We love doing seminars

We've completed our four days. We gave seminars every morning and hung out at the Computer Help Desk every afternoon. At night we slept. That's it.

Well, we did go to the exercise class 2 mornings. And we went to the Nitty Gritty Dirt band entertainment on Thursday night. There just wasn't time for *any*thing else. There were plenty of people in the exhibit hall we would have liked to say Hi to. Sorry. We were focused on seminars and help desk and selling our CDs. We're exhausted, but it was a GREAT week for us. We even made money! We now have 58 paid members, and 1,712 free newsletter subscribers. Here's a slide show of our week. I was supposed to write an article for RV.net on Thursday. It didn't happen. But I got around to it today. You can read my RV.net Blog article here.

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Busy at FMCA rally

Two seminars each day keeps us pretty busy. Then we promise to be at the computer help desk in the afternoons. That's where we're selling our 'Seminars on a Disk' so we certainly want to be there. And, people are asking for the new Seminar on a Disk for 'Vista: What's New.' As of yesterday, I had 9 videos completed. I stayed up till almost midnight and got a few more done. So, with 13 videos, we're burning our Vista Seminar on a Disk this morning so we can sell them this afternoon!

whew, JIT ... Just in Time. Our Vista seminar is this morning.

We still made a point to get up early enough this morning to attend the exercise class. It's taught by Wayne and Dahelia Hunt from PFIT. They've been at every FMCA rally we've attended and we love their classes. They teach as a team, kind of like Jim and I do. Sure would love to have 'drill sargeant' Wayne along with us as we travel. Maybe we'd get in shape! If you're here at the rally, make sure to attend tomorrow's class: 7am Seminar 11! We'll be there. No more time to write. Check out more photos on our Picasa Web Album.

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Minnesota on the Map

What a treat! We haven't put a new state on our map in quite some time.

We're here at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. The weather is gorgeous! In the 60s overnight, 70s in the morning, 80s in the afternoon. It's daylight out until about 10pm. We're getting two days' worth of work in one! And, I gotta tell you about the showers :-) That's a water tower in background above. And, the showers are in the base of that. LOTS of water pressure! And, there's certainly no drought here, so I took advantage and really enjoyed a nice, long, hot shower. Tomorrow starts our seminars. Here's the posted schedule:

All our seminars are in the same room. That's a luxury. Not having to schlep our handouts and equipment around. And, it's only about a block from where we're parked. You gotta love this lifestyle ... just park by your work. And, there are a few other coaches parked in our same lot. We all got out lawn chairs and socialized for a while tonight, even enjoying some wonderful homemade wine brought by Don. We're going to be busy! And, when we're not presenting a seminar, we're going to be in the 'Internet Cafe' helping folks with their computers and selling our 'seminars-on-a-disk.'

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Iowa to Minnesota

Had a long travel day. Long for us anyway ... 300 miles! About half in Iowa and half in Minnesota. The weather cooperated nicely - finishing all the thunderstorms overnight.

The first sight was downtown Cedar Rapids where they are still in the throes of flood recovery. geez, it looks like New Orleans did.

When we drove across the river, I just couldn't imagine the water level being high enough to cover the bridges ... but it was. Such pretty farmland out in the country. Now, here's a good idea! There's certainly been enough wind! Just before the Minnesota stateline, we decided to take advantage of a rest stop. I wandered around and looked at the exhibits for a few minutes (did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright has several famous buildings in Iowa?) when I heard someone say, "That looks like Chris Guld!" huh? I'm in a rest area in Iowa, where I've never been before and someone recognizes me? It's Beth, who we met at a Datastorm rally in Texas 2 years ago. She follows our blog, and is a member of our Computer Education website. That is such a wonderful thing about RVing - and blogging - you make new friends and keep in touch automatically! I see she's already beat me to the punch on her blog: ChrisBethNBubba. Go visit, and you'll see the picture she took and the nice things she said about us. Thanks Beth! And ... next time don't restrain that hug ok?

Welcome to Minnesota. This is a new state for us.

And now we're happily parked at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the FMCA Convention this week. Do you know what the tall monument in the background is? It's just one blade from those giant windmills! Geez, it is HUGE. What a cool photo op!

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Flood Relief and Thunderstorms

During the Safari rally last week I mentioned that they were taking up a collection for flood relief for the nearby city of Cedar Rapids. There were about 180 rigs here. If you figured $20 each, that would be $3600 . Then, Safari International promised to match whatever was collected. Well, the final count, last I heard was $4,100 collected. That meant a donation of $8,200!

Wow ... I was impressed.

Then, this week the Country Coach rally was challenged to beat that. Country Coach corporate promised to donate $2,000 for every coach sold this week. They sold 8! (at approx. $650,000 each) They had several other group donations as well, for a final donation of $27,000.

That is so awesome. But, unfortunately, it's just a drop in the bucket for what this community needs. The floods last month we devastating. And, it's *still* raining.

We've actually had very nice weather. In the 60s at night. Pretty hot and sunny during the day. But, for the last few nights we've had thunderstorms overnight. It wakes me up and makes me think we're in a hurricane when I can see the trees outside bent over in the wind. I can see them clearly in the shocking bright light of the lightning! It's nervewracking for me ... I can't imagine what it must feel like to people who are already bone-weary of cleaning up flood debris in their homes.

I caught a picture of the gathering storm at sunset time the other night. It almost looks like a nuclear blast, mushroom cloud doesn't it?

Tomorrow we're off to St. Paul, Minnesota. About 300 miles away. We'll be at the FMCA International Convention. We're schedule for 2 seminars each day for four days! Is St. Paul outside of 'Tornado Alley'? I hope!

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