November 23, 2023
The trailer and truck were going to be stored in a little town called Point, Texas which is a couple of hours east of Dallas. Our flight was scheduled to leave the next day from Houston which meant we needed to rent a vehicle to get us from Point to Houston. Unfortunately, I booked our flight for the day after American Thanksgiving which means we were travelling to Houston on Thanksgiving. The reason this is unfortunate is because very few car rental places are open on holidays.. Except the ones at airports. After moving the trailer to the storage space we started the 1.5 hour drive to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. I booked our car a few days prior so picking it up was really easy. Now we drove our truck and the rental back to Point to leave the truck with the trailer.
Now another thing that was overlooked when I arranged our flight and now our storage space was no one was working at the campground on Thanksgiving. I was supposed to have tags to put on the trailer so they knew it was allowed to be there. I did not have the tags and had no way of getting them. We still had another four hour drive ahead of us to Houston and needed to hit the road. After getting the trailer as secure as possible, hooking up the truck and then leaving a note in the windshield, we were off.
The rest of the day was much smoother with far less to worry about. We got into Houston much later than I had hoped but we made it. One thing I was very much looking forward to about staying in the hotel was a nice, long, hot shower. A luxury I have been missing since we began our adventure and I planned on taking full advantage. So after getting the kids into bed I did just that. Feeling happy and refreshed I climbed into bed and did something I have done maybe a handful of times since we started our adventure… I set an alarm.
November 24, 2023
We made it to the Houston airport. We dropped off our rental car and it finally dawned on us how much stuff we actually needed to carry onto the shuttle to the terminal. There were 4 carry-on bags, 3 personal items and 2 car seats and only 2 people to carry them. We got on the shuttle, got our bags secured and sat down and then realized we were on the wrong shuttle! After a quick pivot, we grabbed all our gear and hurried off the the correct shuttle. Finally, we made it to check the car seats and 1 carry-on. From nine bags to six, which seemed a bit more manageable while following toddlers.
Next stop: Security. Remember how I said six bags was more manageable than nine? Well that was right until our youngest decided he didn’t want to wait for security and bolted through. Right under the fencing, laughing the whole way. In shock we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to get him but also not get arrested. Finally a TSA agent tells them he’s going to let mom through so I can go and grab him. The entire line up is trying to hide a laugh because let’s face it, it would’ve been hilarious if it wasn’t MY kid. Now we’re carrying six bags, an angry toddler and trying to convince a five year old to stay close. We cleared security and have made it to the next challenge – finding our gate and getting on the airplane.
Finding our gate really wasn’t that difficult, it was just a long way to go with our new set up. We found a nice big window that the boys could watch the airplanes come and go. And tried to get as much energy out of them as possible before our flight. The flight left right around lunch time so I went to go find some lunch and water before boarding. I got back just in time to pack up and load onto the plane. Thankfully they allow families with young children to board first so we didn’t have to wait in line for long. This was our first time flying with 4 seats since our youngest only turned two this year and sat on our laps on previous flights. We were on a plane that had 4 seats together in the middle so we were all able to sit together.
The flight was thankfully fairly uneventful and only 2.5 hours so we managed. We definitely learned a few things that would be helpful for next time. Cancun is an hour ahead of Houston so we landed around 3pm. Thankfully, getting through customs was a lot less eventful in Mexico. We made it outside to meet our driver who wasn’t there because he was stuck in traffic. After about half an hour he finally arrived. We loaded up the car and hit the road to our next destination, Puerto Morelos!
