Weekend Camping With A Little Quilt Retreat Thrown In

Last weekend, we took a long weekend camping trip with friends. They were long-time campers and share similar interests so we thought it would be fun to spend the weekend camping with our hobbies. We went to Lake Whitney State Park, and since we got there before the weekend crowd, we got some great spots. We had a nice, wide, concrete parking pad that was fairly level. There was a nice picnic table, also on a nice concrete pad and under cover too. On one side of us was a big wooded area and our friends were about twenty feet away on the other side. And on their other side was another wooded area. Not all the pads there were concrete or this far apart so we felt really lucky.

When we arrived Thursday afternoon, there were lots of deer in the trees beyond our campsite. And later, a big flock of turkeys came by. I didn't have my camera handy, of course, but thought I'd be able to take some good close-up photos later in the evening or the next morning. But once other campers started arriving, the deer and turkey disappeared.

After setting up the trailer, our friends came over to help us put up a ham radio antenna. Hubby met this couple at a ham radio club meeting. Mr.W. just got his license and Mrs.W. was just about to take her test. So when they talked radio, I was fairly clueless. Turns out Mrs.W. is a member of my quilt guild, but she said she hasn't been going in awhile.

The guys were pretty excited that the antenna worked. This was the first time it had been set up, and they talked to quite a few countries on a fairly short antenna.  It is a dipole and the actual antenna part are wires extending from the pole to tree limbs in front and back of the trailer.  Since Mrs.W. couldn't talk on the radio (no license yet), she set up her sewing machine on her picnic table, and I joined her the first day. On Friday, Hubby set up our screened room. Since it was a little misty, I put my sewing machine on a little table in there. We thought we were going to have to put the side flaps down and turn on the heater, but then the sun came out and it was pretty nice.

We showed them our little trailer and they showed us theirs. Hubby looked at their trailer and all the big trailers around us and said he was getting an inferiority complex. Their trailer is really nice with a big slide out, big dinette, sofa, and a couple of chairs. What I liked best were all the windows, especially the bay at the back. Most campsites have other trailers parked fairly close together, so windows on the sides usually have a view of another trailer. They had a view of the woods from their chairs. Nice!

Later that morning, Mrs.W. and I drove to Waco to visit Magnolia Market, the new store of Joanna Gaines (of HGTV's show Fixer Upper).

It was a nice store, but I didn't see anything worth standing in line. Mrs.W. had driven by the store a week or two before and she said the lines on that Saturday were out the door, and that was just to get in. We didn't have to wait to get into the store, but it was fairly crowded inside.

I don't have cable tv and have never seen their show, but I've heard it's good. The store is fairly new and I was hoping to find some information about it online but didn't find it. It looks like they bought a block that used to have something to do with grain. There are some grain silos on the property, and the store itself is in a building that was either a warehouse or feedstore. Since the silos were not removed, we wondered if they are going to remodel them for some commercial purpose too. Beyond the silos was a garden and pumpkin patch area. The sign said something about World Hunger Relief but I didn't get close enough to read it.

Across from the garden was a food truck food court. It looked good, but we wanted to wash our hands before we ate, so we went somewhere else.

Saturday morning was gray but Mrs.W. set up her sewing machine on her picnic table and I set up on mine. We both needed a little more room but we could still talk though we found that we were both making a lot of silly mistakes when we were sewing and chatting on Thursday. It got a little chilly and a light rain began, but with a view like this, I just couldn't leave.

The rain got heavier and the temperature dropped, so I did have to stop sewing and pack it up. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent reading (me), napping (Hubby), and watching movies (both of us). It rained all night but luckily stopped Sunday morning so we could load up and leave. We were surprised to see that we didn't get a drop of rain at our house while we were gone.