Bicycling and Geocaching in Quad Cities

The Quad Cities Computer Society discovered Geeks on Tour several years ago when they were looking for a speaker on Picasa.  The digital photography group’s Vicki Wassenhove, called us and made all the arrangements then, and she’s invited us back several times.  This is our 3d visit now!  Here’s our previous blog posts on the first visit, and the second visit.  We found a delightful Corps of Engineers park last time called Fisherman’s Corner, and we’re staying here again this time.  In case you don’t know, “Quad Cities” is what they call the metropolitan area around Moline, Illinois where the Mississippi river separates Illinois from Iowa. 

 

Our RV site is right on the Mississippi river and we have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets!

 

 

We got here a few days before our first ‘gig’ with the Computer Club, so we took advantage of the great bicycle trails and went for a couple of rides.  Headed north out of the park, about 4 miles out, we came to a  town called Port Byron.  I think they’re into bicycling here!

 

We also noticed a restaurant right on the river called Mean Mel’s steakhouse and decided to go there for dinner.  I’ve never been to a ‘grill your own’ steakhouse before.  Jim always grills my steak perfect – he liked this arrangement.

 

And I really liked the view!

Jim checked in on Geocaching.com to see if there were any geocaches near enough to bicycle there.  He found a few just south of the park, so that was our fun for the next day.

We went geocaching for the first time in 2004.  Anyone else who started back then would have thousands of ‘finds’ by now, but we only have 24 according to the tally on our geocaching.com account ‘odie’s roadies.’  It’s been a few years since we’ve been geocaching and the Computer Club invited us to a Geocaching event on Saturday evening, so we needed to get back in practice.  The geocaching app on our phones seemed to work pretty well and we found both of the caches on our list!

So, we were prepared for Saturday night.  Most people used handheld Garmin GPS units with the cache locations previously entered.  We did show a couple people how the app on our phones worked.

 

*Thanks to Vicki for the great pictures!*

That was it for our free, fun time.  Most of Saturday, and all day Sunday I worked on our Geeks on Tour newsletter. Then our “Geek Week” (2014, May 31) started with a seminar at the computer club on Monday night, another one at a local Senior Center on Tuesday, a hands-on smartphone class on Wednesday and Picasa hands-on class on Thursday.  That will be another post!

Beauty in a Florida Sunset

Oh Boy! We're on the road and we're watching a beautiful sunset. I love taking pictures and I just haven't seen anything pretty in a while.  We're at John Prince campground in Lake Worth.  It's a nice park ... great Wi-Fi!  And take a look at this sunset:

This morning we were at Willow Wood, where my Mom is living.  We showed one of her scuba travel videos in their auditorium.  We had a full house - all went well.  Here is a short sample of the video we showed - Thorfinn in Micronesia - 2000.

Now we're on our way to Holiday Travel Resort in Leesburg where we're booked to do a week's worth of seminars, including our hands-on boot camp.  Then comes the FMCA SE area rally in Brooksville.  Then some more seminars at an RV park - Florida Grande.  And last, but not least, a presentation at the Brevard County Genealogical Society in Titusville.  See our website for the complete schedule.

It feels good to be on the road, but it's getting cold again.  Not the right time to be traveling north! 

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Peace River Getaway

Although we like Fort Lauderdale, we don’t like sitting still for too long.  An easy, and wonderful getaway is Thousand Trails / Peace River in Wauchula, Florida.  It’s about a 3.5 hour drive.

 

 

 

It’s a bit chilly, but the sun is out and it’s warm and beautiful in the afternoon.  We want to go for a paddle, but I had work to do.  Our monthly newsletter *had* to get out today.  We had plenty of time for walks on the nature trail, and soaks in the hot tub.  Jim and I even played a couple games of pickleball.

 

Maybe we’ll get to paddle tomorrow. 

Meanwhile – here’s a nice sunset scene.

 

Sunset Summary

We’ll be leaving Long Beach Island today – back on the road headed towards the Gypsy Journal Rally in Celina, Ohio. We’ll be giving several computer seminars plus our hands-on Computer Boot Camp there.

 

But we can’t leave before I give you last night’s sunset:

 

September 13

 

 

Bye Bye LBI sunsets!

 

I just can’t pick my favorite sunset picture, can you?

 

September 5:

 

September 3 (a)

 

September 3(b):

 

August 31:

 

August 24:

 

Ok, I lied.  I think September 3(b) is my favorite.  Y’know – this is only a fraction of all the sunset photos I took.  If you want to see them bigger, check out our Picasa Web album for August and September. 

Corned Ham Party

It’s tradition here at Jimmy’s house on Labor Day weekend.  See the post from 2004 for the story.

 

It was a 5-star day weather-wise on the island. Hot, sunny, great waves for body-surfing over at the ocean, and nice calm water on the bay.  We took advantage of all of it.

 

Even I got in the surf and let it put me thru the spin cycle.  Water temp was about 73, and the waves were perfect.  A few of them were big enough to grab you and toss you around, but they were all manageable.

 

Then we had some BLTs for lunch with scrumptious New Jersey tomatoes.  We played with the water in the bay for the rest of the day.  One of Jimmy’s old friends, who used to be a lifeguard here on the island is a master of the Stand Up Paddle board.  We had to try it.

 

Actually, Odie was the first to try – he just jumped right on and showed us how it’s done!  We told you our dog walks on water!

 

 

Then I tried it.  Believe it or not, these boards are inflatable!  So they have a little bit of give to them.  It took a few minutes to get my bearings, but then it was actually pretty easy.  At least on a flat calm day like this!

 

 

Then it was Jim’s turn.

 

 

They were really fun!  Chris K (who owns the boards) uses them to surf in the ocean.  Just, instead of laying down, he’s standing up all the time.  You can see photos of that on Jimmy’s web album.

 

Next up came kayaking!  Dianne and her daughter Carol came over for the party, and I took them out for a little bay tour on the kayaks first:

 

OK, now it’s time for the party.  The gorgeous weather held out the entire day, so all the festivities were outside.

 

 

Jim has to test the corned ham first!

 

Then there’s all the other dishes that people brought.

 

And even a soft-serv ice cream machine.

YUM

 

See lots more photos on Tom Pernal’s web album.

 

And then, to cap it off … you guessed it!  There was yet another beautiful sunset!

 

Those Darn Sunsets!

Jim and I talked about going out to dinner last night.  He knows that there are many excellent restaurants here on Long Beach Island, and we have yet to visit any of them this time around.

 

But then we looked out the window and said, ‘Nope, looks like it’s going to be a great sunset, we gotta stay home.’

 

We were right:

 

 

Life at LBI

In case you don’t know, LBI stands for Long Beach Island.  That’s where we are.

And, it’s a place to party in the summertime.  Staying with our friend Jimmy Lyon – we just slipped right into the round of parties.

 

We even met up with an old friend from Florida, Dianne, and her daughter, Carol who are spending some time on their houseboat right here on Long Beach Island.

 

 

 

Here’s how we look at photo albums:

 

Here’s the beach:

 

 

Then there’s a concert in the park – on the mainland:

 

And birthday parties at Jimmy’s:

 

And more parties at Jimmy’s:

 

 

And, dinner with best old friends’ of Jim’s – Tom and Betty:

 

We are  just having a great time.  The weather has been gorgeous – hot and sunny days with cool nights.  The food and friends have been overwhelming.

 

And, I thought we were going to have 3 quiet weeks to get caught up on work!  Is it any wonder that our Geeks on Tour August newsletter isn’t done yet?  Hopefully, no one will notice and I’ll get it done today.  It’s a little quieter here on the weekdays – many of the friends and family

come in for the weekend from other parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvannia, and even Boston.

 

Oh yeah … here’s another sunset for ya!

Is this Heaven?

No, it’s New Jersey!

 

I know that New Jersey does not have a good reputation in general, but from my viewpoint – in our friend Jimmy’s driveway - it just doesn’t get any better.

 

 

Our schedule calls for 3 weeks here, so we’d made a pretty long list of all the work to be done while we’re here.  I’m working on websites – our own plus some clients'.  And Jim is responding to emails, orders, printing and mailing.  Our new ‘Beginners Guide to Picasa’ booklet has sold several dozen copies!  We’re actually working kinda hard.  But, I’ll bet our ‘office conditions’ beat anyone’s!!

 

We have plenty of time for fun, food, and friends too.

 

And, I never get tired of the sunsets here!