Out of the Swamp and Into the City aka State Parks vs. RV Parks

Neither Greg nor I are big city fans, but it seems to me that one simply can not be a bona-fide resident of Texas until you spend some time in Dallas.    Oh and did I mention…  We both got our driver’s licenses now as well so we are officially bona-fide Texas residents!  Yee-Haw!

Before I get tell you about Dallas though, I wanted to share about our experiences staying in our very first ever RV Park.  Although I am still adamant that State Parks are my favorite, I’m not sure if Greg and Elijah continue to share my sentiments.  They seem to like both equally, they each have their advantages, they are just very different. I did a detailed comparison below.  If details bore you, skip down to the pretty pictures.

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As you can see, they each have their advantages and disadvantages.  Although I still highly favor state parks, staying in a RV park definitely has it’s perks. As I’ve said many times before, we are not retired and very dependent on cell service for our internet to be able to work.  Therefore, it has become blatantly obvious that RV parks are going to be playing a significant role in our lifestyle as well.

Our next destination is a good example.  As I type this, it is Scenery Swap Day and we are driving to our next destination: Amarillo, Texas. Although we REALLY want to stay in Palo Duro Canyon State Park since Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in the United States (of course the first being the Grand Canyon) it’s not a good option for us as there is absolutely no cell service in the canyon AT ALL.  And the campground is located at the base of the canyon.  There is another state park not too far away, but they have little or no cell service either.  So, we are staying in at Fort Amarillo RV Park and Resort which is a nice RV Park with lots of amenities including excellent cell service and free WiFi, yet still within an easy drive of Palo Duro Canyon.  If we were retired it would be a different story, but we aren’t and won’t be for years to come so utilizing RV Parks provides us a way to have the best of both worlds.

Now on to the pretty pictures.  Dallas was a fun city to explore.  We literally went from swamps with alligators swimming right behind our 5th wheel in Jasper with only one Walmart, to a sprawling big city with a Costco, Trader Joes, and best of all the newly discovered Central Market (which is like Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Fresh Market and Disneyland all rolled up into one!) Although I prefer God’s beautiful creation, when you are strictly gluten free having access to these amazing stores is pretty awesome as well. Anyway, enough talking…  How ’bout some pictures?!  First, here is Cowtown RV Park, where we are staying in Fort Worth:

Here are some pictures from around Dallas:

Remember that phenomenal Central Market store I was telling you about?  Here’s just a little teaser…

I have so many more pictures and I’d love to show you around Fort Worth also…  but there are only so many hours in the day.  That said, the Fort Worth Zoo is the best zoo any of us have ever been to, bar none!  But I’m simply too tired to keep going and this blog post is already too long.  I finished this blog post as we were en route to Amarillo so I may or may not blog about the zoo.  (Greg says he will do a blog on the zoo, so we’ll see how that pans out.)  We will only be in Amarillo for one week before we head to New Mexico, so I’ll be busy seeing everything first, then I’ll get busy showing it all to you.

Happy Trails and Sunny Sails!

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