Roughly 4 years ago my wife of 6 years, Melody Parker and I had found ourselves less than satisfied with the way things were going in our lives. Simply going to work and paying bills was lackluster to say the least. We were struggling to find something we could do together that ignited our interests. Sure we were making music at the computer for ourselves to listen to in the car and that in itself is rewarding, but finding the motivation to get out of our comfort zone was proving to be a bit difficult. Staying in good shape was not easy for us as we were frequently going out to karaoke nights and eating the same fast food day in and day out. We were in a slump. Until..........
One sunny and beautiful day I decided to take her to a famous place in Fredricksberg, Texas known as Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. I had been there before in my youth, but she had never even heard of it. It's a 2 hour drive from our home in Austin.
*this original photo, taken by Melody Parker was part of our award winning article seen HERE
This image is also our thumbnail for a youtube video we published 4 years ago. Here's that link:
The second we pulled into the parking lot I looked at her and noticed this bright eyed gazing wonder in her expression. We haden't even gotten out of the truck yet and I already knew we were on to something life changing. 
Not having any hiking gear, or clothing suitable for the task, we braved the trail anyway. Yes, we were out of shape and yes we knew we were not carrying much water, or food. However, the sheer joy and excitement of exploring this majestic place together for the first time made us feel free and invincible. At least for that day.
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We didn't know it at that time, but this trip turned out to be one of the most pivotal moments in our entire lives as a couple. Triggering us to go home and immediately start checking out youtube channels about hiking and camping. 
Wow, talk about a life changing decision. Over the next year we explored as many areas in Texas that we could reach. Over time spending our money more wisely on suitable gear and apparel to be better equipped for these adventures. Of course some of the most inportant gear we were looking into was better camera equipment. 
Once we felt like we had the basic tools to create some type of archive for ourselves we realized that we were actually pretty good at capturing what it's like to be outside exploring the wilderness. Things started getting really exciting. We were posting our stuff on Facebook and YouTube, but we weren't sure what to call our project until my cousin came to visit us for a couple days. We took him on a night hike near our home. As we all rested on a flat rock in the middle of a creek he mentioned that we should be called "Parkers In The Parks". As awesome as that sounds, the graphic artist in me took over and I immediately thought of "State Parkers". I mean, it just works. There is symetry in the words and it's our last name. Considering how often we were filming ourselves in the state parks in Texas we all agreed that we had finally found our call sign. 
The name felt so right, we had a friend of ours who works in an etching facility put our logo on our favorite beverage containers. We'll never lose them.....We hope.
The last 4 years of our lives have been exciting because our channel, youtube.com/stateparkers is gaining a little traction in the community. Families and individuals are using our videos as a resource to plan their vacations and smaller adventures. For that we are honored to have the ability to inspire people like that. Throughout these years we have had the privilege to speak publicly at libraries and outdoor retail stores about the benefits of exploration. In turn we have met some of the most amazing folks who have also inspired us to grow as a couple and as creators.
Our other side.....
We are also musicians. We write and record literally all of the music you hear in our videos. In addition, we play our songs live for the community here in Austin withing the open mic circuit. Here is a sample from our recent performance.
So, now that you have learned a little bit about who we are maybe some of our content will bring you joy. We are all about comic relief as well. Rest assured you will find yourself laughing at us in most if not all of our adventure videos. We are super excited to have discovered Steemit. Thank you to @xcountrytravelers for coming to one of our open mic nights and showing this site to us and we wish the rest of you all the best luck and triumph in the world on your journey to success through creativity and sharing your lives. #introduceyourself
See you on the next post. And, if you have a sec please consider checking out our channel(s) and subscribing, so you can follow our lives. We have over 190 episodes of our adventure show available to all who are interested. We are also on patreon.com/stateparkers for anyone interested in contributing to our cause. Patrons get rewards and access to our entire soundtrack library of original music compositions.
Regards,
Melody and Clint Parker
stateparkers@gmail.com
tracesleftmusic@gmail.com
-All photos by Melody Parker