New Friends and Picasa

Catherine Tracy has been teaching Picasa to her computer group at Sun City Hilton Head for several years.  She’s also been a member of Geeks on Tour and active on our Picasa Forum.  We’ve gotten to know her because of PIcasa and we discussed a Geeks on Tour presentation for her computer group sometime in the Fall, but when she heard we’d be traveling thru her area in May, Catherine arranged for a small group presentation this week.   We loved that she came up with a specific topic: Making a Banner Picture with Picasa. Here’s Catherine introducing us:

Catherine introducing us at Sun City Hilton Head Picasa seminar

For a last minute event, they got a pretty good turnout!

Had a good crowd for our spur-of-the-moment seminar at Sun City Hilton Head

After the presentation, we got a tour around Sun City.  Their computer club has over 2,000 members!  So, even on annual dues of only $10, they are able to afford a completely equipped computer classroom.  12 workstations, each with one monitor/keyboard/mouse – but two computers!  One PC and one Mac.  A simple switch goes back and forth between the two.  Plus – they have 8 iPads for students in the iOS classes!  Amazing.

I thought the computer club’s classroom would be down the hall from our presentation room in the clubhouse but, no!  It was a drive – and on the way, we passed nature trails, tennis courts, pickle ball courts, and people bicycling everywhere.  They’re not kidding when they say it’s an ‘Active’ community!

They also have an RV club.  And, we’re staying in the community RV park.  Actually, it’s a storage lot for residents with RVs – but they have a few full hookup sites for visitors like us.  Very convenient.

After the seminar and the tour, Catherine took us to Hilton Head Island.  I’ve never been there, and Jim remembers it from many years ago, when he crewed on yachts captained by his Dad, and docked at the Harbour Town Marina on Hilton Head island.  I took advantage of the pretty scenery to use my old camera and my new lens from Glenn.

Jim remembers a time when he and his Dad ran yachts from NJ to FL and docked here at Harbour Town Marina in Hilton Head

View from atop the lighthouse

Hilton Head Lighthouse

And, in the evening, Catherine and her husband, Brent took us sightseeing in Bluffton, and then to dinner.  What a wonderful day with new friends – all because of Picasa – and RVing. 

Catherine and Brent took us sightseeing around Bluffton and Hilton Head

 

Church of the Cross

Old Friends and Cameras

As we continued to travel north we thought to call our old friend Glenn Martin, who moved to Jacksonville several years ago.  Glenn is a scuba diving buddy from our Kayuba club.  We got him on the phone and learned that he was pretty busy.  We ended up getting creative.  Our mail forwarding service is called St. Brendan’s Isle and it is located just south of Jacksonville. We figured it was worth going out of our way to physically pick up our mail this time, and Glenn was able to meet us there and go to lunch.
If you’re not an RVer, I’ll bet you have a lot less success making these spur of the moment connections with old friends!  The fact that we’re near his home is what makes the meeting possible.  The fact that we’re only going to be there for one day is what makes it happen.  Have I mentioned lately that I love the RV lifestyle?!
It was so exciting to catch up with what Glenn is doing.  I remember another visit, back in 2007, when he was just getting interested in photography.  Wow!  Look how far he’s come!  Although he can’t quit his day job yet, he has gone Pro, and is starting to make make money from his stunning shots.  Check it out at GlennMartinPhotography:

I’ve been in the market for a new camera for quite some time now.  The good camera (Digital SLR) that I have was a hand-me-down from my Dad,and that was 6-7 years ago.  It’s a Canon Digital Rebel and it’s been in the shop a couple of times.  I know the new cameras are LOTS faster and better.  But, they’re also pretty pricey.  I”ve been looking at the high-end point and shoot cameras like the Nikon Coolpix P510 or the Panasonic Lumix.  We have friends with both and they take wonderful pictures.  I’ve had the opportunity to try them, and they just don’t feel the same as an SLR.  I didn’t realize how much I like the experience of using a viewfinder, looking thru the lens, and hearing/feeling the click of the lens. 
So, I asked Glenn for his recommendation and he said that I want the Canon 60D.  If I stick with Canon, I can use my existing lenses.  One that the new digital SLRs do that mine doesn’t is take video.  I’ve learned over the years how important sound is to video and I look for a separate input on the camera for an external microphone.  It’s rare.  The Canon 60D has one!  So, the decision is made.  I want a Canon 60D – now I just have to figure out how to pay for one! 
Meanwhile, Glenn brought along his old lenses – saying they’re just gathering dust and I should use them! OMG … check this out:
 
Probably the most important feature that his lenses have that mine don’t is image stabilization.  What a difference it makes!  So, now I need to get back into photography.  My Droid smartphone has been my main camera for quite a while now.  I hope I remember how to use the good one.
Thanks Glenn – I’ll try to make you proud of me.

Facebook and Nephews

Last night we stopped in Daytona Beach - at International RV Resort because it was suggested by one of our last rally-goers that this may be a good place to hold our next rally.  They sure had a nice - big meeting hall, and we were instantly sold when we saw a beer keg with tap!  But, we were told that the kitchen is only for use by licensed caterers, and I don't think Tracey wants to go that far!  The owner wasn't there, we'll still call him later, but the information about the kitchen doesn't sound good.

I love using Facebook with my Droid phone.  As Jim is driving, and I'm just enjoying the view, I figure it's a good idea to post a little note just informing friends that we'd left Fort Lauderdale and were planning to stay in Daytona for the night.  It is so easy to do that ... it's part of the reason why I'm blogging so seldom any more!
Anyway, within minutes we get a comment on the post from Jim's nephew, Brian.  We know that Brian lives in Daytona - but he is often out of town on work.  This message indicated he was home - so we made arrangements for dinner.  So nice to see you Brian!  And thank-you Facebook for making it possible!

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Mother's Day Visit

Since our May rally in Kentucky was cancelled, our next engagement is late June for The Rally in Louisville.  So, we figured a short visit to Fort Lauderdale would be in order, just to check in on my Mom and Jim's Dad, maybe a grandkid fix etc.

We got into town on Saturday, the day of the Super Full Moon.  Watching the moon-rise over the ocean has always been a favorite thing of Mom's so we picked her up and went down to the beach.  What a zoo!  We had no idea this was such a big deal.  There was no place to park and the beach looked like spring break except everyone had a fancy camera with a big lens on a tripod pointing at the ocean.  Really - it was a solid line of cameras waiting for this moon.

It was beautiful night.  We met our good friends Chris and Richard and had a great time - but the moon wasn't that big a deal - just a nice full moon.  I couldn't believe Mom actually stayed up so late.  We didn't get her back home till 10pm!  When I visited her the next day - she was so surprised to see me, saying that she hadn't seen me in so long.    I sure hate this Alzheimers disease.  That's great news today that a National Alzheimers Plan has been created.  I hope they figure it out before I get there!  

We were only going to stay a few days, but Jim came down with some sort of cold or throat sickness on Wednesday and didn't get out of bed for 3 days.  Since that brought us so close to Mother's day, I said I wanted to stay thru Sunday so I could see her on Mother's day.  Not that she'd know any different - she didn't know it was Mother's day, and by later that same day she didn't know that I had been there - but I knew, and that helps me feel like a good daughter.  I so want to feel like a good daughter but it's hard when whatever you do is never enough.  I know a lot of you out there have been thru this, so you understand.  If you are dealing with Alzheimers or other Dementia in a loved one, I found the Alz.org's message board to be a great place for information and commiseration.

The good news is she's physically healthy, she's in a great apartment in a nice assisted living facility, but she has progressed in the disease to the point where I'm not comfortable taking her for RV trips - and I feel bad about that, she always liked it so much.  Actually, I remember a time before her Alzheimers - when she pooh poohed going RVing.  Traveling in this country was just too tame for her.  Check out the website I've kept for her that shows all her travels ... www.marilynsplanet.com.  I have my work cut out if I'm going to come anywhere close to her.

So now we're back on the road.

Pulling out of Paradise Island

No Odie ... don't look Back.

Saying g'bye to the manager, Bill.  Jim won't be working here next year - we've decided to wander around Florida instead.

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Techno-Geek Learning Rally recap

We completed the Rally without a hitch!  the weather was perfect, the food was delicious, the people now feel like family, and everybody learned a lot ... including us!
Here's a short video I put together:


See more info about the rally in our Geeks On Tour April Newsletter, as well as on the special Facebook Rally Page.
After the rally, we rested for a day and partied with Phil and Tracey and a few others who stayed over.  We reviewed the rally with Phil and Tracey and decided we liked it so much that we would go ahead with plans to have another one in the Fall.  Phil and Tracey worked so hard, and were so fun ... we really liked working together!  Josh and Ally too.  Talk about feeling like family!  All we need is for Jim and I to speak with British accents and we could all be in the same family.  But, no - we're not going to move in together - they already have two adults, two teenagers, and one dog in a 37 foot RV!

Jim and Chris (Geeks on Tour) Tracey and Phil (TechnoRV) with our TechnoGeek Learning Rally shirts.

The logical time and place for our next rally is after the Good Sam rally that will be held in November in Daytona Beach.  We've set up another Event Page for people that want to express interest now.  We don't have a price yet.  We need to charge more than we did this time ($165 per RV) ... or we need a lot more people.  But, we don't want too many more people because this worked SO well for teaching.  You simply cannot handle a hands-on computer class with more than 20 people, and there's not enough time to cover all our topics if we have multiple sessions of the same topic.  We will probably be limiting registration to no more than 30 RVs (we had 20 this time), upping the rate a bit, and looking for sponsors.  In order to get all our seminar topics in the rally schedule this past week, I scheduled a couple seminars after dinner.  I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I could not do that again!  It just burned everyone out too much.  Me?  I didn't seem to notice ... I just kept on teaching - with one minor adjustment - can you find it in the picture below?

The TechnoRV bus got underway ... headed to Goshen, IN ... on Monday.  We planned another week here.  Monday and Tuesday we gave our Computer Bootcamp class to two rally attendees, Peg and Jackie.  They were great.  Very computer literate, but recognized that they'd never had any formal training on the basics of their laptops.  Think about it, did you ever have to close the lid on your computer at the office and understand what it did? Anyway, we were able to get thru the material pretty quickly and then we handled some specific questions they had like how to combine their Comcast email with their Gmail account, and something else which I forget :-)

Now, we're the only ones left here from the rally, and we're just sitting at our computers - catching up on email and updating websites etc.  Our next rally, the RVSEF conference in Bowling Green, was cancelled, so we're going to go back to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days so I can see Mom, and Jim can visit and tie up a few loose ends with his Dad's house.  And ... maybe we'll go Kayak Diving!  The next rally on our calendar isn't till June 21 - The Rally in Louisville, KY.

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