Camping Among the Cacti

Yesterday Kyle said "want to go camping?" to which I replied "yes!" There was threat of rain and storms, and it started sprinkling a bit here in Temple, but we decided to head out anyway. We went to a place Kyle has been before, hiking and camping, off of Stillhouse Hollow Lake, not too far from here. We're not certain if you're technically allowed to camp where we camped (and he camped in the past), but it is evident by numerous broken glass bottles, plastic bottles, and formed fire pits that people camp there anyway. We had a maybe 15 or 20 minute steep hike up to a knoll, overlooking the lake and surrounding sparse neighborhoods (with giant, fancy houses). It is a really beautiful place. It didn't rain and it wasn't too too hot. I gathered wood for the fire while Kyle set up the tent, and then he made a fire and cooked us up some sausages and ramen, topped with some Mexican corn from an MRE. It was delicious; I think camp food is some of the best food possible. We watched (and I documented) the sun go down and the fire go out. The tent was comfortable but I felt hot and sticky for most of the night and couldn't get to sleep easily. And then when I did I had a dream  in which I had to yell at a man for being racist, while on a boat or a trolley... We also both woke up around 3am to a creature making a horrible screeching noise followed by softer coos; we figure it was an owl, but it flew away before Kyle could get a look at it. But I did get some sleep and it was nice and cool outside in the morning. We hung around a little bit, and while packing up I spotted a tarantula crawling about maybe twenty feet from us. We ran over and watched it/Kyle poked it, trying to get it to crawl on something brightly colored to get a clearer picture of it. Heh. So that was really cool. We headed back down the hill and were happy to find our car hadn't been towed over night. It was a really great little trip. It was nice to be outside, to wake up and walk over to such a beautiful view instead of a computer screen. 

S.