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  Read More →

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... 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.)  Read More →

Using Live Writer for Blogging

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksonTour.com I’ve written about Live Writer a couple of times: Article 1, Article 2. It is a free program downloadable from Microsoft, and the exceptional feature is that it resides locally on your computer and it will upload your blog posts to several different blogging systems.  I now use it almost exclusively for all my blog posts – both Blogger and Wordpress. I’m using it to create this post on RV.net’s blog and I use it to create blog posts for my personal blog on Blogger. It’s single-click easy to add a map to your blog post using Live Writer. I especially like the plugin that links directly to my Picasa Web Album for photos.  I also like that it reminds me to add labels or categories to each post.  To understand the importance of labels and categories, see last week’s post. Let me show you exactly what I’m talking about: View more tutorial videos on blogging.  Read More →

Mackinac Island

As they traveled along the northernmost region of Michigan, travelers Mike and Roxanne visited one of the highlights of the area, Mackinac Island; detailing their tour of the area in their journal, Mike and Roxanne Travel East. The island north of the tip of the mitten which is Michigan is accessible only by ferry.  Because of this limited access, very few vehicles are seen on this island.  Instead, people get around the quaint town by bicycle or horse and carriage rides.  Bicycles are rented by the thousands, charged at an hourly, daily or weekly rate depending on the visitor’s needs.  All varieties of bikes are available; standard, 3 or 7 speed, tandems and more.  The horse and carriage rides are extremely popular and very fitting for the charming village; some of the carriages are quite large, holding groups up to 50 people. One of the highlights of visiting the island is touring Fort Mackinac.  Standing here on the island since the late 1700’s, tourists can either take a guided or self-guided tour of the buildings.  A reenactment is performed of an actual court martial that proves to be quite interesting and entertaining. Many shops dot the hilly island; candy merchants are very well attended where visitors can view fudge being made, and sample the many varieties that are available for purchase. Arch Rock is an interesting sight on the island, as well; towering over the water line at 146 feet, and as wide as 50 feet across.  The rock arches due to the effects of... Read more

Presidential Museums and Blogs

by Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour: If you are interested in American history, as we are, you will love visiting Presidential Libraries/Museums. We make a point of visiting them whenever one is nearby. In our 6 years of RV Travel we have visited 11 Presidential Museums. Reagan’s museum wow’ed us with the actual Air Force One airplane and a panoramic view of the California hills. We saw the humble beginnings of Herbert Hoover in West Branch, Iowa: And got close and personal with the Lincoln’s in Springfield, Illinois. We can relive any of these visits because the stories and photos are all on our Blog. Without the blog, I have no way of telling you when we visited any of these places! With the Blog, I can give you dates, maps, photos, and links to more information about the places we’ve visited. Sometimes I spend several hours revisiting some part of our travels and being reminded just how special this fulltime RVing lifestyle is. I would keep the blog just for myself, even if no one else ever looked at it. But, it is also a wonderful way to share our travels with family and friends. They never need to wonder about where we are or what we’re doing. Since we post to the blog several times a week, they actually know much more about our life than when we lived around the corner. But, how do you find our blog posts just about Presidential Museums? After all, we’ve been keeping this blog since April of 2003. We have over 1,200 post pages. I make sure to apply... Read more

Corn Palace, South Dakota

When travelers Bill and Debbie visited the one and only Corn Palace in South Dakota, they documented their amazement and wonder of this unique showplace in their travel diary, Bill & Debbie’s USA Trip. The story of the Corn Palace preceded Bill and Debbie’s visit by a little over 100 years.  Famous explorers Lewis and Clark traveled through the area in 1805, and expressed their belief that the wind swept desert area was good for nothing except buffalo roaming.  Some 80 years later, residents of Mitchell, South Dakota who knew this assessment to be untrue wanted to demonstrate how wonderful the area was in which to live.  The rich soil found here proved to be the ideal condition for growing corn and other grains, and to prove their point as well as to encourage outsiders to move to the area, an organization called the Corn Belt Real Estate Association decided to do something unheard of; construct a building that would illustrate the crops that would thrive in South Dakota.  Thus was the humble beginning of the Corn Palace. The original Palace was a wooden structure that measured 100 x 66; built in 1892.  An astronomical cost for the day, this building had a price tag of $2,976.48.  The building was elaborately decorated with the available grains and grasses that were locally grown, and visitors were intrigued.  Such popularity was gleaned in this unusual tribute to natural resources that it soon became necessary to construct a larger structure.  In 1905,... Read more

A Visit to Alcatraz Island

As discovered by the Rogers family while on vacation, the infamous Alcatraz Island has a lengthy and interesting history. After their visit there, they described their experiences in their trip journal, Rogers Adventure. Here is their wonderful Alcatraz posting. The island was originally named Alcatraz because of its sole inhabitants, the pelicans; the name is actually the Spanish word for the bird. While many people are familiar with the island as the famed maximum security prison, few realize that this island has been a fortress for California since the 1850’s. A protective measure for the harbor of San Francisco, Alcatraz served first as a military fortress early in history. Later, during the Spanish American War, the island was used to house prisoners captured during the war. It was the very prisoners held on the island first that fashioned the cold, stone walls that became the well known prison. The year 1934 saw the opening of the famed prison Alcatraz, which was recognized as being the final leg of a criminal’s journey. The island was used exclusively at the time for the prison, its guards and their families. Although separated from the prison element, family life went on in a traditional sense for the families of the guards; gardens were tended, children played, and school was attended by all children after traveling by a ten minute boat ride to the city of San Francisco. Records show that up to 80 children lived and played on Alcatraz at one point. Many... Read more

Acadia National Park aka Mount Desert Island

There are many national parks in the United States, but as Dimitri and Madolyn discovered and mentioned in their Trip Journal, 2008 Keys 2 Canada, Acadia National Park is considered to be one of the most beautiful of all the parks.  On the east coast in Maine, conveniently located off Highway 1, Acadia, or Mount Desert Island as it was first known, is complete with mountains, islands, forests and coastlines; a visual feast for the eyes.  Here is their wonderful posting. Acadia National Park itself is actually mostly island. Long ago, explorer Samuel Champlain saw the bald peaks of the mountains on the island, and was struck by the similarity of them to mountain deserts. Using this simile, he named the mountains l’Isle de Monts Deserts, which became over time Mount Desert Island. The lofty mountain Champlain was viewing and named the island after is Cadillac Mountain, which was named by yet another explorer named Cadillac, who also founded Detroit, Michigan. A few interesting facts about the island Park is that it was the first of any eastern national parks to be implemented east of the Mississippi River, and that Cadillac Mountain is the highest point on the entire Eastern seaboard north of Rio de Janeiro. While Acadia National Park has no single “pull” factor such as Old Faithful or the Grand Canyon, it does have a great deal charm, beauty and solitude that invites visitors to partake. It is merely an incredibly lovely and serene place to contemplate life’s... Read more

Better Photos with Picasa

Our motorhome is currently parked in Salem, Massachusetts. A little city park called Winter Island. We’re using this home base to sightsee in the area, including Boston. For our day in Boston, we decided to take the ferry. Nothing better than a boat ride to start the day, and what a great way to see Boston for the first time! See our blog post on this wonderful day. Read more  Read More →

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