Home Sweet San Antonio

Beyond ready for a steady place to stay, not that a week and half on the road wasn't fun, but it was the constant unpacking and repacking of the car during the trek that was getting pretty tiresome, you've seen the pictures, its not an easy task. We landed in San Antonio on New Years day and happier than ever to just unwind and do laundry, oh the mounds of laundry we had accumulated, and to eat a real home cooked meal, we had not had one of those since we were in Phoenix. Seriously it's the simple luxuries that we were missing the most during the period on the road.

We rented this really cute furnished home via Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1026427), just north of downtown San Antonio with oodles of space and its adorable factor just tops it off! Downfall, it wasn't up to the standard of "Bonnie clean," and by God, if I am going to live her for a month, the place is going to be douched! I know that some might call me a little neurotic or OCD when it comes to what I view the standard of clean, but clean baseboards, window sills, blinds and not having dust bunnies under the bed should be the standard, right? I totally could've handled a day or two in the state it was, I just couldn't handle a month without a deep clean, so the owners got one, whether or not they wanted it! In fact I spent an entire day, from top to bottom, cleaning and disinfecting the place and now I feel much better! This place is clean, "Bonnie Clean" and I could eat off the floor now if I so chose to do so!

On the positive notes, the house is really close, and by close, I mean within half a mile or less of a ton of great restaurants, boutique shops and the market, so I can virtually walk everywhere. There is even a park a little less than a mile away that makes for a fun run and the super cute Yoga studio that I found just down the road so I can still get my fitness on and get out of the house while Tom is off supporting my lady of leisure status!

The back yard is fully fenced and Miss Ethel has adapted surprisingly well to her new surroundings. In fact there are a couple of neighborhood cats and a ton of squirrels in and out of the backyard on a regular basis, so you can imagine how excited she is to go sniff out a new trail every time she goes outside; she can easily spend thirty minutes out there and not even realize I've just left her to her own devices by going inside without her. We have yet to leave her here by herself, but it's officially been a week now, I am pretty sure she will be able to cope; it is just a matter of deciding to leave her outside or let her have free rein of the house while we are out. I'll keep you posted on her survival for the first go it alone adventure for her!

The three of us are off for a weekend adventure tomorrow and will be Austin bound, so any tips and recommendations, ones that are dog friendly in Austin would be greatly appreciated. We love any help and/or tips you all are willing to send our way, we love hearing from you our friends, family and readers.

Roswell

Back on the road and about an hour out of Santa Fe I need to pee, like seriously need to pee, pull over and do it off the side of the road pee, even though I went before we checked out of the hotel room. So we pull up on the little half functional, half abandoned town of Vaughn, NM and I am thinking that Tom can totally top off the car while I hit the restroom, well this little Ma & Pa Station is out of gas; in fact I don't think that they actually carry gas anymore; I wasn't really sure what to think, but I needed a bathroom, so I was willing to take the risk. So I run in, do what I need to do, and then I feel the guilt of using their facilities and not spending money; so I buy a couple bottles of water and I glance over and see Nutter Butters and I think those look good, I haven't had those for ages, so I grab those too. The cute old man that happened to be working that day, grabs his cane as he stands up from his card table, where he has been smoking his cigarette and building a puzzle to ring me up, and now I am feeling bad that I am buying stuff, because I feel like I have interrupted something very important about his day, but he's made the effort, so I purchase my items, head back to the car and we are back on the road again.

Within five minutes of being back on the road again, I open the Nutter Butters, give one to Tom and I take the other one; we both take a bite and look at each other and can't quite figure out what is wrong; they don't taste like peanut butter, they kind of taste like the gas station smelled.  I immediately look at the package, they expired almost two years ago!!!! Needless to say, it might be awhile before I can eat a Nutter Butter again or if I ever stop in Vaughn, NM it will be too soon!

We officially hit Roswell and went directly down to Main St. which is where all the crazy alien fun is; totally cliche', even the McDonald's there is shaped like an alien space ship! Although Roswell was lots of fun, there really isn't much to do there; especially with the holiday, everyone was closing early, but I would guess even with every place running on regular hours that one day would be plenty of time to spend in the city.

The night we were in Roswell also coincided with New Years Eve, so what do you do when your in a new town, staying in a hotel and have a furchild with you that doesn't do so well in new places. Well you order dinner in, we actually ordered from Big D's Downtown Dive, open a bottle of port from the wine cellar and sit around making aluminum foil hats to prevent any possible alien abductions! Such a great and fun night, and just to add, Roswell surprisingly had the best food of the entire road trek! Yeah, shocker; imagine our surprise when we bit into the deliciousness!

Next stop "Home Sweet San Antonio!"

Santa Fe

When I think Santa Fe, I think warmth, adobe style buildings, a city rich in history and culture; so imagine my surprise when I was freezing my ass of here! Who knew this city actually sits higher than Park City; I knew they had a ski resort, but I was thinking it would be more like a bunny/sledding hill and not large mountains that actually had real snow! Lucky for us, I had a carload of clothing to keep us warm as we took to the historic district to explore the things I was actually prepared for.

Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the United States, so imagine the history that this city holds! The preservation of the buildings is just phenomenal and that architecture, wow! We spent a large portion of the day walking around the historic district checking out the buildings, the art and all the tasty looking restaurants and bars that this city had to offer, all things that make a city great and Santa Fe delivered!

This city has an abundance of markets and restaurants that offer organic farm to table options and for those that know me well, know this is a huge factor when I choose a city I would like to visit again. Santa Fe is New Mexico's saving grace, the rest of the state, left a foul taste in my mouth! Well, I take that back, Roswell is pretty cute and kitsch fun.  Seriously though, after Farmington, this place was just what we needed and I am so glad we had the opportunity to visit it.

And We're Off!

Holy shit, we are crammed in this gorgeous beast, and let me tell you, it was like playing real life Tetris getting it all in there. Needless to say it was a very strategic process but we managed to get almost everything that needed to go with us in the car and only had to leave behind the non-essentials! Woo hoo!!! And damn, doesn't the Flex look sexy with that Thule on top!

We officially took to the road on Monday afternoon and headed directly to Kanab for a quit pit stop to catch up with an old friend before heading off to Phoenix. And catch up we did, I saw 2am in the morning, I can't remember the last time I was up that late! So thanks Ladd for the laughs and fun; it was a perfect start to our epic adventure!