Take a Hike with the Claytons

Take a Hike with the Claytons

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Oak Mountain #4 January 2017


It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend so we have three days to enjoy a camping trip. Unlike our previous 3-4 trips that were booked well in advance, we only made this reservation four days ago!  Last weekend brought 36 hours of below freezing temps and plenty enough ice to keep everyone indoors for three days, so most people around here had cabin fever.  Fortunately for us, the highs were in the lows 70s all weekend … quite a difference from last week for sure.  Anyway, we booked a site (one of only four remaining) and much to our surprise it was one of the best spots we’ve seen at OMSP.  It sits up high and has a wonderful view of the lake, and also has a large sitting area with picnic table and firepit.  



Since Carter had basketball practice on Friday evening and a game on Saturday morning, we committed to setting up and getting things rolling after the game was over.  Somewhere around 11:00am, I headed to the site while Kelly, Carter, and Caroline went to a birthday party.  I had everything set up and ready to go by 12:30 and they arrived shortly after.  We played around the area for a while until our camping party friends showed up.  It was a massive get-together as the Busenitzs (7), Williams (4), and Menards (3) joined us for a 18-member cookout!!  We had hot dogs, chips, dip, cookies, s’mores, and plenty of good times (but lacked light! We need some batteries for our lanterns!). The kids played and biked in the cul-de-sac and loved playing in the camper!


Everyone left around 7:00 and we ended our night shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, Caroline was under the weather so Kelly took her home for a better night sleep (and had myself a cozy movie night and made muffins! -Kelly).  That means it was just me and Carter.  For some very odd reason, he decided not to be wild and run around like he had just received his freedom, and instead climbed in the bed at 7:45.  I didn’t stop his momentum and found myself settled in at 7:58!!  How in the world did this happen??  We slept great, even though it got pretty cold, and I managed to wake up after a 10 ½ hour slumber.  Nice.

Caroline was off to a slow start but once the meds kicked in she was pretty good (with some moments of course).  Carter has fully embraced camping and the outdoors.  He had Donald making him some wooden spears to "kill" the fish.  
 Sunday brought a lot of fun to the table.  Even though we have been to OMSP a lot, we wanted to explore a few offerings that we had not been to yet.  Carter and I started by doing a little hiking and fishing.  We of course didn’t catch anything but we sure had fun just listening to nature and spending time together.
Cannot even express how similar these two are!  
 Next, we loaded up the van and headed to the Demonstration Farm (most of us would call it a petting zoo).  It is free admission and the kids loved it!  We saw goats, peacocks, donkeys, roosters, pigs (THE FATTEST PIG YOU'VE EVER SEEN), and ponies.  Carter became really good friends with a donkey named Taylor as she followed him around the park for a while.  Then, he was able to convince the staff member that the peacock’s name should be Carter. So if you go visit the farm, you MUST ask the worker what the peacocks names are and see if she says one is named Carter! If not, just don't tell Carter!  Meanwhile, Caroline looked on rather cautiously until she realized everything was good to go. She ended up hanging out with a bunch of goats!  *** I was very excited to use my new camping fanny pack that I insisted I needed, I know I am so cool! Also my new birthday Chacos! -Kelly


I don't think I have ever heard Carter laugh as loud as he did when he saw that pig!


This is our friend Taylor, that LOVED Carter.  When I took the selfie with him, he nuzzled up to me!  We will come visit you soon buddy!

We need a donkey.  Precious!
A bunch of goats!

Here's Carter the Peacock!

I just love this picture!  haha! -Kelly




Next, and since we were so close to the front entrance, we decided to head to Sonic for lunch.  It doesn’t take much convincing for me and Kelly to get some cheddar peppers.  :)


Time for Cheddar Poppers and an Oreo Blast!

After lunch, we drove to OMSP’s BMX track and watched different people take turns riding through the courses.  Carter and Caroline were both pretty interested so we stayed for the better part of an hour.

Carter's ready for the BMX track- -just need to get rid of those training wheels this spring!

Once we got back to the camper, we noticed a familiar vehicle was parked next to us and it turned out to be the Dearmans!  They hung out with us for an hour or so before they had to head back.  By this time, Kelly’s crock pot BBQ was about finished so we ate dinner and got ready for bed.

We love the Dearmans!
My new camping chair from my parents for my birthday:)  I love it!

Pork BBQ dinner (with Caroline's help) and then time for a show.  Carter wanted to cuddle, Caroline not so much.  
 Caroline, still a little sick but not enough to go home again, insisted on getting ready for and going to bed … so we let her.  Carter came out to the firepit with Mommy and Daddy for s’mores and good conversation.  It was a lot of fun for Kelly and me because we got to hear how much he is growing up, and beginning to process things differently, and because it allowed us a chance to do some positive parenting with different questions he asked (he talked about fears that he has, and just questions about life).  I am sure it is a night neither of us will forget.


 We all slept fairly well, except for about 90 minutes of Caroline waking up. She just hasn't been sleeping well in general lately and being a little sick isn't helping... poor thing. Once Kelly gave up and put her in our bed she was fine of course... she's a persistent little booger!   Monday morning was a little more fishing, a little more eating, and a lot of packing up. The park is currently working on building another beach area so Carter was very excited to show it to Caroline. They played for about an hour in the sand while we "fished". Held a pole in the water for an hour, with me asking about the whole time what's the point of fishing anyway? -Kelly  All in all, another great trip at a great State Park!  Until next time!

Just play around the tractors- no big deal!

I'm so hard core fishing and with my fanny pack!  And Caroline and that hat kills me!























Saturday, January 21, 2017

DeSoto State Park 11/10/16

It’s Veterans Day, and a perfect time to take the camper out for a three-day weekend!  Since we jumped into camping in October 2012 we have heard that Desoto State Park is one of the best places to camp, so we figured it was time to test it out. 
Kelly and I purposely chose our November trip to be in Fort Payne in hopes that we would be able to see lots of Fall foliage.  Unfortunately, we were in the midst of a major two-month drought, which meant the leaves were not very colorful and campfires were not allowed.  A bummer for sure, but it’s still amazing how pretty this area is even when it’s not at its colorful best.  Extra bonus is this site had cable and it was the Creative Arts Festival weekend! We weren't sure what that meant but sounded like it had potential.

We left Thursday evening immediately after work and drove the two hours to Desoto.  Setup was easy and fast enough to allow us a family walk that evening.  Desoto is very clean and well-kept so it is nice walking around.  They have large sites that accommodate a lot of camper sprawl (especially those of us with kids).  It was quite cold however, and ended up being in the mid-30s on night one.







Friday morning we woke up and started looking at what we could do that day.  I happened to get up at 6:15 so I could take a walk in the daylight, and wouldn’t you know I saw eight deer during the 20 minutes I was walking around?! It was almost too easy to find a white-tailed deer … just walk about 30 feet into the woods and listen for movement.  More than likely it’s going to be a deer (in our backyard, by the way, that sound is going to be a squirrel).  

After the family woke up, we loaded into the truck and drove to Desoto’s restaurant (after the kids had a couple donuts to snack on- check out that SPREAD!). 
The park restaurant is a country-style eating place that has an incredible breakfast.  We ate lots of biscuits, grits, bacon, sausage, eggs, and something called “red-eye gravy.”  Needless to say, it was an awesome start to the trip. 

Next, we drove into Fort Payne and ended up getting some supplies (and can't forget pulling over to take the required picture with the robot).
We also spent a few minutes in the Tractor Supply Store and managed to avoid purchasing some things for the kids that we absolutely did not need.  After this waste of time, we decided to go see Desoto River Falls.  It was about 15-20 minutes away but worth it when we got there.  The view is amazing and would be even better if there had been any rain recently to help the waterfall be an actual waterfall.  The lack of water, however, did allow us to do some better exploring and go into some places that are normally under water.  We stayed for close to two hours and then headed back to the camper. 


                   

Carter time!  Caroline was asleep in the car


Carter loved the adventure but waterfalls would have been pretty awesome!


So many captions...

We headed back for chili Kelly worked up in the crockpot and she also did some research and found out that the fine city of Fort Payne was having a Veterans Day parade that night.  We drove down the mountain and parked right in front of the Alabama (the band, not state or football team) outdoor stage.  We then walked up their main street and waited for the parade to begin.  It was fun to experience some local flavor as we usually don’t get these opportunities on our camping trips.  We saw war vets from all the way back to World War II, as well as all different types of floats.  The kids also managed to score lots of candy because there weren’t many people sitting near us.  It seemed like we were just raking in the sugar.  After the parade ended we played a little on the playground (in the dark) and then drove back to the camper for nighttime preparations.







Saw some friends on the way!




Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the camper and then went exploring. 



Beautiful morning!



We found a boardwalk that went pretty deep into the woods and gave us a lot of time to enjoy the outdoors.  At the end of the boardwalk there are several trails so we chose the easy route and climbed a few rocks before heading back to the truck. 











So many trails!  I was able to go for a little run and it was gorgeous running in the woods and through the boulders.  Although I did fall flat on my face at one point- whoops!

Desoto was hosting a festival that had some local artisans and musicians. For much of the time the kids had the bouncy house to themselves and we were able to relax and listen to some great hippy music! The kids both wanted their faces painted as you'll see in the rest of the pictures. That paint stayed put!


They'll let us know if there's blood:) 





The scary dragon and Elsa



Somewhere around 5:00 we headed back to the campsite because … this campground has cable tv at each site.  That’s right!  I had the Auburn game hooked up and ready to go on the outside tv!  It was pretty awesome, even if Auburn played pretty poorly.  Kelly made some awesome chicken wings for the game and we devoured them! Kelly and Carter went on their own little adventure. Once the game was over and there were chicken bones everywhere, we locked the kids inside for movie night before everyone drifted off to sleep.






Literally... locked them in for movie night!



Chicken Wangs and Football
Carter got a round of Go-Fish in before bedtime
Sunday morning … you guessed it … back to the restaurant!!  This time it was a buffet so we managed to eat even more.  The kids convinced us to play duck-duck-goose on the huge outside entertainment deck before we went back to the camper to prepare for the drive home.  It was another fun trip, one that would have been much better had we been able to make a fire!

They love some Duck Duck Goose




Until next time!  We give DeSoto State Park a 9... Facilities were good, we loved the restaurant and our spot with the trail in the woods, the festivites, the trails and boulders!