The Beginning

Adventure. Heh! Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. ~ Yoda

I’m almost 40 years old. I’ve lived in Texas my entire life. I currently live in the Bryan/College Station area.

We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! ~ Bilbo Baggins

Earlier this year, I despaired of my daily grind. Friends suggested that I travel. I objected that my work wouldn’t enable me to take the extended time off necessary to go anywhere.

Then I hit upon a solution: despite living in this area for so long, I really haven’t explored very much of it. Ireland is 32,595 square miles. The Texas Triangle is 57,430 square miles. Bryan/College Station sits right in the middle of that. There’s plenty to do around here that I’ve never seen or done before!

My mom also lives in the area. She’s…older than 40. I included her in my plans for Texas exploration because (1) it would be good bonding time and (2) I didn’t want to do it by myself.

We decided that we would try to go to all of the State Parks in Texas, including State Natural Areas and State Historical Sites. There are a lot of them. We’ll also explore historical stuff, restaurants, cities, whatever might be close, interesting, or just on our way to the parks.

You know Marcus, he got lost once in his own museum. ~ Indiana Jones

I was not a boy scout. I am not in especially good shape. I am not a naturalist, and I don’t have any kind of biological or agricultural education. I’ve never been hunting, and I think I was 11 the last time I’ve fished. My longest outdoor excursion was as a Dark Elf in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Do NOT take anything in this blog as advice on “How to Do Something.” We aren’t experts. If we make it through any given excursion, it’s probably due more to luck and lack of difficulty than doing anything properly.

We decided that we don’t have to do every single activity available at each of the parks to say we’ve been there. We aren’t going to hike every trail. We are very rarely (if ever) going to camp. We’re mostly just gonna walk around, take pictures, and run from any wildlife we encounter.

Maybe this blog will inspire you to explore the places you live. Maybe there will be an interesting nugget of information that could help you out. I get us lost a lot, so maybe you’ll learn from our mistakes. Or maybe you’ll just get a smile out of two people who don’t know what they’re doing running away from rustling bushes in the woods.