COZY CAMPING

Gone Camping: Cozy Traveling & The Great Outdoors

Story by Dalondo Moultrie

Already lovers of the great outdoors, a worldwide health emergency drove a Guadalupe County couple to explore nature in new, more mobile ways.

Tonya Boyle and her husband of five years Dane ran around a lot outside and enjoyed their fun under the sun. However, an event nearly five years ago put a damper on the kind of fun they flew all over the United States to enjoy most often, Tonya said.

“I used to be a marathoner,” she said. “We would go on what we call ‘race-cations.’ We would go anywhere we could to enjoy a race and get away.

“I tore my achilles tendon and that put a stop to that.”

Dane ran marathons alongside his wife. When her injury sidelined her and led to three surgeries in the last 4.5 years, running was out of the question for the couple.

Marathons were never about posting the best time or finishing before anyone else but a way for the couple to commune with nature, Tonya said. The need to be outside didn’t end when she couldn’t run and the longing to get out increased when COVID-19 made its way to Texas and Guadalupe County, leading to closures of businesses and a general slowing across society.

It also led to a big-ticket-item purchase for the Boyles and a new recreation, Tonya said.

“When the pandemic hit, we used to travel everywhere and we would fly and go places,” she said. “Whenever we couldn’t do that anymore, we bought a small travel trailer. We love to be outside and we love to hike and just enjoy outdoors.”

Whereas transportation used to be jet airliners to destinations for fun, the Boyles now load up themselves and their corgie, Luna, and border collie/ Australian shepherd mix, Dodger, to hit the highways in a 17-foot Keystone Springdale travel trailer.

The vehicle might be compact but it offers just enough space for the foursome to get to new places and traverse new terrain on hikes, walks and beach excursions, Tonya said.

But cozy works because they’re seldom confined between the walls of the RV on their trips, she said.

“That’s why we bought small, because it forces us to stay outside,” Tonya said. “We love to cook outside. We cook outside when we’re at home. We bought a little travel fire pit, and we use fire pits at home.”

The Boyles try to take the travel trailer out every two or three weeks, about twice a month. They hit trails in the area going to places like Canyon Lake, San Marcos and Red Rock Canyon.

Often the family goes for hikes but sometimes opt for more leisurely walks, Tonya said. Other times, they look for an ocean view.

“We love the beach also, so we do that very often, at least once a month if we can, schedule allowing,” she said. “Even when I went to move my daughter to College Station, we took the travel trailer and camped there.”

Tonya and Dane aren’t the only family members that get a kick out of the RV adventures, Tonya said. Luna and Dodger let it be known that they love the road trips and the outdoor exposure.

“I know that Luna loves the beach. She’ll be the first one to try to run to the beach when we get there,” she said. “They both like to be outside. If they could stay outside all day, they would. We have to call them to come in, just like kids.

“All of our kids are grown and gone so that’s what’s left at home.”

Home now is in the portion of New Braunfels in Guadalupe County, where the couple has lived since 2013, Tonya said. She was raised in Geronimo and went to school at Navarro. For longer than 30 years, Tonya said, she has worked at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, currently stationed in the lab there.

Though not a doctor, she is apt to give a little medical advice, saying that being outdoors is great medicine. Getting outside and moving, enjoying fresh air will do any body good, Tonya said.

Dane, she said, knows a little something and gives comparable guidance.

“My husband has a master’s in exercise science and he will be the first to tell you that movement is the fountain of youth,” Tonya said.

Getting out and about for that movement is the way the couple likes to stay young and stay happy.