Heading Home ... via Albuquerque
/We're on the move again, back to Nine of Cups. This time, however, we've added a little side trip to the journey. Granted, Albuquerque isn't quite on the direct route, but we're stopping for a few days in New Mexico to visit with Gentry, our niece and Just A Little Further's grand web mistress. Though we're in touch almost daily sending blog posts and pics, we haven't seen each other in over a year, so the visit is most welcome and long overdue. Mary and Paul dropped us at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport before dawn for the 56-minute Allegiant flight to Albuquerque International Sunport. The $36/pp fare did not include luggage nor assigned seats, but even with a couple of paid checked bags, we considered it a bargain … despite the uncomfortable seats and the lack of coffee. We're budget-minded to the core. Actually, we would have purchased coffee, but they serve no hot drinks. Ugh!
Gentry met us at the airport and whisked us away across the legendary Rio Grande to her Southwest style home on Albuquerque's West Mesa. The family was waiting with warm welcomes and it took no time at all to begin catching up on the past year. Gentry is a walker like us and we had a chance to explore her neighborhood on foot while chatting and getting in our daily steps.
A primary reason for the visit, however, was to evaluate the Just A Little Further blogsite and see what we could do to make it better and more appealing to our readers. For the past 4-1/2 years, we've published our blogs and chronicled our lives aboard Nine of Cups. Now that we've returned to the USA, we find the blogs are less entertaining to read and to write because we're spending more time on land than at sea. The three of us commandeered Gentry's dining room table, set up our individual laptops and immersed ourselves in Just A Little Further issues. Having the chance to sit, discuss, explore and brainstorm with Gentry was inspiring and stimulating.
She's got exciting ideas going forward for merging the JALF blogsite and the Nine of Cups website. We spent hours evaluating tools for making this happen, for sharing more insights and engaging our readers. So … look for some important changes to JALF and the Nine of Cups website in the coming months.
In the meantime, as you read this post, we're heading back home to Nine of Cups with renewed enthusiasm and lots of great ideas to put into action.