August is a 'no travel' month for us, but we do try to sneak away to somewhere local, at least for a long day or a quick overnight. This year we decided to check out Rockport State Park.
AND...we had company for this adventure! Michael and Van joined us for the whole time, and we even got to see Alexa for a bit before they headed back home. The purpose of the trip (other than to spend time together) was to get away from civilization enough to see the Perseid meteor show under a very dark sky. Utah's Rockport State Park is designated as an International Dark Sky Park, so that seemed like the perfect place to camp for the night.
We headed out mid-day Sunday and got there in just over an hour. Here's the beautiful view from our camping spot.
Once there, we visited with everyone, helped Michael set up her tent for the night, had a little lunch (provided by Michael)
and drew pictures of super cool futuristic cars that are double decker and go under water:
(Van is going to invent one when he grows up and becomes a scientist inventor.😊)
Doggy Teddy came along as well. He grew on me really quickly. He's a sweet, curious, cute little doggy.
After some time at the campsite, we jumped in the truck:
and headed to the shore to cool down in the water:
I didn't go in because I didn't want to feel icky all night afterward (pretty princessy of me), but everyone else did. And they looked like they were having fun. :)
After splashing around in the water for a bit, there was a little rock-hounding and some casting lessons by Grandpa Jac
and then it was time to head back to camp to make a fire, cook Jac's 'Hobo Dinners',
and set up our bed in the back of the truck. We had never actually done this before...and turns out there are a few tweaks to be made if we ever do it again. The wheel wells made the air mattress slant pretty steeply toward the center, which made for VERY close quarters that night! But that's okay...at least it looked cute. 😆 (Also, Jac is already thinking about a solution for next time. That inventive guy!)
Pretty soon it was time for Jac's DELICIOUS hobo dinners of salmon, scallops, shrimp and veggies. Wow...who knew hobos had it so good.
When it got dark out, we got to hear a cool ghost story by Van:
and eat some Jiffy Pop popcorn prepared by Jac:
And as if that all wasn't enough, we also got to eat some yummy smores, toasted for us by Van on this cool stick he found:
It really was a fun evening by the campfire. I'm so lucky to get to spend my days and nights with this fun, cute, happy, adventurous guy.
Before we knew it, it was almost midnight and time for the Perseid meteor shower to start. We snuggled into the bed of the truck, with Michael and Van nearby in camping chairs.
I'd never seen a meteor shower before so I expected it to be like this -- meteors filling the sky, one after another. They said there would be up to 200 per hour.
In actuality, it was more like this -- a single meteor shooting across the sky every few minutes:
It was still VERY cool, just a little slower than I'd
imagined. I can't remember ever having seen a single meteor in my
lifetime, so the fact that I saw 20 or so before finally calling it a
night (around 1:30am) -- that's pretty great!
[These meteor pictures are not
mine obviously. I like taking pictures but definitely not enough to want to spend the entire time trying to catch a shot of something as fleeting as a meteor!]
After an hour or so of meteor watching, we were feeling done and were ready to sleep. Jac had the idea of rigging up a tarp to cover us with "in case it's windy or rainy." I looked at the sky and thought it was absolutely, totally unnecessary. It wasn't gonna rain. We'd be fine. But I said fine, sure, why not.
And about 30 minutes later, we heard the first drops. What followed was HOURS of rain and thunder and wind. It was crazy -- a huge storm out of the blue, not even forecasted. And my smart, inventive, forward-thinking husband truly saved our butts on this one. Don't get me wrong, it was still a very miserable night for me. I slept two hours tops. Jac, on the other hand, did pretty good. At one point, he woke up and said "Isn't it so cozy and warm and dry in here?" Whaaaat? For me, it was an endurance trial; for Jac it was a cozy little getaway. So funny! And actually I was glad he said that because I was the one who dreamed up this whole adventure, so I'd feel very responsible if he was miserable as well.
Of course, the next morning my brain was already busy thinking about all the places we are going to truck camp in next. Silly me. I never learn.
In the end, it was a fun quick little adventure, made all the more fun by getting to spend it with Michael and Van. Wonder where we will camp next? :)
