Our First Close Encounter of the Fun Kind

We discovered RV bloggers and a whole new world opened up for us. It was a way to live vicariously, imagine our future life and learn a lot about this fascinating lifestyle. On Sunday, we had an opportunity to have our first close encounter of the fun kind with fellow bloggers - Amanda and Tim of Watsons Wander.

Amanda & Tim with their amazing Airstream home on wheels

We have been following Amanda and Tim as they have traveled around our home state of New Mexico. When we read they were in our neck of the woods, I reached out to Amanda and asked if we could meet up and go for a hike. They were spending a night at Bandelier National Monument and we suggested meeting at nearby Tsankawi (a satellite of Bandelier). Tsankawi is on a mesa, contains hundreds of ancient homes on mulitple levels to explore and some amazing petroglyphs. For temperature comfort it is great to hike early in the morning. For best pictures of the petroglyphs - it is better in the early afternoon.

We have read in many blogs about group hikes, blogger happy hours and joint campground stays. It was great that we could meet another blogger so early in our journey toward full-timing. It was a lot of fun.

Tsankawi is part of Bandelier National Monument

Amanda and Tim were both wonderful about answering the million questions Greg and I had about their life and full-timing. We were total sponges soaking up their experience and knowledge. That is a great thing about the online RV community - you can really learn a lot while you are entertained.

We also found out that the four of us share a love of pizza! We told the Watsons about our favorite not-to-be-missed Taos Pizza Out Back. The pizza is delicious, but their specialty is homemade pesto salad dressing which is "to die for."

Amanda took this picture by balancing her camera with a rock! Awesome

It was fun playing tour guide and showing off the amazing landscape and vistas of Los Alamos. We feel truly lucky to live here and even after ten years of exploring, we never get tired of hiking the trails, exploring the mesas and canyons or visiting Bandelier and Tsankawi.

Tim and Amanda inside one of the cave homes at Tsankawi

Cave homes and natural ladders at Tsankawi

Tsankawi Petroglyph 

Kokopelli

Walkways from ancient times carved into the volcanic tuff

Multiple levels to explore at Tsankawi

Bonus Picture #1 - Look out from Los Alamos. We have amazing views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Bonus Picture #2 - View of Los Alamos from the Pipeline Trail