RV Weekly Round-Up (Nov. 12-20, 2009)

Check out these highlights of RV-related news, events and video from this past week.

1. Southwestern deserts: More than just a warm place: This is the time of year when RVers in the northern states and Canada can be divided into two groups: those that are or soon will be headed to the southwestern deserts for at least some part of the winter, and those that wish they were headed for the desert. Bob Difley recounts some of the significant events and scenery that make the Southwest such an interesting destination in the winter months.

2. Bicycle museum: Nick Russell recounts his visit to the Bicycle Museum of America, a wonderful attraction in the charming small town of New Bremen, Ohio. Located on New Bremen’s main street, the museum is a treasure trove of bicycles and bicycle memorabilia dating back to the early 1800s. Here you will see everything from primitive bikes with appropriate names like the Boneshaker, to high wheeled bicycles that the gentry of another age enjoyed, to modern carbon frame bicycles that one can lift with a single finger.

3. Thousands of POIs for Streets and Trips: New feature for Points of Interest (POIs) on 2010 Streets and Trips mapping program allows you to upload just ONE POI file with ALL your favorite stops, then just hide or show only the POIs you need at the moment. Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour shares more info about this new S&T feature.

4. Jayco hires 200 to fill order backlog: Jayco Inc. has added a couple hundred workers and is escalating production as dealers, encouraged by an incentive program, restock their showrooms in anticipation of strong spring sales. The RV manufacturer is increasing output to fulfill the largest backlog of orders it has had in more than two years. In a press release, company president and chief operating officer, Derald Bontrager, called the rising demand “the first tangible indication that the RV industry has turned the corner.”

5. Thor Co-Founder Succumbs to Cancer: Motorhome tycoon Wade Thompson, a New Zealand native, died of cancer last week after a 14-year battle with the disease. Thompson founded Thor Industries with Peter Orthwein in 1980, and appeared on the cover of Forbes business magazine in 2004. Thompson, aged 69, is survived by his wife Angela, their two grown children and six grandchildren.

Under Thompson’s leadership, Thor continued to be profitable year after year. Thompson also contributed to cancer research and was deeply dedicated to the arts. You can read more about industry leader Wade Thompson in the Thor Industries press release PDF.

6. Olympic parking spots for recreational vehicles sitting empty: With less than three months until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, only 80 campers have signed up for the 350 available RV camping sites at Jericho Beach and Spanish Banks. But the Vancouver parks board says it is confident bookings will soon balloon, due to a marketing campaign it launched last week. “We’ve been getting a ton of inquiries and it’s really ramping up,” said parks board spokeswoman Barb Floden. “It’s the million-dollar view for less than $100 a night.” According to the city’s www.vancouver2010rv.com site, motorhomes, truck campers and vans up to about 9 metres long (27 ft.) can be accommodated in spaces that are 6 metres wide (18 ft.). While tap water will be available, there are no utility hookups, and sewage pumping and propane services are extra. Both parks have restrooms with showers.

7. Tow Vehicle Safety Reminder from the Long Long Honeymoon: Sean Michael talks tow vehicle safety in this post. Pushing the limits of a tow vehicle/RV combination might seem fine. It might work 99% of the time. Then the 1% happens, and it becomes a disaster. Think about it this way: Suppose you have to make a sudden lane change at 70 MPH on a steep downhill grade in a stiff cross-wind? Would you feel safe? You want to be in complete control of your rig at all times.

Thousands of POIs for Streets and Trips

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Back in 2004, we attended Life on Wheels, a week-long school for RVers. One of the best things we learned was about the Discovery Owners website and all the GPS data overlay files they made avaialble for programs like Streets and Trips. In case you’re unfamiliar, this data is called ‘Points of Interest’ or POI’s for short. The data file needs to have the name of the POI and the Latitude/Longitude coordinates. Then, when you load them into your program, they become markers on the map.

Our favorite file was a listing of all Passport America RV parks. We take advantage of the Passport America half-price deal whenever possible, so, having them show up on our Streets and Trips map that we use when we’re on the road is extremely handy. Read more

Geotag your photos with Picasa 3.5

Maps and photos.  I can’t think of two things more near and dear to a traveler’s heart than maps and photos.  Being able to combine the two is the ultimate.  But, being able to do it *easily*??  Well, that’s not possible is it?

It is now.

Picasa (the free-from-Google digital photo management program) released a new version last month.  And one of the major improvements is in the ‘Geotagging’ feature.  Instead of requiring that you use Google Earth, they have embedded a full Google Maps ‘Places’ pane right into Picasa.  Placing a photo at a place on the map is as simple as clicking on the photo and clicking at the place on the map.  I show you how to do this in the video below.

Note: You can make it play in full-screen by clicking the icon in the lower right of the playback window that looks like an X .

If you’re new to Picasa, or want to learn more, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be co-hosting a webinar (seminar delivered over the web) with Google on November 13.  Register for the free Picasa Webinar here.

Geotagging Video:

by Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour

Sebastian Inlet – Florida State Park

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
Florida has a lot of great State Parks and, in this one you can walk to the beach from your RV site.  We highly recommend it.   We took a little walk to toast the sunset last night.  This is our last night with my Mom traveling with us.  It’s been a great 3 1/2 weeks.

There was a distant thunderstorm turning the sky all sorts of ominous colors.

Mom got all snug in her ‘room’ where she could watch the action.

Then, this morning was beautiful.  I made everyone go for an early morning walk.

Florida is so much more than Miami Beach and Disney World!  And, it doesn’t get any better for Winter weather!  Florida was our home before becoming fulltime RVers, and it’s still a favorite destination.  The post above was originally written for our personal travel blog.  I looked through my archives and found a few other posts about Florida that I thought you may enjoy. Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi Paddle the Peace River Paddle to Caladesi Island Wakulla Springs State Park I know I’m supposed to write about computer stuff, so here’s a little behind-the-scenes information.  Blogging Tools: I use Microsoft Live Writer to do all my blogging.  It is a fabulous, free application where you can write your blog posts and add your pictures, links, and maps, all offline.  Then, when you’re ready, just click ‘Publish.’  An extra added bonus for me is that I can write a post for one blog – like this one about Sebastian park was originally written for my personal blog – then I just change the Live Writer setting to blog.rv.net and click ‘Publish’ again!  Talk about a time saver!  In another blog, I tell about Live Writer, including a ‘show-me’ video. Photo Editing: I am a raving fan of Picasa.  It is a free program from Google that does everything you need for managing your digital photos.  If you like the photos above – thank Picasa.  With just a couple clicks, I make them look a lot better than the photo that came from the camera.  I have a whole website about using Picasa:  www.PicasaTutorials.com Chris Guld, Computer Education for Travelers www.geeksontour.com

 

 

RV Weekly Round-Up (Oct. 10-16, 2009)

Check out these highlights of RV-related news, events and video from this past week.

1. Tribute to early RVers: my parents: Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour shares an example of a narrated slideshow movie she put together using old family photos from RV camping with her parents in the 1960s. You may find yourself inspired to create your own narrated movies after seeing this example!

2. Arizona County Eyes RV Sector in Housing Matters: The Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission in Prescott, Ariz., considered two actions this week affecting the use of RVs in their county. The commission voted unanimously to recommend allowing residents to camp temporarily in RVs and travel trailers on private parcels of 10 acres or more.

3. Nickel-Lithium: The Next Battery Break Through?: Blogger Bob Difley discusses the possible benefits of the new nickel-lithium generation battery, which may expand the practicality of the electric vehicle for both everyday drivers and long-haul drivers.

4. Boost Your Energy in Less Than 5 Minutes: Health blogger Lynn Difley shares a few simple exercises you can use on the road to refresh your body and keep fatigue at bay. Long stretches of driving can wear you down in a hurry, so try these tips next time you begin to feel drowsy behind the wheel.

Tribute to early RVers: my parents

by Chris Guld, Geeks On Tour

One of the seminars we taught at the Gypsy Journal Rally was one of our very favorite topics: “Creating Narrated slideshow movies with Photo Story 3”  We have our routine and material down pat with this one, so my mind was free to wander a bit in getting prepared. 

It dawned on me that since my Mom is with us it would be cool to show a sample Photo Story movie using pictures from my family’s RV travels in the 60s.  RVing in Alaska, Mexico and Canada are popular topics in RV circles – and we did it in the 60s.  So, I made sure my Mom was in the audience for this seminar and I quickly put together this little movie as part of our presentation:

 

To learn how to make your own narrated slideshow/movie, see our tutorials at: http://geeksontour.com/photostory.cfm

It’s SOOO easy!  And, Photo Story is free, just like everything else we teach.

Rallies and Seminars

Last week, we were at the Gypsy Journal Rally in Celina, Ohio.  About 130 RVs gathered at the rally to meet, greet, and have fun, but also to learn.  They know that going to rallies and attending seminars is the easy way to learn.

Learning the hard way is having 3 tire blowouts your first year on the road before figuring out how to manage your tire pressure.  Learning the hard way is having a minor traffic accident that punctures and ignites your propane system before figuring out that you should turn off the propane while on the road.  Learning the hard way is to lose all your travel photos to a computer problem before you figure out how to make backups.

Learning the easy way is to take a seminar from someone with experience. 

They don’t get much more experienced than Joe and Vicki Kieva.  You probably know of them because they’ve been writing a column in Good Sam’s Highways magazine for many, many years.  I found their website, RVKnowHow, very useful even before we first got our RV. They’ve been writing and giving seminars on RVing for over 20 years – they say that they are now retiring from the seminar business, giving their last one at the Gypsy Journal Rally.  You’ll still see them on the road, they’re just not going to let the seminar circuit determine their route!  It was a real treat to get to see them again.

But, theirs wasn’t the only seminar.  Jim and I (Geeks on Tour) presented 6 different computer-related seminars in addition to our hands-on boot camp.    And there were dozens of others, including Nick Russell’s seminar with the same title as his book, “Highway History and Backroad Mystery.” 

Many attendees at this rally are full-time RVers like us.  One couple we met became fulltimers during the rally (they got the call that their house closed), and they took full advantage of the seminars.  Here’s what they wrote in their blog:

Here are a sampling of the classes Roger and I were able to attend (at the Gypsy Journal Rally):  RV weight safety, RVing Alaska, Managing Digital Photos with Picasa, Hosting in State Parks, Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems, "Don’t Replace, Refurbish," Google Earth, Highway History & Back Road Mystery, RV Travel & Camping Tips, Blogging, Beyond the Basics, Optimizing your RV Storage Space, and Volunteering at National Wildlife Refuges.  There were many more seminars available, so we needed to pick and choose those that were of most interest to us.

We can’t recommend seminars highly enough.  Within a month or so of buying our RV, we were lucky enough to be at Lazy Days in Tampa, Florida and attended seminars on the use of RV generators and the care of RV refrigerators.  It was all new to us then, and it felt great to get some knowledge.  And, after another couple months, we were able to attend ‘Life on Wheels’ in Moscow Idaho.  There we learned about the right tires, and about downloadable computer files to add Passport America Parks (and other points of interest) to our Streets and Trips. We hooked up and learned from several other Datastorm Satellite Users, and we saw Joe and Vicki Kieva for the first time.

If you’re reading this blog – you’re already convinced that learning from others is a valuable thing, but we encourage you to take it to the next level and find a rally with seminars on topics of interest.  We recommend  ‘The Rally’ as well as the FMCA Conventions (for motorhomers), and, of course The Gypsy Journal Rally.

• Gypsy Journal Rally: March 8-12 in Yuma, Arizona
• FMCA Convention: March 22-25 in Albuquerque
• The Rally: July 22-25 in Louisville, Kentucky
• FMCA Convention: Aug 11-14 in Redmond Oregon

These are just a few of the many valuable rallies available for RVers all over the country, all year long. 

What about you?  Have you been to any rallies where the seminars were good?  Let us know what you liked the best by leaving a comment.

Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Computer Education for Travelers

Are you Online while Driving?

by Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour

I remember when we had to schlep our laptop up to the RV park’s office and plug in to their phone line in order to use dial-up to get online.  Then came Wi-Fi.  You could browse the Internet from the comfort of your RV.  We even got a Datastorm Satellite dish that gave us high-speed Internet *wherever* we were parked – in the middle of the desert, or in the most remote national forest.  What luxury that was.  We live fulltime in our motorhome and we need to work to make our living.  Our work is primarily on our website so it’s important that we be able to connect wherever we are.

Read more

Streets and Trips 2010

by Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour

We’ve been wanting this new feature!! And now, with Streets and Trips 2010 – we have it.

We can now plan our trip on the laptop with Streets and Trips, then transfer the locations to our Garmin Nuvi 255W.  As I wrote in a previous post, we like to use both the laptop and the Garmin Nuvi to navigate while we travel.  We recently attended the Hershey RV Show and were thrilled to meet Larry Petersen at the Microsoft booth.  We attended his seminar to learn about the new features in the 2010 version. 

He demonstrated several methods of sharing data.  You can import and export .gpx files, you can use a USB cable and ‘Send to GPS’, or you can use the MSN Direct service.  I researched our device – the Garmin Nuvi 255W and decided the USB method was the best.  For more information directly from Larry – check out the Streets and Trips Blog.

Here is a short video on the process to send Locations from a Streets and Trips 2010 route to a Garmin Nuvi 255W.  All you need is a USB cable (with a mini ‘B’ connector that fits the Nuvi) and an Internet connection:

(You can view the video full screen by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner that looks like an X.)

RV Weekly Round-Up (Sept. 5-18, 2009)

Check out these highlights of RV-related news, events and video from this past fortnight.

1. Indiana Sees Returning Jobs as RV Sales Rise: Elkhart County builds about half the RVs sold in the U.S., making it the center of a $14 billion domestic market. Evidence of a turnaround is showing up in new companies such as Heritage One, sprouting from the remains of failed manufacturers, and in no-vacancy signs at a motel favored by RV-hauling truckers. Keystone RV Co., a Goshen-based unit of Thor Industries, the largest U.S. RV maker, announced last month it will add 200 workers to expand travel-trailer output, said Dorinda Heiden-Guss, president of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County. Jayco is also recruiting, she said.

Read more

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