Pre-Anniversary Fun Day

Ahoy chums and chumettes!  This is your captain, Captain GangstaBeard, and it is my esteemed pleasure to welcome you all to our technomadic adventure!  Now that the trip is officially "on" we figured it was about time to start some new outdoorsy habits.  Considering my first mate FaeriLeigh was likely to be out of town for work on our 3-yr anniversary (March 30 - cash/credit/paypal/dubloons accepted), we decided to make the most of this weekend and take care of two baby seals with one club.

No seals were harmed during the making of this blog entry.

Pre-Anniversary Fun Day started off the best way possible for us - by sleeping in until about 10:15-10:30AM.  We wouldn't want to get too outdoorsy too soon now would we?  Then it was on to Hyde Memorial State Park to hike (most of) the Hyde Park Circle Trail - an ambitious trek for fledgling adventurers such as ourselves.  The trail gains 855 ft in just under 1 mile, so we did our best to take smaller, slower strides to make it up to the top without dying (we are not in shape in case you weren't aware).  Luckily the views were amazing, so we did not hesitate to stop and admire the raw beauty of the southernmost tip of the Rockies.

We were fairly worn out at the highest point of the trail, so we stopped and ate some dried fruit and nuts while continuing to admire the view.  Unfortunately we did not have time to do the entire trail - it turns out Hyde Park CIRCLE Trail is not actually a circle - so after a brief foray into the remaining snow, we headed back down the trail.. running for a good part of it because at that point it was easier on my knees than walking downhill!

We were refreshed by the clean mountain air, but more than ready for part 2 of Pre-Anniversary Fun Day - hot baths and massages at Ten Thousand Waves (http://tenthousandwaves.com/) - an epic Japanese style spa.  We showered, donned kimonos (I felt like Blackthorne from Shogun due to my epic beardness) grabbed a quick bite and some tea from the shop, and made our way to the communal hot bath.  It was outside on a deck, so it still counts as being outdoorsy!


After we were good and relaxed from the hot tub (and an invigorating dip in the cold plunge for me!), we were summoned to the lobby to meet our masseuses for our ashi anma foot massages.  This style of massage is partially based on reflexology, but also on joint massage.  Now I haven't had many foot massages in my life, but this reminded me that I should do it more often!  Katrina even admitted that it was probably the best foot massage ever (sorry Chris and Ethan, and well... me).


We had 15 minutes to kill before the 80-minute therapeutic couples massage, so we decided to warm up in the sauna beforehand.  Katrina lasted about 5 min before hopping out, only to return at the 10 minute mark when I couldn't take it anymore.  Then we met our next masseuses, walked to a serene room with natural light, and experienced all the joy and pain of a full body massage that lasted just the right amount of time.  Katrina has been talking about getting a really good massage for months (years maybe?), so I talked her into splurging for once and this massage did not disappoint.


Afterwards, it took us about 15 min to de-relax enough to be able to walk to the changing rooms and get ready for part 3 (don't worry I've noticed how long-winded this is getting, and I'm sure that most of you are tired of hearing about how great everything was, so just hang in there ya scurvy scallywags, and it'll all be over soon enough; wait where was I?  oh yeah, part 3).


There is no better dinner after a Japanese spa treatment than fresh sushi, and there is no better place to get fresh sushi in Santa Fe than San Q Japanese Pub.  We found it a couple of nights earlier and couldn't resist going back for the awesome sushi and sake.  Katrina found her new favorite sake on special there (the jury is still out for me).  I don't recall the name offhand, but she can tell you if you're really interested.


Well, that's about it for this installment of technomadic adventures.  I sure am glad I don't have to tell that story 50 times over - one and done, so I don't wanna hear about it again alright!  Jeez get off mah back will ya I's only kidding!  We are looking forward to many more beautiful hikes and General Outdoorsyness (salute your General, dagnabbit), but until there is more to report...

/begin Caption Contest

Captain GangstaBeard - over and out

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