Long Weekend in Santa Fe

We hope you all had a great weekend!

We had a thoroughly enjoyable one.  After a busy week at Habitat,

we got the entire three day weekend off.

Pam and I celebrated by taking our wash over to the Laundromat and getting a couple of loads done.  Yikes - we checked two locations and both were $2.75 a load!

Next we had a great meal at Los Amigos Restaurant which is a small restaurant near the Rodeo Grounds.  It has to be some of the best New Mexican food in town.  We had tostadas and it really hit the spot.

On Saturday, Reid and Amy arrived for a weekend stay at the Roadrunner.  It didn't take long to meet Paul, Tom and Ray here at the Rodeo Grounds.

After lunch, we stopped by the nearby Verizon store and I got a Verizon MiFi.  My connection speed has not been all that impressive here and I am not sure how well my two year old Autonet Mobile solution was going to do as we head north.  The MiFi works great and has a stronger signal with more bandwidth.

After the Verizon store we took Reid and Amy for a tour of the two Habitat worksites to show them what we have been doing all week.  Next, we went by the house where we grew up.  It appeared to be in pretty good shape compared to other times we have seen it.

Mom and Dad bought this in 1965 for $17,000.  We spent all summer putting in a great lawn in the front and back yards.  The big weeping willow tree in the front yard is no longer there.  Times have changed.

On Sunday, we decided to stay put at the Roadrunner Chapel and listen to a good sermon on the internet from Ken Boa's series on the book of Hebrews.  Then we packed a lunch and took a drive to Hyde State Park and the Santa Fe Ski Basin.

We were up over 10,000 feet and looked down on Santa Fe and the Sandia Mountains which are 75 miles away.  It was a beautiful drive up and down the mountain.

We had packed a lunch and went to the downtown Santa Fe area where we found a picnic table on the County Courthouse lawn.  After that, we walked across the street to the Sweeney Convention Center to the Indian Art Festival show (known as Native Treasures).  That was quite a treat.  From the classic to the contemporary, we saw jewelry, sculptures, paintings, carvings and a lot more.  Very impressive!

Next, we headed home and had fajitas for dinner.  While dinner was being made, I called AppleCare.  My MacBook has been getting hung up.  Especially when I load pictures and /or work on the blog.
Turns out I had a permissions issue in my Mac OS and the install disk I have been carrying around was scratched so I could not reinstall.  I set up an appointment with the Apple Store in Albuquerque, then we ate.

After dinner, we got set up at the Roadrunner Lanes for a Wii Bowling tournament.  That was a lot of fun, but Pam and I got smoked by Reid and Amy!

On Memorial Day, we drove to the Santa Fe National Cemetery and got there early.  They were setting up for the activities including an address by the governor.  We found our parents site.

Next, we went to the far end of the property and found where Uncle Don and Aunt Mary were laid to rest.

It looks like they are changing from the upright to the flat head stones.

After that, we went back to the coach, got my laptop and headed to Albuquerque.  Pam stayed with Amy while Reid and I went over to the Apple Store.  I upgraded to Snow Leopard.  I have been regularly backing up things in Time Machine and was able to load everything back onto my laptop.  I even took my MiFi and checked it out there.  Everything is working well now and I am very pleased.

While the 3 hour install and backup / restore job was running, we met Pam and Amy at Trader Joe's for lunch.  After that we finished up at the Apple Store, stopped by Reid and Amy's house and then drove back to the Santa Fe Rodeo grounds.

We sat around with Paul, Tom and Cathy, and Ray for a little while hearing how everyone else spent their weekend.  We had leftovers for dinner and called it a day.

It was a long and wonderful weekend in Santa Fe!  Hope yours was too!
Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Please stop by again.  And have a great week!

A Great Weekend

A big Welcome! to our newest followers:

Visionquest (Heidi and Mike)

George

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  You might find Heidi and Mike's blog interesting, or George and Sandi's blog.  Check them out!
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How was your weekend?

We had a great time in Fairfax spending time with the Royces and seeing Adam.  Like really great.  We did a lot of talking and hanging out.  They have a real nice place for that.
The Royces have a very beautiful view out of their back yard.  It was a little cool outside but the view is great.

On Saturday, while Jeff and Tiffany took the kids for a nature trail hike, we drove into DC to see the Christmas tree at the capitol.  It was one of our family traditions each year to go check out the tree and the back side of the capitol building.

 Unfortunately, we were a few days early.  The tree isn't due to arrive until December 7.  This year the tree comes from Wyoming.  Read all about it here.

On our way over to see Adam at the bakery where he is working, we saw some tourists on their Segway wheels.  Looks like a fun way to get around!

Next we went up 14th Street to the Sticky Fingers bakery where Adam works.  It is near the Target/Best Buy shopping center which seems to be doing some brisk business.  It opened up a couple of years ago before the neighborhood had an influx of some new businesses and now is doing well.

We had some vegan chili and a quesadilla with coffee and hot chocolate.  All were excellent!

Later in the day, we returned to Royces.  Kelly helped Lauren and Emily paint their nails while Tiffany cooked some turkey tortellini.

After dinner, Tiffany took a 'family photo' for us.  A simple family shot took 30 takes...kids fooling around...

Later, after the kids went to bed we talked about India.  Jeff and Tiffany and Adam and Kelly were all on their iPhone4's and googling different cities in India.  The maps and pictures of Fort Jaisalmer where Adam lived were very good.  Image ~ looking at photos and maps on your phone to explain where you lived for three months.  He talked about the living conditions and how things run and the culture differences.  He went on back to DC 

We got up early on Sunday and made our way down I-95 before the traffic got too bad.

Wawa is one of our favorite gas stations and we find McDonalds to have clean restrooms so they are often on our travel stops.

We arrived back in Virginia Beach before noon.  We dropped Kelly off at her house about 1030.  (Adam is staying with friends in DC so he can work for a few weeks.)  We spent the rest of the day unpacking, watching football and reading.

It was a great weekend.  Hope yours was too.  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Travel Day to Parry Sound

It was a travel day for us and we departed Tobermory (A) about 9:00 AM.  We drove down Highway 6 and ran into road construction.  Good thing we were in no hurry to get to Parry Sound (B), because we ran into road construction quite a few times.  Twice we just turned off the Roadrunner to wait it out.

But we eventually got to the KOA campground in Parry Sound, arriving about 3:00 PM. It is in a wooded area and has lots of campers.  Thankfully, there is good space between campsites and no one seems to be too noisy.

There are sounds of kids playing outside and having a good time which is great to hear, especially in summer.

After we got set up in the campground, we went into Parry Sound for an errand and some groceries.  We went to the Home Depot across from Wal-Mart and then over to Wal-Mart.  On the way back, we went through town which looks like there are plenty of things to check out:  stores, beaches and trails.

Later, we had a very standard camp-out dinner of hamburgers and pork and beans.

After dinner, I took some photos of the campground:

Later, my quirky connection on my Apple computer allowed me to set up a SKYPE call with my brother Marty and his wife Elena.  That was nice to see/hear those guys again.  We haven't seen them since Christmas in San Diego.  After that, I could not get back on the network so that was it for me last night.

For some reason, I have a lot of trouble connecting to the campground wifi.  It is completely random.  Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Kelly had no trouble on her Apple, so it must be the way mine is set up.  It has trouble holding a connection.  I have spent at least 90 minutes between yesterday and this morning trying to log on.  Sometimes it works, but so far nothing consistent, so I am using Kelly's MacBook Pro.  I didn't think she would mind.  Besides, she is still asleep...

And ~~ we're looking for 8 more people to signup to 'Follow'.   Will you be the next so we can get to 140?

Thanks for viewing today!  And joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles as we enter week three in beautiful Canada!

Apple iPhone for a Fulltime RVer?

Yesterday Adam surprised us was when he called on his iPhone. I never know when he'll call and it is always good to hear from him. He called me, then paused. Next thing I knew Pam, who was at the commissary, was on the phone. He said, "Wait!" and then Kelly was on the call also.

Our first family conference call! That was pretty cool.

There was no special occasion, just Adam showing another neat feature of the iPhone.He has had his iPhone for a couple of years and really loves it.

I am thinking about replacing my aging Blackberry and getting an iPhone.

Is it worth it?

Do any of you out there have one?

What is the best thing about it?

An Apple Store rep told me a couple of weeks ago the best way to get one is to wait until the new ones come out and then by one for $99 that is the current one and has been refurbished.

It makes sense to me because it has the same warranty as a brand new one and you know it has been tested and retested. The new ones out of the box have probably been 'spot checked' with a percentage of them actually checked out.

Let me know what you think. With some of the cool apps on the iPhone, I think I can forego getting a GPS. We'll see...

That's all I have to share today on the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for viewing.