Melissa and Daniel - Travel Adventures: February 2010

I can't believe Daniel is approaching his 2 year mark of traveling! Wow how time flies! It seems just like yesterday I was blogging for the first time!
Traveling over the past two years I have learned many a life lessons. Here are a few of the essentials HA!:
- Daniel is an amazing funny, loving,` and giving husband
- Family and friends (even if they are miles and miles away) are so important in
your daily life and you cherish the time you have with them so much more
- Organizing and hiding stuff is an art and takes creativity
- Pledge Multi Surface and Mr Clean Magic Erasers are essentials
- Cooking with propane and in mini size pans (Child size bake ware) is a challenge
- Stylish Muck Boots are a must! (Thanks Mama and Daddy)
- How to cook in high altitude (thanks Melody)
- You have to be a strong confident woman
- Not to sweat the small stuff or you will never be happy
- Finally you can live with 2 labs (one very hyper) in less than 400 square feet! HA!

I have also learned when you travel full time you really do have to just go with the flow! I am not going to say in the least I am a hard core planner but I do find myself trying to put events into some sort of order. I think if I didn't do this I would go a little stir crazy - read back to the top about the 2 dogs! ;) However, if traveling has taught us anything over and over again its to be flexible. Since my last post we have flooded the inside of the 5ht wheel twice! More about that later!

We spent our last full weekend in El Paso doing the things we had been meaning to do for weeks! We started off the weekend by flooding the kitchen on Friday morning it was joyous! HA! We were trying to prevent the water lines from freezing however, instead we flooded the kitchen as one of the holding tanks wasn't open. I spent most of Friday cleaning however, by the evening all that was left was the fans drying out the mess. Friday night we had dinner with Regina and Dennis M. and played cards for a great beginning to a last weekend in town. Saturday we spent the day packing and visiting with our neighbors. Sunday we finally made it back to Cattleman's Steak House at Indian Cliffs in Faben's TX, to take the hay ride that tours the movie sets. The tour takes you around several set locations: Courage Under Fire, The Boarder, Resurrection, to name a few. We also saw the lake, a zoo, exotic animals, Old West memorabilia including an antique wagon collection, a western town, and an old working stable.

Andrea and Ashlynn - Your welcome!:
We had a great time and ended the fun afternoon with another great dinner.

The day before we left on Friday night our El Paso friends hosted a dinner party in our honor. I have to be quite honest and say I never thought you could pull off something so nice in a 5th wheel. We were impressed by Regina's skills! HA! Regina and Dennis dressed up their place and went above and beyond. We had an amazing dinner with great company. Melody and Rodney, Brenda and Dale, and Regina and Dennis we had a wonderful time, good laughs, shared great stories, and a farewell dinner we will not forget. We cherish our time in El Paso and our group made some great memories! We already miss you guys and hope to see you again soon.On Saturday morning we finished packing and headed to Santa Fe. It was overall one of the easiest "moves" we have made since traveling. NICE! We settled on a park about 25 miles from Daniel's work. It seems like the best park around based on what we checked out. Most of the parks are 55/65 and up resorts and obviously we do not fit into that category but so far so good at Road Runner!
The day after we arrived we were greeted with snow. It was a nice deep snow and the first of many.

We are staying in an area known as Pueblo of Pojaque and so far it has a lot to offer everything from arts, to a beautiful area known as Camel Rock, and a few casinos. HA!
Snowboarding has been and will continue to be a part of our week. We are absolutely ecstatic that we so close the resorts! Our first trip was to Ski Santa Fe and it was a blast! We spent the day on the slopes and loved every second! We can't forget about the babies and have been spending time letting them run crazy in the snow! We are always looking for ways to wear them out and having sleeping dogs for a few hours. Remember we have limited space! With all the snow we had to spend a day sledding! We headed into the mountains and to my surprise this was Daniel's first time EVER sledding! He loved it and we have no broken bones! SUCCESS!
We also found a new place for snowboarding that has the feel of a family owned resort. Sipapu has become our new favorite place...not that we won't be trying the other places around..don't think that for a second! HA! I am continuing to become even more confident on the lift..ha (Daniel will love that!) No seriously, I really am!

Along with all the fun in the snow..we are touring the historic areas of the city, admiring all the neat authentic art, and having some great local food!
So far we really like Santa Fe. As you can tell we have spent a lot of time outdoors and touring the area. We are excited and trying to plan out trips for the next few weeks on Daniel's days off. He is enjoying the new hospital and the schedule of working four ten hour days and having more time to spend on adventures! Now if we can just keep from flooding the 5th wheel again I think things will be golden. We have been lucky both times and have caught the broken pipe and have prevented water damage! Its our luck! ;)
Happy Valentines Day weekend everyone! We hope you all spend the day with the ones you love! We miss you!

XOOXOXOXOXOXO
Daniel and Melissa