Sunrise

This morning, I lay awake thinking about emails I needed to write, bookkeeping I needed to do, programming that needs changing on our website, my Picasa tip I need to write today, and a client website that needs a makeover. I finally gave up on sleeping and got up to sit at the computer around 4am.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that I was up to see a gorgeous sunrise! I decided to stop lamenting about all the stuff I can't get done and grab my camera to go appreciate my surroundings.

From Geeks on Tour 200907

From Geeks on Tour 200907

From Geeks on Tour 200907

Happy Birthday Mom! We're looking forward to having you join us for a few weeks :-)

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Make room for a monster

We've had a lot of printing costs lately. When you go to Office Max or Staples, the charges really add up. Several hundred dollars just for one rally. So, Jim has wanted to buy a good laser printer. Especially since we visited Nick and Terry Russel of Gypsy Journal and saw their business class laser printer -thanks a lot Nick, you printer pusher you.

This is what Jim bought ...

From 200907

Where the hell is this thing going to go inside our 30ft, no slides, class C motorhome?! Jim suggests we can just walk around it.

From 200907

Believe it or not, he figured out a way to place it, and it looks like it was made for the spot.

From Geeks on Tour 200907

We are able to remove our old ink jet printer and our scanner to make some room because this is a *color* laser, and a scanner, and a copier/fax. Wow! All for under $550! I remember when a color laser was $20,000! We can't get rid of our ink jet printer altogether, because it is the only one that prints our DVDs

We also freed up some space by getting rid of our DVD movie collection. Actually, we just got rid of the covers and put all the DVDs in a disk 'wallet.' Takes up a *lot* less space!

Happy Fourth of July everybody! And Happy Anniversary to Jim and me - 11 years now and loving every minute of it.

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At Home at Thousand Trails

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

We always feel at home when we come to a Thousand Trails/NACO preserve. You check in at the front gate by showing them your membership card only. We don't get out *any* money and we can stay for 2 weeks. Of course, we paid for the membership - but, for that we get a *home* in many of the most beautiful places in the country.

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

We are looking forward to 2 weeks of R&R and website/membership work. Our next obligation is the FMCA International Convention in Bowling Green, Ohio July 20. See our schedule for more detail.

Since the Thousand Trail parks are in natural areas, Internet access can sometimes be a problem. They usually have a free Wi-Fi hotspot at the adult lounge, but here, it's in the game room where kids are watching TV and playing video games and air hockey. Luckily, even though we only have 2 bars of Verizon access, it is a Verizon area and not Extended Service. The Internet connection is working fine from our RV using the tethered cell phone. BUT - we may not be so lucky next time. It worried me enough to tell Jim that I think it's time to get our Datastorm Satellite dish operational again. A new controller is on its way.

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Land of Lincoln and Jim Gould's

What a full day we had yesterday. Both of us spent the morning doing work on our website. I made a new video about using our members' forum while Jim handled some member data records issues. Then we reluctantly stowed our stuff and left the beautiful 'Lincoln's New Salem' park. Oh yeah - I haven't posted any of the pictures from the day before have I?

Here ya go:

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

Click the link to the June web album for more.

Ok .. Now we're leaving New Salem - after learning a lot about Lincoln's life as a young man. Now - Sunday afternoon, we're headed into Springfield to visit the Lincoln Presidential Museum. It was a gorgeous day.

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

This was by far the most extravagant of all the Presidential museums we've been to. And the most crowded. It was impressive. Very well done. Here's the lobby where the Lincoln family themselves obligingly posed for photos with the visitors! And, this was the only part where photos were allowed.

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

We spent almost 4 hours with eyes wide open and jaws dropped taking in so much information presented in normal displays, multi-media theatres where the seats jumped when the cannons hit and sparks and smoke, and even holographic images. Probably the display with the most impact was 'The Civil War in 4 Minutes' . As you watch the screen you see the boundaries of the Union and the Confederacy continuously move as the days tick by, the battles rage, and the casualties add up, and add up, and add up. Over 600,000 ... it makes me wonder if it was truly the only way.

It sure was memorable to visit the museum of the man who freed the slaves at a time when a black man is now holding that same office. It is also Lincoln's 200th birthday. Heavy.

Then we got back in the rig to go to dinner ... in Champagne/Urbana - 84 miles away. A place called 'Jim Gould's' !! One of our members called us a week or so ago because he and his wife had just had dinner at Jim Gould's and he thought we should know about it. We looked at the map and yeah! we should go there. And we did!

Ever parallel park an RV?

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

We looked it up on the web and saw that it was a pretty nice restaurant - so we even got dressed!

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

And here's Jim Gould and Jim Guld! The restaurant owner was very tolerant of Jim's misspelling - he said there had been a few other Jim Goulds that had visited - he gave us all t-shirts. We were the only Guld. Jim was quite forgiving of the owner's misspelled name as well and we had a great coversation about restaurants and traveling.

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

Thanks Glenn - it was a great dinner and a fun evening.

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Serendipity and Christmas in June

I recently read a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln (thanks Joline!) and I loved it. What a multifaceted character she was. And what a detailed glimpse into the times of Abraham Lincoln. I was particularly struck with the role that illness played in those times. People didn't just get sick ... they died. Mary Todd Lincoln suffered the death of her mother when she was a little girl, 3 of her 4 children, and of course, her husband. Is it any wonder she went a bit insane?

Anyway ... after reading that book, we took a look at the map and figured we could visit Springfield, Illinois on our way east and visit the Lincoln museum .. oh boy! We don't like to travel more that 200 miles in a day, and we didn't see much in Springfield for campgrounds. Jim found a city park listed in Havana, Illinois about 50 miles northwest of Springfield so he plugged Havana into the GPS and we set off.

Well, we didn't see any signs of a city park, so we continued on towards Springfield. Microsoft Streets and Trips showed us a promising park about 25 miles on called Lincoln New Salem Historic Site. It showed it with the little camping symbol, but we weren't too sure.

Wow!

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

It's a beautiful campground! And good Verizon signal too. But, not only that, this is a tourist attraction with all sorts of exhibits and history about Lincoln.

From Geeks on Tour 200906 (June)

Including a Theatre in the Park. And guess what's playing? A monologue including the character of Mary Todd Lincoln! OK, let's stay two nights.

You would think that life couldn't possibly get any better than this, but, we're also having Christmas in June. As you know, we make most of our living from our website. We call it an online classroom with Computer Education for Travelers. Lots of information is free, but in order to watch all the tutorial videos on Blogging, Picasa, Google Earth, Internet on the Road, and Computer Essentials, you must become a paying member. We normally charge $39 for a one year membership and we get 20-30 new members each month. For the month of June, we have it 'on sale' for $29 and we've gotten about 100 new members! Almost that many have taken advantage of the sale to renew and add a year to their membership as well. We get a notice every time someone signs up. Jim said that opening his email was like waking up to Christmas morning!

If you'd like to watch all the videos, you can sign up too! Just click on the link for New Member, or Renewing Member.

Thank you Santa :-)

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