Welcome to the madness, sounds as though your Dad has already introduced you to the joys of Teardrop camping.
I'm sure that several of your fellow Texans will shime in shortly.
You may want to check-out the TearJerkers (link above) great group with as much camping information as T&TTT has build info the two sites really compliment one another hope to meet ya around a campfire one day.
Welcome from Plainview TX. Im new too just bought my tear a month ago after drooling for three years. Have not met any of these people yet, but near as I can tell they like to have fun. Ronnie