Next stop - Bradenton. For the first rally hosted by John and Cathy Huggins of LivingTheRVDream.com.
John and Kathy are well known for their weekly podcast. As part of the gathering, they recorded their podcast during an evening session and took questions from the audience.
My favorite part was the day after the rally when we taught one of our hands-on smartphone photography classes. I always learn something! After all, one teaches<->two learn!
The name of my high school was Nova. I graduated in 1971. One of my classmates, Alex Segal, has been adept at keeping in touch with high school friends. Alex now lives in a rural community, just west of Gainesville, Florida called Melrose. She puts out the word of a get-together and lots of people show up! It is called NovaPalooza!
She has enough property that there is plenty of space for us to park our RV in her yard. Such a treat!
We had some very talented musicians in our high school class, and 40 some odd years later, they are still at it. Alex set up a stage in her yard, and our parking spot gave us front row seats, from our living room couch!
41 years is a long time. Here is a picture of me with Steve and Karl in 1970 and now, in 2015. Can you even tell who is who?
This was the second time we have attended a NovaPalooza, so we knew the quality of the music, and Jim was prepared! He used our familiar technology (Google Hangouts On Air) to live stream the entire evening so that classmates who could not be in attendance, could also see and hear the party!
Great fun!
One of these days, we'll do some editing. Meanwhile, here is some raw footage:
We love you Alex!
After everyone left, the stage was still set up. And, our home and office was still parked there! So, when it came time to do our Sunday Show "What Does This Button Do?" we decided to use the stage, and invite anyone still hungover to join us!
We've promised ourselves at least one real dive trip every year and this year we booked a week on the Blackbeard Cruises. It was supposed to be a group trip with our New Jersey dive buddies - just like last year - but Hurricane Joaquin put a stop to that. Nassau airport was closed on Friday 10/3 for fear that the hurricane was going to hit them hard, but it didn't, so our flight on Saturday morning was fine. But Joaquin was still blowing and was possibly headed to New Jersey, so our friends cancelled. We missed them, but it did make for a less crowded boat! Only 16 passengers.
Boarding the boat in Nassau
We had beautiful weather for our week, but the visibility was pretty poor due to the hurricane passing thru. Do not book a trip on this boat if you're accustomed to hot showers and clean towels. You bring your own towels and use them all week. There is one shower on board, but you are honor-bound to only use it for 30 seconds! We didn't even do that. Apparently it is a myth that salt water leaves you sticky! We did rinse off a little after each dive with a hose at the back, but no soap for a week! This is camping on the water.
We LOVE being on the ocean!
Here is a short video, made by Google Photos, that encapsulates our week:
