Another Texas Escapade

It is 5:34 PM in Fort Worth, Texas



It is my pleasure to return to our omnipresent blog. I just got back from camping with my dad at a place called Caprock Canyon. It is just another checkpoint on my mission to discover all things great about our oh so great state.

I decided about 3 months ago that I wanted to take a trip with my dad because I felt like I was coming to a place where I was really starting to appreciate everything my dad has done for me and I wanted to just hang out with him for a while and soak in more of his fatherly wisdom. So, after talking for about 3 hours this past Friday night, we decided to go a place called Caprock Canyon State Park in the panhandle of Texas. We figured it wouldn't be too crowded and it wouldn't be too far to drive, but the scenery would still be amazing. We were right.



We got there on Sunday morning and began our hike to our primitive campsite with a thunderstorm threatening. We started on our 7 mile hike around 4 PM. We had seen a little spot on the map about halfway down the trail called "FERN CAVE". My dad made some corny joke like "Man, Fern must have done something amazing to get this cave named after her..." I replied that maybe there were ferns in the cave. But after being sucked dry for about 2 hours and seeing nothing but cactus, red dirt, and mesquite trees, we figured there was no way in hell that there were anything even resembling ferns in a place whose annual rainfall is probably beat out by College Station's humidity on any given day. Sure enough though, as we approached the sign that said "Fern Cave", we could see different shade of green up ahead. We walked into what was really more of an overhang than a cave. The walls were covered in ferns hanging upside down and there was water dripping out of the walls. It was like we walked into a rainforest in the middle of the desert. I guess because we did. It was gnarly. We hung out there for a while and then hiked back to our campsite.

Another cool experience of the trip was the lightning. Every night when the sun went down, there was lightning on the horizon. You could barely ever hear any thunderor feel any rain , but there was always lightning. That was cool. I also almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I also almost fell off the roof about two weeks ago while cutting down a tree (that's kind of beside the point, but I thought y'all might like to know).

I could write more, but that would be too much. I just wanted to write about the Fern Cave because it was so weird. The trip was a great experience overall. I had a blast with my dad. We talked about tons of things. The topics included but were not limited to:

1. Switzerland
2. Psychic powers
3. The United States transportation system
4. Indians
5. Presidents
6. Spinal Tap
7. The effect of refrigerated air on South Texas lifestyle
8. Lobotomies
9. Human reflexes
10. Peanut, Canola, Vegatable, and Olive oil
11. Popcorn
12. A gravity-suspended, earth-circumventing bridge (thank you Thomas)
13. Dream analyzation
14. Space stations
15. Different cooking properties of Cedar vs. Mesquite wood

In all, it was an awesome experience. I am lucky to have a dad like I do, and I suggest to all of you out there to hang out with your parents a little more and learn as much as you can from them, because they really are interesting and know a lot more than we do. Until my next hospital visit,

Dave "an alive and kicking squirrel" Burkett