Working the dream life for 17+ years.
El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico hosts Civil War Days.
Hola, housekeeeping … me name is Jaime. I am here to clean your rooom. Knock, knock. Hello?
OK, I didn’t clean the rooms. And the housekeepers at Riverbend all spoke perfect English. Nonetheless, my workamping job at the hot springs in Truth or Consequences gave me a good taste of resort management.
Good enough to now know that we could easily run some sort of lodging business, someday. And good enough to know that we would hire workampers to do the dirty work.
You might have guessed by now, that I’m not the churchiest person. Spiritual, yes, churchy, no. But, as anyone born into Catholicism can tell you, once you’re in, you’re in for life. You can run away from it, but it never leaves you. Just when you least expect it, you’ll put up a velvet Last Supper painting above the TV, and stick a dashboard Jesus in your SUV.
As a recovering Catholic, I love checking out old churches. Maybe I’m subconsciously facing my fears, but the more realistic Saint statues and lit up candles they have inside, the better.
In Santa Fe, I had no shortage of Catholic churches to choose from, but the Loretto Chapel was first on my list. Briefly, the story about the Chapel’s Miraculous Staircase goes:
Our RV road trip budget expense report for April 2008.
If anyone follows our adventures close enough to actually check for new photos on our gallery page, I truly wonder why. But they might have noticed some big changes there a little while back. I gave the galleries an overhaul, but didn’t announce it because we went for a while there without a camera. And what fun would new galleries be without new photos?
2008 Truth or Consequences New Mexico Fiddler’s Festival.
Jim and Rene are featured once again in Mike Ward’s First glance column for RV Life magazine along with Phil and Carol White.
The solo performance by classical cellist Brian Patrick Bromberg was the saving grace of our dinner in Truth or Consequences.
And it made us wonder what on earth brought him to T or C after having been classically trained in Chicago and New Zealand.
But there I go digressing again. About that restaurant review …
Time for another reality check.
Ten years ago, Jim and I moved to Eureka on a whim. I knew it was rainy there, but I thought I could tolerate it, because I’d lived in San Francisco. But after a while, the rain forest was getting to me. The endless cold gray days, coastal winds and thick fog was wearing down my psyche. I constantly griped about what I knew I could not change; the weather.
So I started to have these fantasies about living in the desert. I wanted to feel the warm sun. Munch on chips and hot salsa and wash it down with cold beer. Sit next to a saguaro cactus and play my guitar. Go out at night wearing a summer dress, flip flops and a tan.
I thought that workamping here in T or C would convince Jim that living in the desert was a good idea. But after just one month, I’ve discovered that I’m too much of a wuss for this kind of environment.
In 1992, I’d just finished college, and in order to pay my student loans, I took a job as a receptionist at a big marketing firm. I was the lowest admin on the org chart, and it was an awful, demeaning experience. But little did I know that the skills I learned on that job would come in handy so many years later.
Here at Riverbend, we answer the phone when we aren’t giving tours, cleaning the pools or doing laundry. Although I do my best to sound cheery, I really hate picking up the phone; it just takes me back to that awful job. Many conversations are an exercise in Buddah-like patience, especially on busy weekends.
“Riverbend Hot Springs, how can I help you?”
I know what you’re saying. “Oh boy, here he goes again … off on another one of his geek rants.”
But surely someone will be grateful for finding this information. It sure isn’t on the MotoSat technical support website where it should be.
When we started having some trouble locking onto our satellite for internet access, MotoSat suggested we upgrade the firmware in our Datastorm D3 dish controller. The support rep then promptly proceeded to rattle off a number of important steps, too quick for me to write them down. I decided to wait, thinking I would find details on their website.
Not. I present them here in excruciating detail for your reading enjoyment, or complete boredom whichever you prefer.
in April, geeks can take a technology tour in New Mexico at the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Trinity Bomb Test Site near Socorro.
I hate writing about stuff that happened weeks ago. But then I guess you would never know, if I didn’t tell you! Anyway …
I hadn’t reviewed any biscuits and gravy for a long time.
So I was especially pleased to discover Hodges Corner Restaurant serves up a mean breakfast buffet on Sunday morning.
I was even more pleased – and even more surprised – that René actually suggested we stop for breakfast on our 12 mile bicycle ride from Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequences up to Elephant Butte. It’s sure a good thing the second six miles were downhill!
When you think of New Mexico, what do you envision? Scorching desert landscapes? Native American pueblos? I did. But since arriving here in March, we’ve learned that this dry, arid place is also a haven for technology geeks from around the world. From observatories, to military technology development, to the world’s first private space port, New Mexico offers something for the geek in all of us.
April is a perfect month for technology buffs to visit. For one day only, propeller heads can walk amongst the low-level radioactive earth on the Trinity Test Site (home of the world’s first atomic bomb test).
I’ve had it with the whole TIPS ON PUMPING GAS email fraud. But enough people I respect sent me the famous GOOD INFO! message that I just had to look into it.
I was about to write about how I heard about not filling up when big trucks were filling much bigger tanks below the ground. But that was years ago. And an industry man told me way back then how the stations had filters to that took care of that. Now I’ve discovered the urban legend of tips on pumping gas to be mostly fraudulent.
