Abilene State Park and our new PUP - Pop Up - Tent Camper

I was so excited about trying out our new pop up tent camper that I actually got out of bed at 0545 Saturday morning. I mean, I'm not even going hunting and I got up this early.

In order to keep this short, I guess I ought to skip all the detailed stuff I did getting ready to go. You know, like actually putting our pillows in the truck, filling the ice chest with 80 lbs of ice, and that sort of last-minute stuff.

We (my Sweetie and I) got into my truck (already loaded down with ice chest, boxes of 'things' needed, first aid kit, comforter, sheets, battery, propane tank, canned goods, bacon (wish I'd brought more), and other items that will eventually be a permanent part of our PUP. Driving along Loop 250, I kept wondering what I forgot. Oh, crap! Almost missed the exit to I-20 Business!

Headed along I-20 Business until I get to our camper storage. I'm thinking, "I'll let my Sweetie get out and unlock the gate so she knows how to do it." without realizing that the only key we have is on MY key chain. Crap. I still have to turn the truck off.

Hooking up our new PUP is easy but I want my Sweetie to know how to do everything. Unlock the lock to the thingy, plug in the thingy into the truck thingy, make sure the ball thingy is locked, well,.... you get the picture, right?

We pull out and head to Abilene! Figure we'll take lunch around Big Spring.

All goes well. We get to the Abilene State Park, check in, find our camp site, and start to back the PUP into the site. My Sweetie is guiding me. Left, right, left, straight, STOP!

I look. "We are supposed to be on the pad area." I back up some more. Success! We are there! I unhook the truck, set the jacks, hook up the electric, push the 'up' button to raise the top, and in no time, we have a tent camper! We go through our checklist and learn a lot of things.

However, we don't have a friggin' clue where the water pump is located. So, I have no idea how to turn it off so we can use 'city' water. Oh, well.

We had a FANTASTIC time at Abilene State Park. The cardinal who landed on our roof and then posed for pictures, along with his girl friend, became a close friend of ours!

We cooked our meal on the outside grill. We sat in our chairs. Overall, great. Even the group of college-age campers across the road were cool. Again, we were like birds, as soon as the sun goes down, we were ready for bed!

Around zero dark thirty-five, it started to rain. Rain? I thought we were in friggin' west Texas! What is that? A few minutes later, we start getting a little hail. OK. Time to actually zip our windows close. Back to sleep in the rain.

So, what did we forget? Rain ponchos, umbrellas, a mud mat. We tried to not use our Porta-Potty this trip so I didn't need any of that. I just opened the door and pee'd outside. My Sweetie was more jealous than mad.

Got up at friggin' dawn but the good news is that we put the coffee pot on and had coffee really soon. And, inside! Yeah! Then bacon and eggs for breakfast, all cooked while the rain continued to fall.

Fortunately, after breakfast, the rain stopped and we actually put the PUP back down.

Overall, I totally enjoyed the trip. It was a quickly scheduled trip just to check out our new PUP. I think we might even go back to Abilene State Park to enjoy more of the park and not just our PUP.