Camping Trip

We got in from our camping trip last night and man am I wiped! I left Alabama and headed to my parents home in Florida on Tuesday of last week, met up with my dad and we headed to the Chawtawhatchi river. We hoped to get there during daylight hours but as everyone knows somethings never happen the way we want. We ended up at the boat launch around 8:30 that night. We had so much stuff that it took two boat trips to our camp site. Then once we got there we had to set up our tents and the cook tent. My brother and a friend of his was already there on his houseboat, they had the camp area cleared and ready. After all that my dad boiled us some shrimp with red potatoes and corn on the cob, boiled in beer, yummy! The first night was nice and cold. It was great, the owls were everywhere hooting and screeching. Once the fire died down and we turned out the laterns it was so dark you could see every star in the sky. Very peaceful. The second night I got spooked when I was awakened around 2 a.m. to the howling of coyotes somewhere near my tent. Being on the water sound travels far so they may have been farther than I imagined, but they sounded like they were in the tent with me!

We did alot of fishing the first two days and my wife and kids showed up Friday along with alot of cousins and uncles. All together there was 18 of us. Hunting season started Friday for small game and most of them went hunting. I love to hunt but stayed behind at the camp with my wife and daughter, we went riding around on the river and fished some. My son went hunting with his Pepaw, it was his first hunting experience and I was afraid he wouldn't like it. Turns out he did and wants to go again next year. I helped my dad with the cooking, we prepared breakfast and dinner, lunch was sandwiches, and after dinner we made smores.

My dad caught a huge river catfish, 3' long and weighed in at 28 lbs. I have pictures of the trip but it'll take some time to post them as there on my dad's camera.