Too much fun...

We arrived Sunday afternoon about 4:00. The drive in set the tone for the trip. A long winding sometimes dirt sometimes asphalt road through the pines and hardwoods. It really felt like you were getting away.

Our cabin, "The Blue House", was vary nice. It was the first of 4 cabins built on the "lake". I have that in quotations because it is called Deer Lake but it is not quite big enough to be a lake but not small enough to be a pond. Very pretty nonetheless. We had lots of room inside and out. 2 docks to choose from, paddle boats, kayaks, john boats. You can rent a boat with a trolling motor for fishing the other areas of the pond. We did our fishing off the dock where Madison caught 9 fish on Monday alone. Mostly perch and crappie and a few small Guadalupe Bass.

Here comes the "the one that got away" story. I had been hooking Madison up with hot dogs on a small hook with a bobber. She would see the bobber go under and reel in the fish or just pull up since we were fishing right off the dock. She started to cast a few out about 15-20 feet and actually reel them in. She was doing great always letting me know she had a heavy one on the line. So, we set up the dog as always and she casts out there. The bobber goes under and she starts to reel in the fish. She almost gets pulled over the railing while barely holding onto the pole. She does hold on as I tell her to reel it in. She says it's really heavy. Having heard that before, I ignore her until out of the corner of my eye I see the line start to dart over to the moss lining the shoreline. With my vast knowledge of angling, I know the little guys don't so that because 1. they can't or 2. they don't know that move yet. Then I saw it, the fish was only about a foot below the surface and the silver scales shone like a million diamonds in the sunlight. It was a big sucker. I grabbed the 2 dollar Disney Princess pole from her and told her to go get the camera. The fish did indeed swim into the reeds and moss along the shore. I was able to get it out of the cover but there were reeds and moss all over its mouth and the line. I got it up to the dock and could not pull it up because it would have broken the pole. I reached down to grab its lip and at that moment it breached and twisted and broke the hook in two...and swam away. It was a 4 lber if it was an ounce. My only regret is that I did not get a picture of the biggest fish my daughter ever caught. She had fun telling mommy regardless.

Mommy? She was out with Ian on the mule. They went tooling around the miles and miles of trails they have on the ranch. That thing is a blast. The first corner Ian and I came around we saw 6 deer eating by the side of the trail. Of course we scared the crap out of them on this loud ATV but there is nothing like seeing animals in the wild. We went up and down some hairy trails. Some I was even nervous about but the mule never faltered. It's very relaxing to be way back in the woods where not many people get to go.

Madison and mommy went horseback riding. The ranch is a working quarter horse ranch. You can actually watch them train the horses. We never got the schedule so we didn't get to do that but we did take a walk through the stables where the horses were kept and saw them up close.

We went paddle boating around the lake/pond. Played dominoes. Played on the swing sets. Ate dinner outside. One thing we didn't do was watch TV. They have a TV there but they don't get any channels only movies on the VCR or DVD. We didn't miss it. There was plenty of other stuff to do.

I recommend this place as a close, less than 2 hour drive, inexpensive, there are plenty of free things to do, vacation for anyone with kids. If you don't have kids, even better. You can just enjoy filming the scenery without someone shouting "See. See. See. See." every two seconds.