Travels to Madison

Our goal was to get to Madison, Wisconsin for the FMCA convention.  I'm happy to say that we made it!  I can't say that the roads made it easy though.  On the map it looks good.  A nice American super highway - I90 - almost all the way thru Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, then Wisconsin.  But it wasn't so nice.  Here's a particularly un-nice stretch:

 Now, we've traveled here before, so we didn't expect much.  We knew that Chicago can be really tough, but we were there on a Sunday so we thought traffic would be light enough to take the direct route right thru the city.

Not!

It took over an hour to get thru downtown.  Then it started pouring rain.  Sunday was a tough travel day for me ... and I wasn't even driving!  But we finally made it, and we have a really nice site at the Lake Farm Park just a couple miles down the road from the convention.

We watched the cranes fly overhead this morning.

And took a walk down the path that is mowed thru the fields and woods.

Then came a steady stream of visitors - other folks who we see every time we're at an FMCA convention.  They're calling this convention a 'Family Reunion' and, yep, that's what it feels like!  Even Odie  had visitors.

And, we're just so happy to show off our new home to everyone.  We can be so much more social when we have places for people to sit!

Ok, now it's time to get some work done in preparation for the Rally!

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Deja Vu

After a long day on the road - and over $35 in tolls - we're right back where we started from over 2 weeks ago!  Thousand Trails in Kenisee Lakes Ohio.  Then we're off tomorrow to stay a couple days at another Resorts of Distinction - Erie Islands.  Our membership expires at the end of August and we can't renew it because of some dispute between Thousand Trails and ROD - so we're trying to get whatever value we can in the time left.  There's a surprising number of ROD parks in this section of the country.

Then we're off to Madison, Wisconsin for the FMCA convention.  We're presenting 9 different seminars, plus 2 hands-on Picasa workshops ... our complete FMCA schedule is on our website.  And .. 2 of the seminars will be Webcast Live.  You can watch online for free, just go to this FMCA Seminar Webcast site.

And, here's our latest Gabbing with the Geeks.  See how Chris makes her laptop act like a desktop in her new office.  And see Jim's new toy ... hint: it's a little fruity!

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Work Week in Upstate New York

When we left Apple Island on Lake Champlain in Vermont, we considered taking a Canadian route to get to our next destination of Wisconsin.  But, when we looked at our Streets and Trips map, we noticed that one of our membership parks (Bass Lake, Resorts of Distinction) was about a day's drive away and was on our route if we stayed on the American side.  Since a membership park means we can stay for no extra charge ... that sounded pretty good, we made reservations for a week and plotted our course:

Our Streets and Trips program shows us our membership parks in large icons.

Bass Lake is the park where we are, and it's very nice.  We took advantage of the restaurant/bar that is right across from our site .. how convenient!  And, good food too.  The portions were big enough that one dinner fed us for two days - so two dinners out, and we only had to cook 3 more to make it one week!
We were here to work on our websites, and to prepare for the upcoming FMCA convention in Madison, Wisconsin.  One of the things we accomplished was writing and sending our July newsletter - if you're not on the list, you can read the newsletter on our website.  There's some really good tips in it for computer tools that enhance the traveling lifestyle.

We have to take a couple of outings to see the area though!  Since we're right near Lake Ontario, we decided to take a drive one afternoon to the couple of State Parks nearby.

Selkirk Shores, a New York state park.

Be thankful that the picture isn't scratch-n-sniff!  There was quite a stench, I think caused by whatever that thick green muck was that was in the water lapping on the shore.  The beach was closed ... we were told it was due to budget cuts.

Our site at Bass Lake Resort - the restaurant/bar is in the red building.

It is really so pleasant right here at the resort, why go anywhere?  Over the weekend the park filled up with families - probably from Syracuse.  I love seeing the kids enjoy the outdoors and the carefree lifestyle that is afforded by these kinds of parks.  Lots of activities too - karaoke, dancing, bike riding, kayaking etc.  And parents get to let the kids roam free - without worries.  It's a private park, and any roads are far away.

I can't believe we've been here for 6 days already.  I've just had my nose in my computer - cleaning up websites (a never ending job), and writing articles.  Now that we have Facebook for posting small snippets more often, I find that I don't write blog posts as much.  All our pictures still get posted to our Picasa Web Albums though.  That's what's in the header bar of this blog - if you click where you see the bar of little pictures, that will take you to our Picasa Web Albums where you can view all the pictures.

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Techno Geeks!

They are TechnoRV and we are Geeks on Tour. Put us together and you'd think it would be a whirlwind of gadgets, websites, and TLAs (three letter acronyms!)  But no ... we both also like to travel, eat, drink beer and wine, and solve the world's problems with our combined knowledge.We met Phil and Tracy (and their kids Ally and Josh) nearly 2 years ago and have enjoyed meeting up with them at all the rallies where we are both participating.  This time we were parked just one coach apart at the NEAR rally so we made plans to spend the day together when the rally was over.

First stop: the Magic Hat Brewery.

I love the humor of the place.  One microbrew was named 'Wacko.'  I wish I had bought a glass or two!  I am just SOO conditioned to not buying anything because we have no room.  I think I could find room for one or two of these:

I liked the 'Hex' microbrew best.  Jim also liked it, so we had them fill a 'growler' (empty jug) to take home.  And then we were off to a local winery - Shelburne Vineyards.  The clouds parted just as we were enjoying the wine tasting, so we took a glass and sat outside for a spell.  We enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and lots of great conversation.

Beautiful waterfront in Burlington, Vermont

Techno Geek Rally?
C'mon, you didn't really think TechnoRV and Geeks on Tour could spend a day together without indulging in at least a little Digital Dreaming did you?  Both of us really enjoy sharing our information and there's just never enough time to do it all at other rallies - so, we thought: how about a Techno Geek rally?  Just us and our customers, or anyone interested in learning. 

And, the ideas just started pouring out. 

Phil likes Tai Chi, and he says he could do a class each morning to get everyone started.  I said I'd like to have a photo-sharing and editing session each evening.  Phil would give his digital photography seminar and maybe a daily assignment.  He suggested that their daughter, Ally, could lead a photo field trip each day.  She's really good, he says!  We could have a slide-show contest at the end - we'd teach Photo Story and MovieMaker.  Of course we'd have plenty of blogging instruction and GPS navigating, maybe do some geocaching.  Everyone would know what's going on because it would all be on Facebook.

Both Jim and Phil could collaborate on presenting a Safe Computing seminar.  And, we'd like to have an open Q&A session each morning.  We all thought a 'show and tell' session would be fun, where everyone brings their favorite gadgets and talks about them. 
and a smart phone round table ...
and iPad / Android shootout ...
and ...
and ...
I think this rally needs to be at least a month :-)!!
Anyone interested?

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NEAR Rally

.It was hot in Vermont today.  Mid-90s most of the day.  And, of course, our Air Conditioner went out a couple days ago.  Luckily, in this new rig, there are two A/C units - one in front and one in the bedroom.  So, we could keep it bearable.  Actually, since we're plugged in to 30Amp power, we could only run one A/C unit anyway.
Since we're at a rally, there are reputable RV Repair people right on site, so it didn't take long for them to come over, check it out, get the necessary part - a new capacitor - and install it.  $211 and we have our front A/C working again.
We were also inside most all day.  Here's our booth in the vendor area at the NEAR Rally:

Then we taught our Google Earth Seminar to a good crowd.

And ended the day with our new hands-on Picasa photo editing workshop.  I always think of some tweaking to do after teaching any class, but all in all, it went pretty well.  I think we'll keep this in our repertoire!  We're teaching it again  here on Sunday, then we'll also be teaching it twice at the upcoming FMCA Convention in Madison, Wisconsin.

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