yourself away when the fish are biting. Oooops, won't do that again. He was nice about it. When we left, they had between 15-20 campers ( of 59). We saw many out of state campers. They were from Oregon, Massachusetts, Vermont, Utah, and Michigan.
Back to reality.
