Could this be the longest blog ever?

It's likely, it's been a loooong several days. Readers who stick it out will be rewarded with a garden surprise at the end. Woot! (No cheating!)

We left with friends in tow (literally) at about 9:30 Thursday morning. They wanted to ride in the camper. I wasn't real thrilled about it. I explained to them about how they'd be sitting on 3 propane tanks and that's no bueno. (Yes, there is a new camping rule coming out of this story.) Not having given birth to any of our friends, we let them get in the back of the camper and ride along. Our trailer brake isn't perfectly configured, and as we sat in Dallas traffic, stop and go, it was jerking around a good bit. Then we got the call on the walkie-talkie - "We need to stop at the next rest stop, Kimberlee got nailed in the head by a table and is bleeding pretty bad." So we stopped and she wasn't doing too well. A table that we take apart and stow hadn't stowed very well, flew outta nowhere, and the metal part on the bottom had nailed her right in the temple. She was not in good shape at all (loopy, etc), so we stopped at the emergency room in Hillsboro, and she and John went in for stitches. It only took about 1.5 hours, which isn't bad from all the emergency room stories I've heard! She got 2 stitches, and we got a new rule for the camper. No one rides in the back. I don't care if it's legal. Sure, we could human-proof it better, but I'd really just rather not have to worry about people getting hurt back there. I would, and did, feel guilty!

But hey, we finally arrived after sitting through terrrrrrible Austin traffic. We went to the Lazy L and L campground on River Road in New Braunfels. Right away our neighbors introduced themselves - super friendly, although one was perhaps selfishly motivated. He borrowed our corkscrew and brought it back so he could take a camper tour. LOL We were right on the river, but on a cliff, so there was a fence around the cliff.

This about sums it up:




I don't like being interrupted when I eat steak.







Despite this picture, the weather was gorgeous all weekend. It stormed at 11:30am the day we left. We had already packed up!









We had a disposable camera on the river, and I lost it. That's probably a good thing. People give away Jello shots on the side of the river. I lost more than the camera that day. I lost at least an hour. Thankfully, Tom saw fit to make sure I got out of the water and didn't go to Mexico!

The ride home was pretty uneventful except that we sat in traffic no matter where we went! Left at 11:30am, got home about 7pm. That's just too much. I don't want to go on a holiday again if only for that reason alone.

By the way, what about this crazy tube rubber stuff that rubs off on your skin? I had to scrub my poor legs raw yesterday just to get it off! I think Tom is still sporting his!

Today started out uneventfully enough until I got some bad news about my nephew. He's OK now, but the news pretty much did me in. I spent the rest of the day feeling like I got hit by a truck and making typos at work. I am so exhausted.

But I came home and vegged out a while, ordered the Bucket List, and Tom and I went a' pickin' in the garden. Picked some nice looking okra and a banana pepper. Have some bell peppers that are big and beautiful. Every week has its stars, and this week is the best so far. I was hanging around watching Tom pick okra, looked up, and saw this little egg-sized thing growing out of an okra plant. Click, look in the middle and a little to the left.






Here's the closeup:





We have a cute little watermelon playing George of the Jungle in between two okra plants! The watermelon vine has been doing so well that a tiny bit of it started growing up an okra plant, so here you have it. Isn't it PRECIOUS?! We have several little watermelons about the size of my pinky nail, but I just about fell over when I saw this!

Then, we did what any self-respecting Texan would do with their first crop of okra. Fried em up! (Half flour, half bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Dump in there, dump in eggs, dump back in batter, fry)





Then, as if I wasn't lucky enough to have that watermelon distraction to turn my day around, my 9-year-old niece, Miranda, called all excited to see if I'd take her to see the Jonas Brothers Wednesday night. LOL! Her grandma's friend can get us tickets. Of COURSE I said yes, but my ears are already ringing from the upcoming screams. I am so excited to take her, and I hope she has fun. Of course, my BIL already said yes, but I haven't gotten permission from my sister yet, so I guess it might not go down!