Back Up to the Bar!

We are in Sarasota because we’re presenting a Cloud Computing seminar to the Sarasota PC User Group tonight.  When I consulted my AllStays Camp & RV app on my Droid smartphone, I noticed an Elks lodge with RV parking just about a mile away from our seminar location!  Cool.  Staying at Elks’ Lodges is fun because you have a restaurant and bar right next to you.  This one is cooler yet in that there is a Tiki Bar – and that’s right where the RV parking spots are!  Unfortunately it’s only open on Fridays and we’ll be leaving on Thursday.

Back up to the Bar! Sarasota Elks Lodge - Tiki Bar

We’re also just a few miles from what is touted as the Best Beach in the Nation.  We got parked about 4:30, so we took a drive to the beach for sunset.  I’m so glad we did!  Happy Birthday Jim! 

Boardwalk to the beach at Siesta Key Sarasota

This sunset is just for you!

Sunset on Siesta Key in Sarasota. Jim's birthday 2013

 

Relax and Enjoy

 

We weren't the only ones enjoying the sunset.

 

Cool spot.  When we got home, we shuffled over to the main bar and had a delicious dinner at the Elks lodge.  Unfortunately, they were out of birthday cake! We had to settle for cheesecake.  We learned that the main kitchen guy just had a baby the day before.  We also met John and Jim, long time Sarasota Elks Lodge members.  It’s always a party when you stay at the Elks.  A couple glasses of wine finished off our celebration, then we just walked around the corner to home.

Our site at the Sarasota Elks Lodge

We’re hoping to have time before we leave on Thursday to visit the Ringling Circus Museum and Mansion too.

Home for the Holidays

I can't imagine a better place to be than in South Florida right now when it's icy snow and storms in so much of the country. What a blessing that Fort Lauderdale is where we happen to call 'home.' So, we planned a 3 week stay at our home RV park - Paradise Island RV so we could spend the holidays with family.  We hope you and your family are enjoying the holidays as well ... best wishes to you from the Geeks!

See our Picasa Tip to learn how to make a picture like this.

See what I mean by beautiful weather?! Here's a picture of a day last week when I took a walk with Mom and our friend, Dee in a nearby park.  We wore shorts and t-shirts and were very comfortable.

The night before the night before Christmas was the designated time for the grandkids.  These kids have so many grandparents that Christmas lasts nearly a week!

Mom appreciates Jo Ellen's decorations

Jo Ellen and Aiva

On Christmas Day we got together with the rest of the family - that's Jim's sister, Debbie in the middle.

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Paddle on the Peace River

What a beautiful day!  And we took advantage of it.  I'm so proud of us that we got outside and put our kayaks in the water, rather than sitting at our computers all day like normal!
We met Sally in our computer classes that we held at Peace River this week.

Sally tries to hide behind her computer, but we force her to come out and learn about Picasa and her Smartphone!

We asked her if she would come with us to launch our Kayaks upriver in Wauchula, then drive our car back to the park where we would finish our paddle.  She said "Sure."  Thank you Sally for driving our car back for us.  We had a gorgeous paddle, see the video below.  I'm trying a different hosting option for this video - it's coming from my Skydrive account with Microsoft rather than Youtube.  We'll see how it works.



hmmm - even though Skydrive has 'Embed' code, what it does is take you over to Skydrive to play the video.
Here it is on Youtube:

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Peace, Hot Tub, and Laundry

Ahhhhh ... I find myself sighing several times a day here at Thousand Trails, Peace River.  The river that gives the park its name has earned the title of Peace.  It flows thru the tropical forest of palm trees, live oaks, and spanish moss.  We chose to take a site right on the river's edge because we felt the need for Rest and Relaxation.  We have all our curtains open so we can look out at the river.
Aaaaaaahhhhh

Reflections on the Peace River

First order of business was to relax in the hot tub!  No ... wait, we got to get the laundry done - it's been a couple of weeks!  Well, the laundry is right beside the pool & hot tub ... I have a solution!  As long as the bathing suit doesn't need washing!

My view while doing Laundry

Gee ... I seem to remember a similar post from when we stayed here during the 2006-7 season, I wonder if I can find it.  ... ha, I just typed in 'laundry' to the 'search this blog' field and here it is: http://geeksontour.blogspot.com/2006/12/laundry-day.html

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TechnoGeek Learning Rally

Wow - I haven't had a minute to even think about posting to this blog.  But, I have been posting almost minute by minute to the Facebook page for our TechnoGeek Learning Rally.  You can check it out over there - a Facebook 'Page' is completely public, you don't even need to have a facebook account to view it.

This is the second time we've put on our TechnoGeek Learning Rally.  The Techno part is our friends, Phil and Tracey, of TechnoRV.  They are fulltime RVers who make their living while on the road by selling technology for RVers.  Things that keep you safe like tire pressure monitoring and electrical system management, and things that make life easier like Wi-Fi boosters and routers.  They teach these things at the big RV Rallies - and that's where we got to know them.  Their seminars and our seminars are both quite popular, so we had the idea of having a rally where it's all Geek and all Techno, all the time!

We held our first TechnoGeek Learning Rally this past April.  If possible, I think we covered even more material this time than the first one!  We started with photos - learning about all those settings on your camera.  This is a popular class of Phil's.  Then he gave everyone an assignment to look for a different type of picture - letters.  They had to take the pictures, then edit them using Picasa, and put them together in a collage.  Here are a couple of the results:

We taught an hour of  'Smartphone Boot Camp' every day after lunch.

 I think my favorite comment was from an attendee who said his kids were so impressed when he sent them a panorama photo taken from his smartphone.  They didn't know how to do that!

It was a pretty intense week, with lots of hard work.

Lots of good food

And lots of fun

You don't even have to take my word for it, several people who attended also keep blogs.  You can see what Nick Russell had to say in his blog posts:

Or Marci Gimmarro's blog:

• also TechnoGeek Learning Rally Day 2-3

or Larry Vanstone's blog:

• also The Education Continues
• School Day Eaten Away
• Keyring (How did we hear about TechnoGeek Learning Rally)

And last, but not least, listen to the LivingTheRVDream.com's one hour podcast devoted to the rally including interviews of several attendees.

It was an intense, productive, and fun week.  As happened at the Escapade rally earlier this year, I ended the week with a cold and spent the entire day in bed.  Now - Sunday night - I am back among the living.  I'm wondering if there is a way to keep the productive and fun part while easing up on the intensity.  Any suggestions are welcome!

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