Father - Daughter
When we first moved to Houston Sarah was in kindergarten. We joined the YMCA Indian Princess program. This has since gone through several names trying to be politically correct but was Indian Princess when we joined. The boys version was Indian Guides.
While living in Riverside, CA when I was also in kindergarten, my dad and I joined Indian Guides. I remember vivdly on great campout up in Big Bear. It is the only camp out I remember but it was a good one. At least it had a positive impact on me.
In Houston Sarah and I were assigned an outstanding tribe and it is where I met Mike O'Bert, who has gone on to be one of my closest friends. We had a bunch of good dad's and daughters in our tribe. Most had experience which made for great campouts. Most importantly, Sarah has great memories of the three years we spent camping together. What made it great in addition to the people, was that we never let the weather get us down. We camped below freezing (thank you space heater!), camped in pouring rain (thank you Walmart rain pancho), and never let the weather stop us.
Our tribe was also filled with NASA folks except for Mike and I. This meant we always had a MacGyver type engineering project going on. I was commuting to/from Angola and other guys in the tribe were doing space walks. We always wanted to hear about the other guys trip.
The Pop-Ups
I grew up with a pop-up that we took frequently to Inks Lake State Park or Gardner State Park growing up. I was keen to replicate the same experience for my family. Our first pop-up was called the Leaky Tiki. It was old and tiny. We fixed up the interior real nice and took it on a 3 week camping trip up through Colorado, Yellowstone & Grand Tetons, and then South Dakota. While this was another great memorable trip, it pretty much was a test of the Leaky Tiki. The result was Nancy's need for a bigger pop-up with an indoor bathroom.
The Taj Majal. We ended up giving the Leaky Tiki to a good friend at church, who still uses it today. The pop-up we ended up buying was a brand new Forest River top of the line over the top pop-up. This thing was fully loaded. Nancy had her indoor bathroom with hardsides. Everyone had their own bed, and big beds at that. It folded out to be about 30' long and 20' wide with the slide outs. It was really nice.
We now have the pop-up for sale, and it is in great shape. Let us know if you want the world's biggest pop-up.
Lake Livingston
Our favorite place to take the pop-up and the boat was Lake Livingston. We found a great little cove with a fantastic RV resort that was small and sites directy on the water. While we didn't make as many trips as we had hoped, we did have a great summer! Tubing, anchoring in private coves with high bluffs, turning on good tunes, and just diving off the boat and floating with refreshments. Everyone having a good time.
State Parks
Texas has great state parks and Houston is well located to access several of the nice ones. Another favorite is Village Creek State Park. This is on the river with huge white sand bars. Canoe trips down the river that end up at the state park are awesome and memorable.
Cancer really interfered with our camping and boating plans. Nancy was diagnosed about a year after we purchased the boat and we had the Taj Majal pop-up for just a few years. We may not had made as many camping trips as we had planned with the boat, we sure had a great time on the trips we did make.
Chain-o-Lakes
When we weren't camping in the pop-up or tents, we did a lot of staying in cabins. Our favorite place is Chain-o-Lakes where they built cabins above a network of small lakes filled with alligators. This is a great place to spend a weekend. They have a great swimming hole away from the alligators but kayaking and canoeing around the alligators is always fun. We fed them big marshmillows so we were buds and nobody was ever attacked by alligator. We also had some racoons come on our porch and get a bag of oreos and ate only the middles. We know that could of been a great comercial if we would of had that on camera. Also one trip a Dad and I took the kids and we let them do the water slide in 40 degree weather. That's why Moms weren't allowed sometimes.
Clear Lake
Living in Clear Lake is a awesome too, especially for kayaking around Armoud Bayou. People come all over south texas to kayak Armound Bayou. Feels like you are in a different place when you get up there and see the wild life and birds. Buying two sit on top kayaks, with original intentions to fish out of them, was a great move. We still have the kayaks and should get use out of them when Ross gets older.
Ross Camping
Although I was diagnosed with cancer and taking treatments, I did manage to get Ross out on a few father-son camping trips. We went old school and busted out the tent. The most memorable was the father-son camp out we did with a few guys from church. It was a great time that Ross still talks about.
It was pretty close to after the passing of my great friend Robert Vaio and I was able to take his son with us. His son, John Roberts, had a great time. He is a year older than Ross and I hope they can continue their friendship from afar - and I am sure they can. We also did a couple of family camps in the pop up at Robert Dies National park on Lake Conroe. The last trip was interesting because I blew out all water devices in the Taj Majal, but had Court Edmonson and Todd Draper on hand so all got fixed!
Wrapping It Up
I am so thankful that not only do we all have great family memories of all of us camping, but Sarah has the love of the outdoors, camping, hiking, kayaking, and just enjoying getting out to enjoy nature. Some of her achievements that I am so proud of is the hard core hiking trips she has taken with the Swindlers. She has done three 4-6 night hiking trips through the Rockies. They were all carry in/carry out with what is on your back. They were also brutal and physically enduring. She loved them and is anxious to do more. Her other passion is kayaking. I am confident that these passions will stay with her, or as least as long as she drives a Jeep.
Good times.
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