The Bunch Go Camping And Get A New Dog

 

It was a great park!

Well, A decided not to go camping with us since she would have to miss work so we plan to go on a weekend she has off one week. The rest of us headed off to Wichita Falls to camp at Arrowhead State Park. We had never been to this particular park, but several things felt very familiar about it. We couldn't figure out what park we had been to that was set up similarly. I guess I am going to have to sleuth through the old blogs and see if I can figure it out. We loved this park! Now granted we were just about the only ones there, but I think even if it was full we still would have loved it. The sites were very roomy. The grounds were well maintained and the bathrooms while old were very clean and well kept. The boys prefer to shower in campground bathrooms, but I prefer our own shower. T worked on completing  several badge requirements while we were there. One of his requirements is to sleep for 15 nights in his tent. He set up his tent, but forgot his sleeping bag. At least he brought his sleeping pad so he wasn't directly on the ground and brought out like four blankets to use. T was quick to point out the requirement only stated he had to go to sleep in there and NOT stay a certain amount of time. It got down to about 34 each night. He managed to stay the first two nights the entire night, but the third night he got cold around 4:30am and decided to come inside. He also decided he wasn't tent camping in January or February.😂

T also worked on his outdoor cooking badge, which we highly supported! He made most of the fires, plus cooked almost all the meals and cleaned up afterwards. It was like a real vacation for D and I! T's hardest badge will be his hiking badge. He has to do 10 hikes starting at 5 miles and increasing to 20. We managed to get the first two done at 5 and 8 miles respectively. The second one was only going to be 7 miles, but we had a little whoopsie with the trail map and ended up hiking a "bonus" mile. I will say walking 8 miles everyday at Universal was way different than hiking 8 miles. At Universal, A and I stood in line, sat down to watch shows or have lunch, and spread the 8 miles over the entire day. Here we hiked 8 miles in one stretch AFTER having already walked the dog about a mile. Needless to say we slept pretty good at night since we were so tired! 

Our campsite was huge and well kept!

We love our Solo Stove! It is so nice to have a fire and NOT have to deal with smoke or smelling like you had a fire.

Luckily, we only had to hike up to the trailhead. The rest of the hike was fairly flat.

We have never had the trail go through a tunnel under a road before!

It made us realize we should always bring a flashlight even for a day hike with no caves.

There was a few spots to sit down and enjoy the sights.

We also went into town to check out some of the local attractions. We went to eat lunch at Casa Mañana, which is known for their red tacos. I thought the taco was really good, but we all agreed our local Mexican restaurant was better. Afterwards, we visited the World's Smallest Skyscraper. In 1912, McMahon raised $200,000 (3 mil today) to build a skyscraper. He failed to tell his investors that he didn't ask the property owner for permission to build or that the available space was only 10 ft x 16 ft. He also neglected to mention his building plans were in inches NOT FEET so instead of a 40 story building soaring 480 ft, he built a 4 story building soaring 480 inches! The town was unable to sue McMahon because the contract did state inches, but no one had checked that part. I bet they always checked that afterwards!! They thought about tearing it down, but ultimately decided to poke fun at themselves and turn it in to a tourist attraction. It is actually part of a really cute thrift store now. People come from all over the world to visit it so I guess that was a smart move. We also went to visit the Falls the town is named after. Only come to find out, the original Falls washed away in a flood in 1989 and these are man made and were NOT working when we visited. It was still a fun trip though.

At least I remembered halfway through that I forgot a picture! Why can't I ever remember the before shots?!?!

T had the enchiladas.

There were a lot of historical buildings. There was also a lot of empty buildings. It was kind of sad.

I am not sure of the story behind these bikes, but they were all over downtown and sponsored by different places.

The 480 inch skyscraper.

The Red River was kind of pretty.

While we were busy having fun, A was here not only dealing with our animals, but also the big dog that has been bothering our neighborhood. She finally texted the owners and asked if they were interested in rehoming it so it could get the medical attention it needed. They said the dog had shown up as a stray and they tried to take it to a shelter, but as I mentioned in my last post, they found out what I did.... Denton County has NO shelter or animal control. They decided to at least feed it, but due to limited resources couldn't take care of all the veterinary needs, such as the most urgent one of neutering. They were very excited someone wanted to take care of him. She spent all day waiting for him to come back around so she could catch him. When he finally did, she put him in the backyard so she could take him to work with her the next day. Unfortunately, he's big and severely underweight so he escaped. He did eventually wander back and we took him in, but now he is chained up outside when he's out until he gets neutered. He had a horrible flea/tick issue that we took care of with a preventative. They are mostly gone now and all our pets are on preventative so they can't get fleas. He also had an eye infection, at least two neddles that were about 2 inches long embedded in his skin that were infected, and he had tapeworms, which since he had fleas wasn't surprising. After his antibiotics are done, he'll go in for surgery in a couple of weeks. The most surprising thing was he DID NOT have heartworms. I wasn't going to deal with that. It requires a lot of time and money so I probably would have just had him put down if he had. He also was updated on all his vaccinations. T has been super attached to him since he started coming by and he helped take all the stickers and burrs out everyday. He sleeps in his room at night or on his chain on the deck if it's not too cold. The cats have been very accepting of him and even Maisy is doing well. She at least tolerates him being within a few feet. He is easily twice as big as she is, but only weighs about 12 pounds more. Hopefully, now that his tapeworms are gone he'll gain some weight. He should be closer to 100 lbs, not 79 lbs.

Apparently, I was unclear when I said our next dog would be HALF of Maisy not Maisy half of it!

A giant boy with his giant dog.