On the Suwannee

On the last day of the Tallahassee rally, a woman started talking to us and ended up giving us a flyer with a discount coupon for an RV park that is right on the Suwannee river and it was in the direction we were headed after the rally. Perfect! We hadn't decided where we wanted to go after the rally, but we did want to do something fun. I love it when a plan comes together!

So, here we are at Suwannee Rendezvous RV park, with a beautiful full moon.

We went for a bike ride and explored a bit in this heart-of-Florida area. Looking for a fixer-upper?

The next day we rented canoes (we left our Kayaks in Fort Lauderdale this trip.) Included in the rental was a truck ride to a good place to put in upriver. The water level was pretty high, so it was more of a float than a paddle. Gorgeous day!

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Tallahassee Rally

The FMCA International Area rally (INTO) was held in Tallahassee. We left home a few days early so we could stop in Bradenton and visit with friends. That was great! As Nick Russell wrote - it was like a mini rally. That's because the 8 of us know each other quite well from just working at rallies year after year, fairgrounds after fairgrounds. 

Our mini-rally with Chris and Charles Yust, Terri and Nick Russell, and John and Kathy Huggins

 We left Bradenton and went to Tallahassee where the FMCA INTO rally was being held. Guess what? That's where Chris and Charles Yust were headed also! See what I mean? We debated about what route to take, but decided on the easy, freeway route up I-75 rather than the prettier, but stop-and-go driving up the coast. I really like Google Maps Location History to show me exactly what we did. If it were up to my memory ... I might be telling you we went up the coast road. I wrote an article about Google's Location services using this day as my example:

Some people are disdainful of traveling on the major highways, saying that you miss all the beauty only seen on the "blue" roads. I disagree, there is plenty of beauty to be seen on the big highways, and you're more relaxed - no stop-and-go, no oncoming traffic.

They parked us in a field just across the street from where our booth, and most of our seminars would be held. Very Convenient. 

It's become a habit for us to take a selfie with most every seminar

These people are in our smartphone photography workshop where we make them take pictures!

Here's a little Google Photos video of the rally:

Here's the scene near where we had dinner. A great place called Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille. (how do I remember that?  I don't. But Google Location history does!)

Since we were in Tallahassee - where I went to college at FSU - we had to go to campus and see if I recognized anything!

I found these old photos of mine in this same location:

Some photos from when I went to college at FSU. Check out the 1972 versions of a word processor and phone!

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RV Rally in Perry, Georgia

You’d think we’d be getting tired of this by now! Our first FMCA RV Rally was in 2004 in Redmond, Oregon. We were working for Coach Connect then, and helping with the Wi-Fi hotspot. The first time we presented seminars other than Wi-Fi was in March 2006 in Pomona, CA. Since then, we’ve presented seminars at every FMCA national convention – 20 of them all totaled. Usually we offer 5-8 different topics. We are slowing down a little bit, now that we have a townhouse in Fort Lauderdale, we kind of like staying there. Our 2016 travel plans are all east of the Mississippi, totaling about 4-5,000 miles as opposed to 9 or 10,000/year for the last few years.

When we’re on our way to a rally, we think, “Maybe we won’t do this too much longer.”

Then we get there!

We set up our table to take registrations for our Smartphone Photography workshop, and people are waiting to sign up at 7am! We are full with 30 participants within a few hours. People come to visit and tell us how they’ve attended our seminars in the past and learned so much.

It was great to have Devon (Jim's son) to help out at our table.

Showing off their Blog Book - they learned from Geeks on Tour!

These guys stopped by to say how they watched our tutorial videos on how to do Blogging while they were together on a caravan to Alaska (using our videos on a USB Drive.) At the end of their trip, they all were able to get a beautiful, full-color book of their travels, complete with text and photos. AND, since they all watched the same videos - they didn't have to research, discuss, and argue about how to do it! It's a great blog! Check it out at AlaskaOdyssey.blogspot.com

People would just stop by to say, “Thank You!” That feels SO good! It's like a drug, and I admit I'm hooked. We won't stop our Rally-going any time soon.

Besides, even though we've been teaching seminars at these rallies for over 10 years, it's not the same topics! The stuff we are teaching now didn't exist 10 years ago! Never a dull moment. What a ride!
Here is the schedule of seminars we taught at this year's Perry, Georgia Rally:



Here are some pictures from the rally:

Our seminar called, OK Honey, Tell me where to go! - about GPS

Doing exercises during the hands-on Smartphone photography workshop.

Not sure which seminar this was.  

We ask the audience to flap their arms like birds so we can demonstrate taking slow motion video. Since they don't have much 'flapping' room, it looks more like they're bowing to us!!  I like it! :-)

Our site at the Rally, next to our buddy and RV Historian, Al Hesselbart's vintage bus.

Safari to Okeefenokee Swamp

We schedule ourselves for a couple of seminars at the Safari RV rally in Hoboken, Georgia (yes, there really is a Hoboken in Georgia). And then took advantage of their excursion to the Okeefenokee swamp.

In case you don't know about Safari RVs - they are known for their beautiful murals on the back of the RV. Here are a few that were parked at the rally,

 

 

We gave a couple seminars for the group, and also offered one-on-one help with Smartphones. Several people took us up on that, and I really enjoyed the teaching! People love their smartphones and they want to know how to use them better!

My favorite comment was from a woman who said her husband had to drag her, kicking and screaming, to the seminar on smartphones. She really didn't want to go. I think she considers her phone a necessary evil. But, she learned so much in the seminar - not only did she enjoy that, but she couldn't wait to sign up for a half-hour one-on-one and learn more!! YES! That's what it's all about.

When we heard the group had arranged a boat tour in the Okeefenokee Wilderness Area, we jumped at the chance to play tourist for half a day! It was a gorgeous day and we got lots of great pictures.

And, here's a little video that Jim made of the rally.

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A Visit to The Villages

If you've never heard of The Villages, then you haven't spent much time in Northern Florida. It is a planned community for seniors. With a current population of roughly 140,000, it is the world's largest retirement community. There are approximately 90 miles of golf cart trails. Some residents have even opted to not own a car since they can get to everywhere in their golf cart!

The truly amazing thing is the amount of activities available. We picked up one of their weekly newspapers "The Villages Recreation News" and I counted 610 clubs from A-Z, Acapella Singalong club to Zumba with Mark. There are 3 Town Squares that host music groups every night.There are classes ranging from Cupcake Decorating, to Archery, to Google Photos ... yep! You guessed it! We taught the Google Photos class.

You meet lots of people in the RVing lifestyle, and early on in our travels we met Barb and Gary Resnick thru the computer group within FMCA (Family Motor Coach Ass'n.) At the time they lived in Texas, and Barb learned Picasa from us and started a group for using Picasa at her Sun City Community there. They have since sold their motorhome and retired to The Villages in Florida. She is part of the Sunset Point Photo Club at The Villages and made all the arrangements for us to speak to her group about Google Photos. They had a nice turnout - nearly 100 - and we had a lot of interest in Google Photos.

Here's a little video of our visit - made with Google Photos! (https://youtu.be/IHSAXYXHJ7Y)

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