2017 in Review

What a year!

We call this being "semi-retired" and yet we did more this year than ever. By trading in our big RV for the little one, we acknowledged that we are no longer "fulltime" RVers. We do have a stick & Brick home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but as you can see from the map, we weren't there much.

You might notice that there's not much in this blog for the end of the year ... I'm tired! But, I still hope to go back and fill in some of the blanks. Meanwhile, if you click on the menu above for our Photo Albums, I have been keeping up with that. (because it's so easy with Google Photos :-)

And, here's the 3.5 minute movie I put together of the full year.



Happy New Year everyone! Let's see just how good we can make 2018.

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Victor and Penny Groupies

After their gig in Kansas City, Victor and Penny performed the next night in Nebraska then, they told us they would be at a small town called Fairfield, Iowa. We looked at a map and it was on our way to our next gig in Moline, Illinois.
Let's Go.

We splurged and booked a room in the same hotel where Victor and Penny were staying. I think that was first for all of our years in RVing, we never stayed at a hotel rather than the RV.  This is another benefit of the little van camper, that we can park in a hotel parking lot no problem. It was good timing too - it was COLD. And the hotel room had a large, jacuzzi bathtub as well as a fireplace. We enjoyed ourselves. Would you believe that Fairfield, Iowa is known as the home of Mahareshi University of Transcendental Meditation OOH!

They played music at another unique venue

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The Geeks go to Kansas City to see Victor and Penny

This is the way we travel. We book speaking engagements (gigs) and travel from one to the next. When we finish one gig, we look at the calendar, then we look at the map. If there's time, we find someplace in between this gig and the next where we can play a little. We were very excited about visiting Kansas City to see Victor and Penny, but we had no idea what other goodies lay in store.
Kansas City is cool!
First of all, we found a Casino parking lot that allowed overnight parking. It was right on the banks of the Missouri river and easy walking distance to downtown.

We walked a little ways to the City Market, then we caught the free city trolley up to the Union Station and the WWI Memorial. We had a gorgeous day!

View of Kansas City from the WWI Memorial park

Just by luck, we decided to step inside Union Station and we read the first billboard about "Living History." It's an app that adds Augmented Reality to your phone, you see people and things from history and you can even take a picture. One story was about how people danced the Charleston, and Jim even got in the action.

After all that fun, it got even better as we made our way to the Knuckleheads Saloon where Victor and Penny were playing that night.

In this video you can see the whole story, and hear them play!

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The Farm and Barn

Traveling thru the midwest, you see a lot of farmhouses and barns. Every one is an artist's dream. I can just imagine a painter setting up her easel and spending hours in the golden light capturing the faded glory of a rundown barn. All I have is a fleeting second speeding by on the highway, but my phone's camera is ready and I snap a hasty photo thru the bug-splattered windshield.

Looking at this mess, you wonder, "Was it even worth the effort of holding the phone and tapping the shutter button? Well, with the photo editing tools at our disposal now - I think you'll be surprised.
First, just using the basic tools of Google Photos, I can crop, color correct and enhance the photo I took.

That's a lot more attractive than the original picture I snapped. In fact, I kinda like it! I like it so much that I wonder what another app can do. It's called Prisma and it is pure magic. It uses different artists styles and somehow takes your photograph and converts it to artwork in various styles. Just one tap on my phone's screen creates each of these images.

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Ozark Country

We had a full week in between the Workamper Rendezvous and our next gig about 600 miles away. We looked at the map and saw that Kansas City wasn't that far off the route. Our musical friends - Victor and Penny are based in Kansas City and we knew from Facebook that they would be performing in town the next weekend. "Sounds like we have a plan!" I told Jim. So we headed northwest from Arkansas to Kansas City. This map shows our route. Then our next destination is the black dot by Davenport.

Between Heber Springs, Arkansas and Kansas City is a National Park called Buffalo National River. It was right on our route, so we stopped over and took a look at the Visitor Center, then took a walk down by the river. This area is generally known as the Ozarks. It's a high plateau covering parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The plateau is broken up by canyons, cliffs and caves, making for some remarkable scenery. But the area is probably best known for all the shows in Branson!

In the parking lot at Buffalo River National Park

Just about a half hour further up the road was an Escapees RV park where we've stayed before. It's called Turkey Creek RV just south of Branson, MO. The Verizon signal was even good enough that we could do our Button Show from there: Episode 127 How about a $59 Smartphone?

The view out our window on a rainy morning 

Studio "R" for Roadtrek!

After leaving Turkey Creek, we needed lunch and I knew we would be passing by the famous place where they throw rolls at you ...

On Thursday, we had an appointment at an RV repair place Transwest Truck and Trailer. You see, our awning blew down while we were camped in Heber Springs (did I forget to mention this?) and we were hoping they could re-attach it. They did!
We stayed one night just parked in the parking lot at the repair shop, then, when the job was done, we found an Elks Lodge nearby. Very comfortable. Very secluded. Very nice. We are so at home wherever we are!

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