Adventures in Camping

So this past weekend I was looking forward to going camping and enjoying a peaceful, relaxing, quiet time. Just to be able to drive away from civilization, leave it all behind, and go somewhere quiet to recharge and reconnect. So me, Jami, and Michael left after work on Friday to East Texas to do just that. It took almost three hours to get there, but we'd been on longer road trips together! Besides, I figured the farther we drive, the farther from civilization we'll be. So we drive thru Podunk City and Nosepick, Texas and finally arrive in Tatum, home of Martin Creek State Park. (Note, none of us have camped here before, our first choice being Tyler but it was already full and this was the next closest)

We drive up, everything appears normal. Lots of trees and cricket sounds...and we take the twisty turny drive to our campsite, number ten. But what's that rising above the trees, it looks like...three smokestacks...? But that's impossible, we're in a state park in the middle of nowhere! And what's that thru the trees...there seems to be an abnormal amount of light for this time of the evening...hmm.
We continue driving and counting down the campsites to ours...13...12...11...and as we round the corner, we find the perfect lakeside campsite, number 10. But only slightly more overshadowing was when turning the corner revealed that on the opposite side of the lake lie what can only be described as a fully active, fully functioning, nuclear power plant! We're talking this thing was lit up better than the Griswold's christmas tree. Plus three giant, clearly working, smokestacks. And it gets better. On the smokestacks were the bright flashing lights to warn airplanes of their presence. Such bright lights in fact, that you could see them reflecting off the trees above our campsite! The place could have doubled as an airport. And to top it all off, the occasional foghorn. We assumed to warn of impending meltdown doom. Needless to say, we won't be revisiting Martin Creek State Park or recommending it to anyone else, either!

Ahh, nothing like spending time with mother nature and coming home with an extra arm growing out of your head.

THIS is the peaceful and serene view from our campsite on Saturday morning.