Learning about Booths

Since we are on a mission to make a living that will keep us on the road – we took the opportunity to have a booth at the Holiday Rambler rally.  We have a lot to learn, but we’re on our way.  Here’s our booth:

 

 

One thing we’re learning is that, just because nobody stops by the first day or two – that doesn’t mean you’re not going to make sales.  People take our seminars, and do other things at the beginning of the rally.  Then, they do their shopping on the last day.

 

We had a small, but respectable turnout for our Picasa seminar:

 

We thought we had learned, from other small  rallies, that computer tuneups were popular – thus our *fancy* sign for $99 tuneups!  Not one taker?!

 

It seems that we are just less known in this group.  When we arrived last year at the Gypsy Journal rally, for example, the first person we encountered said, “Yay!  The Geeks are here.  Put me first on your list for some computer work – I’ve been looking forward to seeing you at this rally!”  At this rally, the first person we met looked at our name badge and asked, “What is a Greek on Tour?”

 

The weather has turned beautiful, if a little chilly this morning – 46 degrees.  We’ll be leaving tomorrow and headed towards Texas where we’ll be visiting with our new sponsors, Tengo Internet.  Then it’s off to Albuquerque for THE Rally.  Jim says it was 26 degrees this morning in Albuquerque

Sideways Rain

If last night’s weather is at all typical of this region, it’s no wonder that Louisiana is called ‘America’s Wetland’!  We have only experienced a night like that when we stayed in the RV thru hurricane Katrina in Fort Lauderdale.  We’re in a town called Gonzales, just south of Baton Rouge.  We’re here to give our seminars at the Holiday Rambler rally. Here’s a map of where we are.

  

We had the kind of rain, wind, lightning and thunder that wakes you up … and keeps you up.  Jim even felt the need to get up and look around – he found that the sideways rain hitting the coach found some places to get in.  There was a puddle on the floor by his desk and water dripping from the light fixtures above.  yuk.

He check the weather alert service on his cell phone and read that our area had over 1,000 lightning strikes within the last 5 minutes!  The thunder made us hug each other and say ‘I love you’ … just in case that wasn’t thunder but the sound of an oncoming tornado.

whew … all is quiet this morning.

French Quarter

Coming in to New Orleans.  They’re building a new bridge across Lake Ponchartrain.

 

 

But, that’s not the only evidence of economic recovery!

 

 

The French Quarter RV park is walking distance to Bourbon Street and the Mississippi river.  It’s also right on I-10.

We paid for this convenience – even at 1/2 price for Passport America, this park was $34/night.  You certainly weren’t paying for the tranquility and scenery!  It was just perfect to be able to walk to the French Quarter and spend the afternoon.

 

 

We had some great food – Shrimp pasta and Shrimp Po Boy – listened to some live music – and saw a little of the local color:

 

 

A few blocks away, there was another guy in all gold.  I’ll bet they make a fair living with what people put in their basket to take a photo.

 

We took our Garmin Nuvi handheld GPS with us.  When we were in the center of the French Quarter, I thought to ask the Garmin to show us what restaurants were nearby.  I chose the category, French, and it returned 22 restaurants within 1 mile!

 

The waterfront was active with the paddlewheel, the Imax theatre and aquarium, and the park.  People were out, walking, jogging, and just sitting with friends.

OK, that’s it.  We ‘did’ New Orleans.  Obviously we didn’t do it right – you need much more time.  But, at least we stopped this time!  We’ve driven past here on I-10 at least 3 times before.  Actually, the first time we even detoured north to I-20 to avoid the area because it was right after Katrina.  We’re glad to see that New Orleans is back in business – but the TV news here is still full of stories about reconstruction, and sad stories of people still waiting for reconstruction.  The hurricane was 4 years ago.

Traveling through Alabama

We ended up staying 3 nights at the Woods campground in Montgomery. I had a lot of bookkeeping to do. We have a new accountant and a new bookkeeping system, so I had to re-enter all of 2008 business records. I did it! I celebrated by treating myself with a ride to Mobile, Alabama

Really … it is a wonderful treat for me to just be a passenger. I watch the scenery and have no obligations other than occasionally getting up to fetch a drink for my chauffeur!

Here is some of the scenery. This is I-65 crossing the Mobile river.

And, here’s our campspot in Mobile.

11am: I am fully recuperated now and we’re back on the road. I have my laptop on my lap, plugged into power from an inverter and plugged into the Internet with my cell phone! We’re headed west on I-10 – just crossed the Mississippi state line. We’ll be going thru New Orleans today and on to Gonzales, LA where we’ll be doing the Holiday Rambler rally.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve added our complete 2009 rally schedule in the left sidebar of this blog. If you know a rally along this route that may be interested in our computer seminars, let us know!

1 pm: Slight change of plans .. we just found out that we can’t stay at the rally site until tomorrow, so we need to stay somewhere else tonight. We found a Passport America park in New Orleans – 2 blocks from the French Quarter. We’ve been thru New Orleans a couple of times, but never stopped. I guess it’s time. And, the park has a hot tub .. Oh Boy!

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Living a Fantasy

This probably doesn’t look like the house of most people’s dreams, but it surely is my fantasy.

When I was younger, I would dream about moving to a place where no-one knew me. I could make up a new name, a new identity, and be anything I wanted to be. That was my fantasy.

Now, I could do that just about any day of the week!

Here is my life philosophy … “I have abandoned my search for Truth, and am now seeking a good Fantasy!” Ashley Brilliant is my guru!
I’ve found my fantasy.

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Devon and Lacie tie the knot

Jim here … Devon is our son from my previous marriage. He got hitched on Friday and we were not there. So much for planning. Our FMCA plans were made last year. The wedding, while we expected it sometime, was planned? last month. I think the plans are still being made, even after the fact.

Like so many relationships these days, the ceremony was commemorating a de facto living arrangement. They have a son together and Lacie, the bride, has an adorable daughter.

I talked to Devon’s mom last night and walked her through uploading her pictures to the web.

From Devon’s wedding

She said everything worked out just right. The weather was perfect. The cake was delicious and everyone there had a good time.

Sorry we missed it. We love you.

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A chilly morning in Montgomery

The FMCA rally in Perry, GA was over yesterday. The thousands of RVs that filled the fairgrounds cleared out pretty quick on Friday morning. We’re almost always one of the last to go!

And, I just had to snap this one. RV rallies are often held in fairgrounds. It just makes you feel all down-home and earthy to be grouped with the swine!

We hit the road and made it as far as Montgomery, Alabama where we woke up to 48 degrees this morning. We’ll probably stay here a couple days to recuperate and catch up. We have a couple hundred newsletter subscriptions to enter! That’s from people who attended our seminars at the Rally and filled out the card to be added to our newsletter lists. We’re at Woods RV park. This is a Passport America park – that means inexpensive – $16/night. They have cable TV here, and a good free Wi-Fi Internet connection. We may stay 3 nights!

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FMCA Rally is over

Saving the best for last. Well, at least the most fun! Yesterday we presented Google Earth and Photo Story 3.

Here’s Jim’s Google Earth class:

We do love this stuff! Thank you FMCA! And, to all those who attended our seminars and filled out the card to get our e-newsletter … We’re working on entering all your email addresses now! (there’s a few hundred of them) You’ll hear from us soon.

And, thanks to Glenn M, sitting in the front row, who snapped this photo for us!

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More Seminars

We gave 2 more seminars today: Every RVer Needs a Blog, and Safe Computing. Then we completed our hands on class in the evening. All went great.

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Changing Times

We started giving seminars for the FMCA rallies when we worked for Coach Connect in 2004-5 . Their business was Wi-Fi in RV parks, so that’s what we talked about. RVers were really hungry for this information. The largest audience we ever had for ‘Internet on the Road‘ seminars was 700. When we became ‘Geeks on Tour’ in 2006, we added topics like ‘Managing your Digital Photos with Picasa and Every RVer Needs a Blog. But the biggest audience was always at the ‘Internet on the Road’ seminar – we cover the 3 wireless technologies: Wi-Fi, Cellular and Satellite.

Today, we had our Picasa seminar with over 500 people, and the Internet on the Road seminar had less than 200! I think it’s because people are getting cellular aircards and are very happy with how they work. If they need help, they call their cellular provider. They just don’t have so many questions any more. Wi-Fi also works a lot better these days than it did a few years ago.

Here’s our Picasa seminar … I didn’t get an overall picture – but the room was full.

Then, later in the afternoon, we had the second session of our hands-on boot camp.

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