Jacksonville to Sebastian

Florida has many beautiful State parks. We've stayed at Sebastian Inlet State Park a couple times before and it was just as wonderful this time.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

The drive down was pretty too. I especially like the area just south of Jacksonville which is dominated by the St. John's river.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Jim and I keep threatening to spend a whole season (winter that is!) just exploring Florida. There is so much to see, lots of kayaking, bicycling, walking on beaches, and other fun stuff to do.

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More Zoo pics - Dead camera

Glenn was pretty quick on putting up his photos. Check out his web album for some beautiful photos.

You might wonder why we didn't take any good photos ... wellllll .. my camera died a few days ago. While we were at the Air Force museum in Dayton. I took a couple pictures just fine ...then the next one was half black. I thought maybe I had my hand in front of the lens or something so I took another one. Same thing. In fact as I kept taking more pictures the black starting getting bigger. Something was definitely wrong. When I got home, I tried switching batteries ... no change. I tried switching camera card ... lens .... no change. So, it's definitely in the body of my camera. I did a little online research and found that, indeed, this is something that happens. The mirror inside on the shutter falls down and blocks the picture. My camera's shutter is rated for about 10,000 pictures and I probably have taken close to 20,000. It's time for a new one.

So how did we get the few photos we did? With our cell phones! What a modern marvel those little things are! They've rescued us with Internet Access when our $6,000 system failed. And they've rescued us with photos when our $1,000 camera failed. Meanwhile, Jim took some video and I edited it and put it on Youtube. He also took some video at the airforce museum ... haven't edited that yet.

Sure wish Youtube delivered higher quality. I'm rendering the video in another format to upload to my own website. That one will look better. I'll link it here when it's done.

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Jacksonville Zoo

We traveled without incident thru South Carolina and Georgia. Finding gas was not a problem, although we did have to pay 4.08 - the higest of all our travels.

We are now in Jacksonville, Florida. Hannah park is a city park here, and it has everything that is beatiful about Florida. Our friend, Glenn, lives here in Jacksonville and enjoyes taking photos at the Zoo - so we made plans to go there with him. Pretty cool.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

More photos from Glenn soon. Meanwhile you could look at some of his past efforts on his Picasa Web Album. A cool way to learn more at the Jacksonville zoo is to use your cell phone to access recorded messages. We've probably all been to museums where you can rent an audio device that had recorded messages ... here you just use your cell phone as the audio device. What will they think of next?!

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

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Greetings from South Carolina

We were hoping to stop at Chimney Rock and go for a nice walk. We stopped here many years ago - long before RVing - and I still remember it as a gorgeous place. Unfortunately it was raining, so we kept on driving. Sure is pretty country though ... even in the rain.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

As you've heard on the news, the gas stations really are out of gas here. Prices are blank and nobody's home. One station was open and had a line of cars out in the street. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

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Headed South

We're in Knoxville, Tennessee staying at the Escapees park - Raccoon Valley. We stayed put yesterday to give me a chance to write our newsletter. My weekly article for RV.net was also due yesterday. So, while I sat at the computer and wrote ... Jim did the laundry and grocery shopping. If you've ever seen or read Joe and Vicki Kieva talk about RVing, they label the various jobs as blue or pink - and it's true, we have lots of jobs that are either Jim's or my responsibility. But then, there are all those *purple* jobs! We throw them back and forth according to what else is going on, and laundry is definitely one of those jobs.

We're headed 'home' for the winter .. to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That's where our family is and our home park of Paradise Island. I'm looking forward to swapping travel stories with my Mom. How do you think I'll compare? She's traveled to China and North Korea. We went to Celina, Ohio!

We're entering Florida on the east side this time so we can visit with a couple friends in Jacksonville.

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Cincinnati Ice Cream

We had such a nice time visiting at FMCA national offices offices yesterday. I always am impressed with an organization when the staff has such longevity. I think the 'newest' employee we met had been working there for 13 years! Most were 20+ years.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Here I am with Robbin, Editor of the FMC magazine. The magazine I'm holding is the very first FMC magazine from February 1964.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

After a tour of their facility and a great lunch, Mary Anne decided to give us a true taste treat. It's called Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip ice cream and it is OMG To Die For. The memory of that ice cream lingered well past dinnertime and I decided to look for a website to learn more. I couldn't remember the name. Google to the rescue. I just typed 'Cincinnati Ice Cream' into a google search, and Graeter's came up first. I never cease to be amazed with the Internet and Google! Uh-oh .... Graeter's will ship and promises your ice cream will arrive frozen. hmmmmmm

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FMCA Cincinnati

We love FMCA! We've had such great response to our seminars at all the International Conventions over the last 4 years. The person, Mary Ann, who got us going with all those seminars is retiring and we're thrilled that Cincinnati was close enough on our route that we could stop here at FMCA headquarters and say goodbye - and Thank You - personally.

FMCA has a nice little RV park here for members ... and it's free!

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

On the same property is their membership office and mail forwarding facility.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

We were told that they handle approximately 3,000 members' mail forwarding. It has always been a free benefit of membership. I understand they are instituting a charge of $5/mo starting next year.

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Busy Week

We gave 3 seminars here at the Gypsy Journal rally. Blogger, Picasa and Google Earth. There were probably 60-100 people in each session. We had lots of good feedback. Jim did a couple of service calls and I did some private tutoring.

We also did our Computer Boot Camp on the weekend before the rally AND the weekend after. The 'post rally' Boot Camp had 13 people. That's a pretty big crowd for a hands-on class.

From Gypsy Journal Rally

From Gypsy Journal Rally

Especially considering that some people had Vista and some had XP. One person even had a Mac. She worked with her husband on his XP machine during the class, but I spent a little time with her after class to translate what she learned to her Macintosh.

Internet connection was a real challenge. We definitely prefer to hold these classes in a place that has free Wi-Fi. Not only was there no free Wi-Fi here, there was NO Wi-Fi at all. We originally thought that we could park our motorhome nearby and use Wi-Fi from our Satellite Dish. If you've followed this blog carefully, you know our modems for the Satellite dish died just a few days before we arrived here! :-( Jim used a few spare parts, chewing gum, and bailing wire to get it going once in while but nothing reliable enough to supply a class. For ourselves, we can use our cell phone with Broadband Access connect to get high speed Internet. Amazingly, Jim was able to connect our phone to the server computer, use Internet Connection sharing, a Bridge and a Wireless Access Point to make a Wi-Fi hotspot for the class. Many of the people in the class had their own Data Cards - so we were able to manage.

A good time was had by all!

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I wish the world could vote

We are currently in Ohio. This is known as a 'swing' state in our upcoming election, so I've been eavesdropping when we go to the local diner. All I've heard is pro-McCain talk. I wish the world could vote in our election this fall.


We are not just electing a leader for our country, we are electing the leader of the free world. It would be nice if the people of the world had a vote.


On September 11, 2001 - Jim and I (along with my Mom and some friends) happened to be on vacation in France. I will never forget the outpouring of care and concern we were shown by the French people. A small shrine had been placed in a village with the words, "For the victims ... For our Freedom." That one little word "our" was so poignant. Although the French people felt concern for the attack on the World Trade Center, they didn't see it as an attack against the US. They saw it as an attack against the free world. They would have done anything asked of them in support of that freedom.


Almost anything. We asked them to support us in a war in Iraq. They didn't see that as supporting freedom so they couldn't do it. By our government's definition they were now 'Against Us.'


One of my favorite foreign trips was to Turkey in 1999. I found it so inspiring to learn that one leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was able to take this muslim country in 1935 and create a democratic, secular government. He even succeeded in changing their alphabet because he saw the importance of participating in the modern world. Now, Turkey is in danger of losing it's free, non-religious, society because of the rise of radical religious sentiment and lack of world support for their government. That would be a terrible loss.


Terrorism has always been a part of the world, and probably always will be. I don't beleive that any amount of protectionism or war can stop that. No amount of border patrol or bombing 'over there' could have prevented the second worst act of terrorism in the United States. That was the bombing in Oklahoma City - by an American Citizen. Who knows, if we had focused more resources on teachers and other quality of life issues and less on war, maybe that citizen would have turned out differently.

One of my favorite books is 'Tales of a Female Nomad' by Rita GoldenGelman. Rita has lived all over the world. Not just traveled, but lived - she understands our world community. In her blog, she writes:


"As I move around the US, giving talks and meeting people, I'm often asked if the US is seen differently than when I first started out. You bet. Most of the people in the world think the US is out there murdering innocent people. Europeans especially think Bush is stupid and dangerous and while they excuse the people of the US for putting him in office in 2000, they cannot understand how we could have elected him for a second term. ... I know that the negative attitude most of the world has toward the US these days would change overnight if we elected Obama. "


I agree with Rita. I think this election is about a choice between leading the free world community or retreating within our borders and no longer being the leader of the free world.

Rally Life

Here's how it works. One guy decides to take out the garbage. Another guy stops him to talk. Another guy is out walking the dogs and joins in the conversation.

From Gypsy Journal Rally

From Gypsy Journal Rally

The crowd of guys gets larger, the dogs give up on going for a walk, and the garbage never does get tossed.

From Gypsy Journal Rally

Here's our 'booth' at the gypsy journal rally:

From Gypsy Journal Rally

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Bootcamp to Rally

We finished our Computer Bootcamp yesterday and I think it went quite well. It's not easy to cover 6 topics in two days so that beginners and experienced computer users both learn something, but we did it. Bonnie, with her very first computer, created, saved and edited a word processing document for the first time and learned how to transfer photos from her camera to the computer. Sharon, who has been using a computer for 20+ years identified some connections on her laptop that she didn't know existed, and became more comfortable using Windows Vista. Everyone assured us they learned something.

They look happy don't they?

From Gypsy Journal Rally

From Gypsy Journal Rally

Yesterday, the remains of hurricane Ike blew thru here. it destroyed one vendor's tent and knocked down a few big tree limbs. All is fine with us and we're getting ready for the rally now. We'll be teaching 3 of our seminars here: How to make a Blog, Using Picasa for Digital Photos, and Using Google Earth. We made sure that we were free for the time slot that Nick is giving his seminar "Highway History and Back Road Mystery." It seems we always miss this one whenever we've had the opportunity. If it sounds as interesting to you, it's available as a book at the Gypsy Journal Bookstore. And, if there's enough interest, we might be doing our bootcamp again next weekend.

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Computer Boot Camp

We started our pre-rally Computer Boot Camp here at the Gypsy Journal rally yesterday. We really like this rally. Our first one was in Casa Grande AZ back in January. It's fun to be a vendor here because your 'booth' is at your RV. Vendors are going to be in a circle here. Too bad we don't have some covered wagons! :-)

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

I just wanted to post a short note ... we need to get started on our second day of the boot camp. Nick Russel from Gypsy Journal did a really nice write up about us on his blog today (Sunday, September 13 entry). And, we're taking down our canopy, tables and awnings due to a wind advisory from the outside edge of hurricane Ike. ... we should have stayed in Florida this summer if we wanted to avoid hurricanes!

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Greetings from Ohio

We took a peek at the Hershey big RV show and then drove until after dark on Wednesday. So, that makes for a Walmart night. Getting us in to Celina, Ohio early afternoon on Thursday. We're here for the Gypsy Journal rally and we have our hands-on Computer Boot camp Saturday and Sunday. We needed the time to get ready.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Ohio heartland

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

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Greetings from Pennsylvania

It was hard to tear ourselves away from 'The Island.' Can you see why?

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Then we passed by Philadelphia. In all the times we've been near here - I've never visited. I have yet to see the Liberty Bell. Ok, next time for sure.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Now we're in Thousand Trails at Hershey. It feels like home!

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

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Catching up with Statistics

Before there was Blogger, and before we became 'Geeks on Tour' - we had a website called JimandChris.com . It's still there, and I use it as a kind of Table of Contents for this blog. This blog now covers over 5 years and has 1,043 posts. I like to see the big picture, so I keep a list on the JimandChris.com home page with just a few words about each month.

One of the things I do is keep some simple statistics - number of miles we traveled, and what we spent on gas and campsites. I took a look the other day and I hadn't updated it since May! So I brought that up to date. Since we left Florida the first of June, we've traveled 5,000 miles, apent $2,760 in gas, and $695 in site fees. I used to keep statistics on all expenditures, but not now. If you're interested in more detail of what it costs to live on the road like we do, I recommend http://www.rv-dreams.com/ they publish lots of information for people who are interested in full-time RVing including all their budget details.

We're in Hershey, Pennsylvania right now at a Thousand Trails park. It was so hard to tear ourselves away from our beautiful spot on Long Beach Island! Maybe next year we'll spend a month there!

It appears that the modems on our Satellite Internet system may have bit the dust - Jim has had the whole system on 'life support' for a couple years now - they're way beyond their normal life expectancy! So, we brought our laptops up to the Rec center where they have free WiFi. Don't have enough Verizon signal to use the Broadband on our phone either.

We have to leave tomorrow to be in time for the Gypsy Journal rally in Celina, Ohio. Jim is going to try to take a peek at the big RV show that happens to be here in Hershey this week.

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Cancer-Free photo retouching

After the storm last night, I thought the beach might have some dramatic scenery this morning. So I grabbed my camera and headed across the street (yep, it's only 2 blocks to the beach from here - so nice.)

The storm didn't seem to make much difference in the ocean - it was more of an inland storm - but it was pretty anyway.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

As much as I like taking the photos, I also like working with them in Picasa and making them look better. Like this flower photo. Here's the original:

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

And here it is after a few clicks in Picasa:

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

Or these birds in the wave. Original: Edited version:

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

In the bird photo, I even used Picasa 3's new 'retouching' feature to erase some white spots of water drops from the brown bird. So much fun! Lots of videos at www.GeeksOnTour.com will show you how to work with Picasa. And, you can bet there'll be lots more videos coming now with Picasa 3! One of my first jobs out of college was as a photo 'spotter' at a color photo lab in San Francisco. This meant taking a very fine point paint brush, dipping it in paints and touching up the dust spots, or any other blemishes on prints. Sometimes they were 8X10s and sometimes they were wall-size murals. I would keep the brush moist by touching it to my tongue. People told me that I was probably going to develop cancer in my tongue one day from doing this. Now I've traded the brush for a mouse. All I'm in danger of now is carpal-tunnel syndrome!

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Hello Hannah

This is why it's important to write at the time of the events. I wanted to tell you about the absolutely PERFECT weather we've had here on the Jersey Shore. Sunny but cool, a slight breeze and very low humidity. Then, day before yesterday, it turned hot and humid ... 99% humid! It's kind of hard to write about perfect weather when now it's pouring and gusting 50mph winds from what remains of Hurricane Hannah. And, we thought we were being so smart by staying away from S Florida during hurricane season?@#!

Oh well, here's some pictures of perfect weather anyway ...

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

We did know that Hannah was coming ... so we scheduled the dinner party for Thursday night. Jimmy made his traditional corned ham.

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

From Geeks on Tour Blog 200809

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OMG - Picasa 3!

I just downloaded the new Beta version of Picasa ... Picasa 3. Oh Boy! This is going to be fun. They've added all sorts of features that people have been asking for. I sure hope they haven't lost any of the past benefits that make Picasa so great. I'm always afraid when software adds new features that it gets bloated, difficult and slow. I've only played with it for an hour or so, but it still seems plenty fast - and the features they've added are ones that I know people are going to love. In all our teaching of Picasa, one feature I never bothered to show was the 'Collage' feature. In Picasa 2 it was basically worthless unless you just wanted a jumble of a bunch of photos. In Picasa 3 - this feature comes mighty close to 'scrapbooking.' Look what I was able to do with a few recent photos in just a matter of minutes.

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