Hueco Tanks

For Thanksgiving break Carl and I took a road trip to Hueco Tanks. Never heard of it? Neither had I until a few weeks ago. It's just outside of El Paso, Texas, and is a Texas state park and historic site. It's also got some great bouldering (version of rock climbing), which is what draws Carl and his friends to it. We took off on Wednesday for the 10 hour road trip. And, yes, I'm still in shock that we could drive 10 hours and still be in Texas. Sigh.

We've gotten pretty good at road trips - loading up on snacks and audiobooks. This time we also had Buster so the car was pretty packed with all our camping gear plus a small, cozy spot for little Buster.

We camped on some land of some friends of Carl's, along with about 15-20 other campers. We got in late on Wednesday and settled in and went to sleep in the tent. The temps were cool but perfect camping weather the first night. Buster seemed to adjust quite well, despite starting off nuzzled in my sleeping bag for the first part of the night.

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning (also Carl's birthday) bright and early. We had eggs, bacon, coffee (for him) and tea (for me) and enjoyed meeting the other campers and watching Buster play with their dogs. We then took off for the quick drive to Hueco Tanks to begin our day of bouldering. After a bit of a rough start for me (it's been months since I tried to climb) I finally got the hang of things a bit more and started enjoying myself. I mostly enjoyed watching Carl climb, though, because he's so good.

That night we had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the other campers. It included some usual items like turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pie (tons of pie) but also ravioli (stuffed with traditional Thanksgiving sides), mac 'n cheese and hummus (our contribution). It was a very different holiday for me but I was so happy to be with Carl.

That night the rain began and it didn't stop until late the next day. It rained pretty heavy at times and even hailed. Since climbing was ruled out the next day we drove into El Paso to see a movie and then had some margaritas (ok, the biggest margarita ever) with our friends and some local El Paso mexican food (not nearly as good as Austin's mexican food in my opinion).

Quickly our last day arrived and we got up early to get some last minute bouldering in before hitting the road back to Austin. I twisted my ankle a bit so I just watched and helped Carl out (don't worry, Mom and Dad, my ankle is doing much better).

The trip back to Austin went by quickly thanks to more audiobooks. While it was admittedly a challenging trip for me I am so glad I went. While Carl's birthday may not mean a lot to him, it means a lot to me. It was our first birthday and first Thanksgiving and I didn't want to be with anyone else. And while I don't think that I'll ever live in El Paso, I can see why Hueco Tanks is a hot spot. It's beautiful and unexpected.

Per usual, I'm reminded on Thanksgiving of all the things I'm grateful for in my life. Of course my friends, family and job are on the list. But this year, at the top of the list, is Carl. I'm grateful for his love and patience as I know I wasn't the easiest person to be around on this trip.