live. work. dream.

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.

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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?”

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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.

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Our workamping job has been keeping us busy, but a couple of weeks ago, we made time to see not only the Trinity Bomb Test Site, but the Very Large Array (VLA) too, a collection of 27 giant satellite dishes made famous by the Carl Sagan fiction novel, “Contact,” and later made into a movie starring Jodie Foster. In the movie, Jodie Foster plays a scientist at the VLA, who is on the verge of making alien contact.

Like the Trinity Test Site, the VLA is only open for tours once or twice a year. As you head up to the desolate area where the antennas stand, it’s like walking into a Christo and Jeanne Claude art installation. With a beautiful desert mountain scenery in the background, the huge antennas standing among the plains are quite stunning.

We were lucky enough to join a small tour led by one of the VLA’s leading project managers, a female astronomer who was incredibly enthusiastic about her work on distant quasars. As she walked us over to one of the 230 ton antennas, she burst our bubble about the movie “Contact.” Although it was filmed on site, VLA projects have nothing to do with alien research or SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The VLA’s sole purpose is scientific stellar and galactic research. The world’s largest SETI station is actually close to where we used to live, just 75 miles east of Redding, CA.

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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!

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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).

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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.

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My friend Coffeesister just can’t contain her excitement about Virgin Mobile’s cell phone service. Like us, she and hubby Rhodester are on a really tight budget. Yet, she has a phone that’s way cooler than ours, and a plan that costs about half of what ours does, for around the same amount of minutes.

She uses Virgin’s “Pay as You Go” option, which allows you to add minutes to your phone either online or at Target. Virgin uses the Sprint network, so coverage is good. One of the best parts about Virgin: no contracts, ever, even if you choose one of their competitive monthly plans.

When you start making plans to become a full-time road tripper, one of the things you’ll want to analyze before leaving is your current cell phone coverage. Do you have the kind of plan that will give you the flexibility you’ll need when traveling across the country? How much coverage does your current provider’s roaming network have?

I just learned that the town we’ll be workamping in this summer has terrible cell phone coverage. Since our antique phone will be sitting idle all summer, why should we pay our $65 bill every month when we’re not even using our minutes? Thanks to Coffeesister, we’re going to make the switch and save some money. I like that!

What is up with this town? I just have to ask myself that.

And now, I guess I’m asking you. Not that I expect you to be able to answer that, if you’ve never been here to this little jewel of the Nile.

OK. It’s not the Nile, it is the Rio Grande. And this gem looks more like a lump of coal than a diamond in the rough. But unless something changes – which may happen very soon – that coal might become a diamond before this town ever grows up.

Having lived for ten years in a town where growth is a bad word, I understand how a community can clash over development. But what I don’t get is why there is absolutely none here in Truth or Consequences, NM. The place has obviously seen its day. But it still seemed to have such potential. Then I spoke with a local developer.

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“The difference between whether you can make it happen or whether you can’t is not how many obstacles you have, it is how badly do you want to do something totally life-changing—totally for yourself.

We will give you the tools to change your dream into reality, but the implementation is yours to enjoy.”

— Phil and Carol White, authors of “Live Your Road Trip Dream”

And enjoy we have. When we first entertained the thought of taking a sabbatical, my search on the topic came up with Phil and Carol White’s book, “Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home”

I bought the book because I wanted to figure out how we could take some time off without going broke, and Road Trip Dream succeeded in helping us do just that. With the release of its second edition, the Whites’ book is as vital as ever when it comes to considering every critical aspect of how to plan, execute and live your own road trip dream. Don’t even think of embarking on a journey without reading and following the advice laid out by these two seasoned road trippers.

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