Home schooling was my choice of education for the Kid for many years. It was flexible, challenging, rewarding. It was yelling matches, planed activities gone wrong, and time consuming. By the time the Kid went back to school halfway through his fifth grade year, he was reading at high school level and working out of a college level pre-algebra book. If he hadn’t been home schooled we never would have been able to travel for the Solar Eclipse in Aug 2017 as school had already started. Home schooling is the only option for a quality education but it is the worst for age related social skills. Sadly, he HAD to return back to public teenage daycare where he has not expanded his education but has made some great friends.

Working from home reminds me of home schooling. It can be flexible, challenging, and rewarding. However, working from home has its MAJOR set backs. Hours are not set 8am-5pm nor Mondays-Fridays. It can be everyday, all day, too cold winter days, perfect spring sunny days, sailing weather summer days, wet fall days, holidays, sunny days, rainy days, sick days, and family days. Working from home for me is a love hate relationship. Like home schooling, working from home is the worst for age related social skills.

For whatever reason, the last two months have been very stressful for me and it was determined I needed a break. Normally a break means a trip to the in-laws where I spend my down time cooking (my happy place) yet still answering sales calls/emails. Not this year. This year, the phone/email had a vacation notice installed the Friday before Thanksgiving at 4pm sharp saying all phone calls, text messages, and emails would be returned the Monday after Thanksgiving. Hole-e-crap. A real vacation! Its been four years since we’ve had a vacation and I am stress hoping this vacation doesn’t end as dramatically as the last vacation. Sure, sure it is not hurricane season anymore but there are plenty of other life altering situations that could happen. Hello, we are traveling during one the busiest travel weeks of the year. I know, stop stressing the unknown.

Not that it matter anyways because where Boxes in Fields went there was no cell service. None. As in the symbol on the phone was grayed out. It was amazing to be so untethered to society. So yes, the vacation notices were posted Friday and we were gone before dawns early light Saturday morning.

Boxes in Fields broke out of the box and plunged into the great wild world. Camping gear was hastily thrown into the car, along with the bare minimum of clothes and snacks, and the rest was an ice chest and jugs of water. See while this trip was a spur of the moment decision it was years in the making. Years!

For several years the running joke was that when the Great Doggo was gone-o we were going camping at some of our favorite campsites that didn’t allow for dogs. Don’t get me wrong, we camped all the time with the doggo as she went everywhere we went. In fact she LOVED camping because she could get to sleep on the bed snuggled down deep between the sleeping bags after a long day of hiking. But camping with a dog is not always fun and as she got older she couldn’t go on the 10 mile hikes anymore.

The dog has been gone a few months now (still so sad….) and this is the first opportunity in the school schedule Boxes in Fields could leave. A leave we did. While the sudden spur of the moment camping trip meant our favorite places were filled there were others we had never been too offering all the things we wanted. Hiking, camping, solitude.

Camping at state parks due to vast number of nature lovers does not bode well for last minute planning. Throw in a major holiday week and it gets even trickier. Throw in beautiful, dry fall weather all across the state and planning was reduced to one day at a time. Throw in cool (sometimes frosty) mornings and warm afternoons and planning had now become just about finding a new park to stay that was within a four hour drive of the park we were currently camping.

Saturday was Stephen F. Austin State Park in east Texas. It was tall, tall pine trees, lots of free roaming deer, and miles of fairly easy hiking trails. It was filled with droves of boy and girl scout troops, groups of family outings, and individuals seeking solitude yet staying close to civilization. Located a few miles off IH10, the roar of the highway could still be faintly heard during the lull of the night quite, and the phones still connected to the world.

Sunday morning dawned bright and early and cool. Having not planned for breakfast we stopped at the first available food joint (my most favorite place to eat ever) and mapped out our next location, Colorado Bend State Park in high hill county central Texas. Four hours later we were checked in with tents up and we were hiking the first closet trail. Monday morning we were informed a spot had opened meaning we could stay a second and third night so we drove the long and windy 35 miles into the next closest town for breakfast and food refueling at the local grocery store.

Not having to leave meant we could hike and hike and hike. And so we did more than five miles each day up and down and down and up through cedar groves thickets and grass covered fields. Hiking can be done as a solo event or as a family event. I am more of a solo hiker but the Kid is not. He is a talker. The Planner has developed the keen ability to block out talkers so the Planner and the Kid hiked at their own pace and me a mine.

Hiking at different paces means experiences are viewed at different times. By the time I caught up with the boys they had already explored the caves, hiked down to the river valley and back, traversed the narrow ledges of the rock wall. But it didn’t matter to me as I heard the wind in the trees, the armadillo in the grasses, and the birds in the sky. It mattered to the boys because I had the day pack with water and snacks meaning they either had to wait for me or double back. Why only one day pack was brought when we all own our own personal day pack with water pouch? Last minute planning.

On Tuesday with snacks food and water packed and the knowledge that dinner was soup out of a can we hiked and hiked and hiked arriving back at the campsite at dark. Sitting there eating our soup enjoying the sounds of neighboring campfires and the quiet talkings in the dark when all of sudden there are angry barking dogs, screaming children, and a mad something or another rushing through the trees. Flashlights light up the fields to only discover it was a misplaced cow. Probably walked across the river from the farm across the way. With hearts beating madly, the moms calmed the children, the dads soothed the dogs, and the Planner and I laughed at the Kid who had crawled into the Planners lap!

What a great way to wrap up the camping trip. Wednesday we head home as another cold front was scheduled to blow through the state bringing sleet and rain. It was a fabulous five days.