The Philosophy

(originally published: 3-26-16)

The basic philosophy behind these trips is simple:

1. I hate planning
2. I love to travel
3. I’m not rich
4. Things don’t always go perfect but they usually work out alright
5. I’ve fallen in love with the outdoors

Things worked out perfectly last night. We rolled into Payson at about 6:00 pm. The late arrival was because Jenn and I needed to satisfy our desire for boba tea which was worth sacrificing way too much time trying to find a parking spot at the mall. We picked up some pamphlets from the visitor’s center. Then we chose to completely disregard taking the time to read through them and just kept driving.

We stopped at the first campground along the way, Houston Mesa campground. The reservation and claimed sites system had us confused, but we lucked out by coming across one of the park hosts, who gave us the rundown on the only two sites left.

The campground is beautiful! It’s so nice getting into the woods for the weekend when you’re so used to the Phoenix desert scenery. We made one last stop back to town at Walmart to get some extra warm clothes after we realized it would be a cold night.

It was too late to get in any sightseeing, so we got our campfire rolling. We toasted/burned some marshmallows and failed miserably to make campfire popcorn. But the absolute highlight of the night was holding Jenn while we stood by the campfire and looked at the full moon through the trees. Not a bad start