Adventurenet.net

December 6th, 2024.

My wife Lauri is in Lincoln, Nebraska and so I am headed on a road trip.

During this trip I visited seven state parks, one national park, met a guy with a car stuck in a ditch, found a UV active millipede, learned about camp Dutch ovens (invented by Paul Revere) and am now seriously considering trying to get a job with a state park.

Also of note, my tent has a broken pole, I don’t own a sleeping bag, I forgot a pillow and this evening’s temperature will be near freezing temperatures during which I will be camping in my janky $40 tent that I purchased 11 years ago.

Strap in, my friends.

First we must drive through the dark and then into the mist.

I left at around 5:30 in the morning to make it to Tyler State Park for a 10am event titled Dutch Oven Cooking: History in a Black Pot.

Many of these State Park events do not list a lot of information on the webpages and it can be difficult to tell what is for children and what is for adults.

Sometimes these events are also part of a series of events that should be started from the beginning.

Luckily for me this was an all ages event, though I would say it is more for adults.

At Tyler State Park on the first Saturday of every moth a cooking group meets up and this event ties in with them.

The park’s interpreter brings a camp Dutch oven & ingredients and displays how to cook with this device while also discussing its history in America.

I arrived early, found the location where the event would be held and then went on a short hike.

Tyler State Park is under a lot of construction right now and it looks like the update will be absolutely fantastic. I can’t wait to visit their new headquarters when the road is finished.

As for the event there are a few items to note.

This method of cooking is meant to be completed with coal, a camp Dutch oven and two of these metal pans which can be purchased for less by purchasing them at a farmer store rather than a camping store (tips from the interpreter).

The cooking temperature can be set by counting how many coals are placed underneath the Dutch oven and by how many are placed on the lid.

Notice the lip on the lid.

This is to hold these coals in place.

More notes from this wonderful event:

A camp Dutch oven was used by the Lewis & Clark expedition. Their camp Dutch oven was with them from the beginning to the end.

Prop open the lid with a stick when storing to keep the oil inside from turning rancid.

Cold items placed on a hot surface will stick. This was shared as a “as everyone knows” kind of thing, but I had not heard this before.

Metal tongs are a great addition to this kit to transport the hot coals around the metal pans and onto the lid of the Dutch oven.

Adding a tablespoon of Tobasco to brownie mix helps the flavor. I am skeptical of this advice, but I will try it sometime.

In this example of how to use the Dutch oven our ingredients were:
1. Three cans of apple pie filling
2. A box of spice cake mix
3. A can of Coke (or was it Dr. Pepper)?
4. Butter. Somewhere between a tablespoon & a full stick

When placing in the first food item, listen for a sizzle. If there is no sizzle increase the coals/temperature/time until a sizzle is audible.

An absolutely delightful event and an fantastic treat.

I don’t like apple pie, or any pie really.

But I loved this.

I went back for seconds.

(And thirds).

This event took more of my time than I had expected it would, but I have learned from these camping trips to bask in the good parts and so I stuck around for a bit chatting with the interpreter about cooking, coffee and state park topics.

This is how I learned that we have lost one of our Texas state parks.

I figured Fairfield Lake State Park was just under renovations or something, but it turns out there had been a prolonged battle over ownership and the Texas State Parks have lost.

On the flip side, I am a county clerk for Williamson county Texas and I can confirm that during the last election two different state park funding bills passed.

I have on good authority that the funding increase was so good that the parks should be able to survive indefinitely on the interested earned on that account.

As the interpreter received a call from someone I also received a call from Lauri in Nebraska and so we parted ways. I drove to the second state park, Martin Creek Lake State Park while chatting with my wife.

Because I arrived at this park later than I had anticipated and also needed to make it to the third park on this day before it got dark in order to set up my tent, this visit was a rushed one.

I opened the hiking map, looked at the list of sights and picked one.

Something something power plant.

“An old power plant? That sounds cool.” – the inside of my head.

First, I was in the wrong spot and got a bit turned around, but I was able to find the right area and go on my island hike to view this power plant.

Behold!

A perfectly modern power plant across the water rather than the ruins of an 1800s power plant or whatever I was imagining.

I was disappointed.

This does not seem like a highlight to me, but this is likely because I had imagined ruins.

I should have read the description rather than rushing.

That is to say “I made a mistake, I got my hopes up and my disappointment is my own fault.”

Lesson learned.

This is why I try not to rush these visits, they tend to be disappointing without time spent on research and basking in the beauty on display.

The trees in this park have what I assume is an interesting pine cone.

I did a double take when I saw this as I was hoping this was an American Chestnut, the tree that was nearly driven to extinction one hundred years ago.

Here are a few more pictures I took during my hike & visit to this park including the bridge to the island hike & a deer I saw as I was exiting the park.

Next stop: Caddo Lake State Park where I have a campsite rented for myself.

I try to just get simple primitive campsites, preferably closer to the bathroom, but sometimes these are not available.

Caddo Lake State Park during the winter is one of these locations.

They have campsites that match this description, but due to these sites being at a lower altitude the water tends to freeze during the winter and so the water is shut off and the campsites are closed until weather warms up.

This is why I ended up with a campsite that included a screened shelter.

I didn’t know what a screened shelter was before renting this campsite.

Look at that mossy roof.

I’m pretty much a hobbit now.

The insides are tidy and I was debating whether I should set up my tent inside of here, on the ground or on the um… sand pit?

Behind this screened shelter was a sand pit. I think that’s where a tent is supposed to be set up.

I don’t really know.

I did not set up on the sand pit.

Here’s the inside of the shelter.

I also did not do a great job at looking at the map when selecting this location.

I mentioned that I like to be near the restroom when possible, but I mistook the parking lot symbol as a restroom symbol and so I was near spare parking rather than a place to relieve myself.

Check out how cool these tall trees are (bathroom & shower area on the left).

Right.

Time to set up my broken tent before it becomes too dark and too cold.

Here is the broken tent pole.

You may notice that it is just the string that kind of keeps it together that is broken.

This is a perfectly functional tent pole, it’s just a bit of a pain to keep together as it has to slide through a sheath on the tent, and if it falls apart in the sheath it’s a pain to get out and fix.

But I got it.

The tent is erected.

Note. One of the strings attached to the roof bit of the tent has also gone missing and so some dollar store rope that was cut with an expensive multitool was the fix here.

Notice how the other side does not have bright yellow dollar store rope holding the roof ventilation open.

Also of note, the cabins here are siiiiick.

Tent is up, filled with my goodies, I can see that I am still in a t-shirt at this picture.

Oh how woefully naive this young Levi is in this picture.

He does not yet grasp the reality of the temperatures he’ll be put through on this evening.

Some items to note in this picture: 1. That sticker covered book near my shoulder is my 2024 planner which is where my notes about the campsite Dutch oven were kept. The book on top of it is my Texas State Park passport book where I am gathering stamps of all of my park visits. The blanket I am laying on is one that I purchased from a Big Lots near my apartment since I do not own a sleeping bag. It cost me $35 and has been a popular addition to our household since this camping trip.

It is loved by both Lauri and our cats.

Speaking of Lauri, here is the t-shirt that I purchased for her at this park.

Before we move any further here is a picture of a Flat Backed Millipede.

It will be important later.

Also of note: These have toxic excretions.

But back to joyful items!

Here’s a park ranger bear chilling in my tent!

She is nestled atop my adventure backpack.

All of my most basic camping items are kept in here such as rope, matches, a few tools, postcards, pens, pencils, cell phone charger batteries and more.

One of my adventure items that has been on my adventure list for some time was to cook with a camp stove or an alcohol stove.

Here is another dollar store item that I stored in this adventure backpack.

Some matches.

And a little pot supporter structure thing that I picked up at Daiso.

Instructions in Japanese, but I’ve ben learning a little bit of Japanese and I just used the pictures to put together the three pieces.

I didn’t try to read any of this.

Success!

Not success.

This does not fit at all.

And I’m sure you’re probably saying “Levi. It says it’s for wood fires, not for dollar store alcohol stove thingys.” to which I say “Look, I didn’t read the instructions in advance. Or the front of the package. It was one dollar.

Well, “100 yen.”

Look, I don’t plan everything out.

Maybe if I center the stove directly on top of the burner…

That’s not going to work.

Right.

Plan b.

It even comes with a little corner to keep the wind from blowing the flame around too much.

Genius.

Right, well I’m not hungry yet and it’s not dark yet, but I did also want to try out the black light flashlight that I had purchased on the suggestion of another park ranger.

In one of my previous posts on this blog I discussed that scorpions glow under black light and that having a black light flashlight is a great way to find them and avoid getting stung.

It’s still bright out, but I wanted to test my recent purchase.

It turns out these are great at finding human trash as well as spider webs and bird poop.

Like what about this thing?

Or this reaction that must have happened to this PVC pipe at some point that wasn’t visible to me under regular light.

Or these clippy things that I didn’t even notice where in the shelter until the flashlight made them stand out.

This flashlight also has a “slider” that lets me focus the light into small spot, or across a wide area.

I am happy to say that I was able to check into the park through the regular system (as opposed to the fill out a form and dump it into a mail slot system) as well as raising my tent and being prepped for the evening before it got dark.

It became dim about 15 minutes after I finished with the tent.

So now we eat.

Here is a picture I took with night time mode.

And here is a picture of what it actually looked like.

This took a long time to warm up.

I also forgot silverware.

I would occasionally stir the soup with my finger as a way to test whether this was ready to eat and to ensure that I would not burn myself when I picked up the can.

The height of the can over the flame was too much.

I had to make some adjustments to get the flame closer to the bottom of the can.

It is fully dark now and time to break out the LED lantern.

I did not want to leave the flame unattended while this soup was warming up, but I was bored and had been waiting for a long time and so I decided to return to the black light flashlight to look around the campsite a bit more this way I could entertain myself while not veering too far from the open flame.

What the heck is this?

Oh. Some plastic garbage.

I had several moments like this.

“Oh, that looks neat!”

“… It’s more garbage.”

So if you want to pick up garbage at a state park, I suggest waiting until it gets dark and using a black light to locate debris like this.

But then I saw this.

I assumed it was more garbage, but got in closer anyway.

Just to be sure.

Might not be garbage.

Oh. Well that’s something.

Appears to be a caterpillar.

How delightful.

Note: This is that millipede that excretes cyanide.

I was not aware of this at the time. I really thought it was a caterpillar.

Which explains why I went and dug out the macro lens from my adventure pack so that I could get really close and take this picture.

Pretty sweet.

I was not poisoned.

I do regret to say that I foolishly moved around some of the leaf debris in order to take this picture, but I did this jostling with the flashlight and not with my hands, thank goodness.

I should probably wash the flashlight.

Anyways, how cool is that?

The millipede’s legs light up under the black light!

At this point I returned to my soup and give it the finger stir test and it was warm, but not hot.

Bottoms up.

A bit awkward to drink without silverware, but I got most of it down.

And now I’m cold, bored and have nothing to do.

Back to the tent.

It was this moment that I realized that I had forgotten a pillow and so I used a reusable grocery bag filled with laundry for a pillow.

Here’s bird poop on the ground under the black light.

Time for bed.

I fall asleep at 6:30 pm.

I wake up cold, bored and have to pee at around 3:30 am.

My option at this point are to try to go back to sleep, but I’ve had a good seven and a half hours of rest, so this will not do.

Option two would be to get up and have some fun. In the freezing weather. In the deathly silent wilderness.

I could climb into my car and warm up in there, but sitting in my car for several hours does not sound like a good time at all.

Option 3 would be to brave the cold and darkness and take down my tent and leave.

Rather than visiting the next three state parks in this Northeastern corner of Texas I could head south to the parks close to Houston.

By the time I arrive they will be opening for the day.

Yes, I will do this.

I will get out of my warm bed where I “tacoed” myself in the new warm blanket, brush my teeth, take down my tent in the dark and leave.

It was not a pleasant morning.

I do love these hooks at the campsites to hang lanterns from.

This was very helpful.

Did I mention how silent and dark it was?

My plan here is to take down my campsite, load up the car and leave with as few lights and noises as possible.

I have nearly everything packed and I have just finished taking down the tend and stuffing it back into its container. This is the last item to toss into the car before I can leave.

I am wearing my gloves that I was thoughtful enough to store in my heavy coat’s pockets just for situations like this and I place my car keys into the coat pocket so that I do not accidentally set off the car alarm.

Lift the tent bag, tuck it under my arm, set off the car alarm, freak out, try to turn off the alarm, realize that I can’t remove the keys from my pocket because I’m holding a tent and also because my hands are in slippery gloves, yank off one of the gloves while awkwardly shoving the tent under another arm, pull out the keys, turn off the alarm, toss the tent into the back seat rather than the trunk because I am horrified and in a hurry to leave, drive off quickly, realize I’m going the wrong way, wonder if I forgot anything at the campsite, decide I can’t go back there after what I have done, reasoning sets in, go back anyway, switch the car to running lights so that I don’t shine my headlights into other camper’s tents, kill the engine to be quieter, open the door to inspect the location, WHY IS MY CAR MAKING LOUD DINGING NOISES?! Oh. Because the door is open and I left running lights on… Realize I didn’t forget anything, leave the park driving the correct direction this time, park at the entrance of the park and bask in my shame.

Note: this is one of the few parks that does not have gates that are locked at night.

…

Dear campers that have ever been woken up to a car alarm.

I am so sorry.

(This has happened to me in the past).

…

Off to Martin Dies Jr. State Park.

And then I met Jose who’s car was teetering over the ledge of a ditch.

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Penny says “Hey, sexy.”