February 11-13, 2011 Cleburne State Park

Our first camping weekend in the new RV was a Cleburne Sate Park!


Cleburne State Park is a 528-acre park that encompasses a lively 116-acre, spring-fed lake. Located southwest of Fort Worth in Johnson County, the park was acquired from the city of Cleburne and private owners in 1935-36 and was opened in 1938. (from the Texas Parks and WIldlife website).


We really enjoyed this park and had a wonderful experience there as our first RV camping experience!  This is one park we would like to go back to.


Here is a picture of a map of the park layout!

Here is a close up of the red circled area of the map.  This is the area where we camped.  We were in spot #4.  It was a great spot in the fact that it was very close to the awesome playground!  But it was a hard spot to get backed into because there were several trees in the way.  Also we could not leave the truck hooked up because the spot was not long enough for that.  Also, this area does not have sewer hook-ups.

The yellowed circle area of the map was a location that we decided we would not want to camp in.  It is more designed for tent camping.


Here is a close up of the blue area of the map.  This looked to us like a very nice area to camp.  The spots looked nice and long and there was full hook-ups in this spot.

This is a close up of the green area of the map.  This was probably the nicest area we saw to camp.  The sites were right along the lake. This area also had full hook ups. We really liked sites 49 and 51, but all of them along the lake were very nice!

The weather was a bit cold the first night.  Temps got down to around 28 degrees that night.  But thankfully the furnace worked well in the camper!  We also supplemented with an electric oil filled heater.  We slept nice and cozy.  Saturday was cool but it was clear and sunshiny so it was a beautiful day again!  We hit freezing temps again Saturday night.  It was right at 32 degrees when we were pulling out early Sunday morning to head to church before we headed home.


The park had an awesome playground for the kids and we had a lot of fun Saturday morning, and even a bit Saturday afternoon, letting the kids play!

Daddy even got on the playground!!  Aaron needed help! :-)  Mommy got on the playground too to help Aaron but of course I had the camera so there were no pics of me!

This park is known for it's hiking and mountain bike trails.  We decided to hike the Coyote Run Nature Trail.  This trail was a 2 mile round trip. I figured I was going to have to carry Alyssa a good bit but I was willing to give it a shot! Well, Miss Independent decided she wanted to walk!  We would pick her up to get her over a rough spot and she would just scream and throw a fit!!  She ended up walking a good mile of the trip!

Poor Aaron was begging us to pick him up and carry him but he is so heavy and is dead weight when you pick him up!  But all three kids really did good and, needless to say, took good naps when we got back to the camper!

 This was the view from the turn around point of the hike!

We also brought the kids bikes and they loved riding on the road right around our campsite.  Thankfully there was not a lot of traffic coming down our little road and they had a ball!

Saturday morning we even had a fun time playing a game of Chutes and Ladders in the camper (while we were waiting for it to warm up some outside).

Speaking of table, I made sure to plan ahead so that we could enjoy every meal for the weekend in the camper!  I had fun in my little kitchen.  I just wish I had some more counter space.  (here is a picture of my kitchen area I have to work in...the picture was taken at the dealer so there was still paperwork attached to the blind, LOL).

We are thinking about getting a small card table or something that we can set up when I am cooking and need more counter space.  But I was impressed at how well the little gas oven did!

Friday Night Menu

Grilled hamburgers

fries baked in the oven

frozen brownie mix baked in the oven

Saturday Breakfast

Biscuits and Jelly

Saturday Lunch

we were planning on sandwiches but Daddy said he wanted burgers again so we had burgers and chips.

Saturday Dinner

Since we were so close to Valentine's Day we decided to have our family valentine's meal in our camper! 

Grilled Pork Chops (that marinated in a steakhouse marinade all day)

Baked Potatoes

Mixed Vegetables

Blackberry Cobbler 

And as you can see on the picture below, this meal was served on our "camping china".  Don't you just love that camoflauge decor, LOL!  (we actually found this set for very cheap at Academy!)

 And here's my blurry picture of our yummy cobbler!!

Sunday Breakfast

Since we decided to leave in time to make it to church on our way in we decided to just go get McDonald's breakfast on our way in.  Of course the kids had no problem with that! LOL!

We also enjoyed just chilling outside in our lawn chairs!

At night we enjoyed getting ready for bed and then watching a movie!  On Friday night we watched Up and on Saturday night we watched Wall-E. This helped the kids get settled down and ready for bed. Alyssa and Aaron liked pulling the cushions from the table to lay on in the floor.  We are wanting to find some bean bags for the kids to sit on.  They will be easy to store on their beds when we are not using them.  (and if you look on the top bunk in the picture below you can see Seth in his bed.  He was determined that he could watch tv from his bed...it didn't take him long to figure out that it was not the most comfortable place to see the tv. LOL!)

We really had a fun time on this first trip and we can't wait until or next trip!  

We are planning on going to Palestine on March 17th through 19th if we can.  Seth's birthday is March 15th and we gave him the option of going to Dinosaur Valley in Glen Rose or go to Palestine and ride the Texas State Railroad.  He chose to ride the train.  He is so excited to be camping and riding the train for his birthday.  (and Aaron has already said that he wants to Dinosaur Valley for his birthday LOL!)

See you next time!

Kellie