GPS navigation - 1,000th post

When we started RVing in 2003, our guesstimate was that, of all the RVs we saw in any given park, 50% of them had a computer inside. Now, five years later, our guesstimate is closer to 90%. And, half of them have TWO computers inside!

This is a substantial market for our computer education. We teach RVers how to get connected to the Internet as they travel. We teach them how to manage their digital photos, how to make a blog, and how to properly maintain their computers.

One thing we don't teach is how to use GPS navigation on your computer to keep you on the right road. We use GPS navigation, and we love it. It's a major reason for using computers for taveling. We want to teach it, but but haven't found a good way to do it. The critical things to learn are how to manipulate the program as you travel down the road. How do you simulate that in a seminar setting?

It occurred to me that I could at least take a bunch of screen shots of our GPS navigation program as we're traveling down the road. Maybe I could put them into some kind of show, to give an idea of what it is like to use GPS navigation while traveling. So, I took screen shots when we were traveling to Hannibal, Missouri last week. Using Photo Story 3, I turned it into a movie and used it for my weekly post on RV.net's blog. We don't have enough material to make a seminar, but the little movie is a start.

Rather than post a copy of the movie here, I'd rather you viewed it on the RV.net post. Check it out and leave a comment if you have any experience with GPS navigation. The blog at RV.net is amazing. They set it up as a group blog and found 30 or so of us writers to contribute articles regularly. Within 6 months I think they've developed the greatest accumulation of RVing information to be found on the Internet.

p.s. This is my 1,000th Blog Post! I've often said I'd like to write a book. .... I think I have! If someone wanted to, they could start with the first post on April 5, 2003 and keep clicking on the link to 'newer post' at the bottom to turn the page. It would take many hours, maybe days, to read the whole thing!

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2 for 1 rally

The Safari rally is over, leaving us mostly alone in our field of clover.

Now the Country Coaches are rolling in! These guys are BIG. We didn't have to move, and we're going to a new rally! For this rally, we are strictly seminar presenters and vendors. We are giving one seminar each day for the next 4 days, and we have a booth to sell our CDs. The last rally didn't have booths. It was more of a big party. Every one is a little bit different.

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GPS without the Satellites?

You gotta watch this video by my favorite geek, David Pogue (well, ok, *second* favorite :-) He shows how your camera can know exactly where you took every photo. NOT because there's GPS built in to the camera but because 'Skyhook' is built into that itsy bitsy camera card.

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Geeks get Married

Ten years ago, Jim and I said 'I Do.' Or at least, I think that's what we said! We had an unconventional wedding. It was his second wedding - my first, but I was 45 years old and had never had the desire for a big, regular wedding. We just wanted to have fun. Our first kiss was on a water taxi in our home town of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so it seemed appropriate to get married on a water taxi. We got all decked out in our finest geekwear ... hawaiian shirts and propeller beanies - 'propeller-head' is another term for 'geek.' During the ceremony, the patches 'Bride' and 'Groom' got ripped off to reveal 'Wife' and 'Husband.' Cute huh? A notary public friend led us through our homemade vows. Then we partied! And we haven't stopped!

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Greetings from the Safari Rally

What a change from last week with complete solitude and nothing to distract me from computer work! When we're at a rally, we're occupied 100% of the time. I'm posting this at 2am ... getting up in the middle of the night is the only way I can keep up with the blog.

We're at the Safari rally in Amana Colonies, Iowa. That's near Cedar Rapids and this is the area that had a lot of flood damage. All is fine here at the park, and the route getting here was dry, but there are a lot of local people who lost their homes. I thought is was a really nice gesture that they took up a collection last night for the relief effort, and Safari International promised to match whatever was collected. There are almost 400 people here, and most of us put something in the jar, so that should be a nice amount.

There are a few new Safari coaches on display. They came all the way from Florida's Lazy Days RV dealership. Apparently, they are the biggest Safari dealer.

Here we are, in a field of clover! We did check out the new coaches. Jim really likes the way they do the dinettes, with cupboards against the wall and a window ledge, then the table coming out from that, and chairs rather than dinette bench. We certainly won't be buying one of these anytime soon ... but, actually I thought the price was rather reasonable! In case you don't know, Safaris are famous for the murals on the back of the coaches. And here's the artist at work - pretty amazing - he's looking at a picture, but all his work is freehand with an airbrush. We also got to meet one of the Perlot family who started Safari. This is Martin, he tells us that his brother designed the motorhome we have. They didn't make very many of our model. It's a Class C, and Safari is known for it's Class A's. We feel it is *Very* special, and we're proud to be the only one here! Thank you 'brother' Perlot! Of course, our main reason for being here is to give our seminars. Here's Jim presenting our Internet on the Road seminar. And, I'd better get back to bed since I'm giving the Picasa seminar in the morning.

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