[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] all right what uh what kind of camping is there in Texas
[speaker001:] well there there are quite a few um parks I guess state parks and there's a couple of national parks I guess that you can camp at
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um most of them have pretty good facilities I don't know if the camping that I've done is really roughing it without a a whole lot of stuff
[speaker002:] yeah so you do uh like backpacking and the like
[speaker001:] uh done a little bit of that mainly just um camping out at state parks I've been to a couple in Texas and there's some real nice ones in Arkansas
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] um I think Arkansas has one of the best parks departments around
[speaker002:] huh is the Ozarks in Arkansas
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah part of them are
[speaker002:] yeah so that's probably a pretty nice place to go
[speaker001:] yeah they've got uh real nice lake system and around their parks and one of them uh the Gray I think that's one of the ones we've been to it's is real nice there a bunch of lakes around it there's a golf course and um
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] just a whole bunch of camping sites
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] what about you where have you uh
[speaker002:] oh I've been camping for years not on a regular basis but uh I first started camping out in the desert in California
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and then sometimes in the mountains also in California and uh then I moved to North Carolina and I I didn't camp for a long time and then I started to uh go camping again kind of in conjunction with white water rafting so I'd go up somewhere and camp overnight and then do some rafting
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and then maybe camp another night and drive home and that was uh that was pretty good so I went out and bought a whole bunch of camping gear and uh you know I still do it once in a while
[speaker001:] yeah I think we've collected stuff off and on over the years the more times we did it the more serious we get about it
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] where where is Raleigh in North Carolina
[speaker002:] uh well it's it's uh in terms of north south I would say it's uh a little a little more towards the northern border of the state and pretty much in the eastern half of it
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] so what it
[speaker001:] so you're kind of away from the Blue Ridge Mountains that area
[speaker002:] well it it's uh actually the the Blue Ridge in Virginia are closer to Raleigh they're about three hours away if you go due north
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um uh the Blue Ridge in North Carolina I think are much nicer and you can pick those up going west but then you're talking about six to eight hours
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] the way it works but um it's a real it's a real nice place to go and camp and there's some pretty decent campgrounds although I don't think Raleigh I don't think the state of North Carolina takes they probably just don't spend as much money as a lot of other states might
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah my wife's from the western part of Virginia we've been down the parkway a lot but I didn't know how much how much camping areas there were along there
[speaker002:] I think there's quite a few I can't say I've checked them all out though
[speaker001:] what what's it like camping in the desert and California that seems like a challenge
[speaker002:] it's uh it's actually kind of incredible it's really really nice um I like it better than almost anything I've ever done just the sky is so amazing you know you really can probably count thousands of stars and uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] it's it's just kind of nice I like the uh I think the desert has a rare kind of beauty which um a lot of people don't realize you know they hear desert and they think of scorpions and snakes and sand and being real dry and lack of water course it it has all of those qualities but it also has a certain quality of beauty that's you just don't find anywhere else except in a desert
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so it's pretty nice the uh the movie The Doors has some some nice desert scenes those guys all go camping out in the desert
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] of course they drag a lot of drugs with them but um the uh the shots are are pretty nice and it's sort of like that I mean it's just almost surreal in some places it's very pleasant
[speaker001:] hm are are the temperatures real extreme there or they just
[speaker002:] they can be yeah I mean you got to you sort of have to choose your season carefully and know what's going to happen
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] what I've been I've been camping in Death Valley one doesn't go in July
[speaker001:] yeah true
[speaker002:] but it's beautiful in February I mean it's just beautiful the days get up into the high eighties
[speaker001:] yeah huh
[speaker002:] uh maybe the nineties but it's it's quite bearable and then the nights are reasonably warm you know sixties or seventies it's just great it's really very nice
[speaker001:] yeah we've talked about planning a trip up through um I have a sister-in-law that lives in New Mexico up through New Mexico and into Colorado and the Grand Canyon area I don't know don't know when I'm going to get a chance to do that but
[speaker002:] yeah well that would be that would be pretty nice I've been I have been camping on the south rim of the Grand Canyon that's okay a lot of people like to go down and camp down inside I was just too lazy that trip to do all that walking especially with my gear
[speaker001:] um-hum I'll bet yeah one one thing you said about the stars is really true it's when you're close to a big city like Dallas the the lights kind of wash wash out the star so it's nice to
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] to get away it's just amazing how how much you miss
[speaker002:] yeah it yeah it really it really is I mean I don't think I ever see the Little Dipper you hear people talk about the Little Dipper
[speaker001:] hm um-hum
[speaker002:] but I don't think I ever see it except when I go get out of the city and go camping in the desert or in in the mountains otherwise it's just too faint
[speaker001:] well I guess we've talked as much as we need to on the subject
[speaker002:] yeah I think we fulfilled our obligation well thanks for calling nice talking to you
[speaker001:] um yeah it was good talking to you Robert bye-bye
[speaker002:] okay bye-bye