• Not all “Free Wifi” is necessarily a good thing, regardless of the idea of being “Free”
• There are roads that say it’s 132 miles to your destination, but going 65 miles an hour and getting there in 2 hours may not be possible.
• Lunch may consist of a snack-size piece of cheese and a Vitamin Water.
• Deciding to take tons of photos on a digital camera is a good thing, even if I know that a good half of the photos may be out of focus, contain the wrong subject I was after or can’t remember where it was I took the photo.
• In line with the last thought, I’ve learned that it’s very useful to take a photo of the sign related to the photos that are taken soon after.
• Face wash, face scrub or just water splashed on your face makes you feel a hundred times more refreshed afterwards.
• Sometimes bad coffee is not bad.
• Scratch the above. It’s good to have a lot of Starbucks available.
• Nothing beats a nice bed to get a good night’s rest, even when it’s only $60/night.
• Most hotels that are $60/night don’t have nice beds.
• The 12 hours it takes to reach your destination is all worth it when you have 15 minutes to take in the beauty of nature.

Ok, I lied. There was one photo on this post. Lots more later.

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.

A very somber day for me that Tuesday. So sad of the destruction and lives lost. Today is a day to remember.

First Trip to NYC

Part of my memory goes back to August 2000. A good friend of mine was living and working in Lower Manhattan at the time. My current girlfriend at the time had just broken up with me. Our plan was to go to NYC for her birthday. Obviously, she didn’t go. I had contemplated not going at all, but my friend called me multiple times and told me that I needed to still make the trip. So I did. And thanks to his encouragement and hosting me at his apartment, I now have a trip that I will never regret. A few photos to remind me how very happy I was to have experienced the World Trade Center.

 

view of both WTC towers from Hudson Park
 

on top of the Observation Deck on the WTC South Tower – a view of Manhattan
 

That’s me in front of the WTC Globe, with the North Tower behind it.
 
 
Most Recent Trip to NYC

My wife and I visited New York during the first week of November in 2006. She had never been there before. Of course, one of our stops was the WTC site to see the progress and the memorial. I can tell you my visit was very full of memories, walking around the site and remembering what was once there.

Me standing inside the entrance to the WTC Memorial Site
 

We also visited Battery Park, where the remains of the Globe resides. As you can see, I had my picture taken in front of it, similar to the one taken in 2000, minus the towers.

Me standing in front of the Globe in Battery Park
 
 
Not To Take Away…

My intention of this post was to pay respect to a great city that 7 years ago today, survived one of the worst experiences any city could go through. My thoughts are with anyone who lost a loved one, a close friend, a co-worker or someone they knew.

My hope is that the spirit of what the WTC was will live inside the future WTC, when all of the rebuilding is completed. And at that time, I plan to visit and once again relive those memories.