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campermom · 03-10-2008, 10:18 PM

We took off after work Friday night for Smithville to camp @ Buescher State Park. We've camped Bastrop twice and thought it would be nice to try something new. The weather report looked good so, with electric blankets and a long cord, we were ready. Well, at least I thought we were ready.

We arrived at sunset and made camp. You know how you grab the lantern and get it ready ahead of time? Well, The lone bottle of propane in my gear box was empty. The last time we were camping, there was a group of us. Someone else helped pack the gear box. I assumed that most folks would just throw the empty away. Who would pack/keep and empty? We could do without the lantern but not without the stove for breakfast. The local grocery doesn't carry bottled propane. We drove back to Bastrop to HEB and got some, along with bacon we forgot. The temperature dropped to 30 that night. BBBrrr.

When making the reservations, Sat night was booked so we asked at the office if there had been cancellations and there were. Great, now I don't need to break camp after one night. The ranger told us about the nature tour which was at 10am at Bastrop. We took the scenic route over. The tour was about 1 1/2 hours. There were 20 children on the walk and their parents didn't make any effort to supervise them. The kids ran to the front and crowded the Master Naturalist volunteer who was guiding the hike. The "Den Leader" in me came out and I found myself redirecting the boys to behave and stay on the trail. It made me feel good that when she asked the group about plants and trees my son knew about the Mustang grape, poison ivy, and coral snake. I don't think those other kids really got anything out of the hike. Too bad. The lady really knew her stuff and was good with the kids.

We went back to HEB to get food for supper, and Easter eggs to hide in the morning. (I know it wasn't Easter, but it was still fun). We returned to the site, put the food in the cooler, made lunch, rode bikes, borrowed fishing tackle, caught 2 fish, saw a white shoulder hawk try to catch the fish I released (it was a floater), rode bikes some more, visited with the campers next to us who had a friendly dog, had supper, made a fire, ate s'mores, looked at the stars, and went to bed early. My 2 dissappointments were that the park did not have any patches. They are working on a final design. One of the rangers at Bastrop is an artist so they should look nicer than most park patches you[ll find. The other is that after looking in the right places, we still didn't see the Pilated Woodpecker.

The staff were very nice, the restrooms clean, the sites were large and had enough bushes for privacy, and the cabins we saw were great. It's a nice little park we'll visit again sometime.

03-10-2008, 10:18 PM	#1
campermom Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: NE San Antonio Posts: 325	Buescher for the weekend We took off after work Friday night for Smithville to camp @ Buescher State Park. We've camped Bastrop twice and thought it would be nice to try something new. The weather report looked good so, with electric blankets and a long cord, we were ready. Well, at least I thought we were ready. We arrived at sunset and made camp. You know how you grab the lantern and get it ready ahead of time? Well, The lone bottle of propane in my gear box was empty. The last time we were camping, there was a group of us. Someone else helped pack the gear box. I assumed that most folks would just throw the empty away. Who would pack/keep and empty? We could do without the lantern but not without the stove for breakfast. The local grocery doesn't carry bottled propane. We drove back to Bastrop to HEB and got some, along with bacon we forgot. The temperature dropped to 30 that night. BBBrrr. When making the reservations, Sat night was booked so we asked at the office if there had been cancellations and there were. Great, now I don't need to break camp after one night. The ranger told us about the nature tour which was at 10am at Bastrop. We took the scenic route over. The tour was about 1 1/2 hours. There were 20 children on the walk and their parents didn't make any effort to supervise them. The kids ran to the front and crowded the Master Naturalist volunteer who was guiding the hike. The "Den Leader" in me came out and I found myself redirecting the boys to behave and stay on the trail. It made me feel good that when she asked the group about plants and trees my son knew about the Mustang grape, poison ivy, and coral snake. I don't think those other kids really got anything out of the hike. Too bad. The lady really knew her stuff and was good with the kids. We went back to HEB to get food for supper, and Easter eggs to hide in the morning. (I know it wasn't Easter, but it was still fun). We returned to the site, put the food in the cooler, made lunch, rode bikes, borrowed fishing tackle, caught 2 fish, saw a white shoulder hawk try to catch the fish I released (it was a floater), rode bikes some more, visited with the campers next to us who had a friendly dog, had supper, made a fire, ate s'mores, looked at the stars, and went to bed early. My 2 dissappointments were that the park did not have any patches. They are working on a final design. One of the rangers at Bastrop is an artist so they should look nicer than most park patches you[ll find. The other is that after looking in the right places, we still didn't see the Pilated Woodpecker. The staff were very nice, the restrooms clean, the sites were large and had enough bushes for privacy, and the cabins we saw were great. It's a nice little park we'll visit again sometime. __________________ Charcoal is a spice, dirt is a condiment, and there is no 3 second rule.