So happy to have finally made it. My kids were so overjoyed to be across the state line, they were literally jumping with joy on the side of the road. Truckers almost ran off the road, they were laughing so hard.
We spent the last two nights at the best hotel in the world: the Baymont Inn and Suites, which is just down the road (walking distance) to Six Flags over Texas (hereafter referred to as 6F.) Wonderful air conditioning, a microwave, an apartment size fridge. At $50 a night, it's ironic we could stay there for an entire month, and pay significantly less than we were paying in rent in California, plus eliminate the cost of utilities, and have air conditioning 24/7.
Which I've decided is a necessity. But like I told my cousin (when I was buying a house) do you know how much air conditioning I can buy with the delta between a $500 house payment and $2000 in rent? Just saying.
We are in Bridgeport Texas at the Bay Landing Thousand Trails campground. What an improvement from Pio Pico in San Diego CA!
On the plus side: FREE WiFi !!!!!!! This means we can spend the mornings in the Clubhouse applying for jobs (and for DS15, school work) then be done about 11, head in to Arlington and spend the rest of the day at 6F and Hurricane Harbor (HH). The sites are beautiful grass (versus rocky gravel at Pio Pico.) The tent sites do not have electricity but that shady spot in the lower right quadrant is the restroom/shower/covered picnic area, which DOES have electric, so we can easily do our stuff there, plus have tables to work on.
We are going to rent a small storage unit "in town" and jettison the majority of stuff we have been carrying in the 4Runner and Kia, especially since we are going to be gone from the site a majority of the day. Although we will hit all four Thousand Trails campsites in the next few weeks "just to be sure," we have pretty much decided we are going to bounce between here and the one at Lake Tawakoni (here 4 days M-Th, Tawakoni F-Sun). They are both about the same distance from Arlington and it is an easy traverse down SH (that's State Highway) 380.
PRODUCT REVIEW: We ended up getting the 8man Ozark Trail instant tent as Walmart was out of the 6man. Let's start with WE LOVE THIS TENT! (That's it in the photo above.) It's so hot here (93F+) that we will not likely use the rainfly, but it's nice it comes with it. We are able to fit both our queensize air mattress and both twins. There's not as much room left over like there was in the Coleman Montana, BUT SETTING UP THIS TENT IN 30 SECONDS in trade for an extra 2 feet of space? WE'LL TAKE IT!
We took it down and moved it to the location you see here. Taking down was just as fast as set up but I can see that "packing" it may be a bit of a struggle the first time or two. Still...that is less of a worry that we had before. I'm glad we ended up with the 8man. Campsite to campsite, we never know what to expect, so the air mattresses are a necessity. We'd have had to buy another queen size mattress and jettison the twins if we'd had a 6man. The Ozark Trail comes with a flap which allows you to bring electricity into the tent. Once we store all the stuff in the cars in a small storage unit, I am seriously thinking about bringing in a small air conditioner. (I know. It's not exactly roughing it...but you knew that already.)
I keep mentioning Arlington. I noted in my other blog, justkathrynl.blogspot.com that we had purchased season passes at 6F/HH, (because I am an "out of stater," I got them for $20 a person less than if I lived "in state" how cool is that?), purchased season dining passes which entitles us to two free meals a day plus a "snack", the "deal" came with a free season parking pass, and for another $20, we bought a green sports bottle which entitles us to free drinks for the whole season (soda, lemonade, powerade, water.)
Eating at 6F is basically what we are going to be doing 7 days a week. In 2 days, we've already eaten enough meals that one of the dining passes is paid for. And for sure we've drank more than $20 worth of drinks ($3.50 a glass otherwise, yikes!) At home, I averaged about $85 a week on food (the cost of a season dining pass.) So in 4 weeks, we will be at break even from cooking "at home" versus eating out. And my thinking was, I don't have refrigeration here at our campsite. So that means eating out (expensive, $20-30/meal) or being very creative. I can do it, but I figured, for the same money as cooking "at home" we might as well eat in Arlington.
Our plan is look for work in the mornings, go to 6F/HH in the afternoon eat, do rides if desired, eat, come home. We plan on scouting out the housing areas around our campsites as the month progresses. Should the kids and I find gainful employment in a particular area, we will look for housing close to work. We have let go of our dream to buy a home in the foreseeable future. We already know that if DH had to move to another employer it was a 6 month wait cycle with the new employer before we could buy another house.
I have to actually file a lawsuit to get my money back from the escrow company because the seller is refusing to sign a release. That just annoys me. It's his fault that the sale didn't go through, me and mine are living in a tent for crying out loud, and he's whining that "it's not fair?" Give me a break. So now that the dust has settled and we kind of have a routine going and a plan and this place is set up with WiFi, I can get to the business of getting our money back. I know he thinks that's just an empty threat. He won't think so when men with a badge show up and serve him with paperwork.
So far, that's the only negative in our adventure, and it'll sort itself out sooner or later. Other than that, my family dwelling in a tent is going pretty good. I still want a trailer. If I had one, I'd never buy a house. We'd just go back and forth between the two sites.
My kids are looking forward to meeting new people at church. I already hooked up online with homeschoolers in the Dallas area, so we will be hitting their church services on Sunday. It turns out the church services in their building also have a chinese language service, has a large(r) deaf group, and down the road from them a short piece are services catering to 18-30 year olds. I can think of worse things than spending all day in a church in air conditioning. I'll likely bring bread and peanut butter and fix up sandwiches while there.
Thank you Texas for your welcome. We think it a good omen that even the food shouts
Texas !
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