Living Like A King

Being cheap is not always bad. There is a way to get away for a weekend vacation to a fancy resort and spend next to nothing.
Take this weekend for instance, being that we are not cooking anywhere and with the serious problems that came up here at the mini farm, we were going to spend all weekend sitting around the house.
On top of that, it's the wife's birthday weekend and we had nothing planned.

This is coming off of last week where we had to make the decision to sell all the animals and start saving as much money as possible just hoping to be able to come up with $4500 by March. All the little things like cooking chili and starting to finally enjoying life a little has caught up to us.
I let my belt loose just a little and my pants fell down. It's alright though, we will make it.

I was really wanting to do something for the wife this weekend, but under the circumstances I could not justify it, then I remembered an email I got earlier in the week.
There is this resort not far from here, about 30 minutes, and they wanted us to come up for the weekend, so I called them and asked for the details. Yea, we will have to sit through a 45 minutes presentation on their vacation package they want us to buy, but what we get in return is worth it.
For me, a free round of golf on their championship course including cart. For the wife, a day at the spa including massages and relaxation room. Plus four meals free, free 2 night stay in the villa, A forty dollar gift card to use at the resort and they are throwing in another room and spa package for the oldest girl because she had already planned on coming up for the weekend. All this for about an hour of my time. I went on their website and priced it all out, I will be getting around $1500 worth of fun for that one hour. Not bad.

Alright, I know what you all are thinking and it's okay. I do these kinda deals often so I know what they are doing and I know the scams behind it. This kinda thing is how I got all the tickets for the five of us to get into Disney Word one year. Saved me big bucks for and hour of my time. Over the years I have stayed in some really nice places and received some really nice gifts by taking vacation tours. It is one way to vacation like a King on a Squires budget. I always tell them up front on the phone that I am not interested and cannot afford it and they don't care. They just want me there so they can try to prove me wrong.

As most of you long time readers know, I can sell a ice to an Eskimo and I am always bartering and looking for deals. Does taking the wife on her birthday weekend to a resort where she will be papered like a Queen for free make me cheap? Well sure it does and I'm okay with that. I get to play golf, the wife and the daughter get to spend a day at the spa, all for one hour of my time. I have done worse for less, life is good. 

See ya down the road,
MDR, the cheapskate      

We Made It Back!

We made it! In one week I was able to scratch off three things on my bucket list.
Our first official week long vacation is now over, actually it was nine days total.
Around day four we were ready to come home, but being on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean kinda prevented that.  
It took two days before I could even start relaxing, then I relaxed so much I got really sunburned even with PSF50 on. This is why my kind of people do not lay out and tan.
I finally set foot on foreign soil with the first being Jamaica, I got to be a tourist in the Caymans going from shop to shop,  I swam in a cenote in Mexico where I also got to drive a buggy through the jungle, I got to see the most bluest of water and I got to eat like a king all week long.  
The guilt didn't start setting in until the last day when we got our breakdown of charges and started adding up every expenditure for the entire trip. I was really disappointed with myself and the grand total. There are so many other things I could have used the money for to better our lives. Plus, if something goes wrong at the house and I don't have the money to fix it now, how can I justify what we did?
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed and am very thankful for getting away, spending time with the wife, seeing things I have only seen in the movies and doing things I have only heard of in other peoples stories.
I don't think I will ever do another seven day cruise again though. Maybe a three or four day would more suit my style.

Three boats were docking at the same ports every time. A total of about 11000 folks flooded the islands making the streets and shops crowded and overflowing. What made me laugh was the fact that all the souvenirs people were buying were made in china. You can get the same thing and never leave your own city, plus cheaper. All because it says Cayman Islands on it makes it worth more. 

All and all it was one heck of an experience. Been there, done that. Check it off the list. 
 
On the way to New Orleans I stopped by a really neat little place I saw on Texas Country Reporter. I will post about it later, but I know you will be interested in it.

Other than that, it's good to be home.
MDR

Wish Me Luck......

After a huge amount of careful planning for the past three months the day has finally arrived.

I am known for my strict schedule every time we go somewhere. I watch the clock and schedule a certain

amount of time to each activity. It works great when we are trying to get in as much as we can in a couple of days or three, this trip is a little different though. The first two days are set in stone, but the other seven is up in the air. My OCD is in overdrive about this, but I think it will be okay.

This is also the first time the wife and I have ever gone anywhere for a whole week, much less without the kids. This is also the first time I will have ever left American soil.
Usually our outings are a couple of days with the camper in tow. If we do get a chance to get out of the area then I always squeeze in a battlefield tour or two. The wife hates it, but she goes along with me anyway. She has even went as far to say "no battlefields this time".

Tonight we will be in College Station with the oldest girl showing us a night out on the town. Then on to Huston where yes, I managed to talk her into a tour of the San Jacinto battlefield. Then off to New Orleans and the French Quarter, then on the boat for seven days.

I am lucky enough to have some friends that will be staying at the house to make sure it is secured and the animals all get taken care of. I also have about twenty folks that will be watching the place while I am gone. I have no worries that everything will be just as I leave it when I get back.

One other thing I want to clear up. I am not going to justify this trip, but I do want to say, living the lifestyle I live has made it where we do not vacation. My homestead is my vacation and the activities we do there is our release from the everyday life. I have never felt really any need to spend money on something that will just be memories in a month or two. Sure I could have used this money to further my dream of the homestead and when it's all said and done I will probably regret that I didn't do just that. The homesteading/survival/prepping life has always been my life. I didn't just wake up one day and make a decision to do this. My mom and dad live this life, my grandparents lived it and for forty one years I have. It is the normal for me, not a weekend trip to the farm or an apartment pantry filled with food. Not saying that is bad, but saying what most of the blogs I read dream of living how I live.
I said all that more for me than you so I can justify it to myself that the wife and I do need to get away for a week. This is not so we can refocus or need a break from the mini farm. It is so we can be together doing something we have never done before in a place we have never seen, while we still can. It's that simple.        
Y'all have a great week and I hope to see ya on the flip side,
 MDR        

It's Not Good Enough

The wife and I have never left this country. We have never gone anywhere where we needed a passport. Over the past twenty two years all of our vacations have consisted of a weekend trip here and there or a few days camping at the lake. Only once in my adult life have I had a real week long vacation away from Texas.
Being a homesteader makes it where we really don't have the time to leave anyway. On top of that, I really don't feel comfortable leaving the house for any period of time. I guess you can say my comfort zone is at home.

One of the reasons we had children at such an early age was so we could still have fun before we couldn't and being that we have really never done anything we decided it was time to do something, so we booked a cruise. I am sure many of you have been on them and think it's no big deal, but we haven't and all this is a big learning experience for us.
First off we need to get out passports. I never had one before so I had to get schooled on getting one. Before you get one of those you need a certified birth certificate. We have never needed one of those either so now we had to get schooled on that as well. Something that sounds so easy right? I thought I had mine, it was the one my parents got from the hospital, but it was not good enough. I had to pay thirty bucks and get the one they want. How much more original can you get other than the one given to you at birth? I don't understand it. The wife had to spend thirty bucks and get hers from Austin because after a wasted trip into Dallas she found out by being born before 1982 the records are sent to Austin. I wish they would have told her that over the phone.
Now waiting on the correct birth certificates to arrive will put us over the time to get the passports back so now we have to spend an extra sixty bucks for hers to get here quicker, Unbelievable.

To make matters worse, the same cruise, the same boat we booked caught fire and is being towed back to shore, Unbelievable.
It's all my fault, if we would not have booked it then it would not have caught fire, that is how my life goes. I thought about changing and flying somewhere but I would not want something to happen to the plane.

It's so easy for others to have fun and go places, but for us it's always a pain in the butt. Maybe it's a sign?      

Always The Odd Ball

I have noticed whenever I go somewhere I am the odd ball out. Maybe it's just me or maybe it's the places I go, but in the end I stick out like a sore thumb.

I am on vacation this week and decided to take the wife camping. I love camping this time of year because there is the smell of fall in the air, I don't have to run the AC in the camper and when I am cooking outside I am not miserably hot.
Last summer we bought into a nice camping resort and have been waiting to take full advantage of it for the past few months. Fall brings on festivities at these places and the one we are at is having a Halloween blow out this weekend.  The kids really enjoyed it last year when we came as guests.
We have been here for three days now and are really missing the kids. I thought I would welcome the time away from everything with just me and the wife, but my kids make me whole and without them I feel something is missing.

Don't get me wrong, I am really liking the whole do nothing aspect of this being we have been so busy the past few months and I am really enjoying the late night hot tub runs, the sitting outside without anything to do and all that, but it seams the noise the kids make is what sooths me the most.
All three will be here Saturday morning and I am really looking forward to it.

The reason I say I am the odd ball here is because even though we have a camper, we spend most of our time outside it. We eat outside, cook outside and even do nothing outside. The only time you will find us in the camper is when we are sleeping. The strange thing is that we are the only ones doing that. I almost feel like I'm in a zoo exhibit when people drive by. They point and stare like I'm an attraction or something. I point back and laugh.  Funny people!

All the campers around me are full of folks watching TV, cooking, eating and living just like they would at home. Me, I don't understand that. These people spend all week cooped up in their little offices, then go home to their house with neighbors less than twenty feet from them and when they go outside it's in their little fenced off back yard. Then they spend their whole vacation cooped up in their little campers.

Complain I will not because the wife and I have had the run of the place. The rec-centers, the pools, the hot tubs, the showers and the bathrooms. Nobody leaves their campers so it's like a ghost town here and we are taking full advantage of it.

I guess what is boils down to is that we do what we are comfortable with. These city folks feel like they are on vacation by doing what they do at home and the same with me. At home I cook outside, shower outside, eat outside and even just sit around outside. So I guess the camper people can say the same about me as I say about them, "Why do they go on vacation to work, they could have just done that at home".   
And I'm the odd ball.