It’s only been about 2 months but I’m finally getting around to writing about our camping trip this past October. My husband and I have always wanted to take the kids camping since we both grew up having a fun time traveling and camping with our families. This year was the first time we could actually plan a trip since my husband now works for himself and can take off of work anytime he wants! I started planning our trip shortly after Victoria was born and decided on going to the Texas State Railroad in east Texas so the kids could experience riding on one of their favorite things, a train!
I actually heard about the Texas State Railroad after reading one of Texas’s travel books. I had never heard of it before but thought that it would be awesome…and it was and especially for the kids. We planned our trip for October 23-26 hoping that it would be cool enough to sleep in a tent. Yes, we were planning on sleeping in a tent with 4 kids including a newborn because that was going to be the cheapest option. Little did we know that one Saturday night, a few weeks before our planned trip, my husband was scrolling Facebook Marketplace and came upon a popup camper that someone was giving away for free since one of the lifts wasn’t working right. Not 3 minutes later and my husband was out the door to drive an hour to go pick it up! We had talked about getting a popup camper down the road sometime but never imagined that God would provide us one for this trip and we are so glad He did!
Of course, it did need a little work and still does but my husband is a mechanic and tells himself all the time that he can fix anything. By the time he picked it up that night, there were already 15 other people in line to get it. He had the lift mechanism mostly fixed and in working order within a few days and even replaced the countertop near the sink that had leaked at some point. The camper had a working fridge, bathroom, A/C, and propane stove so it was perfect. Plus, I no longer had to worry about running out of room to store the bedding, tent, food, and all the camping equipment in the back of our Excursion since the popup had plenty of storage space.
We started our trip to Rusk, Texas after Mass and breakfast on Wednesday morning, the 26th. We actually even stopped by Houston Drivetrains on the way so my husband could quickly re-install a new driveshaft in our Ford Excursion(Fun fact: Yes, you can drive some 4-wheel drive capable vehicles without the driveshaft if your 4×4 is on). We arrived at the campground which is on the same property as the train station and picked a camping spot near the bathrooms and playground to set up our campsite. It was a perfect wooded spot and close enough to the bathrooms that the kids could go when they needed without trekking a mile. Yes, we do have a bathroom in the camper but we decided that that would be for emergencies only so we wouldn’t have to deal with emptying it often.
The kids helped gather sticks to start a fire while the hubby used a jack and whatever else he needed to setup up the camper (I told you it’s not completely fixed but it was free so we aren’t complaining, haha). We had lunch and finished the camper setup and then used the rest of the afternoon to setup the bike trailers and gather more firewood. P.S. I did create an awesome fire with small sticks and a teepee of bigger sticks and it was doing great but then it wasn’t getting big fast enough so my husband doused it with lighter fluid…I was trying my best to do a campfire old school. LOL. Anyway, that evening we had burgers over the fire for dinner with baked potatoes. Read my post about our camping meals HERE!
I guess she is enjoying watching how the camper is set up. 
Snacking while the camper is being set up. 
Victoria turned 2 months old the day before we left for our trip! 
I would say they are cute but I guess I am biased because they are the cutest kids I ever did see. 
I thought I did a pretty great job building a teepee out of sticks to light to start the fire.
Our first night there was super relaxed and peaceful and we enjoyed praying the rosary around the campfire. Shortly after, the kids went to bed and we attempted to listen to the World Series since the Astros were playing but there was no service out there for our phones and we didn’t have an old school radio. It definitely forced us to get off of our phones and meant we couldn’t be contacted or contact anyone about our business but it was soooo nice to be cut off from the world for a few days!
Thursday morning, it was a little chilly but it warmed up quite nicely during the day which even resulted in the A/C in the camper getting turned on. In the morning after breakfast, we hooked up the bikes and the two bike trailers and took a bike ride. Matthew had Lil Matthew(3 yrs) and Gabbie(1.5 yrs) in his trailer (which we got for $15 off of Marketplace) and I had Victoria in her carseat strapped into another bike trailer that he found for free on Marketplace. Thank goodness for buying used because that saved us a whole lot of money! Some of the cheapest brand-new bike trailers that we could find were still $80 so I’m so glad we didn’t have to buy one!
Gabbie helping collect sticks. 
And apparently helping cook, haha. 
We explored the little park and campground and even picked up some firewood (thank goodness for bike trailers) that someone had left at another campsite. We biked down by the lake, all the way to the entrance of the park, and even looked at the cute little schoolhouse church they have on the property for weddings and other small events. The train station wasn’t being used that day so we even got to explore and take pictures there. Genevieve was exhausted riding her bike everywhere so eventually we made it back to the campsite and had lunch and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
That night we decided to test out if the heater worked on the A/C unit in the ceiling (my husband said it had a heater, he never thought to check it…MEN haha). We knew it was supposed to rain and get cold so we wanted to know if we had a heater before that happened. Long story short, it didn’t work, ha! Thursday night and Friday morning, it rained most of the time and got pretty cold. I’m pretty sure it got into the 40’s and that’s freezing cold to us Texans.
When we got up in the morning, I couldn’t make breakfast either since the campfire was obviously out from the rain. The hubby tried to get the propane stove working which he promised had worked at some point when he checked it before we left but he was never able to get it to work. The kids got to snack on whatever snacks that I had packed, plus some of the cinnamon bread I had brought in case of emergency. Then we decided we better make a trip to Walmart to get a heater and possibly a propane stove. At least we would have them for emergencies like this if nothing else. Victoria was only 2 months old and I was more worried about the kids being warm especially if it got cold again that night. We ended up with a fantastic heater that worked amazing and even got a small propane stove that I used to make lunch.
What a beautiful drive to town! 
The hubby even got to help push a car out of the road, ha. 
It was pretty cold and rainy (thank goodness we weren’t in a tent) so we stayed in the camper in the heat for a little while. The kids took a nap but when they woke up they got crazy so we decided to brave the weather and take a hike through the hiking trails. Everyone bundled up and we explored the woods and the lake again for a few hours. By the time we got back to the campsite, it was already time to make dinner. Thank goodness for my wonderful husband who went and got some dry wood from the park store to start another fire so I could make dinner. I think we got the kids to bed soon after dinner and the rosary because the next day we had to get up early since it was the day we got to go on the train!
Bundled up with the ring sling and baby Victoria. 
Matthew insisted on carrying Gabbie in the carrier this way but it didn’t look comfortable to me.
Saturday morning, we were thankful that the rain had stopped! We got the fire going again, made breakfast, and then packed what we needed to head to the train station to take our train ride. They encouraged people to dress up for the train ride since it was October after all. It was hard to dress up when it was so cold but Genevieve had her princess dress on, Matthew had his superman jacket, and Gabbie had her cat jacket and leopard pants. That’s as close as we got to dressing up.
Since I had purchased the cheapest tickets, we were in an open air car but we were able to move to a heated car shortly after the train ride started since they had spots open. We were all super grateful for that but it was definitely an experience trying to walk and get multiple kids to walk straight on a moving train. The train ride through the woods was short but I think it was a perfect little trip for the kids.
We will definitely have to go back some time to take a longer train ride or possibly even the ever popular Polar Express. All of the kids were even given goody bags and personal pumpkins that they could decorate. And my husband even found something just thrown away on the train tracks that he just had to have. Shhh don’t tell anyone he went back later and picked up some souvenirs of his own.
The rest of the day was spent eating lunch and packing up the camper and all of our supplies to make our trip home. It was about a 3 hour drive so we wanted to make it home before dark so we could have most everything unpacked and be in bed at a decent time since we had to get to church early the next day.
It was a great first camping trip even though the weather wasn’t perfect all the time and I think the kids loved going on the train. Even on the way home, we were planning what we could do, where we could go, and who we could invite to come with us for our next trip hopefully in the spring! We are hoping one day we will be able to have family camping trips with other family members and friends like we did growing up and we are looking forward to the day that we can!
The Texas State Railroad train ride and campground were both great. I loved that the park wasn’t super huge and was much cheaper than a regular state park. I hope we are able to continue to camp during the off-season as it was so nice that it wasn’t crowded either! I would highly recommend visiting even if it is only to take the train ride, but the park is beautiful too with pine trees everywhere and scenic views in the east Texas hills. We will definitely be back!
I would love your recommendations for the next place in Texas that we should visit!
