Saint Edwards State Park

Saint Edward State Park:

(Disclaimer we didn’t hike all the trails. Since I was wanting the kids to have fun, I let them pick how long we’d hike for, and we only did about half a mile, so my Ratings are on the small portion we did hike.)

Pass: Discover Pass           Difficulty: Varies 1-3/5         Rating: 2/5

Now that the kids are out of school, I wanted to make sure we did some fun things with them this summer. Chris was busy at work and working on the house. (which is coming along by the way!) When Chris is around I love going out on adventures and going and exploring. When Chris isn’t around I have a harder time going out and exploring with just the kids. I’m not sure why, I’m not afraid, maybe just lazy? I knew this summer was going to be different than last year for sure. (We were constantly out doing things, and it was great!) But this summer the house was taking all our time and money. (I hope this doesn’t come across as whiny, because I LOVE what we are doing for the house. We chose to do another remodel, and I’m really excited about it. The reality is though that we can’t go off and adventure like we did last summer, and that’s fine!) I was determined to at least go on a few outings with the kids.

I did a little research and decided that we should go to Saint Edwards State Park. It wasn’t too far, and it looked like a lot of fun! I’m super weird and I don’t love taking my kids to the park. I never really know what I’m supposed to do, and I just feel weird. So when we go to a park I like there to be a little hike or something that we can all do together, then play on the playground for a few minutes. Saint Edward State Park fit that bill, so we were all excited to go!

The playground is amazing. There is so much for the kids to do, and the play structure really is awesome. The kids LOVED playing on it. Their favorite was a tire swing that they love swinging around, and around, and around on. It was pretty busy, but its a big playground, so there was always something fun for the kids to do. After they played for about half an hour (Which may not sound like much, but for me, that’s pretty much forever!) it was time for the hike! We didn’t do nearly all of the hiking there is available at this state park, and that’s fine. I just wanted the kids to be in charge. We hiked through a beautiful second growth forest, and the kids just had fun running around and collecting leaves. It was really pretty, but we were all getting hungry, so we just decided to head back, and go get some food, (And maybe go one more round on the tire swing!)

We made it back to the car, and I started looking for my keys, and of course I can’t find them. I start panicking thinking we’d lost them on the playground or on our hike.  But there they were sitting on the passenger seat in the van. I was hoping I had forgotten to lock the car too…but of course it was locked. If the window was down I could just reach down and grab the keys…the window was up so no such luck.

Chris had been at the house for about 30+ hours at the time and he had zero sleep the night before. He couldn’t leave the house because he was waiting for the electrical inspector to come and do an inspection. (He was going to show up any moment.) So Chris advised that I call roadside assistance through our insurance.  I called them, gave them my address (that was on sign at the park, basically saying if there is an emergency tell people to come to this address.) I also added I was at Saint Edwards State Park, at the main parking lot right in front of the Saint Edward Seminary. They told me someone would be out in half an hour. We wait that half hour, and no one shows, we wait another half hour, then I call them again. They told me that their person was still on their way. We wait another hour and no one shows, so I call them again. They tell me that according to their records someone had been there, and left, and they assumed we were taken care of. They gave me the tow truck company’s number and I call them. They tell me that they couldn’t see me so they left. I told them where I was and if they could send someone else out to help me (or have that person come back) and they told me I’d have to call my insurance and go through them. So I frustratingly call my insurance back. They seem really confused that that happened, and they made sure I gave them the right address. I told them what the sign said, I told them what I put in my GPS to get where I was, and I told them where I was parked. I even shared my GPS location with them. They told me someone would be there in 30 minutes.  (Chris had just had his inspection at this point, but needed to finish some stuff off at the house and he was super tired and ready to crash. He was getting frustrated that I was still stranded. I was still super optimistic that THIS time someone would come, so I told him to keep working on the house, but before he went to sleep make sure I didn’t need a ride.) We waited the half hour, then another hour. I call, and they say someone is coming. Chris is finished so he decided he would drive out to to our hotel to get our spare keys. (We moved out of the rental house, but our house wasn’t quite ready for us to move back into, so a hotel for a week it was!) The hotel was about 20 minutes from our house (where Chris was) and then another half hour from the hotel to where we were. (Again Chris has been awake for over 24 hours, and had been working hard all night.) I was hoping by the time he got to the hotel, our car would be unlocked and we’d be good to go. He made it to the hotel, and still no word on where the tow company was. I gave him the same address I gave our insurance, that they gave to the tow company and he found us easy as pie. He gave me the spare key and we were off.

We were stranded for about 4 hours. I was planning on being there for about an hour, so we didn’t have any water with us. The kids were sunburned and dehydrated. They were scared and tired. I did my best to be happy and optimistic, but I was pretty frustrated. We would go play on some trees that they loved climbing on (the playground was too far and I wanted to watch for the tow truck, but it really was pretty miserable. The main thing that was frustrating is that if I was “allowed” to talk to the tow truck driver I could have told them where I was easy peasey. It was NOT a hard place to find. It was just a long day for the kids and me  and Chris. But we did have fun, and we really did like Saint Edwards State Park. I highly recommend it, but if you go, remember your keys!