6 years 10 months 25 days

Day 2520. After a short night, my alarm went off at 7:15 am this morning as I had a student at 8 am. Sammy was up immediately. Emmy got up a few minutes later. I then went to the breakfast room to get some food and took it to the room with me. Then I turned my computer on to get ready for my lesson. Randy took the boys to the breakfast room; Tammy was still asleep, and we let her catch up on that much-needed sleep.

Randy and the boys returned before I was done teaching but they weren't too loud. I finished at 9 am and started packing. At 9:15 am Tammy finally woke up. Randy had brought her a plate of food from breakfast to eat.

After I had finished packing, Randy loaded up the car. A student had contacted me, asking for a lesson, so I went to the breakfast room to teach at 9:45. The kids were sitting near me with their tablets, and after Randy had loaded up the car, he joined them. Once I was done teaching, we got into the car to drive off. However, I had finally gotten the new SIM card out that we had received as the hotspot wasn't working on the old SIM card. I contacted customer support to have them activate the card. I had to go back inside the hotel for wifi as I had already removed my old SIM card. Unfortunately their customer support agents are rather slow. After he had said it was activated, we drove off. It was already 11 am.

I soon discovered that the new SIM card wasn't working; no calls, no texts, no data. Since we were driving, I didn't have wifi either to connect with the customer service agent. So we stopped by a restaurant where I was able to connect to their wifi in the car. What the guy was writing wasn't helping. I then simply removed the SIM card again and put it back in, and suddenly it was working. What a relief! But now the big test, the whole reason why they sent me a new SIM card. I turned my hotspot on and... the kids' tablets finally had internet. Thank God! I was relieved, happy, and ready to finally get going. We had 7 hours of driving ahead of us after all! Sammy was the happiest of all as he had to have the internet.

After three hours of driving we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. It was 2 pm. It was a small gas station. We bought ice-cream but they charged us extra and it had all melted together. We were not happy.

We continued driving. Randy was talking about Buc-ee's, that it was supposed to have really good meat and that he wanted to stop there. So I looked it up so we could buy some meat to take with us to eat for dinner. The first one was in Amarillo, a big town, and it was right on our route. It was just after 4:30 pm when we stopped there. Randy got gas first, then I wanted to go in by myself to buy the meat. Tammy always freaks out when Randy and I both get out of the car while they are inside so she got out of the car as well and ended up going inside with me.

I was very impressed with how big the place was and with how many people there were. It was very crowded, very busy! Even the gas station had been. We found the food that was already packaged and ready to pick up to take with you. It was in a circle, and a guy cutting the wonderful BBQ brisket was in the middlie doing his job. We got the meat as well as chicken tenders and fries and lined up to pay, then we got back into the car and continued our journey.

We had less than 2 hours left to drive to the small town of Clayton, New Mexico. We left Texas just before that town, and also changed time zones again, back to Mountain time. Just before 6:30 pm local time we pulled up at the hotel. I jumped out to check us in and pick up the keys. 

Right away the big signs that the pool was closed sprang into my eyes. Just great as I only choose hotels with a pool for the kids. I checked in, and the lady told me she had no rooms on the bottom for us. It was one of those motels where the room doors are all on the outside. I then got the key and hopped back into the car so Randy could drive it close to our door to park there. The kids and I went straight up to our room, and Randy carried Sammy there, then he left again to carry the necessary luggage up the stairs to our room.

I got my computer out to get ready for my 7 pm student. The kdis were glad to be out of the car and were a little wild, jumping from bed to bed. They were also very loud, and I had a hard time concentrating. Once Randy had everything in the room, I took my computer and left. They then had dinner in the room, while I sat down at the business center to teach my lesson. There was a dead fly and a sewing needle lying on the desk there. My desk chair was extremely uncomfortable; it pressed a pattern into my legs. But I had a good time teaching until 8 pm. Then I returned to our room.

It was my turn to get something to eat; the meat was really good. At 8:30 pm I reminded the kids that it was bedtime. It took them a while to get ready. Tammy lay down in my bed instead of sharing a bed with her brothers. Then I continued working on the computer. Now it's after 1 am, and I have a few more things to get done before going to bed, even though I'm very tired.