On Monday we drove to Lafeyette and stayed with North and Becca. I unloaded the groceries, played Mancala with a 5 yr old, slept under 7 blankets, finally showered, and had grilled salmon and asparagus. Don't worry, I won at mancala. Nick was able to catch up with an old friend and learn more about the best ways to become a teacher. Jackson got several "piggy back rides*" from their dog Brocks. We left early Tuesday morning for Big Thicket in eastern Texas.
Big Thicket was once over 3.5 million acres large. We chose to do some solo back country camping. The park ranger gave us some suggestions of trails that we could go on and camp off of. As long as we were 200 feet from the trail and 100 feet from water we could set up camp. We found a good spot about half a mile along the trail that was already pretty clear from previous campers. We built a fire and set up camp. 
Soon after it was dark we heard coyotes howling. Needless to say, I started crying and we immediately decided that Jackson would be sleeping in the tent. The worst decision of the night was sleeping on the ground because we didn't feel like carrying the blow up mattress in. (We've been doing a good job glamping instead of just camping).
We really packed enough to last us at least a week...
Wednesday morning we were still alive. We rebuilt the fire, cooked a killer breakfast of French press coffe, leftovers and eggs (we don't have any pictures, because the phones kept dying). We went on a long walk on the Turkey Creek Trail, found running water to purify, and somehow walked faster than all the massive mosquitoes.
Our goal has been to stay awake, or at least outside the tent until at least 8pm every night. That is so much harder done than said. The sun sets around 5 and your body naturally starts to slow down when it's dark outside. I fell asleep sitting up at the fire the first night and almost did the second night as well... At about 7pm.
We packed up our camp after a much better nights sleep this morning. We had walked back to the car to get the blow up mattress, so our backs were happier, and the only noises keeping us up were some rowdy owls which I will gladly take over coyotes. We packed up the car by 9:30, went for another small hike through some cool cypress trees, and then headed to Dallas.
We are finally at the Airbnb that we had reserved months ago and will be sleeping in a warm bed tonight. The wedding that sparked this whole trip is coming up in two days. It's crazy how time flies.
I'm happy to say that I feel much better about this whole journey and no longer want to just throw in the towel and head home. It's an exciting adventure and so far we've had some really interesting obstacles thrown out way, but we've braved them pretty well!
*piggy back rides = vigorous humping