June 30 – “Ending the Cailyn Adventure”

One more thing I share from camp; nay, perhaps two shall conclude that era.  First, the camp coordinator announced that 25 kids became Christians as a result of the intensive Bible study and one on one counseling with their individual church sponsors.  Nice.  And second … an anecdote.  As I sat in the closing ceremonies wearing my Jamaica Beach Volunteer Fire Department shirt, a youngster in the seat behind me hesitantly tapped me on the shoulder and stammered in awe, “Are you REALLY from Jamaica?”  With all of my being I wanted to go with that lead and pretend that I was.  The accent was even creeping up in my head.  In fact had we been at youth camp I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second.  But I took a deep breath and represented the department and Galveston Island instead.  Amazingly, he was just as awed.  The idea of living on an island, however close to Texas it may be, was nothing short of amazing.  He’s right.

After having breakfast and saying our goodbyes (Cailyn was even exchanging addresses and getting admonitions to come to the full camp next year), we left and headed out to the next part of our Cailyn Road Trip Adventure, Fossil Rim Wildlife Preserve.  It’s a pretty massive area of livestock from all over the place.  You are even allowed to feed the animals that might approach your car.  We were, however, admonished NOT to feed the animals from our hands (well, except for the giraffes.  For some reason it was OK to hand feed the giraffes).  Of course the four or five cars in front of us ignored the hand feeding ban.  They hand deer and some kind of long, skinny-horned creatures feeding out of their hands at every turn.  We did slow down to get a close-up photo of the ostrich.  Apparently he was used to being fed by hand as well.  He was not in the least bit shy about … well, about joining us inside.  Chris tried her best to get a picture with her phone, while the ostrich tried his best to … eat her phone.  Didn’t take long for the windows to go up on that episode.  In honor of the occasion we adopted another travel friend.  You guessed it.  An ostrich.  And he had to have a friend, so we grabbed a giraffe as well.  Cailyn was not to be deterred.  She found a fox first (her all-time favorite animal) and a really cute llama that she just had to have as well. 

From there we went to eat some lunch at a place called The Storiebook Café (That’s how they spelled it).  All of the walls were covered with bookshelves, and the bookshelves were covered with books.  Apparently you could feel free to select one and browse through some literature as you munched on your meal.  I really enjoyed my hot ham and cheese sandwich with a cup of potato soup.  Chris and Cailyn shared a chicken salad sandwich. And on Aunt Christi’s suggestion, Cailyn had some kind of chocolate concoction with brownies and ice cream and whipped cream and chocolate syrup. 

From The Storiebook we headed over to the Glen Rose State Park.  That’s where there are some dinosaur footprints embedded in the rock beneath the river bed.  Cailyn hiked down and crawled into the water (Hey, she lives on an island.  Do you think a little fresh water is going to scare her away?).  She took some great pictures in there, though.  We didn’t stay very long.  The temperature was hovering around 102.  That’s just too hot.  The dinosaurs can have it.  We did stop in at the little store they had (of course).  And Cailyn walked out with a triceratops.  Chris selected a fat, turtle-y looking baby dinosaur.  Come to find out it was part of a set of something that no longer existed, so they just gave it to us.  Score one for Nani.

Since the heat really sapped our energy, we decided to forego the planned marathon trip to Galveston in favor of spending one more night in Waco “with the cousins.”  Google Siri found us a great shortcut, too.  About 20 miles from Waco we hit one of those white, gravel and dirt roads that kick up lots of dust and cover one’s brand new car and cause one’s wife/driver to be less than thrilled at this particular shortcut.  The results were awesome, however.  We arrived in Waco in plenty of time to get in on a pizza dinner with Josh and Christi and the crew. 

And now we really do head home.  Cailyn has now officially experienced a little of the drama and a lot of the fun of a Nani and DadDad road trip.  So, where to next?

Psalms 73:23 says, “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.”

Father, thank you for another little field trip.  It was a lot of fun having Cailyn along.  Amen.