This week was a short week because my students had a few days off of school and we also had parent-teacher conferences. So, there isn’t much school-wise to discuss. We reviewed skills from the previous eight weeks, did a holiday craft with a parent-volunteer, and tried to stay calm until the long weekend began.
This was as much a struggle for me as it was for the kids, because the moment parent-teacher conferences ended…I went camping!
Jack picked me up from school, and we made the short drive to Bend, TX. We got to the entrance two hours after we left the school, but it wasn’t until 30 minutes later that we got to the Ranger Station! Those were some of the slowest six miles I’ve ever traveled in a car. It was an unimproved dirt road littered with thousands of medium sized rocks. Ugh!
When we finally got to the river, it was beautiful! We had our choice of campsites, since it was not yet the weekend rush. We found a lovely site under the shade of willow trees, close enough to the river to hear it flowing, but far enough away to avoid getting wet.
We took a short walk and then retired back at our site so that we could make dinner. We had chicken fajitas. We put the chicken, onion, and peppers into marinade at home and then cooked it on the propane stove that evening. They were delicious and very easy to make. Then we made a small fire and cooked s’mores.
That night, a large cold front blew in. In the morning, it was about 45 degrees and raining! We were dismayed to say the least. But, we got out of the tent when the rain stopped, and made some oatmeal and bacon. I was still a little hungry, so I got out a tortilla that wasn’t used the night prior for fajitas and decided to warm it. I was just about to rinse out the pan used for frying bacon when I realized. Frying it in the pan would be delicious! I tried it, and it was indeed delicious.
We went on a partially cloudy, partially rainy walk and then retired back to the tent, exhausted. It was still rainy, so we at lunch in the tent and then took a nap. When we woke up, the sun was up! We were able to take another lovely walk, this time in sun-soaked breezy weather. Much more pleasant.
We had a spaghetti dinner, ate more s’mores, and went to bed. In the morning, we woke up and cleaned up our campsite, but not before enjoying more oatmeal, bacon, and bacon tortillas! We took another short walk and then began our big adventure of the trip.
We went caving! It was a fabulous adventure and just a bit scary. There were two groups of two plus one guide to make five. We had to drop down into the cave, but didn’t worry about falling because the opening was so narrow, we could barely get through. There were some parts of the cave that I had to crawl over a rock and then twist my body sideways so that my hips could go through a hole in the rock. Then, it would open up into a small room that all five of us could fit into and rest for a few moments before going through the next swiss cheese-like section.
When we got out, Jack and I were exhausted and completely muddy, but overjoyed. We were overjoyed because it was so much fun, but also because it was the last thing we were set to do, and we could look forward to a long, comfy car ride back home and a nice warm bed to recuperate in.