Two weeks in the same park, can you believe it? We left Medina Lake today well rested and ready for another adventure! It was a quiet park in the woods, covered in wildlife. There were so many white tail deer that they blocked the road at times. The ground all around us was 41% gravel, 26% dirt, and 79% deer poop. The park residents feed the deer all day every day so they are less wild animals and more like puppies full of pestilence.

There was no escape from the skittish deer puppies. I tried to sit outside one night and the one in the above/right photo would not stop trying to eat my hand. She kept pacing around me and snarfing. I finally had to institute a ‘legs length away’ ban and she still stood there staring at me, licking her nose.

And if we tried to do math? They were all over that.

San Antonio was a twisty, hilly 50 minutes away from the campground so we’d be remiss if we didn’t go visit the Alamo. Remember the Alamo? Of course you do. I LIVE for places like this. I want to read all the plaques and learn all the facts! The kids were not as enthusiastic but willing to let me give them the Readers Digest version of events as long as they got to pretend to blow Santa Anna away with the cannons.

Wesson’s favorite piece of history was the ‘line’ that Lieutenant Colonel William Barret Travis supposedly drew in the dirt with his sword, spurring the last bit of umph from his small, tired force.

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to be present for the inspiring bits of our past and how it feels like we’ve missed out on the excitement. This, however, is one speech that I’m glad that I missed.

On our way back to the truck we walked right by the San Antonio Fire Fighters Museum, housed in one of the old fire stations. We got a private tour from one of the volunteers, who happened to be retired from the department and served in that particular station. He was full of excellent tidbits about all of the equipment. The personal experiences he shared were a fantastic addition to an already great collection. To be honest, we all loved this place!

They got to ‘drive’ the fire engines, run the siren, ring the bell, put on kid-sized turnout gear, and play with fire hoses, valves, and sprinklers. The best part? It was FREE! They had fun and learned a few things in the process, and for that I’m grateful to our wonderful guide. I sometimes forget that tactile learning is their jam. It was the perfect after party for us.

Back in the wooded wonderland, the washer/dryer project was finally completed! HOORAY! We’ve only been hauling it around for several weeks now like a giant paperweight or a terrible microwave. Justin had to drill a giant four inch hole in the side of the camper (in the dark) to run the vent and a much smaller hole out the bottom in case the thing decided to flood our boat. Cutting into the outside was both a living nightmare and a giant relief. The camper is a 2017, it technically should not have been built yet. Our clothes were better for it, though, and we are no longer swimming in dirty drawers.

This is so much easier than going to the gross laundromat once a week. Dreams can come true.

Random tidbits:

Thanksgiving was a creative cooking challenge and I think I got a strong B+ on my work. I wrote it all down so I can remember what worked and didn’t, that is here: https://roadschoolnotoldschool.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/thanksgiving-in-a-box/

One of the things we use on a pretty regular basis is our membership to the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, MN. Makes sense, right? The membership was $75 for the whole family and it gives us reciprocal membership to hundreds of science centers, museums, and zoos around the country. We’ve used it so many times it has paid for itself tenfold. This week we used it to visit the DoSeum in San Antonio. Among all of their ridiculously awesome hands-on exhibit they have something called the Spy Academy. The kid runs around talking about his top secret agency all the time. Being in a spy academy is literally his dream.

We had to go around solving clues, crawling though ceiling vents, and  writing down the secret numbers so we could get our official spy badges and further missions. We’ll be back to San Antonio in a few weeks and you can bet we’ll be in the DoSeum at least once or twice more.

Right now we are in Goose Island State Park on a tiny island that is a puddle away from the Gulf of Mexico. There are oil platforms in the far distance. I walked over to the beach tonight to see the water but there is no moon out and it was so dark that it was like shining my flashlight into a black hole. Tomorrow we’ll hopefully get to play in the sand and catch some fish. How did we get so lucky?