Flying High and Falling Hard

Three rallies in a row where we were scheduled most all day every day, and we delivered new seminars and classes in that mix.  We had a fabulous time all month last month.  I can’t imagine a better high than to be able to do your thing – in our case teach – in front of hundreds of people.  After the dust settled from all 3 rallies, we’d added over 400 new newsletter subscribers and 124 new or renewed members! 

The last rally, Escapade, was over on Thursday, but we pushed it and scheduled a hands-on smartphone class on Friday as well.  Jim woke up on Friday morning, coughing and sniffling.  He rolled over and was out for the count.  It was OK – I felt fine and this was a small group, 6 people for a class that I was comfortable teaching myself.

By the end of the day though, I also succumbed, and and we both pulled the covers over our heads for another day.  It was clearly just a cold, nothing to worry about, but we were sure glad the rallies were all over, cuz we just couldn’t get out of bed for nuthin!

We felt much better by Sunday, and pulled stakes to drive down the highway on Monday.  Today is now the following Sunday, and we still have a lingering cough.   I think maybe two rallies in a row should be our max!  Either that, or we need to get much better at taking care that our diet and exercise promotes more stamina.

Anyway, all is well.  We knew we had a few weeks with no ‘gigs’ so we could catch up with website work, and maybe even enjoy the road a bit.  Just south of Sedalia, we noticed a sign for a Fish Hatchery!  Oh Boy – visiting a Fish Hatchery is a clear indication that we’re in vacation mode!  Jim pulled off the highway and followed the signs only to see the final sign that the visitor center was closed.   Déjà vu!

Driving thru the Ozarks

 

But, we saw another sign for Truman Dam Visitor Center … OK, that’ll do.

A scenic stop just south of Branson

Who should be there to greet us than Dennis and Carol Hill - along with Suzy and Denny Orr.

Carol and Dennis at home amongst the fossils!

Awesome views from the Visitor Center.

Lakes created by dams in the Ozarks

We decided to stay at the Escapees RV park in Branson.  It was a nice, comfortable place.  Instead of one or two nights, we ended up staying 4.  We thought we might take in a show or two, but, as it turned out the only show we watched was a Service guy steam cleaning our carpet – I actually enjoyed that!  It’s something that’s been on my list for a while. 

Getting our carpets cleaned

We also did a couple of Google+ Hangouts while we were there.  Here’s Jim being two people on a Google+ Hangout – one with a laptop and one with an iPad focused on his smartphone.  We’re practicing for some remote seminars we have booked where some computer clubs want us to teach Android smartphones.

Practicing Google hangouts to demonstrate smartphone

When we left Branson and continued south, we noticed Buffalo National River on the map and, when we saw a sign for a Visitor Center, we pulled off. 

This vehicle makes scenic stops.

Pretty place … SO quiet.  We stayed long enough to watch the video on the history of the place – it was the first protected river in the National Park System -  and have a little lunch.

Small bear in the woods

Purple berries ... I should know what they are?

Notice the darkened edges of the picture above?  That’s a Picasa feature called Vignette.  I thought it really improved this picture, and that inspired me to write my latest Picasa Tip on Vignettes.

I used it on this picture as well.  Lots of rock walls in this part of the country.  We’ve passed some major quarries here in the Ozarks.

Ozark stone wall

Our goal was to make it into Tennessee and the Thousand Trails park called Cherokee Landing – but we were just moving too slow.  So, we used our Allstays Camp and RV app on our Droids and found the nearest I-40 Rest Area when it started to get dark.  Our generator worked well, and we had Verizon 4G Internet – we were perfectly happy staying there.

The next day, we did make it into Tennessee.  Here we are crossing the Mississippi at Memphis.

Crossing the Mississippi at Memphis

Here at Cherokee Landing, we’ve finally run out of our good luck with Verizon.  Thousand Trails are known for being ‘in the middle of nowhere’ so we expect to have pretty poor Internet … this time we’re not disappointed!  Our phones are getting a couple bars of 1X signal.  Surprisingly, that does allow us to turn on our FoxFi hotspot and use the Internet, but it is unbearably slow.  We parked as close to the clubhouse as we could get with the idea that we could take our laptops there and use the Park’s Wi-Fi.  But Jim put up his WiFiRanger and outdoor antenna, and we can use the Wi-Fi right here in our RV.  It too is deathly slow.

Getting our newsletter out and catching up with all our website work will be a bit of a challenge.  But it sure is a pretty place!

Our site at Cherokee Landings, just east of Memphis

View from the Cherokee Landings Clubhouse

Escapade 2012 Sedalia, Missouri

This is our fourth time at an Escapade.  And, our first one was also in Sedalia.  It's the smallest of what we consider the 3 big rallies where we do our seminars (FMCA, Good Sam, Escapees) and we started attending it last.  Our first Escapade was in 2009, whereas we've been at every FMCA convention since 2005!  We feel very at home with Escapees, I don't know why it took us so long to discover it.  The Escapees club was originally formed for the purpose of educating people about the fulltime lifestyle.  So, when we come to these rallies, we're amongst more fulltime RVers than anywhere else.
And, they like our seminars!
We started with our hands-on 'Camp Reboot.'  In other venues we call it our Computer Boot Camp, but at the Escapade we teach that class at the same time that the well-known RV Boot Camp is being taught, so we changed our class name a little.
We really like teaching this class here because they schedule it for a full 12 hours, starting Friday afternoon, going all day Saturday, then ending Sunday mid-day.  Hands-on classes like this need time.

Jim and Chris helping 'Camp Reboot' students during the exercise portion of class

Most of the week was devoted to our regular demo-style of seminars. We taught 'Managing your Pictures with Picasa', 'Smartphone Overview', 'Facebook Overview', 'Photo Sharing Online', 'Making Collages with Picasa', and 'Trip Planning and GPS Navigation.'

Our Picasa Class at the Escapade

For our Smartphone class, we teamed up with Phil May from TechnoRV

With Phil demonstrating features of the iPhone, we felt like we were bringing a little of our Techno-Geek Learning Rally to the Escapade.  Notice how the iPad is being used as a camera aimed at the phone.  The iPad is being projected.  Using this system, it is easy for the presenter to see what the audience is seeing.

Here's how it looks to the audience.

Here's how the audience looked to us!  A nice crowd.

Our Facebook Class at the Escapade

When we weren't teaching, we were in a booth along with Phil and Tracey from TechnoRV.  This is the first Techno-Geek booth!  All totaled, we gained 53 either new or renewed members for Geeks on Tour this week.

And, when the week was over, we added another hands-on class for a select few people who wanted to learn more about using their Android smart phones.

Here's Nancy demonstrating her method of protecting her new Samsung Galaxy with a sock!  John said he joined the class because he heard there would be phone sox!

Learning about the various camera settings on their Android phones during our hands-on Smartphone Boot Camp.

That was a busy and wonderful 8 days!
Oh, by the way, we have scheduled our next Techno-Geek Learning Rally for December 2-8 in Bushnell, Florida and it is open for registration.  Here's the page for all the details.

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Escaping to Missouri

Our next destination, after the Gypsy Journal Rally was the Escapade – rally of the Escapees RVing club.  We had several days to get there, so we moseyed thru Indiana and Illinois, then Missouri on our was to Sedalia and the Missouri State Fairgrounds.
In Illinois, we found a great RV park next to the Interstate – gorgeous weather, quiet park – why not stay here another night?  OK.

Then it was on to Sedalia, Missouri and the Escapade.  That’s the RV Rally for the club called Escapees.  This will be our fourth Escapade.  We do our computer seminars here, and this time, we’re doing our three day, hands-on computer class called Camp Reboot.  It’s a class in basic Windows skills, for people who didn’t have computers in high school!  But first, we need to participate in the famous Escapees Happy Hours!

Molly and Bob

Sharon DelRosario is now an instructor for RV Driving School.

Then, after a good night’s sleep, we started teaching our pre-rally class we call Camp Reboot.  It’s a 3-day hands-on class with laptops and Windows 7.  We specify that we can’t teach Macintosh in this class, but two people come with Macintosh anyway … running Windows 7!  Interesting.  We had no problem – as long as they knew how to run Windows 7 on their Macs, they kept up with the class, just like the PCs!

Camp Reboot computer class

Camp Reboot computer class

Camp Reboot computer class

After class the first night, there was a beautiful sunset.  I can never pass up sunset photos, especially with RVs in the picture!

Sunset on the RVs at Escapade

Sunset in Sedalia

Phil and Tracey have also arrived at the Escapade, and I dropped in just in time to catch them at a romantic candlelight dinner!

Phil and Tracey with a candle light dinner

We have the last day of our Camp Reboot on Sunday, then it’s off to the races with 3 days of two seminars each day at the Rally. 

Gypsy Journal Rally and Geeks on Tour

We’ve spent the last week at an RV rally in Celina, Ohio.  It’s called the Gypsy Gathering and it’s produced by Nick and Terry Russell of Gypsy Journal Newspaper fame.  We met Nick and Terry at a Life on Wheels conference in Moscow, Idaho in 2004.  We went to our first Gypsy Gathering in Arizona in 2008, and we’ve since been to all 5 of their Eastern Rallies.  Check out our previous blog posts where we’ve written about the rallies.
Since Nick has announced that there will be no more Gypsy Gathering Rallies, this seems like a good place to do a re-run of our Gabbing with the Geeks episode where we did a little interview of Nick and Terry back in 2010.


We'll miss coming to Nick's Rallies, but as Stu McNicol said at dinner last night, when one door closes another opens.  We're looking forward to seeing what Nick and Terry decide to do from here, and we're sure our paths will cross some more.  Perhaps at our Techno-Geek Learning Rally which has just been confirmed for December 2-8 at Paradise Oaks RV park in Bushnell, Florida.

The Last Gypsy Journal Rally

No, I'm not talking about a rally just past, I'm talking about this rally.  Nick Russell announced in his blog today that there will be no more Gypsy Journal Rallies.  I'm so glad we're here to experience and enjoy their final party.  It's been a great ride - we've been to all 5 of the Eastern Rallies, and one in Casa Grande, AZ.

Our site at at the Mercer County Fairgrounds and the Gypsy Journal Rally

Phil and Tracey are here too.  Here's Phil checking his calendar on the iPad to find a date for our next TechnoGeek Learning Rally

Our seminar Room

  The Gypsy Journal Rally feels more like family than work.  We figured this was the perfect place to try out a couple of new seminar titles.  So many of the people here have been to past Gypsy Journal Rallies and already seen our seminars.  So, instead of a Picasa Overview, we presented Organizing your Pictures with Picasa.  This is a topic that has been fermenting in my head for a few years!  The main thing it needed was a sample set of pictures that would enable us to make the points necessary.  I stayed up till late gathering those pictures and organizing them in a way that needed REorganizing!  I'm happy with how the seminar turned out, but you can bet I'll still keep tweaking it.  It's what I do!

Today, we'll be teaching another new title: Blogs for Groups and Business websites.  I didn't spend quite as much time working on this one because we just had to go see the entertainment last night.  We met Melissa and Larry Beahm several years ago, here at the Gypsy Journal Rally and have continued to follow them as friends on Facebook.  They are very accomplished musicians and put on a fun show.  Here's a bit of video I put together from last night's performance.

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