Free, like the Wind

Hello, friends, welcome to the very first blog post of the Technomads! I'm sorry we sort of dropped off the face of the planet for a couple of weeks there. We were still in Texas visiting friends and taking care of getting everything set up, and I felt like our trip hadn't really started yet, but we're finally out of Texas and into the woods! For those who didn't get to see Voltron before we left, here are a couple of pictures of our new home. He's a 2000 Fleetwood Bounder (with an awesome Kangaroo logo) that has this slide-out wall in the living room that just about doubles the space, and another one in the bedroom.

So a quick update on the Comedy of Errors that has been the last couple of weeks, since I haven't talked to most of you in that long. First off, getting out of the apartment. We had taken a big truckload to the RV the day before our lease was up, and we went back thinking we had maybe 3-4 hours left and we'd be done. WRONG! It ended up taking us 18 hours straight, two more truck loads, and we got the keys in the drop box right before the leasing office opened the next morning. We filled Voltron up so much that there was one tiny walkway through the whole thing, so we couldn't get the slides in to actually drive it anywhere. It took us three more days to get everything unpacked enough to drive it (thank you so much to Kevin for letting us park there for so long)! We drove it to Austin where, luckily, we were about to park it in front of Sam's dad's house with no complaints. We hung out with the family and some friends, Burson, Alec and Magen, for a few days, and headed to San Antonio to visit Sam's mom, and a few more friends, Jason and Chad. We also had an awesome St. Patty's Day with JT and Kota! While in SA, we bought a Chevy Tracker from his mom to tow behind the RV, thus beginning a new chapter of frustration. We found a guy to attach the towing mechanism to the Tracker, but it took longer than expected and we ended up stuck in San Antonio an extra day. The guy said to stop by U-Haul, and they could attach whatever we needed to get the brake lights to work. WRONG AGAIN! U-Haul couldn't do it at all, and we decided to go ahead and drive to Lubbock to see the last of our Texas friends with no brake lights on the Tracker, with the plan to stop for the night when it got dark. Once it got dark, we were about three hours away, and opted to drive the two vehicles separately rather than stop. So in Lubbock, we find a guy to do the brake lights "today or first thing tomorrow at the latest." We were planning to leave by noon the next day, so we gave it to him and hoped for the best. Luckily Cajun and Stephanie are awesome and let us stay with them while everything was in the shop. So the first day comes and goes without so much as a quote, then "first thing the next morning" comes and goes... noon comes and goes... we end up stuck in Lubbock until the shop closed at 6:30p. Now I'm going crazy to still be in Texas, so we decide to still make the drive to Santa Fe that night. We arrived at the Santa Fe Walmart at 3:00a, exhausted but finally where we've been trying to get to all this time.

At this point, we've slept in many a Walmart parking lot, which is just about the only organization I'm aware of that will allow you to stay for the night. So far, every place we've been to we arrive at night, sleep in a Walmart parking lot for free, and find an RV park in the morning, although I'm hoping not to be driving at night anymore. We're still not completely done unpacking and figuring out where everything can fit in this tiny space. We have so many renovations still to make... currently, we have a tape deck, a VCR and a tube TV. Obviously, that will not do! As soon as Sam has the time, we will be getting a whole new set up, with a killer sound system, an HD TV hooked up to our XBOX, Gamecube and Playstation 1 (yep, you heard right!), with Netflicks and all that. This is certainly not an experiment in roughing it! Sam has an awesome work set up with dual external monitors, which looks even more impressive with his fancy new electronic music devices (I'll let him elaborate on that one later). Life is not terribly dissimilar than it was before... Sam works all day and frequently into the evening, and I've been Lazy Pants, dreaming of the day I can wake up and walk outside for a nice hike.

Which brings me to NEW MEXICO! This trip has officially begun! Yesterday we moved to this beautiful RV park about 15 minutes from downtown Santa Fe, and I already have such a brighter outlook on life. Apparently this is the beginning of camping season, so there are very few people in the park, and we have an awesome spot in the back surrounded by trees, right at the head of a hiking trail! It feels like we're in the woods, but we still have full hookups and the park has restrooms and showers and a little theater with nightly movies. I just paid for the spot for a full week. :) I have some beautiful pictures, but I just spent the last hour looking for my camera cable, and cannot find it. Oh, well. We spent yesterday hanging out at a park in Santa Fe with Sam's cousin, Kira, and her boyfriend and their five adorable kids. The weather here is incredible - slightly hot in the sun but with a cool breeze, and cold at night (less awesome). Today has been ExploraDay, checking out the campground hiking trail, rockin' it to some Album Leaf. :) Tomorrow, Kira is throwing a faerie party in the park for her six year old daughter!! I'm so excited!

So I know that was an intense amount of stuff to read, but now that you're all caught up, the blogs should be much more brief, and hopefully more musings rather than just What I Did Today. Sam and I are both going to be writing on this, so we'll be sure and sign and color-code our blogs (although I bet you'll be able to tell the difference). I miss everyone so much already!

-FaeriLeigh