Camping at Garner State Park

Camping camping camping. I finally went camping!!! I've seen many of my friends do it and I always wanted to go. It was on the list of things to do before I die. The crazy thing is when you are black and you tell your family that you are going camping. The first thing they say is you going to die, camping aint no place for a black person or that's how a horror movie starts. They never take it serious. The thing is outdoors is for everyone and its good to be outside. Its fun to disconnect and get away from it all. I love that about the outdoors, finding a place where you can get back to nature, just chilling, talking and hanging out with good people.

How I got around to camping was a good friend of mine. I heard he was going camping and I simply asked. I asked his wife and that was awkward as hell. It felt like I was imposing on their ground. As I asked I was unsure of the answer and how to take it, whether it be a yes or a no. I received a yes and was still unsure about the whole thing. Was it going to get canceled? Were they going to say we changed our mind and now you cant come now? Were they just going to leave me behind? I was thinking this up until I finally left to head down there. When I finally got the text I felt a little bit better but not best, because I was still unsure how it was all going to go down. Every time I go somewhere with somebody that I am extra I always think of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One of the girls is trying to get back with her father A divorced separated the daughter and the dad started a new family. She goes to live with him for a couple of days. One of those days she has soccer practice and he has to pick her up. He tells her yes I will be there and waiting for her. The day comes around he drops her off and she has soccer practice. After its over she waits, waits and waits some more till she finally realizes that he is not coming. She has no choice but to walk to his house. When she gets there she rings the door bell and nobody comes to answer. She goes around to the window and sees them eating dinner. He is totally oblivious to her being there and not even worry about her. He could could give two shits about her. I'm not sure how it finished but the point is that, some people don't care about other people when you have other stuff in the way. Again, he did have another family and I can see how that gets in the way but at the same time he had a daughter from another marriage. She was his first and the fact that he just forgot about her was so sad. It made me cry. The fact that one person can just forget about another person and in their mind think its ok, its just sad. Its been a while since I seen the film but that was the one thing from that movie that stayed with me. Anyway back to the camping part.

I mention I get the text on Sunday and we meet, load up the cars and off we went. We arrive and start unpacking, I have no idea how to put up a tent. I got help and it was quick and easy. I bought a 25 dollar tent from Walmart. It was a good tent for first time use but next time I would really drop the money on a better tent. We procced to check supplies and found out that I didn't get the water. Side note, if you ever go camping for a extended period of time and need water, don't buy it at the park. I spent 55 dollars on water at the damn park. I just shook my head in shame. The funny thing was the lady attendant was very friendly. We went to the damn park store about four times on Sunday. We got to a point where she pulled up a list of camping needs and made me double check that I had brought everything. It was great and funny. That night we sat around the fire that took about 2 hours to get really good and talked till everybody went to sleep. Now I have I problem, I cant sleep at night because one I cant sleep in new places and I smoke a lot. Those reason kept me from getting a good night sleep. The first night I didn't get any sleep and both of those reasons didn't help along with the fact that the other person snores like a damn old ass school bus about to break down but it didn't kill my experience. Actually its funny when he snores that's what keeps me up all night.

Monday comes and we decide to hike the big mountain of Old Baldly. I mean I'm down for whatever. I'm with them so whatever they want to do is fine by me. As we approach we see just how big it is and kinda have a change of heart but we hike it. The climb started off rough but some easy patches in between. We meet some people who took the hard way up the first part and I just wonder oh damn. They pass us because we were going a little slow. Remember we aint young and none of us work out. They come back around and we find out that this pass is a dead end. We choose to go to the dead end just to see where it will take us. A dead end but it had a great view. We head back down and find a new path that goes higher up. This climb was rough. I mean turns, different routs, sliding down and other hard climbing shit but we reached the top and what a view. It was amazing. You can see a lot of the park but the park is huge. Then as we proceed to leave we see that there is more to this mountain. IT GOES UP MORE!! We hike that part and see a weird ass squirrel. The damn thing was like three different colors and had a skinny tail. At the top we find out that we reached the summit and it was 1484 feet. It killed us. That's the thing with climbing a mountain. You climb up and you have to climb back down. Every time you pass a new section you look to see how much more is left and you can believe that you came up the same path. Its wild. We get back to the tents, chill and have lunch. We then go to float the Frio river. Nothing special, its just mostly chilling in a tube and riding the waves. Along the way the kids find a rope swing and jump into the water. Further down we see kids jumping off of tall trees into the water. I'm talking like 300 feet into the water. When you get older all you see is the danger in that and not the fun. Me just floating attract attention and a couple guys give me a beer. I floated and managed to get three beers. Its not abuzz but something to sip on while I float. We finish and go back to the tents and sleep at this point. We all ded.

Tuesday we decided to just take it slow. We leave late after playing some board games. Which i cant see how you can lose to a 9 year old but it happens. So sad. We eat and go back to the Frio but this time just to chill in one spot. At first I was like well damn why don't we just float but I think sitting in one spot was better. Now remember the part about the Traveling pants? This fear I have finally comes around. We all floating and the family just kinds drifts away, not far as I could not see them but away. This made me think was this the right place for me to be? Should I be here? Why did I even ask to go to get to this point where I'm thinking all these things? When you think too much it can be a terrible thing. You come to multiple conclusions. All these may be yes and they may be a no but they are just a bunch of what ifs? You cant change where you are? You cant change what you did to get here. You just have to be there and finish it. Yes won and I decided that that was not my time. So I procced to stay in my own lane. That's not me and it will never be. It didn't ruin my time there. It was a factor that I knew was coming, I just didn't know how I was going to handle it. I think I handled it fine. That event didn't make me wish I was back home and it did not make me want to leave if any thing it made me feel special because I was given time to be with them. After about four hours just being cooked by the sun. We decided to get out and hit the gift shop up. Nice little place. You know I got to get a hat, cant leave any place without a hat. We go back to tents and the nine year old wants to do putt putt golf. I aint no tiger woods but I did score a hole in one. That was not enough to win. Damn, I was hoping I would win. The putt putt golf was a great time. At about the 10th hole the nine year decies that the stuffed animal fox was part of the game and started putting it at the end of each hole. Every hole after that we made praise to that damn fox to win. I guess I didnt give it enough love. That damn stuffed fox kept killing my vibes. Back to the tents we get ready for night. Light a fire eat and chill. We start talking about leaving and in my mind this means that its party time. I get drink and we sit around the fire talking till about 12am. About 1am I am a little drank. I purge in some bushes and call it a night.

Wednesday morning we really decided to leave. We pack up and call it a night. Not too much to say about Wednesday but a bunch of packing and traveling and unpacking. All in all it was a great and amazing experience. I would do it again in a millisecond. I keep saying we and I told you the Traveling pants story but that was a small thing. Never once did I feel like the extra of the group, never once did I feel like I shouldn't be there with them. Every move we made was a move and choice that they asked me what did I think? Again it made me feel special about being there with them and I never tried to take for granted because I don't know when it may come again. I was just happy to be there doing something that I never thought I would be doing.