50 years - plus 2

 I graduated high school in 1971. That makes 2021 my 50 year reunion, but the world was still reeling from Covid that year so it got postponed a bit. They scheduled it for 2023 and it was right after we got home from Indonesia. It was at my good friend, Alex's house in northern Florida. She has a big yard and is a fellow RV with hookups and all. So, we drove the camper van up to her place and stayed in her yard throughout the festivities.

Chris and Arynne who still think they're 17 year old high school besties. She came all the way from California for the Novapalooza!

Looks like trouble! Yes, Jim knows he was not in my high school, but he graduated the same year somewhere else! He fits in with my class peeps just fine.

I look at this photo showing cary writing in his notebook while we're all out to dinner, listening to music by our mutual friend, Mark. I think of what Cary has taught me ... "a writer is someone who writes"

But, I need to write ... right NOW, says Cary

I want to be a writer, so, here goes. 

I'm in a place called Melrose Florida. Why? Because Alex lives here and she has invited me and lots of other folks who she knows primarily thru our high school, to spend the weekend at her house and reminisce about times gone by. 

... that's as far as I got. It is now nearly a year later and I want to bring the blog up to date and get my 2022/23 book printed. I am now taking a different message from this photo of Cary writing ... you gotta write NOW. When the thought or the idea strikes you. It is nearly impossible to write well later. Just like I preach that people need to make their photo albums as-they-go, I need to get better at writing - ask I feel like it. My main method of writing "now" is to use email and send to Blog post. That way I can write NOW - but still massage it and add photos later. 

Anyway, I don't know what more I wanted to say about the Novapalooza, but I do have photo albums.

NovaPalooza 2023 shared photo album

Wild horses and wild women

I tried to visit Melinda last summer when we were RVing in the west. It didn't work out due to Covid, fires, and smoke. The last time I was at her house was back in 2013 (I could figure that out by using google photos map view to see all the photos taken at her location, the most recent were from 2013.)

She's done a lot of remodeling to the house since then as well as added a lot of people and animals. So much to catch up on. The stars aligned last week when I had free time, she had free time and a free bedroom, and I could get a 'free' flight using American Airlines points. Off I went to visit my cosmic sister.

She picked me up at Reno airport. It was about 7pm so we went straight to a bar/restaurant.

Celebrating over 40 years of friendship

This is the view out her window. Notice the horses in the distance. Those are wild horses in the Washoe Valley. Melinda has always had a thing for horses. With these wild ones, she has learned how to mingle with them. How to be passive and unthreatening so that they will get close to her. She feels a bond. 

This is not something that has ever been a part of my life, but I'm always up for something different. So, when she suggested we take a walk out amongst the wild ones, I jumped at the chance.

They are so beautiful

Melinda sits down on the ground, hoping to entice the horses to come closer

It worked. Especially with the youngest horse. He came up and nibbled on her hat!

The next day I met Fran and Barb who also live on the property and help Melinda with her EquusInsight herd:

1 cat: milkshake

2 dogs: Boo and Stella

1 pony: Douglas

3 horses: Buttercup,  Sweet Pea, Dancer

4 goats: Shirley,  mama, summer, little shit

1 Llama: Joey

4 chickens: Frances, glitch, crystal

1 rooster: Bruce

1 donkey: Gus

1 pig: Millie

I was especially delighted to get to meet her grandkids. They came over the next day and we all had some fun in the paddock.

Melinda's granddaughters riding Buttercup

The Llama, Joey, is such a character! He comes right over and sniffs my hair. I wonder if he remembers me from 9 years ago?

This is Boo Radley - an Anatolian Shephard. A gentle giant.

I spent most of my time chatting with Melinda. If conversation flowed like water, we were flooding every place we went! I wish I could remember everything we talked about. From where is the best place to live, to the responsibility of animals, to how much we like traveling in our Roadtreks (she actually got one before I did!) to parties we both attended 40 years ago, I'd remember some pieces, she'd remember others. I denied some of her memories of my activities. We figured that, between the 2 of us, we had half a brain! I helped her with some issues on her website, and her Google Photos - too many accounts! And, she showed me a great time.

On the last day we went up the mountain to Lake Tahoe. This is where she and I lived together back in 1980. We drove by the old house, then went to the lakeshore. 

OMG what a beautiful place. As gorgeous as it is however, I was not tempted to live there. It was COLD and DRY. I'll take Florida as my place to live - but I sure enjoyed the visit.

View of Lake Tahoe, up high, and Washoe Lake on this side. So cool to see it from the air.

Trip to Arcadia or trip to Sanibel?

Sometimes your plans aren't about what you think. We planned to visit Riverside RV Resort, where we've gone for many years to teach our tech seminars and Smartphone photography workshops to the snowbird RVers who live there. We did that. And Jim posted this photo in Facebook. 

I posted this photo of our Smartphone photography class. 

A friend on Facebook, Prudence G noticed this posts and mentioned that she now lived in Sanibel Island and we should stop by and see her. 

Hey, we love Sanibel island,  and haven't been there in years. We met Pru while we were all diving in Fiji way back in 2006, then we visited her at home in the Chesapeake Bay area later that same year. She's the kind of person with whom we immediately felt an affinity, but we hadn't seen her since that visit back in 2006.

Hey,  Sanibel is right on our route home - let's go.  We pulled into her driveway and she greets us at the door.  Conversation flowed as if no time at all had passed.  She told us how her husband Reid had been instrumental in the creation of Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. How cool! Ding Darling is a very special place - we haven't been there in years. We were sorry to hear that Reid died a few months ago. 

I really want to go to Ding Darling and Pru graciously agreed to take us.  What a gorgeous evening.  

Then we went to dinner at a wonderful Mexican place (400 Rabbits)and continued our conversation discussing our favorite dive destinations all around the world. 

We driveway camped for the night and went to breakfast the next morning at Rosy's.

It was a wonderful visit - Thanks Pru! - and now that we know where she is we'll go back! 

As we were driving home, Jim said, "Y'know - I think the purpose of this trip was to meet up with Pru!" Serendipity!

A Sociable week

 Well, it's been 5 days since I wrote my "daily" post. Oh well.

It's been a very nice week actually. On Monday I started a new project - interviewing my fellow Toastmasters from Earlybird Toastmasters club. I started with Kip Barkley - you can see the interview video here.

On Tuesday, I drove up to West Palm Beach to spend some time with my sister-in-law Debbie doing my favorite thing, helping with technology questions. She had a list! What kind of new phone to get, understanding her password manager, the best way to manage an old and a new email address, how to get her vaccination card in an easily located digital format, and of course, some Google Photos issues. Such fun. I'm not sure I really helped anything, but we had a nice time.

Then Wednesday was a double-hitter. Breakfast with Blake - the husband of my longest friend, Lanz, who passed away a couple years ago. We're so happy to be staying in touch with Blake. Breakfast was non-stop conversation and laughter long after the food was gone. Then at happy hour time we had a zoom call with Don and Kim our most well-traveled friends. They just got back from 2 months on a self-drive boat in France. We had considered joining them, but it didn't happen. The last we saw them was RVing and hiking in Wyoming. They live in Prescott, AZ so Zoom is the only way to get together now. It was so natural that the computer screens just seemed to melt away and it was like we were actually in the same room, at a table or the bar chatting and drinking wine. We love hearing about their travels and their travel plans. 

Nice Day!

Big Mill Youtube studio

 Next stop along the way is our friend, Chloe, at her home and business in North Carolina. It's called Big Mill B&B and we've been there a couple of times before. It's always a delight to visit with Chloe. She is such a natural for the hospitality industry! Always ready to take you in and show you around.

And, she understands RVers. Two of her "rooms" are actually vintage Airstream trailers. We parked and hooked up right next to them.

Our stay happened to coincide with our scheduled Youtube show. She graciously let us take over her dining room and turn it into a YouTube studio for the afternoon. Here is  - Episode 218: 

How to Make Movies from Your Photos Quick and Easy Using Google Photos

Thanks Chloe!

Chesapeake and Norton Yachts

 The Chesapeake Bay area is so beautiful, and it's easy to plan our route through there.

My good friend Liz's son owns a marina in the Chesapeake area. It's been on my list to visit but I hadn't remembered it the last couple times we were in the area. This time I remembered! And I even found his phone number! And, he was there! He said, come on down!

The last time we saw Anton was at his wedding in 2009. Here's the blog post from October 2009. 

It was great to catch up with him and it was a great place to park. Jim took some drone video of our parking spot and the surrounding area. Here's the video. 

We spent a nice day exploring the area.

Two more stops on the Friendship Tour

 We visited so many friends along the way on this trip, we've dubbed it "The Friendship Tour." So, when we noticed that western Pennsylvania was along the route, we decided to visit with our Toastmasters friend, Aleta. We even worked it out that we were there on Thursday morning so we could appear in our Earlybird Toastmasters meeting. We surprised everyone by showing up at Aleta's

Aleta lives in a very rural area and always has trouble with Internet. It's true - she has satellite that barely works, Verizon was almost non-existent. Our AT&T hotspot was OK. She was happy to have the Geeks' confirm that Internet is a struggle at her location.

Aleta's house in rural western Pennsylvania

Check out this little movie that shows more detail about just how rural she is.

Our prize student, Chuck

Next up, just over the river in New Jersey, was Chuck. He's been a Geeks on Tour member for many years, and he is a Roadtreker. We've met up at many places all over the country and he gives us an open invitation whenever we're near his home.

It's always a treat to visit with him and his 'first wife' :-) Nadine.

And, here's another little movie - what a trip he is getting out on his bicycle to lead the way!

 

Two wenches and a president

We haven't seen our old RVing friend Lynne in several years. She moved from Oregon to Minnesota last year and she said if we come anywhere within a day's drive, she'd get out her RV and come meet us. Well alrighty then, that sounds like a plan. We plotted our course east to use Highway 80 and found a campground just north of Iowa City. It turned out that we would be meeting over a weekend, so I had to make reservations rather than just trusting our luck. This was a COE (Corps of Engineers) park and they are very popular local destinations for weekend travelers. The reservation system (Recreation.gov) showed about 80% of sites were open and available during the week, but I snagged the last 2 sites open for Saturday night. Lynne would be arriving sometime on Friday night, we took advantage of the firewood for sale (6 pieces for $5) and started a nice fire in the campsite's fire ring - we had marshmallows now! This took a bit of doing because we had no kindling - nothing to get a fire going. We dug in the trash for some cardboard and it finally took.

As much as we were looking forward to seeing Lynne, anticipation was even greater for her beautiful dog, Finn. We've been seeing photos of him on Facebook for several years now and couldn't wait to meet him. What a joyful pup he is. I'm so glad that Lynne has him as a companion.

Jim's long-lost brother? They have the same mustache!

Saturday morning with our coffee, we asked Lynne if she'd be interested in visiting the Herbert Hoover Presidential museum which was only about a 20-minute drive. She said, "Sure!" So, off we went. Jim and I are big fans of Presidential museums - we've been to every Official Presidential museum, and Hoover's is one of our favorites. 

We left Finn in his air-conditioned RV, unplugged our van and drove it the 20 minutes to West Branch, Iowa, and the Herbert Hoover birthplace and museum. Little did we know that it was "Hoover Days" - Aug 6-7. What a treat. The streets were blocked off and there were tents, booths, and exhibits all thru town. The first item of business was lunch. We found this great bar/restaurant called The Downunder, because it was in the basement. Very cool ambiance with the old brick, good beer and great food. 

If you scan this code you'll get a video overview of Herbert Hoover's life

After a full and very interesting afternoon, we headed back to the campground to take Finn for a walk and relax. 

Lynne has always referred to family and friends as Pirates and Wenches. I'm not sure where that came from, but it's fun. 

We settled in for a quiet evening and wanted to build a fire. We had plenty of good firewood, but still no starter pieces. Lynne had an ax and tried to split some wood into smaller pieces, but it wasn't working so great. At one point, we both bent down and started blowing on the same spot of hot coals - voila! the fire took off,

Who needs fire  starter? All it takes is two wenches to blow..

What a great weekend. I love how RVing allows us to stay connected to friends. I was reminded about why we are friends with Lynne. Not only is she beautiful, talented and accomplished, she is also crazy smart. It was so fun exploring some history with her at the Hoover museum as she added some local Iowa farmer perspectives. We had non-stop conversation well into the night. And, marshmallows over the fire were pretty good too! We Love you, girl! err I mean wench.

After she left on Sunday, we stayed on and did one of our "What Does This Button Do?" shows. Episode 217 - prepare to be offline

Weekend at Frankie's

 We met Frank Drew in our very first year RVing. He had a company called Coach Connect that installed Wi-Fi in RV parks and we worked for him doing support. The best part of all that was becoming friends with Frank, he was a young person in our world full of energy and ideas. That was 20 years ago and he now has 2 kids - with even more energy! Whenever we travel west we make a point to stop by Waco for a visit. Here are blog posts from previous visits in 2017, 2013. We consider the Drews, both Frank and his parents, Frank Sr. and Carol, our family in Texas.

This time we got to visit with all 3 generations of Drews because they all happened to be in the same house for the weekend - add 2 geeks with their RV in the driveway, and we had a 3 day party!

Frank and his son Fuller

Here's something we've never seen before - kids in our camper.

Frank's daughter, Claire with her 'baby yoda' that Jim 3D printed before we left home.

We always make sure to carry bathing suits with us when we travel, but they rarely get used - except for the occasional hot springs. It takes kids to get us into a pool - and we had a blast.

On Sunday, we took advantage of their great outdoor patio area, and their Wi-Fi! to live stream our YouTube show. The topic was managing Time Zones with Google Calendar.

The wonderful thing about driveway camping is that you get to be neighbors, and even roommates, for a few days. What a treat.

Jim was so happy to have a reason to cook the steaks he bought before we left home. And, Frankie even had a Sous Vide! So Jim could cook the steak the way he likes. 

Thank you SO much for your warm and loving hospitality. We love visiting our Texas family.