Cedar Hill Versus Loyd Park

Who knew the third weekend in October was the second most popular camping weekend at Cedar Hill State park. Not M and I, that's for sure. We showed up Friday night about 8:30pm ready for a nice weekend of camping to find that since we didn't have a reservation we weren't likely to get in. The park ranger gave us the opportunity to wait until 10pm to see if any of the reservations went unclaimed, but that didn't sound like much fun. The line waiting to get a spot was out the door.

M suggested Loyd Park located on the opposite side of Joe Pool Lake. We'd never been there, but thought it was worth a shot so I let my fingers do the walking and we found out they has two spots left. Nothing was easy that night. There were two wrecks on I-20 and traffic was backed up for miles. Time was critical at this point. We remembered the back roads and wound our way around the dam to Loyd park gate. There were still two spots available when we pulled up.

This is my comparison of Cedar Hill SP and Loyd Park

We didn't even have to get out of the car to register for our spot at LP. Not even to give them our tag number. With two dogs, not having to get out of the car is a plus. The park employees assigned us to the shadest of the two remaining spots.

I'm not certain, but it may go faster because in most cases campers at LP have a reservation and they already know which spot is their's. CHSP is first come, first served. The reason I like the option to have a reservation is the reason I hate it. You can make a reservation at LP up to a year in advance, therefore all the goods spots go quickly.

But the good spots are really good. LP has a number of spots on the water. The waters edge is easy to reach and grassy. Very picturesque. It would be worth trying to find an open weekend for one of those spots. Our experience with the water edge spots at CHSP has been very natural. Which means high grass, stick tights and spiders.

The roads within the campsites at Loyd Park are narrow and one-way. We might have wanted to pull in head first because it was late and dark, like we've done at the SP, but we couldn't, we had to back the trailer in in the dark. That made for a cranky husband. Especially after someone pulled up behind us on the road and they can't pass or turn around and go back. That makes for a lot of pressure when you are backing the trailer in the dark.

Every spot in LP has a cover picnic table and the cover is nicely designed. LP picnic tables are wooded. CHSP picnic tables are metal. I guess metal is a bigger issue in extreme temps, but they don't warp.

I think the bathrooms are generally about the same for cleanliness, but I DID NOT get to choose the water temperature for my shower at LP. I took a tepid, at best, shower on Saturday. It was OK because I took a shower in the afternoon, but had I done when it was cooler, I would have been miserable. There was also no bench anywhere in the LP bathroom. No place to put your stuff, except on a hook in the shower stall. The LP showers have locking doors, the SP has a shower curtain. I later found a "heated bathroom," but I don't know if there was more hot water. I will check it out next time. As far as I know, every bathroom at CHSP is heated and has hot water.

In general I found the sites at LP less private. I found a couple that I would really like, but most were very communal. Not bad if you know your neighbors, but we didn't. Admittedly it's a great way to meet people. I prefer a little privacy though. Granted on a busy weekend at CHSP the chance of getting a private diminishes. Especially since you can't reserve a specific spot.

A plus for LP is trash pick-up. Park personnel make frequent rounds and they pick up the trash at your site. No more hauling it to the stinky dumpster.

Speaking of dumping, the dump site, at least this weekend, at LP was yucky. I don't know that it's a park issue, but I seemed like someone missed the hole. I reserve judgement in this area.

Cost wise, it's my perception that LP is more expensive. SP pass is $75 for both M and I and its good for one year from the date of purchase. And it's good at every SP in TX. And it's for me, not my car. The LP pass is $100 from March to September and $50 if you buy in October and it's good until March. It's only good for the truck, not the person, so unless we are in that specific vehicle, it's no good to us.

If you fish, you have to have a license at LP. No license is required in the SPs.

Overall, we will go back to both. It may be difficult to choose which one. I think if we can get a reservation for the specific spot we want, we might go to LP. Otherwise, we might check in at CHSP early Friday morning to get our pick of locations.

CHSP boasts 300 campsites many with 50 amp hook-ups. LP has 221 sites with 30 amp hook-ups.

Family Campout - Joe Pool Lake 15, 66, 68

And when I say family, I mean family, like the whole clan. I think at one point we had 32 people. One family left in the middle of the night because of a sick kid, but on Saturday night, we were maxing out the three spots.

These 3 spots are in the area where M and I have camped before. Just down the row from 73. We had hoped to have 64, 66, 68, but 64 was taken. Then we hoped for 19, 17, 15, but 19 was taken. Somehow we ended up with 15, 66, 68. They were perfect. 15 is close to the restrooms and we cut through the "woods" to get from our spots to 15 and then walked down the road to the restrooms. Super easy.

We were also close to the overflow parking and we used it.

The other great thing about the location were the trails in the woods.The kids ran those trails playing games all day Saturday and Sunday. They made weapons out of sticks and ran and ran and ran. It reminded me so much of when we were kids.

M went out on Thursday and got things set up. M strung colored Christmas lights around site 68. Belinda decorated 66. You could spot our fairy tale camp from the road. It was amazing.

Feeding 32 people was a challenge on a grill. By Sunday morning they figured it out. At one point they had the grill going, one propane burner, one electric skillet and an electric burner. We ate like kings.

The weather was amazing. Cool at night and in the morning for coffee, warm in the afternoon and cool for the campfire when the sun went down. We could not have picked a better weekend.

When we packed and said good-bye, everyone was already talking about next year's campout. I truly hope we make this a family tradition.

Joe Pool Lake - Spot 73

We celebrated Labor Day in style at Joe Pool Lake. Three glorious days of camping.

It was a successful trip. Our third time out. We even had company while we camped. Tom and Roz came out on Saturday night and brought their dog, Matisse. We ate dinner, walked the dogs and then roasted marshmallows, made s'mores and talked around the campfire. It was great and they had a fantastic time. We would definitely do it again.

Sunday Josh came out for dinner. I cooked bacon and hamburgers and friend onions in the bacon grease. Shazam that was good. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination, but yum-o.

After the last trip, we realized we needed some kind of table outside. Something we could set just out the door of the trailer. We got a 4' plastic table that worked great. It held the coffee maker and a container of food that was too big for the camper.

Even though I noted after the last camping trip that we needed lighting, I never did anything about it. Saturday afternoon we ran home and picked up a couple of strings of lights and a lantern. We were very pleased with the result. We plan to take even more lights next time.

We also needed some kind of basket to shuffle items back and forth to the picnic/cooking area. I found a collapsible basket at Wal-mart that worked perfectly. It stored easily when not in use, but was big enough to get everything back and forth in one trip. It was worth every cent. Marshall and I used the heck out of it because our campsite was very deep and the picnic table and fire ring were way in the back. If we'd had to make a bunch of trips for supplies, it would have been a pain in the bottom.

Speaking of the campsite, I went out Thursday morning before work to reserve our spot. The lady talked me out of a couple of choices because of ants. M and I have a list of spots we are good with so I went down the line until we got to 73. It was open. Shady and private - yup, that's what we wanted. Not really close to the bathroom, but we don't care. We did get some noise from FM 1382, but we weren't as close as we could have been (there are a number of spots we want to avoid that back up to the road.) Overall, it was a lovely spot and we would stay there again.

Unfortunately, FM 1382 wasn't the only noise pollution we had to deal with. The people next to us, very friendly and they even shared some fajitas, brought a TV for the kids. Because of the way we were situated, the TV was aimed in our direction and we could here it drone on. Again, it didn't ruin the weekend and it's something we should have anticipated on a crowded weekend like Labor Day.

What worked
M brought a propane stove that was quite the old monster, but it cooked like crazy. We ate like kings.

M used a strap between two trees to create a dog run for the girls. Once they settled in they didn't need it. They stayed pretty close and we were so far off the road when were in the back of the spot, they were not a problem. Another reason to love that site.

More camping in about a month. Can't wait to go and I'm hoping for cooler weather.

I'm rating this weekend 4-stars out of 5.

Camping - Ray Roberts - Isla Du Bois

We took the trailer out for the second time. The first time it was scorching hot. This time it poured rain. Finally, Sunday, it settled down enough to actually enjoy the outside.

Lake Ray Roberts, Isla Du Bois is a fantastic state park. It's small, but lovely. I was so pleased with our camp site #170. Sufficiently secluded even though it was right next to the main road. I have to admit it is nice to have a trailer with a bathroom so we don't have to worry about being situated next to the restrooms. Which we weren't, but it didn't matter.

We drove around a little on Sunday. We also liked spot 75 because it is close to the water. We saw so many spots close to the water. Many people just moored their boats on the water close to their trailers. Ah, some day.

I like the rock edges of the water. Not sharp rocks, but water-smoothed rocks. No mud. We stuck our feet in the water to cool off. If we'd had a spot close to the water, I might have take a chair down their and just sat in the water. The breeze off the lake was heaven. I can't wait to go back. And the sooner the better. Definitely 2 thumbs up.

That's the park, now the camper.

The trailer definitely got a work out as we were going in and out, the dogs were wet and going in and out. At one point, we had four people and the dogs all in the camper. It worked out great.

We discovered a couple of more items we need. A table for outside. One of those light-weight fold up tables. That way we have a place to set the coffee maker, and other items we don't want to have to take in and out all the time. Camping, afterall, is about being outside.

I also need a system for getting many things from the camper to the grill or picnic table. A basket or something. We thought about a big plastic bowl (we have one at home) that can double as a dish pan. It can be a bit tricky grabbing eggs, bacon, bread, potatos, a knife etc to carry outside.

We need lighting. We pulled into the park at 10pm. It was pitch black. The only thing we could do was pull the truck and trailer in head first and go to bed. We slept with everything still hooked up. Not that a couple of lanterns would have solved that issue completely, but at least we would have had light for walking around. I also need to remember to stick in our rope lights.

The dogs were pretty good this time. They are getting much better about staying close to camp. They explored, but never wandered into the street or too far away from camp. I desperately need to get tags with our phone number for their collars.

Things that worked.

DH bought two $10 table top grills and charcoal. He made breakfast and supper in his cast iron skillet on the charcoal fire and it was great. It finally felt like we were really camping.

Shopping our cupboards. We didn't take the time to go grocery shopping before we went camping. When it came time to pack food, I shopped our refrigerator and cupboards and came up with enough food for breakfast and supper.

Picking Up the Trailer

We're picking up the trailer this weekend. Can't wait.

Taking the Plunge

Well, we did it. This weekend DH and I thought we'd go look at campers and ended up buying one. We plan to pick it up this weekend. We'd love to go camping immediately, but our schedule may not allow it. Hopefully next weekend.

We bought a Zinger ZT19RD and we are thrilled.

Camping Without A Camper

DH and I are such a trip. We went from looking for a cheap pop-up, to actually purchasing a mid-range trailer, to changing our minds and realizing we could have a much nicer trailer for the same monthly payment to deciding tent camping is just fine.

We have come full circle. This weekend we got to talking and decided we'd just pull out the tent and make sure it works fine.

We decided to use the money we might have used toward a trailer to buy nice camping equipment. A quality blow-up mattress, a net canopy to create an extra room, storage bins, outdoor strength extension cord and so on and so forth.

We figured we are fair weather campers anyway. So a tent should work just fine.

Now just wait until next week, we'll probably change our minds again.