Hi friends!

Holiday greetings from the Hobobikers.

You may have noticed that we have not posted many stories on hobobiker.com for the last 4 months. In case you have been wondering what we have been up, here is a recap, along with our future plans.

You may have read that at the end of August, Randy and I went home for a two weeks visit with our respected family and to make sure everyone was healthy and doing well. It turns out they were all fine and we where the very sick ones. Whooping cough is a a hideous illness called the "100-day-cough" because it lasts that long (and maybe longer in Randy's case). I started to feel ill in Guatemala a week before coming home and got sicker and sicker while in Colorado. Within two weeks, Randy came down with the same awful cough which was treated with rounds of antibiotics, coughing syrup, and inhalers. Randy even broke a couple of ribs during one of the 1000 coughing fits he has had. We came to the conclusion it would take at least 100 days before we were well enough to travel so we decided to hang out in western Colorado and recuperate.

We bought a used car, bought car insurance, restarted our cell phone contract, got Internet access for the laptop and made arrangement to live in a trailer house normally used as migrant workers housing for workers in the orchards in Palisade, Colorado. We loaded the car up with everything we would need for several months.

I was amazed at how much stuff we needed for two months of living in the United States. After living from our bikes and then going to living in real housing, the difference was shocking. The car was full of bedding supplies, art supplies, cloths, books, electronics. We unloaded all this crap into our bedrooom in a three bedroom trailer, and it hardly all fit. I was totally embarrassed as the two migrant workers who were leaving to return home to Mexico with their one medium size duffel bag watched us bring stuff from the car, trip after trip. Their faces said it all, as we brought in load after load from the car.

While we were in Palisade for the first month, the weather was delightful. We did some riding, hiking, tennis and walking. We still had our violent coughs that peaked during exertion but we figured we had to cough out the toxins one way or the other, regardless if we exercised or not, so we exercised while the weather was good.

The rest of the time was spent in productive pursuits. I painted up a storm. I painted in oils and in watercolors, the landscapes of the orchids, mesas, and valleys of this western colorado visual paradise. You can enjoy some of my latest work on nblewis.com. I also took several painting classes at the Blue Pig Gallery and helped teach English to Spanish speaking adults. I even learned a little Spanish. Randy updated his computer tech skills, and spent hours after hours experimenting with new security tools, program environments, remote access features. He did an update to the warmshowers.org site and setup new geocoding photo and GPS tracking capabilities on our site Hobobiker.com. But most important we got to spend some quality time with Randy's 81-year-old parents who are doing fantastic overall. As with anyone of this age, they have their own worries and concerns which we helped out where we could and of course we also made their lives a little bit more complicated by adding our energy into their lives. We sure hope they like that cordless phone system we setup for them. And yes that new microwave with the turn dial and no digital buttons, was too big so it was returned to the store.

The last month of December has been so cold we have not had the courage to go out and exercise in the cold. It is currently 14 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the day. Burr! When are we ever going to get training for the big ride?

In the last two weeks in 2007, we will visit our family for Christmas in California, pack up all the stuff from the bedroom in the bunkhouse, move 90% of our stuff to storage, sell the car, cancel the car insurance, cancel the cell phone and pack our one bag each for our return Guatemala.

I am very excited to know that on Jan. 1st, 2008 we will be back in Guatemala, reunited with our bikes and will be back on the road the first week of the new year. I am not looking forward to the pain we will be in the first couple of weeks as we get back into riding conditions and back on the saddle. Hope you can join us either in person or via your computer. Wish us luck and we wish have a wonderful new New Year.

We're sure happy to have you riding along with us, and looking forward to what comes next.