Out West Adventure: Part 1--Setting Out

Ana with her Fisher Price Zoo

Showing her new Zoey Ballerina

Eli and Jordan at swim class

Jan. 20-23--(Sunday) We left Lansing soon after 9:00AM, a little earlier than Marv hoped but I thought we did pretty well since we had to pack the cooler and close down the house. We had no problems getting to Ken & Jen's in Fort Wayne, dropped off the orchids, and had a warm beverage from their new Keurig. Then we all got back on the road and stopped in Gas City for lunch at the world's slowest Burger King where they had run out of forks?!?! Luckily, we had some in the truck. We still made it to Carmel before Analyn was up from her nap. When she got up we did presents with her for her second birthday. Ken and Jen gave her the animals for the Fisher Price zoo they had given her for Christmas, which she began to play with right away. We gave her an apron with her name and a penguin that I made for her and a pair of Sesame Street characters (Rosita and Abbie Cadabra) that will go with her Fisher Price zoo and farm. We also gave her a stuffed Zoey Ballerina doll, which was a BIG hit. (She asked for it to take to bed with her and met us at her door with it the next morning.) After presents everyone but Craig went to the boys' swimming lessons at the wonderful Carmel aquatic center. We chatted and played with Ana as they swam. It was late when we finished so we went to a pizza place, where Craig met us and we all ate dinner. Ken and Jen left from there to go home, since they both had to work even though Monday was Martin Luther King day. The kids all went right to sleep after their big day. (Monday) We got up our usual time and enjoyed coffee and cereal and some time with the kids, who didn't have school because of MLK Day. Marv observed an interesting incident with Analyn. When she got downstairs with Zoey, he heard a knocking sound and realized that she was hitting Zoey's head gently on the edge of the desk, precisely where Ana had hit her head the week before, requiring 6 stitches. He said, "Oh! Did Zoey hit her head?" Ana solemnly nodded her head and looked concerned. What a wonder kids can be! We reluctantly took our leave before 10:00 in the middle of a snow squall that ended by the time we got to the southwest side of Indianapolis. From there on it was clear sailing on dry roads and sunshine, although it was in the twenties until Illinois and slowly got as warm as the high thirties. Half of the day we were listening to Public Radio coverage of the Inauguration of Barack Obama for his second term of office. We stopped every two hours for Marv to get out and walk around, including lunch at Subway and dinner at Wendy's in Arkansas. We made it all the way to Little Rock before we got a room at a Quality Inn and Suites. It was nearly 10:00 CTZ and we were interested to note that it was 4 degrees with a wind chill of 13 below at home!  

Double Lake Campsite

Hiking the Double Lake Trail

(Tuesday) After enjoying their hot breakfast at the hotel we checked out and drove to a nearby Kroger where we filled up with gas at $2.96. I30 took us to Texarkana on the state borders. We stopped at the Information Center to get camping ideas for Texas and headed down Highway 59 towards Houston. 59 is a divided highway that will eventually become I69. The only stop we made was at a Bar-B-Que spot where we each had their half chicken with two sides special. It was delicious!! With a little bit of frogging around we found our way to Double Lake Recreation Area in the Sam Houston National Forest about an hour north of Houston. It was a 400 mile drive and the temperature rose from the low 30s to 71 degrees along the way, with clear, sunny skies. We found a campsite, becoming one of four campers plus the Camp Manager and the Campground Host in the 60+ campsites. It's a lovely, wooded campground on a little lake with lots of greenery between campsites and a deer was wandering through as we picked out our site. Because we were still full from our big lunch, we could take our time setting up and transferring things between the truck and the camper and getting the back seat of the truck organized. We also walked around our camping loop to see what it was like and to pay our fee. Then we turned on Spartan Radio on my phone and listened to MSU's amazing basketball win over Wisconsin at Madison. We ate a light meal of canned salmon or peanut butter on crackers, and then read for awhile. Before we went to bed we walked around the loop again, this time to stargaze and admire the 3/4 moon in the clear skies. (Wednesday) After a simple breakfast of Cheerios we took the 1.69 mile Lakeside Trail around the lake. At some point they put a bit of money into this area and the whole trail was either paved or boardwalk and there were interpretive signs along the way. It's sort of falling apart now but it was still impressive. Back at the campsite we both read the Lansing State Journal on our tablets using the Hot Spot I can set up on my phone. Then we broke camp and drove to Houston, stopping for a quick lunch at Burger King.

Panoramic of Double Lake