This weekend Teacherman and I headed to Brazos Bend State Park for a camping trip with the Webelos. Brazos Bend is about 80 miles southwest of our house so I took him out of school a couple of hours early to get a jump on the traffic. We got to the park, set up camp and got a raging fire going before dark, in a fog of mosquitos. As soon as the sun set we were visited by 6 raccoons. We watched them for a few minutes before I ran after them scaring them away. They didn't return. We headed to the George Observatory. The George has 3 big telescopes. Well, 1 BIG one and two smaller ones. I can't remember what we looked at through the two "small" ones, but through the big one the astronomer had us view M11 (Wild Duck) Starfield. It was pretty amazing. Even with the sky flickering with distant lightning we were able to get a pretty good view of infinity. The distant lightning was (of course) a sign of what was coming. We got back to camp as the rain came down. It poured for an hour or so. The lightning was now not distant. The thunder was incredibly loud and a little frightening with only the cover of a tent. Teacherman was not happy, but he survived and now has a pretty cool story to tell.

Saturday we went to the Nature Center and hung out with the park's volunteers. They were the coolest and most knowledgeable people on the planet. We all got to pet a screech owl, corn snake, milk snake and a baby alligator. After the kids attended TPWD angler class we went on a guided nature hike. Once again, the volunteer was brilliant. After lunch, the boys went and hung out for 5 hours with a Boy Scout troop. I went fishing with one of the dads.

Early Sunday morning we climbed out of the tent and into the cold. We immediately broke camp, ate breakfast and headed on our own hike. Our goal was to find alligators. Quickly, our goal was complete when we stumbled upon 7 gators sunning themselves on the shore of New Horseshoe Lake. The smallest gator was approximately 5 feet, the largest was probably close to 10. A little later we saw three more. A ten and a 6 footer sun bathing, and another medium sized one in the water hunting a duck. He didn't get it, but he came close. Amazing. Holy crap.

I'm sleepy.


Our campsite was pretty secluded.









Baby gators are released into the park when they are one year old.








Gators on the shore









Teacherman with a gator









These golden silk spiders are everywhere. They are harmless to humans.








I can't resist posting a pic of my awesome hat.