Houses and Trailers and Hotels... Oh My!

HOUSES VS TRAILERS

The difference between living in a house or a trailer is that, in a trailer, there is smaller space, which means that there is not a lot of room, and the smaller space means that you don’t have to clean up as much. One of the differences about living in a trailer versus a house is that in a house, there are messes, but not as many in a trailer. In a trailer park, you have to keep your area outside clean or else you’ll be in trouble with the trailer park people.  But when you live in a house, your outside yard can have toys and bikes there, too.

HOUSE GUESTS

We will be house guests to people on our trip.  There are rules for us to follow then too!  We have to be polite and say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" or "yes sir" or "no sir" and we have to use our best manners.  Best manners means use your napkin instead of your shirt, don't interrupt, don't chew with your mouth open, wash up before meals, put on your clean underwear, and remember to flush the toilet.  You might not get kicked out of a friend's house BUT they will think you're disgusting if you don't show good manners!  I don't want to be embarrassed at my mom's friend's house!

TRAILER LIFE

There is also quieter living in trailer parks. The people there are friendly, but they will tell the trailer park rangers if any problems happen, like a dog that gets out.  The rangers are sometimes stern, but it is the rules to be quiet. The people living at the trailer park do not want to hear yelling or any noise, even from travelers.

In a trailer park, friends live closer. What I mean is that people that we know live right next to us (like ten feet away) and one of them is my sister’s friend, Mary. We only lived in a trailer park for a couple of weeks before leaving for our trip.  But we really learned that if you live in a trailer park, you get treated much stricter than if you had just been a tourist.  I think they treat the tourists much better.

In a trailer park, there are rules. These rules are important to stay there. If you disobey them, you will be kicked out. You have to be ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­quiet to stay there. Another rule is, do not let your pets loose! There are many other rules that you have to obey, like not leaving garbage in the bathroom or putting big rocks in the holes in the road or you will be in trouble with the park manager (that happened to my sisters!).

In a trailer community, people live next to each other.  The people are friendlier than people in a neighborhood, which is a good thing.  The ranger is in charge of everything in a trailer park, which means that they can tell you what to do, which is okay but no one tells you what to do in your own home. The trailer community is smaller than a normal community, but people still care about each other and spend more time with each other than in a regular neighborhood.   

HOTEL LIFE

In a hotel, you have to be really quiet or you’ll be in trouble with the manager there, too! Worse, you could get kicked out. The rules are:  (1) be quiet (2) behave (3) follow the rules!  In a hotel, the room is similar to a bedroom in a house, but there is no kitchen, (just a microwave and refrigerator).                                  

Some people live in a hotel. It is a temporarily home for those people. They have to follow the rules or else they’re kicked out and they have to find another home.

There are a lot of hotels in California and other states, but some of them are really expensive, because some hotels are really luxurious and the managers are nice, but they will kick you out, too, if you do not follow the rules.  In some luxury hotels, kids are not allowed.  My mother used to work as a bookkeeper and auditor for a luxurious hotel that didn’t allow children to stay.  They only allowed sixteen year olds and up as guests.  We usually stay at hotels like the Best Western or, if it’s really a special occasion, the Hampton Inn.  We have also stayed in the past at the Holiday Inn but sometimes we stay at budget hotels, like the Ramada or Days Inn.