Life Is An Adventure (Or maybe sometimes a fiasco)

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while.  My main thought has been, "I should write a married people blog."  When I say that, I don't mean my blog will be for married people, but rather about married people- specifically, my husband and me.

I figured I would start it out by introducing both of us and why I chose the name Curious Caves and all the things that are going on in our lives, but then this past weekend happened and those things must be saved for another day.  As you can see from the opening picture, this is necessary!

Let's just start from the beginning.  Our necessary destination for the weekend was Amarillo.  One of my close friends was getting married on Saturday night and we were going to be there.  But Amarillo is quite a drive, so we decided to take Friday off and make an adventure out of the weekend.  We like to go on adventures.  We planned to camp on Friday night at Caprock Canyon State Park and then drive the 100 miles to Amarillo on Saturday.  We would check in to a hotel so we could shower and get ready for the wedding, then have a place to stay after.  Oh, and did I mention that this also happened to be the weekend that my mom was having her big stage debut so we wanted to throw a Sunday matinee in Snyder into the mix as well.

Aside from staying up until 1:00 on Thursday night to pack and therefore getting a later start than we planned, our 5 1/2 hour drive to the canyon was uneventful.  Well, except for the Germanfest going on in Meunster, the tiny little strategically placed signs advertising fudge and homemade ice cream (27 Flavors.  Slow down now!), and the Turkey Landowners, Inc. gathering in Turkey, TX.

We did manage to find a fun local burger joint in Vernon for lunch.  It was called Bevo's and when I asked to use the restroom, the lady behind the counter said, "Sure. Just come on through this door and go through the kitchen to the very back and turn right."  Yep, they sent me through the kitchen to their restroom, which was a closet, complete with water heater!

We finally made it to Caprock Canyon, which happens to have the official Texas State Bison Heard on the grounds.  When we checked in, we were given a rear view mirror hanger to remind us to stay away from them.  You know, that way if you are driving in your car, you will remember not to get out and get too close and let them headbutt you through the air.  (reference picture 1)  Now that we had been warned, we trekked off to our campsite to battle the wind.  If you are from west Texas, you understand.  We actually didn't do too bad setting the tent up in the crazy wind, but might have had to pull all the stakes up to move it three feet so the extension cord could reach.  We unashamedly camp with a box fan.

Camping cooking is always fun.  There was a fire ban, so we could only use our propane stove (thanks Josh and Janet!).  We ate mac and cheese with hot dogs, and then later snacked on roasted pineapple with cinnamon.  Turns out the pineapple is much better grilled, but still a tasty treat.  If you haven't tried it I highly recommend it!  The evening ended up being great.  I love being outdoors, it was very peaceful, the wind died down, and oh the stars!  I miss stars the most now that I live in the city.  We really started to relax and enjoy ourselves... until we tried to go to bed.

This is where the fiasco part comes in.  We had blown up pool floaties to cushion us, but Tim's would not stay inflated.  The box fan that we moved the whole tent for fell on me twice during the night.  We had clipped the rain fly on to keep out the dust while the wind was so strong, but since we didn't stake it down it flapped against the tent all night and made tons of noise.  Then I heard a pack of coyotes.  Then I panicked because a teacher I work with used to live in Alaska and she showed me a video one time about the kinds of bears there and how they can smell food from really far away even if it's buried, and all I could think about was the sausage in our ice chest outside, wondering if the coyotes could smell it and were coming to our camp.  So, my sweet Timothy got up and put it in the car so I would quit worrying.  I'm pretty sure it was at this point that I thought, "Why did we think this was a good idea?"  My phone started making noises because it was low on battery.  Tim tried to fix the rain fly.  We were in and out of restless sleep.  And to top it all off I hate when you wake up in the morning and have to go to the bathroom so bad, but you have to get dressed, put your shoes on, and walk to the nearest restroom.  Not fun.

Once we made it through the night, things were fine.  We had breakfast, spent some time reading our Bibles and then hiked down into the canyon.  It was new terrain for me and pretty interesting.  We saw this crazy looking rock/formation thing that had tons of layers.  Most were the red dirt color, but a few were white.  We learned that the white layers are gypsum and they are salty.  Animals dig down to find these layers and lick them for salt and mineral content.  The gypsum is also used to make sheet rock.

The rest of camping actually went pretty smoothly.  We hiked back to our site and packed up the car.  It was pretty windy again and I was proud of our teamwork to get it done quickly.  I told Tim I was very thankful for him and the way we make a good team.  I realize not everyone has this same experience with their spouse.  After leaving the canyon we made it to Amarillo, had some lunch, checked in to our hotel where we go to stay with some good friends, and showered for the evening.  The wedding was great with lots of friends, food, and dancing fun!  Congrats to Dustin and Jennifer!  Sunday held an early morning and LOTS of driving.  We made it to Snyder and saw my mom's play... she was amazing!  Funniest lady on the stage, had everyone in stitches.  Then we embarked on our five our drive home.  It was late, we were exhausted, the apartment looked like our campsite exploded in it, and there wasn't much time before work the next day, but it was totally worth it.  Maybe not so much a fiasco, but an adventure for sure!

Glad you were curious enough to read.