Valentine's Day at the Dancing Buffalo Lodge

Every time a holiday is approaching, Dusty and I have the same conversation about gifts. Do we do gifts at all, what limit should they have, and according to Dusty, do I really mean we aren’t doing gifts? For Christmas 2014, we decided to skip our normal presents and do date ideas for every month of 2015. I was odd months and Dusty was evens. Let me just point out here that Dusty was given the following opportunities: Valentine’s Day, our fifth wedding anniversary, and my birthday.

I must say that I never specified that the date ideas would be activities that the OTHER person enjoyed, however, I thought it was implied. (First rule of marriage: never assume your thoughts were translated unless you said the words and had them repeated while the TV was off.) Christmas morning rolled around and we exchanged our gifts. Dusty opened my envelope with cute certificates with clip art. He was excited about my ideas and then said, “were we supposed to pick ideas for each other?”. And that is when I knew that my camping stats were about to skyrocket. He handed me a piece of scratch paper with a list of his ideas and my suspicions were confirmed.

You needed this back story to understand that I did not choose to camp two nights in the tipi. It was gifted to me.

Dusty booked the tipi for February (prime tipi time according to the experts) and then the week before Valentine’s Day said, you know this weekend is camping and Valentine’s Day. Yes, yes I do sweet husband of mine. The gifting continues.

Thursday night (literally 24 hours before we were going on our adventure) Dusty mentions we need to pack. Here is another time that I was not very specific on our gift exchange. I was thinking that the giver would arrange all aspects while the giftee would be helpful but not overly involved. I start thinking of all the crap I would need to pack. Gunner’s clothes (because our two year old was coming with us!), diapers, wipes, my clothes, blankets, food, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. Dusty focused on the survival stuff like the air mattress, knife, and wood. I packed two changes of clothes for Gunner and myself plus all the things that will make the weekend slightly less inconvenient.

Friday after leaving work, I stop by Whataburger for our first camp meal. The wait was forever long and the sky was getting darker and darker. Dusty had told me to call him when I got there because there was a "short walk" to the tipi. Super. I pull up to Star of Texas Bed & Breakfast and call Dusty. Five minutes later, I hear a little voice before I see them in their camping glory. We make our way back to the tipi (passing perfectly charming cottages with doors and heaters) while I'm holding a bag of food, three drinks, my purse, camera, and Valentine’s gift for Gunner. (I have never claimed to be good at camping.. or packing lightly.) I’m struggling with everything and then Gunner wants me to hold him. I’m trying to explain why I can’t when I see our new home for the next two nights. 

It was huge with buffalo on the side. It is 22 feet across with a rock floor and electricity. They have truly done a great job with the set up. Outdoor (heated and enclosed) shower nearby and a restroom that I never was convinced was worth the freezing cold although I’m sure it is very nice.

Dusty had set up our air mattress and other supplies. We ate our indian meal of hamburgers and grilled cheese and Dusty starts to make a fire..in the open pit in the middle of the tipi. For the next hour, I was chasing Gunner around the fire. (If you have not figured it out yet, this was not really a children’s environment.) By 8:00 PM, I was ready for bed. Dusty and I burrowed down under the covers (because I thought it was cold at that point.. ha) and forced Gunner to lay down. He screamed for about 3 minutes (but it felt like 10 to us and probably 20 to the people who paid good money to get away from their kids).

For this portion of the post, you will want to crank your heat to non existent, sit on one of the exercise balls and have someone come push on the ball every once in a while. Don’t forget the random cat that sleeps at your feet. I’m just trying to make it authentic for you and I don't mind waiting for you. It will be worth it. 

Dusty stayed up long enough to see a small shadow outside the tipi walking to the door (which is tied by strings). In just a few seconds, there was a cat running around the tipi. Dusty told me about the cat but I thought he meant outside. About that time, the cat was in between the air mattress and the tipi wall. I really got over the cat problem relatively quickly but it could have been because I was half asleep. After we realized the cat had no intention of leaving, I went back to sleep. Dusty finally decided to go to bed but I truly do not know what time it was. Poor Dusty had to get up every few hours to stoke the fire. We were sleeping on the aforementioned air mattress so I would ride the wave every time he got up and laid back down. It was the worst night of sleep ever and I stayed in bed all night. (I really did feel bad for Dusty!) It got colder and colder and colder. (Gunner and the cat were between us so they were at least warm.) Every time we were both awake, I would ask what time it was, praying this night was nearly over. We could see our breath when our heads weren’t under the covers. I wish I was making this up.

Finally at 5 AM, we decided to just leave. It was too much. We got dressed and put out the fire and made the walk of shame back to our trucks. I have always heard that old people miss their mattress but if that’s wrong I don’t want to be right. Gunner was up for the day much to our utter despair. We both laid down and I prayed to God for just an hour of decent rest. Gunner played on us and between us and by us and we just rested.

By 7:00, Dusty was getting up to go to work and I got up because Gunner was actually gaining momentum. Gunner and I took a long glorious nap before picking up Dusty on the way to a birthday party in Comanche. It was actually hot that day. HOT! It made me mad a little bit. I had hoped that I had sighed and tossed and turned enough Friday night to discourage camping for the next 10 years but Dusty was determined to go back out to the tipi. We had left a ton of stuff but I was willing to call it a loss. This time we came with heavier blankets and three electric heaters. I know this is cheating but it was so very cold so judge away. 

After going for a hike, we realized that once again we had nothing to eat (except for the Doc McStuffins fruit snacks from Gunner’s Valentine’s bag) and no motivation to cook the lack of food. We went into Brownwood and ordered sushi and hibachi steak from the new place, Sawa. It was located inside a hotel but it was packed so I thought we had a decent shot of not getting sick in the freezing woods. We also got Gunner a quesadilla and went to the mall parking lot to eat. The romance amiright? On the way back to the tipi, Gunner said, "I don’t want to go back to the tipi!” in a sad voice but this was about family and misery in large numbers.

Dusty chatted with the owner at the bed and breakfast who told us that we had to have a blanket under us or the air mattress would suck all our body heat out (along with my soul). We rearranged our blankets and plugged in our heaters and fell asleep by 8:20. We slept until the sunlight woke us at 7:00. I cannot say if it was because we were so exhausted from the night before or the cuddles and heat but it was such good sleep!

We packed up the last of camp and got this picture. It makes me smile even now.

After getting gas and a breakfast burrito at Stripes (I hadn’t cooked all weekend so why start then?!) we headed home for the last time. I told him I had a good time, but not good enough to go back any time soon. Or ever.

I jokingly write how terrible it was. And cold. I have trouble enjoying camping but Gunner doesn’t (for the most part) and Dusty definitely doesn’t. Dusty had taken a lot of time researching places for us to stay. Instead of buying flowers, he made a whole weekend for us and I am grateful for it. Plus, I think we got our Griswald vacation over relatively early in our marriage.

Two months and dates down, 10 to go! 

Hope your Valentine’s Day was special!