Happy Birthday, Ms. Laura ! Fiesta Today, in Santa Fe !

Laura near the end of 8 1/2 mile hike Ranger-led Adventure Hike in Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago!


Ms. Laura prepares to mount up and ride down to the Plaza area for her birthday brunch!



The Atomic Grille is one of our favorite Santa Fe hangouts. It has a great outdoor patio, breakfast is served all day. We love to order Juevos Rancheros there and spend hours uploading pictures and stories using their free wi fi.






Laura's birthday coincides with Fiesta in Santa Fe this year. On the street near where she is having brunch a Mariachi band serenades.







Happy Birthday, Laura ! May you have many more!

Kayak and More shop in Morro Bay

Kayak and More shop in Morro Bay

After closing down the coffee shop next door using their free wi fi, Robert asked the proprietor of Kayak and More about a kayak trailer. It was 5:00 on Mother's Day and he was closing. He invited us in anyway and proceeded to answer our questions about the various kayak trolleys/trailers he stocked.

We bought one from him and he helped up assemble it!

Stop in a take a look at all the fabulous boats, paddles, and other accessories he stocks.

Website here: www.kakandmore.com

Thanks, Andreas!

Part 3 On to Africa via Amsterdam: Ready, Set, Charge !

We agonized about what electronic gadgets to take along to Africa.


Today, on the way to the airport, we realized that the laptop we were taking and the phone we had added world roaming to both needed to charge. We were able to plug into sister Susan's power thingies in her van because we had brought along an inverter for the laptop and a plug in charger for the phone. Thanks, Susan and Steve.

Oh well, add charging to the pre flight checklist. We were able to plug in at courtesy kiosk at the airport.

This is the first trip to Africa where we have taken a laptop. Thanks, Regina and JL!

Another decision to be made re the laptop was wi fi or no. The Houston airport does not offer free wi fi. A boingo screen popped up, offering wi fi connectivity for $9.95 per month. Our ATT Communication Software popped up with ATT Wi Fi finder, but we do not have ATT Wi Fi , but do have a laptop connect card that worked in the airport with no charge in addition to what we pay monthly. Wonder what we will find in the Amsterdam airport. We could have signed up for roaming on the laptop connect, but did not want to pay the montly charge plus data costs because expect few places that this will work in southern Africa. More likely to find free wi fi hotspots in a few cities, hostels, and camps...

Oops, gotta load this up, we are on the jet and about to leave!

Las Vegas boondocking , dry camping discussion

We drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, not to gamble, but merely to pick up friends who were flying in from back east and going camping and kayaking with us in Utah.

We planned to stay on the outskirts around Lake Mead or at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area , http://www.redrockcanyonlv.org/ , BLM's inexpensive primitive and scenic area outside LV.

A dangerous Pacific Storm was predicted so we decided to go on into LV to see what we could find. Sure enough, the Walmart parking lot had signs up saying 'no camping. ' We also had read that some casino's allowed free RV camping, but since we were not interested in gambling we opted to search elsewhere.

We did read on an online forum that some folks had stayed successfully at the Sam's Club parking lot in the city of North Las Vegas, NV, after asking permission the security guard, who turned out to be a camper himself.

Not an option for us to drive that far, since the storm was fast approaching, with gusts predicted at near hurricane strength, 70 mph !

We did an internet search from our vehicle using our mobile laptop connect card, and found a coffee shop which sounded interesting and that had free wi fi. Using Google Maps, we found it and parked in the strip center parking lot behind it. The storm was picking up strength. We were surrounded by buildings on three sides and somewhat protected from the wind. After surfing in the coffee shop until closing time, we hinted to the young manager that we might spend the night... He thought that was just fine.

Adventure travel? Sort of, with the high winds and all. Also, Las Vegas reportedly has a high crime rate.... But we followed our intuition that this place was safe. We are not encouraging to do like we do, just sharing our experience.

What has been your experience ? Please leave a comment or three!