Datastorm Install

I helped get the dish up on the roof this time. It was actually quite easy. Jim pushed it up the ladder while I held a line that was tied to it. I held the line and took up the slack. Slow and easy.

January Family Visit

This is the longest stretch between blog posts in a while. Let me catch up.

We went to Fort Lauderdale for a visit. Gotta have a picture of the baby at least once a month right? Let's see, he was born last July ... so he's 6 months old now. What a cute little guy! Here's 4 generations of Guld men. There's James 1 (seated), James 2 (standing at the right), Devon (standing at left) and August James (on top!).



And here's Mom (Lacie) and Dad (Devon) with their happy baby.



We stayed at Mom's house. Odie must know that Mom's more accustomed to cats than dogs. Don't ya think he looks cat-like laying on top of the back of the couch?



We also had a nice dinner with friends, and were happy to get a dentist appointment in too. Then back to Peace River and a waiting Datastorm install.

We were also so happy to have a visit from Bill and Susan. We've run into Bill and Susan on the road 4 times now. Two in Utah, once in Big Bend, Texas, and now here. It's a great example of how friendships can develop thru traveling all over the country, and especially with the help of the DatastormUsers.com map. This is the map where each of us with a satellite dish can have an icon representing where we are at any time. Whenever you follow our link to the map, you can see where we are - and we can see who is nearby. We have met new people this way, as well as keeping up with folks like Bill and Susan. I encourage you to check out their website, and also this wonderful magazine article about their journey!

This must be Winter

The thermometer said 44 degrees when we got up this morning. Quite chilly, but also clear and beautiful. I made sure to grab the camera before taking Odie for a walk.






You can tell it's cold by the steam rising from the river.



Sunbeams thru the trees are always appealing to me, but especially when it's cold out!




Have we been watching too manyHarry Potter movies? Nothing wrong with a little magic to warm up the coach!

Fun with Friends

All four of us, Jim, Me, Lynne and John, went to the RV Super Show. We just went to have fun. We weren't working it. We weren't looking to buy a new RV. Of course, we're always interested to check out what's new. And, we were also checking out the suppliers area, wondering if we should have a booth there ourselves someday. But, the main purpose was to have fun.

How d'you think we did?







Our motorhome made the trip just fine, so nice to know everything still works after so long sitting still. And, after looking at lots of $100,000 to $400,000 motorhomes ... we still like ours the best!

That's a successful show.

Goin' to the Show

Oh Boy! We're going to roll the wheels of our motorhome today. We've been parked since the first week of November ... the tires are getting square on the bottom! I've also missed that feeling of 'rebooting your life' that comes when you pull the plug and turn on the ignition key.

We want to check out the 2007 Florida RV Supershow. We've never been before, and we feel like we're the only ones. It's supposed to be huge. We're also interested in looking at it from the point of view of maybe having a booth next year. Originally, we thought we'd just drive the car up and visit for the day. But, with Lynne and John staying in an RV park nearby, we decided to get a space there and take the motorhome for a couple nights.

OK, gotta get busy cleaning and stowing!

Nothing Special to Report

It's been a quiet work-week at Peace River. I haven't had much to say ... obviously :-)

Jim did his help-desk work each day. We presented 2 seminars this week - Photostory 3 on Thursday, and Google Earth today.



We set up movie night on Thursday and showed 'Starman', one of my favorites.

I worked on some more tutorial videos. And I made a new video to be an introduction to our website, Geeksontour.com. I used Photostory 3 to create it, inspired by our seminar! I've always known that the best way to really learn something is to teach it. Check it out. There's a few more changes I want to make, but you'll get the idea - whaddaya think? Photostory really is fun.

Off to see the Big City

We took a drive today to the big city of St. Petersburg. We are getting accustomed to being country bumpkins in the middle of nowhere that is Zolfo Springs, and it is quite an adventure to get on the freeway and go over big bridges like the Sunshine Skyway that spans Tampa Bay.



It was a Chamber of Commerce day in the Tampa Bay area - 78 - 80 degrees. Just gorgeous. That's St. Pete up ahead.



Admittedly we had a couple errands that required an office supply store. (geez those ink cartridges drain quickly when you're printing seminar handouts!) but, that would not be enough to get us to drive 1.5 hours to St. Pete. The occasion was Lynne and John's arrival. Up until 12 days ago they were in the frozen north on Whidbey Island near Seattle! They got word that there was a job waiting for them if they could get to St. Pete by today. And they're here!

At first we told them we'd let them get settled in a day or so before we came to visit. But, this morning Jim and I looked at each other and said, 'naaahhh, they don't need to settle in!' So we started driving, planning to surprise them. We ended up surprising ourselves, our timing was so good. We pulled in right behind them. Before they even had a chance to unhook the car from the motorhome!



Hey! What are friends for, if not to bug ya?! Welcome to Florida guys! We've missed you.

Kayuba Visitors

After a hard day at work :-) helping campers with their computer issues and giving seminars, we welcomed Commander Kayuba to our Peace River campground.

Yes, Dick is probably the primary reason that our Kayuba dive club started so many years ago, and we're so happy that he and Geri decided to come visit us for the weekend. Of course, we know that the main reason for the trip was to have an excuse to take his fancy new sports car for a road trip! And, since there's no room in there for a tent, they opted to stay in one of the cabins.



And, since they certainly can't put kayaks on the top, we'll need to rent canoes to paddle the river tomorrow.

Meet Bob and Polly and new baby, Datastorm

One thing I notice, and like, about couples you meet while RVing ... they really get along well. Think about it, if you're gonna live 24/7 in a 35X12 (approx) box, you *BETTER* get along! Bob and Polly exemplify this philosophy, and they're a joy to be around.



They are also fellow geeks. They used to live in Tampa and they had a software business which developed data systems for Juvenile Assessment Centers in several counties in Florida. They got out of that business a few years ago to follow Bob's dream of living on the road. Now they spend summers in Southwest Wyoming, some of the winter here in Florida, and their legal residence is in South Dakota. True full-time RVers, we have a lot in common with Bob and Polly. And, they decided to add to our common factors by getting a Datastorm Internet Satellite dish from us! This will help them in their new business ventures and stock-trading.

Here's Jim and Bob getting their new dish onto the roof of their Dutch Star motorhome.






Although the dish has to be secured to the roof with screws, Jim was happy that he didn't have to drill a big hole for the cabling because it worked to pass them inside the coach next to the exhaust vent.



Here's the proud new owners admiring their magic dish.



I snapped a photo of 'the boys' as they were playing with the new toy. They looked up at the sound of the flash popping up, and immediately went back to their toy. Aren't they cute?




And, here's Polly, calling friends to tell about their new purchase.




As the sun set, we have a new Satellite Internet connection here at Peace River. You'll be seeing them on the DatastormUsers.com map very soon now.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Jim and Elvis both had their birthdays yesterday. We had nothing special planned, but Bob and Polly invited us over for dinner not knowing it was his birthday. Perfect! I brought a cake and candles, they made a great dinner and we had a wonderful time. Polly snapped this photo



Today we went for a short paddle with another couple from the park, Darwin and Sheila. hmmm, are we sociable geeks? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Find the Alligator

John posted a comment that he couldn't see the alligator in my last blog entry. I thought I'd follow up. If you're going to frequent these parts, you beter learn how to spot an alligator! It's not always easy, they are often in the water with just their eyes showing - kinda like an iceberg, 90% is underwater. Sometimes they're totally submerged and the only way you know they're there is by the bubbles popping to the surface.

Anyway, if you couldn't spot the alligator, here's some help:

Walk in Nature

It's good for the spirit. I start every day at the computer and, just as I'm getting wound up tight thinking about everything I should get accomplished, we go for a walk on the nature trail with Odie. I take some deep breaths and go aaaaahhhhhhhhhh, life IS good.

It was foggy this morning



You gotta look close to see the alligator in the water.



I feel SOO lucky to be able to take this walk every day!

Florida in January

It is *very* hard to get an RV space in Florida in January. We feel so lucky to have made the arrangements to work here and get a space for the whole season.

Here is a photo of this campground in August:



and here's the same view in January.



And, here's what makes it possible for us - Jim being a 'computer help-desk' aka 'Resident Geek' in the clubhouse.



Yesterday was a particularly geeky day. When Jim went to put in his hours at the lodge, I visited another RVer and gave her some education and advice on her website. Then in the afternoon we presented a seminar on 'Email on the Road'. Later in the afternoon we hosted a get-together of Internet Satellite dish owners for a particularly interesting discussion. It still seems clear that our Datastorm satellite dish is the best way to go. Then, at night, we set up our computer and projection equipment to host Movie Night. It was a beautiful night with a full moon and we watched 'Contact' with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Nice day.

Blog Changes

I have decided to start the new year with a new Blog! So, from now on, you will need to visit www.geeksontour.blogspot.com to see the continuing adventures of Jim, Chris and Odie.

The old blog is getting worn out - just like Marie's shoes after dancing on New Year's Eve!



Actually, it's nowhere near worn out. More likely it's me that's worn out trying to keep up with the changing web technology. Hey! It's a great ride. See you on the 'other side'!

Happy New Year

The park hosted a New Year's Eve party last night and I just wanted to dance, not worrying about taking any photos. So THANK YOU to Ron who took a bunch of pictures. And, he even put them into a slide show/movie using Photostory 3. Guess where he learned to do that?! That's right, he took Jim's seminar last week. He's already created 2 or 3 movies using what he learned. Check it out:
Photo Credits: All photos, and the slide show, by Ron Morrison, Blue Heaven Bus. Shown here by permission.

Description of this Blog

This is a backup Blog. The real blog is located at www.geeksontour.blogspot.com. For 2003-2006 I posted this blog to my hosted space at www.jimandchris.com. By the end of 2006, Blogger/Google changed their whole blogging system and made it much more advantageous to publish on their free blogspot servers, so I moved the *whole* blog to Blogspot.

This made me very nervous. I've been accustomed to having FTP access (something under my control) to all my blog files and photos. With the new Blogspot system, I'm still hosting the photos on www.jimandchris.com, but the blog itself is out of my reach.

This is my workaround. For every post I make in 2007 to geeksontour.blogspot.com, I will also make it here. (actually, I'll make the post here first because uploading photos will be easier - then I'll copy the html and paste it into the geeksontour.blogspot.com blog)

The end result is this:
Entire 'Live' Blog from 2003 to present will be located at geeksontour.blogspot.com
2003-2006 Blog still exists at www.jimandchris.com/weblog/blogger.html
2007 Blog will exist at www.jimandchris.com/weblog07/index.html
Each year I will start a new 'backup' blog.

Whew!