‘Doing’ Louisville

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Jim’s been here almost 3 weeks, and I’ve been here 1 week now.  We got our monthly newsletter sent out today so we figured it’s about time we saw some sights.
Churchill Downs
The famous Kentucky Derby happens the first Saturday in May right here in Louisville at Churchill Downs.  One of our neighbors here at the RV park told us that this was one of the tourist spots we should not miss.  They have several nice tours.  So we grabbed our Garmin Nuvi – found Churchill Downs and pressed ‘Go.’

Pretty impressive place.  Although they have plenty of horse-racing in the Spring and Fall.  It’s all about The Greatest Race! A tradition since 1875 – the running of a 2-minute race!

Get this on your phone | Make your own free ringtones

  See this year’s Kentucky Derby video.
We signed up for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour.  First stop – the jockeys’ locker room and their ‘Silk’ room.  These are all the shirts that the jockeys wear representing the owners of the horses.  This is how they fly the owners’ colors.  Pretty bright room eh?

Here are the signature Twin Spires.

And here’s a panorama of the track.  Click it to see a larger image .. then use your Back button to return.

More behind the scenes .. this is the view that the announcers get:

I think my favorite part was the large caricature paintings of all the people and horses who have been involved in the Derby throughout the years.  Here’s just a small piece of one of the murals:

And – a self-portrait of the artist:

And, having our tour guide point out some of the personalities portrayed made it all the more enjoyable
Louisville Slugger Ever since Lynne and John went to the Louisville Slugger factory, Jim has wanted a bat engraved with Geeks on Tour.  Pretty cool huh?

Now *that’s* a bat!

The number of tourists at the Louisville Slugger factory was astounding!  Tours of the factory left every 5 minutes and had at least 25 people in each.  Did you know that a major league hitter can go thru 120 bats in one season?!  There was a "rush" order on the production line for Florida Marlins short stop Hanley Ramirez.
It was an interesting neighborhood too.

Did you see the Forbes.com article?

Between the heat and the airplane flights from Louisville, KY to Fort Lauderdale and back, I’ve been a little out of touch.  Jim picked up the slack and wrote a couple of posts here!  I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting – almost 2 weeks.

I do use Facebook for quick updates, both business (www.facebook.com/geeksontour) and personal (www.facebook.com/chrisguld.)  One of the things I mentioned there is a link to an article on Forbes.com about us entitled  “Running a Subscription Website from the Road.”  We really like how this article came out and want to be sure we tell you all about it even if you don’t follow us on Facebook.

How did it Happen?
Serendipity.  Back in May, just before we left Ft. Lauderdale, I got a notice for a meeting in Boca Raton – just north of us – where the speaker was someone I knew and the topic was Camtasia.  Camtasia is the software I use for creating our tutorial videos.  I love it.  They just came out with a new version and that is what was going to be demonstrated at this meeting.  I jumped at the chance to attend.  It was good to reconnect with the speaker, and then, after the meeting, the guy next to me started asking all sorts of questions about how I use Camtasia and what our business was and how we operate.  Turns out his name is David Carr and he’s a freelance writer who has a commitment to Forbes.com.  He thought we’d make an interesting story and he made an appointment to visit us at the RV before we left to follow up and take a few photos.

We like the Article
You never know how an article is going to come out, but we really like this one.  It’s the first time anyone has focused on the business part of our lifestyle. 

Check it out and tell us what you think.  Actually, tell Forbes readers … there is a place for comments at the bottom and I don’t see any so far.  You could be the first!

Thanks David!
For such a professional, yet personal, article.  To find out more about David, and see the pictures he took of us, you can go to his website at CarrCommunications.com

Happy Father’s Day

I love you, Dad.

Today we celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.

I celebrate my Dad today.  I hope he gets his favorite breakfast of bagels, Nova and cream cheese.  If I were there, I’d fix it for him.  My sister will be there this afternoon and Chris will be there as my surrogate, but it’s not the same.  They won’t enjoy sitting (and snoozing) in the living room, watching the Marlins game.  A win would be nice.

As a lucky father myself, I’ll just take it easy today. 

The People We Meet

Jim here.  I’m batching it for a couple of weeks in Kentucky while Chris is in Florida.  I have plenty to keep me busy.  She left a nice honey do list.  Chris is trying to spend quality time with her mom, visiting friends and shuttling my dad to his various appointments, so she is much too busy to post to the blog.

One of the best things about this lifestyle is meeting new and intersting people.  Often, they become your neighbor for a short time, then they are on their way.

New neighbors pulled in the other day with cool graphics on their 5th wheel, including a web address. http://www.sacredskinroadshow.com/. 

I’m always intrigued by that kind of advertising, and promptly visited their website.  Turns out, their 5er is a Traveling Custom Tattoo Studio.

When I introduced myself, they were unloading a couple of bikes to clear their workspace.  Here is a pic of the 1950 Harley Davidson Panhead and ‘96 Sportster.

LongJon and wife Pinky are in their second year RVing.  They sold the studio in Phoenix after 11 years in business there.  LongJon was a writer for motorcycle and tattoo magazines when he apprenticed with a master artist in Tennessee some 16 years ago. 

Pinky was an aspiring artist and wanted to learn the tattoo trade.  She presented her artwork and asked LongJon for an apprenticeship.

I visited with them last night at their rig and got to see them at work. 

A local couple from Louisville who had been following the Roadshow on the web, contacted them and arranged for some tattoos. 

Pinky was just finishing up an arm tattoo on Jena and LJ was busy with Eric’s larger artwork.  They graciously allowed pictures and comfortably chatted while art happened.  Eric has several tattoos and said LongJon has a nice light touch.  

  Here is the final result:

We talked about working on the road and particularly the knowledge and sanitary requirements unique to their line of work.  I was impressed with their professionalism and style.

They left today for a bike rally in Rockingham, NC then they travel out to Montana.  They expect to log 14K miles this season doing 5 or 6 major gigs and several private events. 

If you happen to see them in your travels, be sure to say Hi from the Geeks.

Travel safely.

Two Geeks Apart

Our last stop was Louisville, KY.  Mom made fast friends with the locals, then we said our goodbyes to Jim and Odie.

We had planned this first leg of our summer that Mom would come with us for the first 3 weeks, then I”d spend a couple weeks with her.  So I flew back to Fort Lauderdale with Mom, leaving Jim to be a bachelor in Louisville.

This morning we went to a yoga class on the beach.

Can you see that calm wonderful ocean?  You can bet if Jim had been here, we would have been diving!

Then we had lunch with friends – the main reason being that Diane and Andy were in town to share with us all that they’re going to have a baby!  This was quite unexpected news – but we all know they’ll be wonderful parents – especially if being fit is a factor in good parenting!  That’s Diane in the yoga picture with the green shirt.  She had already run and biked before yoga – I was barely able to get up in time to make it!  Andy was swimming a mile in the ocean while we were yoga’ing.

Natalie, Diane, Andy, Geri

See more about Diane and Andy at their blog but be warned – you’ll get tired just reading about all their activities!  If you want to try to keep up with them, you might need some of the products that they sell on their Rolling Sands Harmony website.  Mostly Yoga and Pilates items.  No, you won’t get a discount by mentioning the Geeks, but we know you’ll get quality products and be sending your money to really good people.