Camping With Coyotes

I just spent a week camping in Cedar Hill State Park just outside of the Dallas, Texas metroplex. The park sits on Joe Pool Lake.

I was in this part of Texas doing a week of motivational speaker school assembly programs in Mansfield ISD and Family Literacy Night activities in Fort Worth ISD.

I blogged last month about our new RV and how I was using that instead of staying in a sterile (or NOT so sterile!) hotel room whenever I travelled out of town. Well, this past week was hands down, the BEST week of work I've ever had.

Not just because it was a very busy week (and I LOVE my job!). Not just because my business continues to grow during this recession because I have such loyal clients who continue to hire me and continue to tell others about me. Not just because the kids in the audiences were well-behaved and seemed truly excited about learning.

Yes, all those things are true, but this week, as I stayed in our little RV every night, cooking some meals over the camp fire and others on the stove; as I lay in bed every night with the windows open basking in the glow of the full moon this week; as I listened at night to the howling of the coyotes in the distance and the soft, steady hum of ten thousand chirping crickets while the cool wind drafted in and kept me just cool enough to want to snuggle deeper under the thick blankets on the bed; as I drifted in and out of sleep to various sounds of nature including the lone coyote who ran straight through my camp site at 1:06 AM yelping and barking I knew that somehow I was home. Even though I was hundreds of miles from my house, and hours of driving from my family in a campsite I had never been to before, in a park I had never visited before...I was still at home.