Fall Break in East Texas

Going to East Texas for Fall Break made me feel more like a city boy than ever. One of my friends has a camper that stays out on Lake O’ the Pines, so for break I went with some friends to stay out there for a couple days. We also went to his house out in Harmony Grove, which is a town of about 300 people outside of Longview.

I grew up in Georgia, but the part I lived in was near Atlanta, so it was pretty urban. Small town Texas was completely new for me. My friend, John Paul, had a house on dozens of acres of undeveloped land. We went out on his Polaris Ranger, which is basically a Golf Cart and 4-wheeler crossover that manages to go over any and all terrain. There were times we would approach what looked like a vertical wall, yet somehow the Ranger took us right up it with no problem.

I was exposed to a way of life I hadn’t experienced before, and so much of it revolved around the outdoors. John Paul’s family were by no means environmentalists or conservationists, but they lived much of their lives outdoors enjoying nature through fishing, exploring, riding bikes, walking, and hunting in ways that I never did growing up in a more urban area.

John Paul decided to take us fishing, which in my mind (having lived on the beach in Florida) happens from a boat deep out in the ocean. However, he proceeded to take us to a pond that was smaller than I could have imagined. I didn’t think there was any possible way that we could actually fish and catch anything in a pond so small, but nevertheless we went fishing. We only caught 2 fish and released them back, but it was cool seeing the Brim we caught and how different they were from the fish I have caught out in the ocean. We went paddling out on a boat to the center of the pond, which is funny to say because the pond was so small that the center of it was maybe 30 feet from the shore. 

Even just being there for a couple of days was refreshing to get away from the city and out into nature. Not only did it make it easy to connect to nature, but I think it also made it easier to connect with one another because there were fewer distractions.