We always make reservations when we travel

NOT!

Planning is not our strong suit. Winging it is more our style.

We left fort Lauderdale a week ago. Our first stop is Green Cove Springs, near Jacksonville, where our mail forwarding service is located. Jim ordered a new drone and it just got delivered there so we stopped to pick it up. We used our Allstays app and found a Cracker Barrel where we can park overnight. It's great, you get dinner and breakfast.

Then we got on the I-10 Interstate highway which will take us all the way to the west coast of these united States, nearly 3,000 miles. Our reason for this trip is to present our seminars at the FMCA convention in Chandler Arizona, and the Escapee's RV club Escapade in Tucson. In other words, we're going to work. Here's the basic plan, as laid out in Streets and Trips

Driving the interstates is the easiest and most comfortable way to travel when you're in a big rig, towing a car. I-10 across northern Florida is actually quite scenic as well. 

Sometime after lunch, a tuna sandwich that I make while Jim continues driving, I look at a map and determine where we might want to stop for the night. Hmmm, we could make it into Alabama. There's an  Escapees park that we've heard is nice down by gulf shores. We could even stay 2 nights and give him a chance to fly his new drone and drive to gulf shores too. I called for "reservations" saying we would be there in 2 hours. No problem, come on down!

Back on the road, i-10 thru mobile, across the Mississippi at Baton Rouge, thru the Atchafalaya swamp. By now it's starting to get dark, so I look at allstays to find the next Walmart where we can park.

We want to stop in Waco Texas to visit our friend Frank and his family. That is now clearly 2 days away, so we call him to make arrangements. He says Tuesday is better than Wednesday and we can park at his family's ranch. Cool. So, we just need one night in between. 

Texas is the land of Thousands Trails. This is a membership park system that we belong to. We pay about 600/yr whether we use it or not. So we need to use it. I got online using their website and made a reservation for one night at Lake Conroe.

One night at the Frank family ranch was just delightful. I'll write a Separate post on that.

Back on the road and Jim was into driving, so we made it to just after dark again. Pulled off at a rest area, cranked up the generator and made dinner. I used ear plugs to soften the sound of the semis and we slept well.

We don't need no stinkin' reservations!

Teach and Learn - Google Photos

This week we're staying at Riverside RV Resort in North Port, Florida. This is where the Peace River gets wider in preparation for emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It is beautiful here. This is the 3d year that we've been invited to stay and do a "Geek Week" giving some of our seminars and classes.

Yesterday was an all day, all night, Google Photos day. In the afternoon we had a 3 hour personalized teaching workshop for 4 people with iPhones.

I love these small groups because I really get to connect with individual questions and learn what is important to people and how they learn.

And, I am challenged with each different phone and each student's goals. For example, Pat had an iPhone 6+ and that camera had the live photo feature where it takes 3 seconds of video along with the still photo. She wanted to be able to isolate one frame of the video portion as the still. I've always thought this should be the main purpose of the live photo, but in practice it can't be done. I promised to figure it out and write it up in our newsletter. I have figured out one way, but I'm still looking for a better way. It will be in our February newsletter. When it's done, you'll find it on our Newsletters page.

Then last night we presented a Google Photos seminar to the Sarasota technology user group. STUG. It was an hour drive, and we only had one hour on the agenda, but it was well worth it! I love these big groups because I feel all the energy. I get to show my excitement for the Google Photos product and I don't have to deal with any of the problems because we're only showing my phone, not dealing with any of theirs.

When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice, the true essence of the orange. When you stress a person, you get their true nature. Or at least that is what I believe.

This seminar stressed us. We were already tired from the day, there was no time for jim to set up equipment because there was another seminar immediately before us. Jim had to set up while the previous presenter was still talking. And this class takes plenty of set-up. A computer, projector, sound system for computer. HDMI cable to project the iPhone screen, document camera to project the Android phone screen. While Jim was doing that, I recruited volunteers to pass out the paper handouts and got mentally prepared to present two hours of material in one hour.

It went great.

We felt squeezed, and our essence came out. Jim was ready with our standard PowerPoint introduction displayed, but I threw most of that out in order to get straight to demonstration. He joked with the audience as he deftly took each demo I threw at him and projected it on the big screen, bouncing between iPhone, Android, and computer. I let my passion show and boiled down all the features of Google Photos to get across the message that this is a game changer in the life of a photo taker. You can see the seminar description here.

We couldn't take all their questions, for lack of time, but we took enough to know that they were engaged. And there were some great questions.

At the end, we got raucous applause, and nearly 20 people were lined up to buy our book and/or become a member of Geeks on Tour. How cool is that?

After the meeting we had time to talk to people and one woman told me how it distressed her that Google Photos knows her face and she didn't like the fact that I took pictures of the group which I might post on Facebook ... or Blogger! I told her there's just not much you can do about other people taking your photo in public places. But, when someone asks not to be photographed, the photographer should honor the request.

I made sure that she is not in the photo above ... but she is in some of the other photos that I like, which got me to thinking ... how do I blur a face? I have a tutorial on how to blur a face with Picasa. I know it can't be done with Google Photos, but how about the companion photo editor Snapseed?  Hmm, I'll work on that one too! I did find out how to do it, but it doesn't blur it enough ... the healing tool makes her totally unrecognizable, but it looks a little funny. I see another tutorial in the works!

Jim and Jimmy go diving

I'm a member of the 80/80 club based on the principle that I love to scuba dive, but only when the water temperature is at least 80, AND the air temperature is also 80.

Jim is not a member of said club. He'll go diving any time.

His longtime dive buddy, Jimmy, is also not a member. So when Jimmy comes down to visit us from New jersey, in January, they go diving. Here they are sometime in 1983-84 as part of the Mobby Lobster club in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. I think the club was supposed to be the Moby Lobster club, but someone made a typo! Check out those huge lobsters! The story that Jimmy tells is that he -Jimmy- caught every one of these lobsters! What a guy, letting his friends hold 'em.

Left to Right: Mike Robinson, Bob Gale, Jimmy Lyon, Bob Hires, Don Southwick, Jim Guld

The water temp is in the mid to low 70s this time of year. The air temp has varied from 55 to 80. And the weather has generally been gorgeous. In the 10 days he was here, they went diving 5 days, 2 dives each day. 3 times with South Florida Diving Headquarters and twice with ScubaTyme.

All totaled, they caught 16 lobster.

I ate 2! We invited Jo Ellen to join us for dinner as well. Jo Ellen was Jim's wife at the time that old photo was taken. Jim often retells the story of calling her to say, "I caught dinner. Get out the BIG pot!"
Now he cooks them on the grill.

What is wrong with this seminar?

This week we were invited to be the featured speaker at a Roadtrek rally. Roadtrek are the top of the line camper vans. People who travel in them like to get together. That's a Roadtrek rally.

Our big rig looks like a mama duck and her flock of little Roadtreks!

We've presented seminars at these Roadtrek rallies many times and this time they gave us a whole day of their schedule. That's a first! You look at the schedule of rally events and, on Tuesday it just said 9-4: Geeks on Tour.  We used the morning to present our seminar called Technology for Travelers, and Google Photos. Then we took all afternoon to teach What Does This Button Do, a Primer on Using Smartphones and Tablets.

With all afternoon to  present a seminar we often have to squeeze into an hour, you'd think I'd feel like we really covered the waterfront, but it was the opposite. At the end of the day as I'm reviewing in my mind, all I could think of was all the stuff we didn't teach. "Oh, darn! I didn't show them xx. Or yy, Or zz. They spent all day with us, and they didn't learn about __________"

You see, we teach a weekly class via YouTube called What Does This Button Do and we're on episode 106. I think I want to cram all 100 hours of that show into our seminar. Obviously that's not possible, so maybe the focus of our seminar should be showing people how to find topics in our archives of online shows?  I was especially distressed on Tuesday night that we didn't show examples of that show. There were many people in the audience who had never seen us before and after spending all day with us, they still didn't know about our weekly show? 

Ok, so I should redesign the seminar to focus on excerpts from the show and teach them how to find their desired topic in the archives, right? 

No, people come to a live presentation to see, you know, a live presentation? Not a bunch of recorded clips. We need both.

1. Acquaint the audience with our show,
2. teach them some good stuff in the live presentation. 
3. this needs to fit in a one hour time slot because, sometime, that's all we get. 

And, our audience is of various levels. I don't want to talk over the heads of the rank beginners. I also don't want the more advanced folks to be bored.

Back to the drawing board. I change the class nearly every time we teach. 

p.s. I spent nearly 3 days re-writing the seminar handout. Take a look here: goo.gl/LAri0L

Allergies in Orlando

I had asthma as a kid. My parents even had to take me to the emergency room a few times when I really couldn't breathe. I generally grew out of it, until I was 40 and it came back with a vengeance. I was allergic to something at my house. It was so bad that I would sleep on the floor at the office rather than go home.

I found an allergist at the time who was very special. He was a homeopathic practitioner. He tested me for dozens of allergens and discovered several food related problems as well as some airborne allergies. He created a concoction for me combining tiny amounts of each allergen. This was a liquid which I would drop under my tongue. 

The idea is to expose yourself to the allergen and build up resistance. It was amazing! After about 6 months to a year I was completely cured. No asthma at all.

Where I used to always have a rescue inhaler within reach, I spent over 20 years not even owning one.

Until now.

I don't know if it is Orlando, the motorhome, or the weather, but this is the second time we've come up to Orlando in the last few months, stayed in the rv and I've had raging allergies. Sniffling, sneezing, itchy eyes, and wheezing asthma. Sleepless nights and miserable days. Jim is sneezing a lot too, it's not just me.

It seems to be worse when I'm inside the motorhome, which makes me more inclined to want to sell and get a smaller rig. 

Come to think of it, when I was 40 and had that bad asthma at my house is around the time I met Jim and moved in with him. Divine intervention pushing me to pleasant results?