Camping... For Real This Time!

A few weekends ago, Jack and I decided to head down to Lake Murray to enjoy some camping and to take advantage of the 4-hour guided fishing tour Kristin got me for Father’s Day. We headed out at lunchtime and got some Sonic (so Jack was already excited) then we picked out our little spot and set up our little (and I mean little) tent. Jack helped to put in the stakes, and he was awfully proud. Jack “made smoke” (kicked up clouds of dirt) while I set up for our fire-free day of camping then we spent the rest of our afternoon hanging out in the lake, going on hikes, and just enjoying a mild Oklahoma day in the great outdoors. That evening, we grilled some hot dogs (the burn ban did allow us to grill with charcoal) and made s’mores. Jack loved watching the marshmallows catch fire, and we both loved the s’mores. We did make a campfire, despite the burn ban… but we had to make it in the grill. Jack still thought it was pretty cool to toss some sticks on the flames and watch them catch fire.

Jack and I slept in his 6’ x 6’ tent. He seemed to do fine, but I had to sleep diagonally to fit in. An hour or so after I managed to get to sleep, I awoke to the sounds of raccoons trying to climb the pole I had hung our trash from; after all, no camping trip would be complete without raccoons. I woke again to our neighbors’ car alarm then again to the same car alarm. I was a little worried that neither Jack nor I would have the energy for early morning fishing.

At 6:00, I woke Jack so that we could meet our fishing guide at 6:30. He bolted up, asking “is it 6 o’clock?!” I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited! We made it to the marina at 6:30 on the dot… then came 6:35… then 6:40… then 7:00… then 7:30. I must have called our guide 100 times before finally giving up and telling Jack that there would be no fishing (after all, I hadn’t brought a pole or gear or any fishing supplies since they were all to be provided). I was sure Jack would be devastated, and he was certainly disappointed, but he took the news a lot better than I anticipated. It helped, I’m sure, that I told him we could visit the wild animal park instead.

We stopped off at the Lake Murray public beach to play for a bit then we made our way to the wild animal park. It was a pretty neat place… the temperature had just dropped by about 25 degrees, so all of the animals were in great spirits, playing and running and jumping. It made for a great experience. As part of our package, we had a guide who showed us all around the park and let us get up close and personal with the animals. We saw lions and tigers and bears… and ligers (a lion breeded with a tiger). Oh, my! Jack loved learning all of the big cats’ names; since each cat is named by a different person, we would see a “JT” followed by “Mufasa” followed by “Larry”. His favorite was Symba.

We capped off our visit by petting a baby tiger. Jack was absolutely fearless, getting in very (very!) close to “see the tiger’s teeth”.

Jack is convinced that our fishing tour guide died (and I’m inclined to think the same thing since it’s been over a month with no returned call and he didn’t dispute our refund request). We prayed for him… we figured that if he wasn’t dead, he must be in the hospital or something. Jack simply could not fathom any other reason “the man wouldn’t call back.” Whatever the reason, we had a ton of fun despite our setback. I am trying to convince Kristin to come next time, but she only wants to go camping if we upgrade our tent to a cabin. It might just have to be a guys-only thing.