We Win Some, We Lose Some

One night in December, while we were back home in Fayetteville, I was checking my Facebook feed. One of my running girlfriends had posted a link to a local article and announced that she was looking for a partner to compete with. Her statement intrigued me and I clicked on her pasted link. Isn’t it funny how the smallest, most innocuous moments in life like that can lead to some very interesting and unexpected changes? Well, in our case, the link lead to a reality TV show casting, to be held in Fayetteville, of all places. Producers from LA were picking new contestants to compete in sets of two on a spin-off of the Bear Grylls show. Castings were being held nationally in 9 different cities, and somehow little ‘ol Fayetteville had made the cut.

On The Road Again

Friday morning we said goodbye to Fayetteville and once again set off on the road. The night before I had a hard time getting to sleep because I was so excited about our departure. I was really looking forward to being on the road again, and the freedom and the possibilities that come with that. We had packed everything up and had gotten the travel trailer and truck all set to go the night before, so when morning rolled around, all we had to do was eat breakfast and do a last detail cleaning of the guest room we’d stayed in. Once we climbed into the truck and were on the road, it felt like we had never paused our travels. How is it possible that we keep switching life styles and it always feels like nothing’s really changed?

How We Spent Our Christmas

This year we added a new tradition to how we celebrate Christmas. For years my dad had dreamed about building a lake house on Beaver Lake and at the beginning of 2012 he finally found the perfect piece of land. Just as we set off on our adventures in February of this year, my family broke ground on their new home. After nine months of careful construction, the dacha (how we say weekend home in Russian) was complete. This year we ate Christmas dinner with this view:

Hiking at Lincoln Lake

There are many gorgeous places to hike around Northwest Arkansas. With the Ozark Mountains in our backyard and the Boston and Ouachita Mountains just down the road, we Fayettevillians have plenty to choose from in terms of places to roam for the day. One of the lesser known gems in the area is the set of hiking trails around Lincoln Lake, which can be found on the outskirts of the little town of Lincoln, just west of Fayetteville. One can get there from Fayetteville in under an hour. There are two single track trails there that go around the perimeter of the lake, through pretty forest. Hiking and mountain biking are both allowed, and I have also heard there is great bouldering to be found just off the paths.

Biking Around

This week I picked the coldest day yet to bike to the local library. The average temperature hovered around 30 degrees all day. I wore a face mask to protect my face from the wind and probably looked like a goofball biking around downtown, but at least my cheeks were spared! The bike ride wasn't long, just 9 miles from my parents house, but by the time I arrived there my toes and fingers were nearly frozen solid.

Cool Runnings

The other day I met a fellow running buddy at Lake Fayetteville for an early morning trail run around the lake. She had somehow coerced me to meet her there at 7:30 in the morning. After waking up and drinking my cup of coffee though, I felt great! I remembered this great feeling of accomplishment that I used to get from early morning runs. Running 6 miles in the morning, before anyone is out of bed (well, we did used to run at 5:30 in the morning, it was more applicable then), is one of joys I get to myself from running. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to do the full lap around the lake, as most recently running 3.5 miles on the treadmill had all but killed me, but it went beautifully.

Swimming

We picked up a month long membership at the local athletic club while we're home for the holidays. The club is less than a mile from my parents house and offers something we've been dying to try- Hot Yoga classes. It also has a 25 yard, 6 lane swimming pool. I barely got to swim while we were on the road this year, so I was really looking forward to finally getting some laps in. Yesterday afternoon, after working on Christmas presents in the morning, I went to the club after lunch and had an amazing swim. I had the pool all to myself. It was EPIC.

Here's The Plan, Stan

After many, many long conversations we've finally come to some kind of a decision about how we will proceed from here. Without further ado, here it is:

- We have decided that ultimately we want to live in Portland, Oregon next.

And Then We Were Home

Monday morning we packed up our truck and trailer in Memphis and set sail for our hometown, Fayetteville, Arkansas. We'd driven this 320 mile stretch many, many times before from when we'd lived in Memphis and went to visit home. Sky could have probably driven it blind by now. We drove by downtown Memphis, crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River, and then traversed all the way across the state of Arkansas on Interstate 40. Forty five miles further north from there, on Interstate 540, and we were home. WHAT???

First Day on the Road!

It’s hard to believe, but the day is finally here! Today we finally hitched up the travel trailer to the truck and set off on our adventure around the United States! Since this was our first day we decided to take it easy and picked Tulsa, Oklahoma as our first destination. We made it to Tulsa in under three hours with no hiccups. 

Right before we hit the road!

An Early Morning Run Around Lake Fayetteville

I finally made it out to the 5:30 am girls group run this Wednesday, and was really happy I did as the weather was perfect and my IT didn't bother me too much. When I came home, I woke up Sky and he decided to go for his own run around the lake. Here is a good pic he took while crossing the levee in the morning haze.

Lake Fayetteville, in the morning haze.

Happy Lake Fayetteville Running,

M.

Mountain Biking at Hobbs State Park

I figured I would elaborate a bit about the trails at Hobbs State Park, mentioned in the previous post.

Trail Condition:

The Hidden Diversity Multi-Use Trail that Alex and I rode on is comprised of four loops with a central trail head.  When combined, you've got a total of 24 miles on this collection of trails.  The entire trail is solely single-track and in extremely good shape. The trail is only three years old, so it is practically devoid of gnarly roots in the path and rocky sections are limited. We've recently had some fairly wet weather, so I was surprised to see how dry most portions of the trail were. The trails are predominately flat, with some inclines and declines through the hollows, but most elevation changes are limited to within 200'-300'. Overall, trail conditions were dry, flattish and clean.

Hiking and Biking at Hobbs State Park

This weekend we joined our friends for some hiking and biking at Hobbs State Park in Northwest Arkansas. This park was recently built and offers some very nice biking, hiking, horseback riding and picnicking options. The best part is its close to town (only about a 30 minute drive from Fayetteville) and its free! Chloe and Sammy enjoyed the country road drive out to the park in their new crate. I think they really like their new penthouse 360 degree views (and smells!).

Chloe and Sammy enjoying their new mode of transportation on the way to the park. 

A Relaxing Saturday Afternoon in NWA

Yesterday we had one of those perfect Saturday afternoons that we hope to copy when we are on the road. We started the morning by eating breakfast in bed and watching episodes of House Hunters International. During breakfast I received a call about one of our last pieces of furniture that's for sale on Craigslist, and a good offer. We decided that since we'd be taking the armoire to Bentonville, we would make a day of it up there. (Bonus points for getting the gas payed for with the hefty delivery tip!). After dropping off the armoire we made our way to Crystal Bridges, the new, world-class museum built by Alice Walton, of the Wal-Mart family, here in Northwest Arkansas.

One Large Item Off of Our To-Do List!

We sold the Honda! Woo hoo! We decided to celebrate by going to our favorite restaurant in Fayetteville, Thai Diner. We go there often enough, so when we walk in the waitress knows us by name and knows what we are going to order before we even have a chance to order. You'll soon find out that we (I) really love Thai food...we'll be blogging about all the yummy places we'll hopefully go! Speaking of which, here is what we had tonight:

Thai Diner-the shizzle!

A Productive Day... Sort of

As has been previously mentioned by Maria, we put together a comprehensive list of 50+ items that need to be finished prior to the start of our voyage.  So this morning we rose early and started banging through some of the tougher items on the list.  Now this can be fun sometimes, when you have a large and monotonous task that you can fully immerse yourself and get lost in. Eight hours later and with three! items checked off the list, we were more emotionally exhausted than physically (we had been culling through 20+ years of accumulated knick-knacks, papers, and memories).