In Colorado, we went camping once or twice a year. Since we’ve been back in Texas we have not been “real” camping. By real, I mean with an actual tent on the ground and a camp fire with marshmallows. Cuz if you don’t have those three things, it’s not really camping. We’ve made a couple of excursions in which we slept in the back of Bam Bam using my truck tent. But none of those had a camp fire and we weren’t on the ground, so they don’t count.

We’ve made some new friends in the last couple of months. They’re mostly from the “college and career” class at our church. Someone said, “Let’s go camping,” and there was no stopping it from that point on. I started looking around for a place to camp that had rock climbing near by. Google didn’t take long to lead me to Paradise on the Brazos. Privately owned, on the Brazos river, dozens of bolted climbing routes with camp sites at the top of the wall and the river at the bottom. Perfect! The plans were laid and the calendar was ticking down.

We met up on Friday after work. (Most of us had obligations for church so this would have to be a Friday – Saturday trip.) We loaded up (waaay too much stuff, of course) and hit the road. We made it to the camp site just as the sun set and ended up pitching tents in the dark. I hate doing that, but it worked out okay. I found out that my handy-dandy digi-cam takes really crappy pictures when it gets dark. Less than half of that night’s pictures turned out.

Here, Tammy’s putting the finishing touches on our castle ‘neith the cedars.

Haven and Miranda shared a tent while Kaela, Chris, and Andy opted to sleep under the stars. Those crazy kids!

Andy did a fantastic job getting a roaring fire going before the rest of us had finished setting up our sleeping quarters. Naturally, he was the first to bust out the ‘mallows.

Kaela chillin’ by the fire.

When we stopped at the main house to sign in and pay, we met the camp mascots. They followed us to our camp site and hung around the whole time we were there. They did a fine job of guarding the camp that night, shattering the stillness of the night by barking at various critters. Honestly they were very well behaved for ranch dogs. Haven was able to overcome the “puppy dog eyes” and keep her smores to herself… barely.

Chris and Andy both brought their guitars and provided us with some late night mood music by which we enjoyed gazing a the stars. (And the stars were AMAZING!)

Looks like it’s time for bed, kiddos.

Mr. Sun showed up for work at about 7AM. We slowly got up and around. It was a nice cool morning.

Well… SOME of us were got up and around.

To save weight while hauling our camping gear from the parking area to the camp site, I left the water jug empty. But, for breakfast, we needed water. I headed up to the “cold water shower” advertised on the Paradise web site. Suddenly, I could hear Eddie Albert singing in my head: “Faaaarm livin’ is the life fer me!”

Once inside, I realized how far fetched it was to believe that the girls would actually use this “shower”. I’m not sure I would go in there without good shoes on.

With water jug in hand, I headed back to camp. Time for breakfast! Once again, the guys had a good fire going before I got there. I busted out the camp pan, eggs and bacon.

Kaela was most enthusiastic about breakfast cooked over a fire. (Also notice the camp mascots *not* eating the food. Good dogs!)

Miranda prefers bacon with marshmallows.

Tammy and Haven cheered the cook from the sidelines.

After our bacon and eggs settled, half the gang headed down to the river to swim. The other half started scouting out the climbing. It wasn’t long before we were roped up.

Tammy, Andy and I all admitted we were out of shape and hadn’t been climbing in a while, so we set our sights low. We found some nice easy looking climbs. Naturally they were much harder than they looked. But we had a blast anyway.

It just proves that you don’t have to be a rock star climber and top every route you see in order to have a great time. Anyone can have fun climbing, as long as you play safe and don’t take yourself too seriously. (You can tell this is me by the huge helmet, required for my huge head. That and my hot sexy legs with their hot sexy sock line.)

Andy and I were walking the little trail between the wall and the river, moving some gear between routes, when we found this little guy cruising the trail in the opposite directions.

For you yankees and city folk, that is a western diamond-back rattlesnake. Check out that great diamond pattern and the “coon” stripes on his tail. No doubt about it. That’s a killer snake. He was just a little guy, I figure between two and three feet long. He had lost his rattle, so he only had one shiny knob on end of his tail. I saw him from about six feet away. He had frozen, hoping we wouldn’t see him. He didn’t want any trouble, but there was trouble, since he had frozen smack in the middle of the narrow trail. It was a total God thing that I saw him when I did. He was perfectly camouflaged. Had I not seen him, I would have stepped right in the middle of him and that would have ruined the day for both of us (more so for me, but let’s not split hairs).

While I stayed still, Andy got a long branch. We pinned the little guy to the ground and carefully stepped around him. When we let him go, he booked it straight for a crack in the rocks. It wasn’t until he was safely home that he coiled up into the classic rattler striking coil. We made note of the location and made sure to announce ourselves when we came back by his cave. For the most part, a snake is only a problem if you surprise him. If he knows you’re a human and you’re just passing by, he won’t bother you. Still, caution is the best policy.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the shade and along the river. It had gotten pretty hot (hot enough to make me all icky and nauseous, but that’s my fault for not drinking enough water). By about 3 PM we were all ready from some Dairy Queen ice cream. We broke camp as quick as we could and headed back towards town.

It was a great trip and I can’t say enough about the company. We’ll all have to get together again and spend some quality time with the starry sky and some smores. How about November, when it’s not so dang hot?!