Full Moon from Donna's Backyard RV Park! I didn't get around to posting these great photos that Jim took at full moon last week. And, here's our very own full moon that we carry around with us all the time. It really is cool when we stop at a place after dark and raise the dish. The other-worldly blue light makes it look like moonrise on a distant planet! Donna's Backyard 'Full-Service' RV Park! I still don't really know what an 'amp' is, but I do know that our motorhome likes to have 30 of them, and a normal house outlet only has 15. With a few parts and some know-how, we now have 30 amp here. Now, the only thing missing is sewer hookup, but Markham Park is less than 5 minutes away and they have a 'dump-station' that we can use for $5. So, about every 5 days, we have to unhook and drive over there to 'take care of business'. It's a bit of a hassle, but, I actually like being forced to move the motorhome frequently. It's not good to get accustomed to it as a stationary thing ... it's meant to move! This keeps us in practice.

Technology never fails to amaze! Remember futuristic movies ... or exhibits at Epcot where people communicated with video phones. They could talk with and see each other anywhere in the world. You know that was some pretty expensive equipment to make it all work tho. Well, did you know that the computer on your desk is a video phone? Just playing around with a friend in Arizona ... we both have Windows XP on our computers, so we've been using Windows messenger occasionally to 'chat' - especially since her cell phone isn't working right now. Well, the other day, she decided to click on the 'start a voice conversation' and we were able to talk just like we were on the phone. Today, she clicked on 'start a video and voice conversation' (we both have microphones and video cameras hooked up to our computers). Unbelievable! It actually worked. So what do we say to each other? "Wow, this is soo cooool!"

Here we go ... to our first trade show representing Coach Connect. We left Fort Lauderdale Tuesday afternoon and made one stop at a client's on the way. They say they're mad at us for leaving them (in April), but they sure love what we're doing. Everyone came out and took a little tour of the RV, Odie figured they were just visiting him! The trade show we were going to was a meeting of RV Park owner's from Best Holiday Trav-L-Parks conference. It was held at a hotel in Kissimmee, so we drove up and simply dry-camped in the parking lot. Today, Jim and I set up all our equipment and gave a presentation on what WiFi is all about and why the parks should sign up with Coach Connect to get it. We were very well received and it was a nice group of people. We look forward to doing many more. We were even able to demonstrate logging on to the Internet thru Coach Connect's login screen because we moved the RV around to the front of the hotel (near the meeting room) and set up our 'mobile WiFi Hotspot'. SOO COOOL. All the other presenters asked to use our equipment, and they could go to various websites to point stuff out as well! Heroes again!

Chris' Confession ... or Lessons we Learn Chalk up another 'Lesson in RVing'. I wonder how many there are under the category of 'Understanding your Electrical System'? We've already learned to be very careful never to plug in to an outlet that has 'reverse polarity' - we have a little tester that we always plug into an outlet before plugging the RV in. We've also learned that you can't run the air conditioner and the microwave at the same time when you only have 15 amp household current. RV parks all provide 30 amp connections (the big RV's even use 50 amp), but when you're plugged in at someone's house, you probably only have 15 amp. When we first bought the RV we had it parked in our driveway and plugged into the house. We ran the AC, but if we ever tried to turn on the microwave, it immediately threw a breaker. One day, the AC stopped working and we ended up with a $400 repair bill for the electrical panel - we were probably lucky that we didn't have a fire. So, no AC when plugged into 15 amp. Wellllll .... I was getting a bit sweaty yesterday morning when I had to get dressed and put on makeup etc. I thought, if I make sure everything else is turned off ... I could have some air conditioning for just a few minutes. I turned it on and it worked fine - I set the fan to low. (Jim was out diving or he would have stopped me from doing this!) 20 minutes later I was dressed and ready to go and I turned the AC off. Then I heard the beep, beep, beep of the computer's UPS indicating that the power was off. Apparently, I had tripped a breaker switch in Donna's house, because nothing I did in the RV made a difference. My lessons have to be very explicit I guess ... it's not enough just to say 'The AC shouldn't be operated when plugged in to 15 amp service.' I need it to say 'The AC cannot be operated, even for only a few minutes, when plugged into 15 amp service.' Ok, Ok, I think I got it now. I wanted to keep electricity on if only to power the electronics for the Satellite dish - so I cranked up the generator. Another lesson we've learned is that it is a good thing to run the generator regularly, so I thought this was a fine solution - at least until everyone was back home and we could reset stuff. OK - so, here's the sad part ... and the new lesson learned. Since Jim only needed one kayak to go diving, he left the other one (mine) on the ground propped up next to the RV. Unfortunately, it was right by the exhaust pipe of the generator. Here's the result: Lesson: the generator exhaust is HOT! HOT! HOT! Make sure the area is clear before turning it on.

Our 'Yak carrier! Jim did it all himself ... instead of going to a dealer and asking for racks to be mounted on the car, he went to Bass Outdoor World (what a sacrifice! only his favorite store!) and bought a kit. He mounted the racks on the car and then tried out putting the kayaks on. Here's the result: So, we're one step further in getting ready to go. The only thing left is to get a tow package installed on the RV and the Honda.