GOOD LIVING

4

Summer Edition 2016

BlueRibbonNews.com

Last year, my daughter’s inaugural camping trip had been 
cut short by storms and a tent that functioned like a sieve. 
She’s hoped all year for another shot, so to hear of two 
nights at Dinosaur Valley State Park elicited cheers. 

We planned to leave after school on Wednesday, camp that 
night, adventure all Thursday, and return on Friday. Yet, the 
closer the date approached, the more little cloud icons with 
lightning bolts showed up on my phone. Then, a reminder 
of a Wednesday afternoon training popped on the screen. 
The camping trip stumbled before it started, but after 
debating back and forth, we rolled the dice. Ireland was 
all giggles, two nights in the woods was worth the 
risk; it didn’t matter what the weatherman predicted 
or how late we’d leave.

We arrived at 10 p.m. While searching for campsites, 
Ireland spotted her first deer, not 15 yards away.  She lost 
her breath at the beauty; I hoped it was a good omen. Under 
headlamp light, I pieced together our new tent, having 
trashed the sieve. It had served us for years in the Tennessee 
woods, Colorado valleys, and even in Palo Duro Canyon, 
but it began to turn water like a sponge. This new one was 
supposed to withstand storms, and despite the darkness, it 
was an easy construction.

Despite morning thunder and 
looming clouds, we sizzled our 
bacon and egg tacos and then hit 
the trails to see the famous dinosaur 
tracks. Paleontologists say that 
half of Texas was once covered 
in ocean, like an extended Gulf 
of Mexico, and our location was 
actually a beach. The river we’d 
trek was a pre-historic scene from 
Jurassic Park as the plant eaters 
fled from the meat eaters and their 
muddy tracks eventually hardened into stone. Many tracks 
could be viewed from along the cliffs, looking down into 
the clear river water, but some could be touched, if only 
you traversed the Paluxy River, which happened to be deep 

in parts and swift this time of year. Ireland feared wading 
across the river and backed out on the first run, but she 
eventually found her grit and by day’s end, we had crossed 
to multiple sites, hiked high cliffs, and played in cool water 
where the great reptiles once waded. She never missed the 
iPad or TV.

That evening, a monsoon hit. Winds howled, lightning 
flashed, and thunder cracked. We held close and prayed 
until the sun rose, and our tent was the driest place in the 
valley; rain soaked us only when we broke camp during 
another downpour. 

The big lesson? Take risks with your kids. It seems these 
days we want everything sanitized, scripted, Disneyesque. 
If there is any chance of failure, we reschedule. Life is 
unpredictable. Rivers are swift, storms gather, and sometimes 
tents leak, but if we don’t wade in, we’ll miss those 
opportunities, the great memories; and hearing my little girl 
shout, “BEST CAMPING EVER,” I knew it was worth it.

By Scott Gill of Rockwall, teacher, coach 
and author of Goliath Catfish. Follow 
Scott’s blog at scotttgill.tumblr.com and 
read his “Front Porch Ramblings” at 
BlueRibbonNews.com.  

Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park.

Dinosaur track in Dinosaur 

Valley State Park.

CAMPING!

  

“Two Nights?”

Scott Gill

Wild Neighbors

Two Hoots

Rockwall resident G

lenn Boudreau to

ok this

photo of a pair of o

wls that greeted him on his

back patio one morning

. 

Amateur photographer Ray Testa captured these nature shots in Royse City. 

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