October 2, 2021-Balloon Fiesta

(click for today's pictures) 

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, but after turning the alarm off I was happy to see that football games had indeed been cancelled due to the weather. We were pretty sure that they were going to be, but still had to be prepared. I text Anderson, Campbell and Keaton that they could continue sleeping some. (Anderson was supposed to work while Campbell and Keaton were my concession stand helpers.)

Of course the rain cancelling football meant that we had to deal with the rain a little bit this morning on our drive. However, it didn't bother us too much since it was just until Arkadelphia. After a few chores I did start waking up the kids. It took no time at all to wake up the big boys when I told them that Sports Center was on...or maybe it wasn't Sports Center, but there was some football thing coming on that they were very anxious to watch this morning.

We took our time doing the last few things around the house and finally did pull out a bit after 11. The football game was blaring in the back of the camper and in the front of the camper. It was on until well past Texarkana. Thankfully no one was too sour after the game which was probably because we kept the snacks flowing.

We stopped at the rest stop in Texarkana mainly so Robby could go to the bathroom and so Bentley could take her picture by the Texas state statue. A bit after that we did pull over on an exit since we had blown a breaker turning on and off the air conditioners. Then we were back on the road to Buccees.

At Buccees, Robby filled the gas tank, I took Bentley potty, we emptied the trash and set up her kennel. I will say that Bucees has a pretty good business model-people spend 100 dollars outside getting gas and then they spend 100 dollars inside getting snacks. Pretty smart.

We did leave with 5 icees, 1 hot chocolate, some beef jerky, a jar of peach salsa, everyone a breakfast item for tomorrow, Reagan's was a container of veggies and 2 pounds of brisket for supper. It was raining when we made it back to the camper. 

We took our time and scooped up the supper for everyone. We already had buns so it didn't take long for supper to be ready-meat on the buns and chips. We took our time eating and while we ere eating there was a huge rainbow outside of our window. We then pulled off towards Fort Worth.

In Fort Worth, we stopped at Crumbl Cookie. We found a parking spot, and on our walk to Buccees we ran into a Tom Thumb grocery store. Reagan did find her some apple chips that she has been looking for so we bought her two bags. Then we bought our cookies-we just bought a dozen this time, but they are so incredibly sweet that you can only really eat a fourth of one. We ate our cookies outside by a fountain so it was a nice stop for everyone to stretch their legs a little bit.

The football games have been on the tv most of the day long. Tomorrow we have plans of listening to our new audio book. The kids rotate spots a bit-for the most part Whitman is up top, Anderson is at the table, Graham and Keaton are on the couch, Campbell does bounce around and even ends up in my seat some while Reagan has hung out on the back bed. And Bentley for some reason likes to sit in my lap. The dog is probably 55 pounds now, and she just isn't a lap dog. I don't know if she likes looking out or if she likes the air blowing on her, but most of the trip she has been in my lap asleep. When Campbell was in my spot, she crawled up in her lap every time too. 

We had to stop for gas once we made it to Abilene. Then we just had a few more miles until we made it to the park that we were staying at. This is a city park where boondocking is allowed. Now, getting places at night makes things much more challenging. 

I could follow the road on the phone and saw where we could turn around-since it was dark though we didn't make the turn soon enough so I had to get up while Robby backed up a bit. Of course there were fishermen just getting in and hooking their boat up to watch us. We didn't have any problem after we successfully backed up some. Then he was able to make the turn without incident (there were a drop off on the side or we could have just gone into the grass.)

We drove past a few spots so we did end up by the bathrooms but it is lit and level so that was all good. It didn't take us too long to get settled and get all of the beds ready. The kids help as much as they can, but there isn't much room for lots of people to be moving all at once. We plan to pull out between 7 and 8 so we better get on to bed.

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