Ok, the original song was referring to San Jose, but it works for me. Santa Fe was the home of this year’s TequilaCon – the 5th annual event/blogger meet up. After watching everyone last year have a blast in Philly, I felt I needed to attend this year. My wife also went with me. Here’s a recap in photos and captions of our trip, from start to finish.
Leaving Utah
We started the drive last Thursday night, but only went 2.5 hours before stopping at the Super 8 in Price UT for the night.
Passing through Moab on the way out of town was nice. It was my first time in Moab. Yes, seriously. I’m sure I’ll visit again soon.
Four Corners
I couldn’t pass up a trip heading towards New Mexico without visiting another place I’d never visited before. My wife and I decided that it was worth the extra hour to go out of our way to go to Four Corners. We didn’t stay long, but long enough to be in all four states at once.
Look at that pose
“Ribbit!
BeerHer
We didn’t make it to Santa Fe until 9pm at night, but once we checked into our room at the Sage Inn…
… we headed to the event known as BeerHer at the Santa Fe Brewing Company.
Before this event, I had only met one other blogger in person – Dave from Blogography [who would be at TequilaCon tomorrow night]. Now, I was about to meet many more bloggers in person for the first time.
Dawg and Poppy… being the cute couple they are
Wayne, Rachel and Karl (Ren was there, too, just not in any of my pics from BeerHer)
I’m not a beer person, so it was only a single pale ale for me before heading back to our room to get some much needed sleep after a long day of driving.
Santa Fe
Waking up Saturday morning, we got ready and headed to breakfast at Zia Diner with Wayne and Ren.
and enjoying a bloody mary to start the day…
Reba had to have her iced tea as well.
We spent some time walking around downtown Santa Fe and seeing the sites.
One of the oldest Shrines in the US
Even statues are doing the Wayne pose
Modern art has a place here, too… wait… what is that hanging from the red man?
Whoa! It’s no Dirk Diggler, but it’s artful
Gambling
Turns out there are a lot of Indian Reservations in New Mexico, which most have built casinos on, and close to the outskirts of town. Wayne and Reba wanted to go gamble. I tagged along to see if I could have fun and make a little bit of extra cash. Wayne offered to drive his convertible Mustang out to Buffalo Thunder Casino. I even have video proof:
CLICK PLAY ABOVE – Quicktime Plugin Required
For a YouTube version, click here
And here’s our exit
Wayne is anxious to gamble
After we gambled for a couple of hours [and all of us breaking even], we headed back into town to get ready for TequilaCon 09.
Mirror Mirror
TequilaCon 2009
This year the venue of choice was The Pink Adobe.
Walking upstairs to the room they put us in, I met a familiar face right away – Dave from Blogography. He was chatting it up with Brandon. I wonder what Dave is asking Brandon?
“Hey buddy, got an extra candy cigarette?”
I met up again with Karl from Secondhand Tryptophan. A great guy [and twice a guest blogger here on this blog]
Dustin from Cotters In My Tummy came out in a Tequila suit, which was a complete surprise to most of us.
Diana from Geeky Tai Tai was there, getting caught on camera by Wayne.
At the end, the planning committee got their place in the spotlight. Thanks to everything they did to make this happen.
After an awesome TequilaCon came to a close, some of us stumbled went over to the Catamount Bar a few blocks down the road and continued the party.
My wife quickly made friends – everyone liked partying with her
Heading Back To Utah
After all of the fun we had, it was time to head home.
Making the long drive home
See, I told you I would visit Moab again soon
Linkage
I think I may be the last person that went to TequilaCon to submit a post. Being last has the advantage of being able to link to all of the TC posts. If that’s too much for you, here’s the TequilaCon 09 Flickr photo pool where you can see photos taken by everyone.
- Geeky TaiTai – complete w/ video scandal
- Blogography
- Cotters In My Tummy
- / \
- Libragirl
- Bellaventa
- Dawg
- Poppy
- Sarah
- Renagerie
- Iron Fist
That’s all I could find by the time this got posted. I’m sure we are all linked and will be linked at some point. If you are a blogger and you want to meet up with others, I highly recommend something like TequilaCon. It’s a way to connect with others and a nice excuse to get plowed at the same time.
I Found The Way To Santa Fe by Banal Leakage, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
FIRST TIME TO MOAB?!? YOU LIVE IN UTAH!! Please tell me you have at least been to Bryce Canyon! Moab, Arches, Dead Horse Point, Goblin Valley, Lake Powell… so many amazing things to see in South Utah!
And, to answer your question, I’m asking Brandon if I can please borrow $200 so I can go buy some crack and REALLY get the party started!
So good to see you and Reba again!
Until the end of August then…
dave2 – Bryce Canyon, Goblin Valley, Lake Powell are places I have been to. Reba has lived here her whole life and still hasn’t been to Arches yet (neither have I). We plan on going soon. We drove by it twice last weekend… that doesn’t count.
Crack… it makes a party into a PARTY!
Thank you. Good to see you as well. Dave Lake City 3 in August awaits.
Love the pictures! So jealous of the good time – but happy everyone had fun.
Excellent photos. Looks like you guys had a blast. You don’t need an excuse to get plowed though. Well, I don’t anyway
I missed the whole “getting to see sights on the way” by flying. Then again… driving from New York would have added on ALOT more travel time.
It was great to finally meet you and hang! We definitely need to get plowed together again… and hopefully sooner rather than later!
sybil law – Thank you. Yes, we did have fun.
kevin – Thank you, sir. And yes, you never need an excuse to get plowed.
NYCWD – Seeing the sights was great, but I think I may have to break it up into another day of travel each way. And coming from NY would have been a week of travel, unless of course you are Hilly and can book it cross country
I hope it is sooner than later. We’ll have to see about Avitaween so I can meet the rest of the Florida bloggers (and anyone else that makes it to Orlando)
I found out that my not going was a communication mistake between myself and my wife. Oh well, hopefully next year. Looks like you guys had a great time.
Fabulous pictures! I’m so glad that you and Reba had a wonderful time.
I had never heard of 4 corners but it looks totally cool! I want to go there!!!
PS Reba’s shot was far hotter than yours, sorry
brandon – A communication mistake kept you from going to TequilaCon? Bummer…
I hope you can make it next year. The more, the merrier.
penelope – Thank you. And yes, her shot at 4 Corners was much hotter than mine, considering frog poses are not all that hot.
If I were you, I would’ve laid across only three of the four corners. I hear that Utah place is e-vil. Pure, unadulterated e-vil. I have a blog buddy that lives there. Makes total sense when I think of it in those terms. His name is Mar… oh. Oops. Forget what I said.
Hmm… maybe I wasn’t there after all….
So Karen Mentioned that your facebook page said you were having breakfast with one of your friends mothers in Santa Fe????
kapgar – You are one funny guy. Although you are exactly right about Utah being the evil state it is.
ren – I swear I had a photo on my camera from you…. oh, yes I did. Here’s the Flickr link: http://is.gd/wIcO I did mean to post it here… truly I did.
breakaway9 – Yes, this is true. Your mom saw my Facebook update that I was in Santa Fe and Reba and I met her at Zia Diner for breakfast on Sunday morning before we got on the road. She even gave us directions to an great and scenic shortcut. Kip was Kool.
Blogger meet-ups are such fun. Looks like it was a very manageable group this year. That’s always my fear. Too many bloggers and not enough time spent with each. Guess I best get over it if I’m to attend BlogHer this summer! =)
nilsa – The group was pretty cool. I easily (even after a few drinks) made my way around to meet everyone. BlogHer sounds like it will be packed, but still a cool way to meet other bloggers.
I really enjoyed meeting both you and Reba. She’s a lot of fun, and GORGEOUS! I love the Four Corners shot of her.
I love the photos! My dad went to Moab to do off-roading with his buddies, and I TOTALLY want to go.
Very provactive Four Corners pose. LOL!
geeky tai tai – Why thank you… I will on your kind words to Reba. She poses very well at monuments. We very much enjoyed meeting you, too.
kilax – I think we’ll be going to Moab this summer, or at least Arches. And it looks like Reba has the hit pose with the readers.