Yesterday we made another trip down to Paradise Oaks RV Resort to sit in on the afternoon session of the TechnoGeek Learning Rally. Things have sure come a long way since we started our adventure as fulltime RVers fourteen years ago. Back then we had to lug our laptop computer down to the campground office, pay them a buck or two to plug into a phone line and download our e-mail, while the fellow behind us read over our shoulder. Then we wrote our replies offline and repeated the process to send them out. Yeah, those were the good old days!
These days there is so much our computers, smartphones, GPS devices and such can do for us that it’s a whole new world. But who has the time to figure out all that they are capable of? We sure don’t! It would be a fulltime job just keeping up with the technology, which is constantly evolving.
Fortunately Phil and Tracey May from TechnoRV and Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour have made a career out of learning about and then teaching others how to harness all of this amazing technology. Anytime I talk to any one of them I learn something new.
And so do a lot of other RVers. Here is Phil giving rally attendee Porter Pearson some one-on-one instruction on his laptop computer. Besides all of the regular seminars, the opportunity to have this kind of personalized instruction is one of the many things that makes the TechnoGeek rallies so successful. They keep their rallies small and informal so they have time for that interaction with the attendees.
Of course, one cannot discount the draw that all of the delicious food they serve has too! Phil and Tracey love to cook, and dinner last night was jambalaya, spinach salad, and homemade bread and butter pudding. So not only do rally attendees come away with their brains expanded by a lot of knowledge, at least a few of them may have to loosen their belts a notch, too!
The first afternoon seminar was on smartphone apps and accessing the internet with smartphones and I picked up several tips I wasn’t aware of. Then Miss Terry sat in on a seminar Tracey gave on induction cooking. They carry a neat Burton stainless steel induction cook plate that is perfect for RVers. And we all know how Terry loves anything to do with cooking!
While she was doing that, I spent an hour or so with John Huggins doing a taped interview on my books and publishing activities for a future broadcast on their weekly Living The RV Dream podcast.
Speaking of books, my friend Judy Howard has a new book out on Amazon titled Going Home With a Cat and a Ghost, which is the sequel to her first book, Coast to Coast With a Cat and a Ghost, about hitting the road as a widowed solo RVing lady. Check them out, they’re both good reads.
We have some orders to send out today, and I hope to get another chapter or two written in my new Big Lake mystery, so we probably won’t make it back down to the rally again before it’s over. But who knows, the lure of the geek can be very strong at times.
One final note before I close for today. Please take a moment today to remember the American lives lost at Pearl Harbor on this day in 1941, an event that changed the world forever. Yes, it seems like a lifetime ago, but as the saying goes, if we don’t remember our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Thought For The Day – If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred you’ll never end up with a nag.- Zig Ziglar
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Saw a cooktop at last Good sam rally in Yuma last March, bought a duxtop brand, through Amazon at about half the show price. Most of the pans I had wouldn’t work so carried a small magnet in my fannypack and would check any pots and pans, I saw to make sure it would work. Was told could use the old cast iron ones, just to put a paper towel between pan and cook surface. Works great when you don’t want to heat up the area during summer time,heats up so much quicker than stove. Just should have bought two one for the rig and one for the house Dave Wood