The Countdown is On!

A couple weeks ago we made the realization that our time (as in, time to just us) on St. John would soon be coming to an end.   With the arrival of an out of town guest joining us in running 8 Tuff Miles tomorrow (an appropriately named run that crosses the island from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay), soon followed by SXSW and then preps to leave St. John – our remaining time here is seeming much more precious.

Moonlit Hiking

So we’ve been taking every  opportunity we can to get out and enjoy the island more, while still getting all our projects done.

One thing we enjoyed last week quite a bit was taking advantage of an amazing full moon to do some hiking around island at night on trails that would otherwise just be too hot and sunny for this redheaded pale skinned girl.  Chris did some amazing night photography from the top of our mountain.  And we also hiked out to Ramshead one evening.

Moonlit hikes are definitely an awesome way to explore the island without risking a nasty sunburn!

SXSW Preps

We’re growing more and more excited to be attending and presenting at SXSW in just a few short weeks.  There seems to be an amazing number of fellow digital nomads converging there, and we’re so excited to meet up with so many we’ve only conversed with on Twitter and blog comments.  We’re also looking forward to reconnecting with friends over delicious Tex-Mex and margaritas (rum is getting kinda old).

In preparation for SXSW, we just launched a special version of our Coverage? app – Coverage: SXSW that overlays much higher resolution coverage maps of Austin, TX.

We hope that our fellow SXSW attendees appreciate this free app to help them find where they’re most likely to soak up the highest amounts of bandwidth around the city.

Exodus Plans

Our time on St. John is indeed soon coming to an end. And while we absolutely love it here, and have so appreciated the amazing opportunity to come here and reconnect with each other, focus on several projects, get more fit and just chill – it is time to move on.  We miss being amongst community, changing scenery and varied experiences – the nomadic itch is calling.  So, we have nixed the idea of buying a sailboat here to move aboard immediately (the most affordable way to live in the USVI), or finding a summer caretaking position (which are abundant here once tourist season ends) – and instead have booked tickets back to Florida in early April.

Our initial plan is to roam around Florida in our Oliver for a bit, and catch up with family and friends.  From there..  we still have no clue and are keeping several options open.

For now, we return to hanging out with our first friend to join us on island since we’ve been here  – we’re very much appreciating a familiar face, the first we’ve seen in months!