Part 4 Getting to know us

After our stay at Gateway Motor Inn...(we became great friends with the gal that cleaned our room and the owner's sister who worked the front desk...I'll never forget the message the machine had when calling that place...Thank you for calling Gateway Motor Inn, If you know your party's extension you may dial it at anytime if you need help please dial the operator...in a very deep MA accent)

oh...getting back to the story...after staying at Gateway Motor Inn we headed back to Texas...but on the way we decided to do a little vacationing. It took us a little bit longer to get home to Texas, and by the time we got home, my dh was getting calls to go back up to MA, but this time to the Boston area. We thought that when we got to Boston it would be MUCH easier to find housing...what did we know? We're from TX...so we head back up that way...my oldest dd had to celebrate her 13th birthday on the road...(I remember that clearly...we were in MS at a rest stop...we had bought a little cake at Walmart...we didn't have a whole lot of money so she didn't even get a present-poor baby)We got up to Boston on a rainy, Sunday night...hotels were about $100 a night in the cheap hotels...we couldn't afford that! We drove back almost 2 hours to RI and guess where we stayed? Gateway Motor Inn!!! Never thought we'd go back there...but there we were again. We didn't get to bed until about 3 am and dh had to get up in about 2 hours and drive back to Boston to start his job...

While we were home we got this great idea to spend our weekends going camping, so we brought our tent and some of our camping equipment back with us...well we didn't know everyone under the sun in the Northeast camps on the weekends in the summer. We had no idea...what did we know? We're from TX!!!So...dh went to work and I packed up the kids and myself and thought I would head out to find a hotel/motel, housing closer to dh's job...guess what? Housing was even harder to find in the Boston area than in the Providence, RI area...so I called dh and told him I couldn't find anything...well somehow we came to the conclusion (I really don't remember who's idea it was) to stay in the tent at a campground for a few nights until we could find a place to live...While dh was setting up the tent, I went to the restroom. While I was there I checked out the shower facilities...I noticed you had to pay to take a shower. I went back and told dh we needed to pay for a shower. Dh said, "When I go over to the restroom I'll check it out." He came back and said, " No, the showers work without paying."

We slept in the tent after doing all the setting up...air mattresses, etc...dh got up in the morning and headed off to the shower and then to work. I went back to sleep and go up a couple hours later. I thought I'd go take a shower. I gathered all my stuff...ya know...my towel, clothes, shampoo, etc...got up to the showers. Neatly put my stuff in the changing area, got undressed, turned the water on and waited for the water to get hot...and waited...and waited...and waited...for the water to get hot...but to no avail...got dressed again, gathered my stuff, walked back over to the tent, found my cell phone and called my dh. "Honey, did you take a shower this morning?" Dh replied, "Yes". "Did you take a HOT shower this morning?" dh..."No, you have to pay for hot water."Pay for hot water...6 minutes $.25 and additional 2 minutes $.10...Boy did I learn how to shower quick! and lil dd was 3...she showered with me. I learned how to get us both done in 6 minutes! Stay tuned...part 5...the day is what you make of it...