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Not only were Chris and Cherie parked next to us, but so was Kiki, their nomadic kitty. I caught her posing one day and snatched my camera in time to get a few shots.

The past few weeks have been a complete whirlwind. And don’t get me wrong… that’s not a bad thing. But after Burning Man and then Photoshop World, we were due for some down time. We also had a lot of work to get done and needed a quiet place to do that without many distractions.

So after “leaving Las Vegas” we rolled on over to St. George, Utah. Our great friends Chris and Cherie, of Technomadia, were invited to stay and speak at the St. George RV Resort, and we decided to be neighbors for a week. (It didn’t hurt that the place also had a hot tub ) They, too, needed some down time, and had some bus projects to work on. (They just got a “new” vintage bus a few months ago and are giving it a lot of love. )

Some [very well organized] bus projects. It’s all under control. Really.

As we expected, the week turned out to be exactly what we needed. During the day, we worked on the current projects, and then when happy hour rolled around, we would join up on the patio area between the two buses. It was nice finally getting some one-on-one time with Chris and Cherie. It seems that many of our meet-ups happen at crazy events, so we savored those evening chats. And of course, we soaked in the hot tub.

The product of one of our light-painting evenings. Cherie was the one painting all that awesome light behind Ben.

Two of our nights there were also spent light-painting. This is where you make photos using only a flashlight [or something like it] as a light source. It has to be completely dark for this to work, and there were some super dark areas in the rv park. Though it was Ben’s camera taking the images, it really was a group effort between the four of us, as we’d take turns being the painter and the one being painted.

My new internet setup. The Samsung 3G/4G hotspot is actually smaller than an iPhone.

Finally, I decided to change my internet set-up. Internet is one of the trickiest things for us road warriors, and a lot of the time we plan our route around places that might have better signals. Up until now, I was using a Verizon mobile broadband USB device. (broadband is actually a bad word… narrowband seems more appropriate) It was a 2-year contract, cost $63/month and had a limit of five gig per month. Five gig is like a joke, especially for the work I do and the kind of files I’m moving around. I would consistently go over my limit and then get charged out the wazoo.

Enter Millenicom. After researching different plans, I decided to go with a mobile hotspot instead of the usb device. Millenicom’s plan lets me use the hotspot with up to five devices, has a 20 gig limit (woohoo!) and supports 4G when it’s available. Oh, and there’s no contract. It’s a month-to-month plan. Shouldn’t ALL cellular plans be this way?? It cost’s me $70./month, and will so be worth it. I’m just starting to use it so I’ll give an update on how it’s working out.

So that was our week. No festivals, events or national parks. Just a productive and relaxing week with friends. *happy sigh*  Our next destination is Albuquerque for the annual Balloon Fiesta! I’m soooo excited for this one! We left St. George and started to meander that direction … with a few fun spots on the way. More to come…