A Day in Franklin

As I mentioned in our last post, we're camped in the driveway of our friends Roxie and Charles Marston.  They have lived in Franklin, Tennessee for 40 plus years.  They both retired from teaching positions in the area and have many ties to the community.  So when they suggested a Marston-guided tour, we jumped at the chance.  The weather has been a bit damp and chilly, but at least it wasn't actually raining on Sunday when we decided to take the afternoon for our tour.

Franklin was the scene of a major battle in the Civil War - ooops, I mean the 'War of Northern Aggression.'  The Battle of Franklin was fought on November 30, 1864 and is referred to as the five bloodiest hours of the American Civil War.  The Carnton Plantation includes the cemetery we visited. (you can read the sign if you click the picture and go to the larger version - then use your Back button to return here)

    As with so many Civil War sites we see as we travel - I am stunned by the sheer number of deaths, and the unthinkable suffering that occurred during that war.  I often wonder if it truly was the only option.  I'm sure glad that I wasn't around then.

On to more of the tour!  Downtown Franklin is delightful, and Roxie tells us that it is bustling most every evening.  Always something going on.  It's very picturesque.

The historic Theatre has recently re-opened.

Our tour guides ... Roxie and Charles Marston in downtown Franklin

They also took us to the Factory at Franklin, an old stove factory that was abandoned and converted into a trendy shopping center.  It's even dog-friendly - we may have to go back with Odie!  We had fun with the over-sized chair at the Factory!

The last stop was Tinkerbell playground.  This was a community project back in 1993.  Roxie and Charles relayed stories of exhaustion as well as exhilaration working as the 'Tool Coordinators' for the project.  You could almost hear their hearts singing as we visited and saw so many kids and families enjoying this park, even on a dreary day!

Roxie and Charles at Tinkerbell Park - which they helped build.

Thanks Roxie and Charles!  We can see why you like it here so much.

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Driveway Camping and Skyped Seminars

After the RV SEF conference we came back to Roxie and Charles driveway.  What a nice spot!  And, they have a 30 amp connection for us too.  Notice their motorhome parked further back.

We're staying here for over a week because there's a concert in Nashville that we want to go to on May 19.  It's Paul Simon.  We love Paul Simon.  Jim and I attended a Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert in Fort Lauderdale years ago.  But, the real reason we're going to this concert is Mick Rossi - the keyboard player in the band.  Jim knew Mick way back in his New Jersey days ... Local Boy Makes Good!  They recently reconnected on Facebook, and Jim noticed the concert in Nashville ... so here we are!

We also booked ourselves this week to do a couple of seminars for Lazydays Friends and Family rally.  We did one of these rallies last November and really enjoyed the group.  But, they're in the Tampa, Florida area ... how can we manage this?  Fly?  We decided to try Skype again.  We did a short video call to the Massachussetts Good Sam club last year doing Skype and we liked it, but we couldn't do a real seminar because we couldn't show our computer screen.  Now we can.  We could see and hear our audience and they could see and hear us.  We were connected one computer to one computer - on their side, the connected the computer to a projector.  We could switch from transmitting video (our faces) to screensharing whenever we were demonstrating our topic.  (click the picture for a larger version - then use your Back button to return here)

We were able to present our seminars exactly like we do when we're at a rally.  Well, almost exactly.  It was a little disconcerting not to be able to make eye contact and get the feel of the room, but I think we can get used to that.  We were able to ask for a show of hands on certain questions, and we could see the hands that went up.  They had one person designated as the moderator who would be on the lookout for questions, and make sure we could hear them, or else repeat them for us.
The only real problem was that the Internet connection would slow down or drop occasionally.  We were using our 4G mobile hotspot from Verizon - they were on a connection thru the Lazydays network - I'm not sure but I think they were using the Wi-Fi in the Lazydays campground.  We had short problems on both sides.  For the second seminar, we started out by showing how they could go to our website and watch the videos just in case the Skype connection didn't work for an extended period.  In the future, I think we will make sure the host has a copy of our DVD with all the videos in case the Intenet connect problem is on their end.  We know of a few computer clubs that have used our videos for meetings.

So - we now have a new product!!  Geeks on Tour seminars anytime anyplace!!

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RV SEF Conference

.This is the second year we've done the RV SEF conference, so we were relaxed.  It's a small group and we had a full hour and a half for each of our seminars.  So we could really get involved with our attendees and had time to take all their questions.  We loved it!

Teaching RVers about Internet connections on the Road

Teaching RVers how to make a Blog to record and share their travels

Many RVs were parked right in the parking lot at the Carol Knicely Conference center in Bowling Green, where the conference was held.  We parked at a local KOA because we're spoiled with wanted full hookups.  But, we drove our rig over to get properly weighed, then we stayed thru Saturday evening so we could participate in the open house.  How fun to walk around the neighborhood and go thru everyone's home!

Walter Cannon is the director of RV SEF and he teaches about weight safety for RVs.  We even had time to attend some of the other seminars while we were here.  What a treat.

Then we had him weigh our new rig.  As we had already learned, our overall weight is below the maximum allowed.  But, Walter weighs all 4 wheel positions, and we learned (as we suspected) that the driver side is 600 pound more than the other side.  That side has the slide with the kitchen in it, also the fuel tank and the bulk of the holding tanks.  Not much we can do about that.  But, this means we can put any and all heavy cargo we have on the other side.  So, we have no weight restrictions on our office area ... good to know.  We'll be talking to Walter about any other techniques we should use to be balance.

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38 Degrees in Tennessee

What?!  There is frost in some areas of Northern Tennessee this morning.  Our weather monitor reports 38 degrees here in Franklin, Tennessee. It's May!

Oh well, we're toasty warm inside our deluxe, luxury, motor-mansion!  The furnace is working brilliantly!  As long as we don't encounter a tornado or flood we'll be happy.  We've seen *lots* of damage from recent tornadoes along our route.  Just like we've been seeing on the news - piles of rubble.

Right now, we're parked in the driveway of our friends, Roxie and Charles Marston.  What a beautiful place!

The Geek Mansion parked at Roxie and Charles place in Franklin, Tennessee.

Hard to believe that one year ago this was under water.  Roxie and Charles have been working hard the entire year recreating their home which had to be gutted after the floods last year.  They are anxiously watching the news on potential new floods this year.  Tennessee and Kentucky are in danger but, so far anyway, this area is not.

We're on to Bowling Green, KY today for the start of the RVSEF conference.
Thanks Roxie and Charles ... we'll be back!

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We Must be Camping

We picked up Mom and our friend, Dee at Mom's place.  Looks like a pretty fancy Limosine coming to get her doesn't it?  Several of the staff came out for a tour.



Mom's chariot awaits.



We're taking Dee to visit her sister near Perry, Georgia.  Then we'll drop them both off at Atlanta airport to fly back to Ft. Lauderdale.  How great to have 2 passengers on our shakedown cruise.  Mom sleeps in the cabover, and Dee sleeps on the fold-out couch.  Everyone is comfortable.  With the curtain across the cabover, and a door to the bedroom hallway - everyone has private space.  and, with the two doors to the bathroom there's no issue in accessing that at any time.  We couldn't be more pleased with the arrangement.




Mom's morning view from her bedroom in the cabover at Ocala North RV Park.

 Our first stop was a beautiful RV park near Ocala - Ocala North RV Park.  I found it using the Passport America App on my Droid.  The second night we made it to High Falls State Park in Georgia.  Dee's sister Judy joined us for dinner ... actually she *brought* dinner :-) then took Dee back with her.
 
We must be camping?!  We had a campfire and even roasted marshmallows.

Mom, Jim, Judy, and Dee at High Falls Georgia State Park

But ... no sleeping bags for us!  We left that kind of camping quite a while ago.  Here's our bedroom now.

We *LOVE* our new home.

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