Glamping in east Texas - Cooper Lake State Park

Just under 2 hours drive from Kilgore Tx, we visited yet another gem in the Texas state parks system. Cooper State Park. With two units, one on the north end and one on the south end of the lake. We came upon the north end and were impressed with the friendly staff, clean facilities and well maintained trails.

The fall colors during a morning hike down by the lake gave us a glimpse some rare and wonderful colors.

At $25 a night you get a screened shelter with a fan and overhead light. Just dreamy and a great way to "camp" during a major storm system.

Texas Tea Room

Carthage Tx is a must visit town during your East Texas vacation. A historic little town with the quintessential downtown plaza square. On this square you find a lovely park and gazebo in the center opposed to the court houses that so many others have. the shops around the square have your typical: CPA, Printing and other not so interesting locations but you will find a used clothing shop, a very stylish new clothing shop, a clothing shop that also installs speakers in your car and the Texas Tea Room.

The Texas Tea room is in a historic building that shows off its charm. Exposed original walls, restrooms with parlors, outdoor tables and an appetizing menu make this a top choice for your afternoon in Carthage.

I would encourage you to stay the night, eat dinner at jalapeno tree and rent the Jack Black movie Bernie just to ensure you take in the full potential of the town.

I have been told the country music museum is a great time and hopefully my next trip down I can give it a visit.

Rescue Rangers

Internet Cafe, Overton Tx

That's really all I can share is that while driving back from a DQ excursion we noticed a fully operational internet cafe on the main stretch in Overton Tx. Amazingly this internet cafe can not be found with a Google search so I might go back soon and go inside and get some photos, even put a blog post up from inside!

Yum. Every ounce of me loved this restaurant. An hour from East Texas in a neighborhood of highly rated restaurants you find Chianti. On Friday night we had a wonderful dinner of delectable northern Italian fare. Accompanied by a live singer and pianist, fantastic wait staff and an overall sense of just want one wants in an Italian dinner date.  Trip advisor was spot on in their assessment of Chaianti, the best Italian i have found in the US outside of  little Italy Manhattan. If you are living in East Texas it is well worth your time to travel over for dinner at Chianti.

Chianti Restaurant

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6535 Line Ave, Ste 105, Shreveport, LA 71106-3266

Poet, Plant our tree

lower middle class trying to change the world

Not sure how to fully put this into words.

We don't have a lot of "normal" stuff, this allows us to move, travel, waste less and live a fine line between "normal" society and those dedicating their lives to being outside the box in the search of social/ global change. I don't think we are the only late 20's early 30's who are doing this but I know its far from normal.

We had a simple metal bed frame but when it broke we never replaced it, whats wrong with a mattress on the floor?

We opted not to get a sofa, instead we have a tin mattress folded in half inside a "pillow case" that I made with a bed sheet.

Our duplex has a kitchen bar area and Ian inherited bar stools when we first got back stateside and we use that as our table area.

We have only bought trash bags once in the past year. We have bathroom sized waste baskets that we line with shopping bags. Why spend money on plastic to throw away more plastic?

No TV and no cable, but we have a computer and the internet.

No electric coffee maker because we were given a french press first.

No toaster because we were given a toaster oven first.

We recently bought a second car and for the first time in the past 5 of the years we have been together we are not car free or sharing one car.

If the need/ inspiration came tomorrow with one u haul load we could have everything work keeping in a mini self storage unit and be onto our next adventure. To be honest I like it that way.

Is there a part of me that lusts over quality living room sets or four post beds, yes, and some day it might be the right moment to get such things but as we continue to have the need to explore and discover the world they are not important. We can better use our money on travel and education until we win the powerball and even than i might want to live in one of these instead.