Tag Archives: Curtis (RVillage)

2014/06/24 (T) Rainy Days

We had light rain overnight and woke to overcast skies and the promise of yet more rain today.  I find myself in a somewhat subdued mood on such days and am much more inclined to be a bit lazy.  I made reference in yesterday’s post to “monsoon season” but the idea applied better to today’s rain.  Around 10:45 AM it started to drizzle but by 11 AM a great quantity of rain was coming straight down.  It continued into the afternoon, though not as heavily, before finely quitting around 5 PM.

Linda made a run to the grocery store, but otherwise we stayed at home, worked at our desks, and read.  I finally got caught up on uploading blog posts.  My posts for the last few weeks have not included any photographs, so there is less work involved in uploading them to our WordPress website/weblog.  After creating so many images as official photographers at the SKP Escapade rally last month I took a break and just enjoyed the GLAMARAMA14 rally this month.  The thing about photography is that it is a serious hobby.  I enjoy it, but I do not have to do it; I am no longer compulsive about it as perhaps I once was.

We had a nice salad for dinner and then settled in for the RVillage Ambassador Program orientation webinar.  The webinar last week was an introduction for RVillage members who were interested in becoming RVillage Ambassadors.  This evening’s webinar was for members who have made the decision to be RVillage Ambassadors.  It was hosted by Curtis Coleman, CEO/Founder of RVillage, and Hillary Murray, a member of the RVillage core team and the lead staff member for the Ambassador Program.

The RVillage Ambassador Program was developed in response to members who were very enthusiastic about the site and wanted to help promote it and be of assistance to users without becoming paid staff members.  RVillage programmers developed a special color balloon (pin) to serve as an easily recognizable ambassador “badge.”  It appears on our profile page and on the EXPLORE map.  Staff also created an RVillage “Ask An Ambassador” group where members can post questions.  All RVillage ambassadors belong to this group and have been asked to keep an eye in it, and reply to questions if we know the answer.

Besides talking to our fellow RVers about RVillage as we travel and blog, and helping them with the use of the site, one of the things ambassadors are being asked to do is talk to RV park and campground owners about the benefits of “claiming” their park and helping them with the initial steps in that process.  Although some RVers want solitude, many enjoy social engagement.  RVillage wants to promote the idea to park owners that a “sociable park is a successful park.”  Once a park owner/manager claims their park, they have control over the park home page the same way a member has control of their personal profile.  They also gain the ability to send messages to any RVillage member who is “checked-in” to their park (in RVillage) and use the Get-Together feature to schedule social events at their park.  And it’s all free for them.

To support the work of RVillage Ambassadors the RVillage staff has developed promotional and tutorial videos, handouts, and support documents.  The handouts, support documents, and selected videos are available to RVillage Ambassadors for download so we can show them to people without having an Internet connection.  In the near future staff is going to create a private/closed group to serve as a place where RVillage Ambassadors can interact out of public view.  They also plan to create an area on rvfriendnetwork.com to serve as a repository for all of the resource materials.  We are very excited about RVillage and the opportunity to contribute in some small way to its growth and success.  From what we have already seen and experienced it is a unique resource for RVers that has the potential to reshape the RVing experience by creating real community among highly mobile people.

We capped the evening off with another episode of Doc Martin and turned in early as Linda is scheduled to be at the bakery all day tomorrow.

 

2014/06/17 (T) Oral Tradition

We had dentist appointments this morning…in Dearborn.  That’s 50+ miles from where we now live, and we try to schedule our appointments to avoid the rush hours at the beginning and end of the workday.  We had 11:00 AM appointments about a month ago but had to reschedule because we were both ill.  The next available appointments (together) were today at 9:30 and 10:30 AM.  We had to leave the house at 8:00 AM which put us in the late morning rush.  (The morning rush starts by 7:00 AM and usually thins out by 9:00 AM unless there is an accident or really bad weather-related road conditions.)  From where we live if we need to head into the Detroit metropolis we try to leave by 6:30 AM or wait until 9:00 AM if possible.  Unfortunately that is not practical or possible if we need to be somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30 AM.

We were both scheduled for the same procedures involving work on multiple teeth.  Unfortunately Linda developed a problem with a tooth during the rally last week and needed that looked at first.  It turned out that she broke a molar that was mostly filling and will need a crown.  She goes back next week for the prep and then has to return at least three weeks after that for the crown plus all of the work she was supposed to have done today.  The purpose of plans is so we have something to do each day in case nothing else presents itself, which it almost always does.

We did not eat breakfast before our appointments and had to wait for the local anesthetic to wear off afterwards before we could eat.  We did not accomplish much beyond our appointments other than some time spent at our desks.  We had “lunner” (or “linner”) around 3:00 PM and vegan cupcakes with strawberries around 6:30 PM.

At 7:00 PM (EDT) we participated in an RVillage webinar for prospective RVillage Ambassadors.  We were already approved for this role based on our interactions with Curtis Coleman, the founder and CEO of RVillage and the RV Friend Network, but wanted to participate like everyone else.  Curtis, along with Hillary Murray, were online for an hour and 20 minutes explaining the “why, what, and how” of the ambassador program.  Hillary will run the program and be our main point of contact.  After the webinar we turned in early and watched an episode of Doc Martin from season two.

2014/05/26 (M) Memorial Day

This is what I think about on Memorial Day.  For most Americans Memorial Day, or rather the Memorial Day weekend, marks the beginning of the summer “play” season; time to prep the cottage or the get the RV out of storage, get out the summer “toys”, attend summer camps (or summer school), and take vacations.  It has a much more serious and official meaning, of course, which is to remember those who served and died in the defense of our country while on active duty.  It is not necessarily a day to honor “all” veterans, although it seems to have turned into that.  We have another holiday for that purpose; it’s called Veteran’s Day.

Regardless, there is no doubt that each citizen owes the existence of our nation, and the freedoms we enjoy within it, to those who served to build it and defend it, and especially those who paid the ultimate price.  It a shame that some of those lives were wasted in the name of foolish nationalism, but the shame is not the soldier’s, it is the government’s.  And the government is merely a political manifestation of the will of the majority.  In our system the majority rules (or is supposed to) but that does not always make its actions right.  Those who served did so with a sense of duty without which we could not have a functioning military.  My father survived the invasion of Normandy on D-Day.  He was one of the troops who took Omaha Beach.  His unit suffered 90% casualties.  He was barely 19 years old at the time.  He was wounded on the drive inland through France and received the Purple Heart and almost 50 years later a unit commendation for the service his unit rendered that day and in the days that followed.

My cough subsided enough that both Linda and I finally got a little sleep last night.  She made her yummy vegan pancakes for breakfast and my sense of taste had returned to the point that I enjoyed them.  I still wasn’t feeling up to much physical activity, but managed to pull up all of the stakes for the pole barn and mark the location of each one with green marker paint.  I was feeling well enough to work at my desk and spent a good portion of the rest of the day downloading and installing apps on my new ASUS laptop.

I was working at my computer this afternoon when I had one of those associative moments where I suddenly remembered something I was trying to recall a week ago.  As a young pre-teenager in the early 1960’s there were three things that I had set as “life goals” but I could only remember two of them, although I was clear that I had accomplished all three.  I was looking at the support thread for the Participant’s Database WordPress plug-in, where there was a lot of detail on “coding,” when I recalled that the missing goal was to “learn to program a computer.”  Duh!

These “life goals” were not career goals; they were just ideas that sounded interesting and “out there” at the time.  I actually ended up “programming computers” for a living for a while and did some very fancy FORTRAN programming for my electrical engineering Masters Degree project and again to create the Monte-Carlo simulations that were the foundation of my doctoral research and dissertation.  My other two goals where to “understand nuclear energy” and “learn to fly an airplane” both of which I also accomplished, at least to my satisfaction.  I never made a living in aviation, although my dad spent almost his entire adult working life in the aerospace industry, both defense and space.  I did end up studying physics as an engineering student, and teaching it at the high school level, so in a sense understanding nuclear energy also touched on earning a living at one point in my life.  As an Air Force ROTC cadet from 1973 – 1976 I was a pilot candidate.  If not for the sudden end of the Vietnam Conflict, I would have made my living in aviation, at least for a while.

Perhaps these seem like strange life goals for a pre-teen, but they were very forward-looking and exotic notions in the early 1960’s.  The fact that I accomplished them does not mean my life is complete or that I have accomplished everything else I attempted in the last half century.  Nor does it mean that I ran out of things to do or the motivation to do them.  I simply find it interesting that I accomplished them and find a certain satisfaction in that.  To this day whenever I see an airplane fly by I wonder how many people see that same plane and wonder what it must be like to fly it or are mystified by how it is able to stay in the air?  I also wonder how people manage to make sense of a world connected together by technologies about which they have no real understanding, or how they understand a universe ruled at its most fundamental level by randomness and chaos.  Downloading and installing software leaves me a certain amount of time to think, and I downloaded and installed a lot of software today.

Linda made a wonderful vegan potato salad this afternoon and we had it for dinner with jumbo vegan hot dogs, with mustard, onion, and relish, of course.  And grapes; but no adult beverages as they are contraindicated for my medications, and frankly are not the least bit satisfying when ill.  I know I’m getting better when my appetite starts to return.  I will know I am fully recovered when I once again look forward to a glass of wine with dinner.

Technomadia did a one hour live video chat at 8 PM with RVillage founder/CEO Curtis Coleman.  It was a good, relaxed chat with enough questions from the audience to keep it moving.  I think they had 45 people online at one time.  They use UStream for these live video events and were interrupted three or four times by commercials.  The first one I got was in Spanish, but someone else got one in French.  The problem was that the hosts do not get a heads up that UStream is going to cut them off, so they keep talking until someone messages them that they are not on the air.  But it’s a “free” service, and of course almost everything in life that’s free has a hidden cost, especially if it involves the Internet.  Somewhat ironically the RVillage website went offline during the broadcast.  The head of development was monitoring the chat and got right on it as soon as it was reported; something about “backend server overload.”  RVillage passed the 7,500 member level just before the video chat went live.  Whatever the issue was they had it straightened out quickly.  RVillage lives on very robust servers run by Amazon.

 

2014/05/15 (R) Base Leg

As a private pilot of a small airplane there is a standard way to approach an airport that does not have air traffic controllers directing the flow of aircraft to/from the runway(s) and surrounding air space.  That standard way is called “the pattern” and when landing one must enter and follow the pattern correctly.  The pattern will be clockwise (right hand turns) or counterclockwise (left hand turns) and involves segment called “legs.”  Standard radio frequencies may let you know which runway and pattern are currently in use.

The pattern is usually entered on the “downwind leg” which is parallel to the runway with the wind coming from behind (tailwind) as much as possible.  You generally enter this leg at a specified altitude above the runway elevation and then start to descend.  How far you need to be from the runway is partially determined by your airspeed, but when I flew I would typically be a quarter to a half mile away.  As you pass the end of the runway you continue descending on the downwind leg for another 1/4 to 1/2 mile and then turn 90 degrees towards the runway.

This was our way out of the Elkhart Co. 4-H Fairgrounds horse track infield.  Not gonna happen.

This was our way out of the Elkhart Co. 4-H Fairgrounds horse track infield. Not gonna happen.

As you complete the turn you are now traveling perpendicular to the centerline of the runway on what is known as the “base leg” where you continue to descend.  On the base leg you often have a crosswind trying to blow you sideways off of your intended path and have to correct for that.  As you approach the centerline of the runway you again turn 90 degrees towards the runway, timing your turn so that you are lined up with the centerline as you complete your turn.

You are now on “final approach” and descending at a rate that puts you very close to the ground as you cross the end of the runway.  On final approach you are flying into the wind as much as possible, causing your ground speed (motion with respect to the earth) to be slower than your airspeed (motion with respect to the air mass you are flying through).  This slower ground speed makes it easier to land, particularly on a short runway.  Once you are over the runway you cut the engine power, bleed off more airspeed, and put the wheels on the ground.

Lou Petkus, head Escapade photographer, at the SKP Photographers BOF "row" table with Linda.  My friend Kate designed the logo.

Lou Petkus, head Escapade photographer, at the SKP Photographers BOF “row” table with Linda. My friend Kate designed the logo.

Landing an airplane is a complex task but all of the things you need to do become second nature with enough practice.  You develop a “feel” for your aircraft and the ability to visually judge altitude, distance, and speed, or use instruments to know these things.

So what does that have to do with the Escapees RV Club Escapade?  Not much, except that I have always liked analogies and today was the “base leg” of the event.  Tomorrow we “turn on final” and land.  Saturday is when we taxi from the runway back to our hangar.  For other attendees it will be a “touch-and-go” in which the landing is immediately followed by the application of full power and the airplane is taken back into the air.  Perhaps it will go around in the pattern and land again or it may vector off in some direction on a cross country trip.  I could extend this analogy in other ways, but I’m not going to.

Linda at the SKP Ham BOF "row" table pretending to use the HF rig.  We had a special event call sign (W9E) but not a good location for antennas.

Linda at the SKP Ham BOF “row” table pretending to use the HF rig. We had a special event call sign (W9E) but not a good location for antennas.

It was cold and overcast with light rain this morning and the Escapade decided to stop running the golf carts into the infield where we are parked because they were getting stuck in the mud.  (Golf carts are not off road vehicles.)  That meant we had to walk through the mud and puddles (small lakes, really), drive our car, or stay put in our coach.  I checked-in to the 7:30 AM ham radio 2 meter net and then put on a pot of coffee.

We wanted to hear Nick Russell’s seminar at 10 AM so we drove over around 9:45.  We gave a lift to one of our fellow infield campers who was struggling through the bad conditions using a cane.  After Nick’s talk we were heading to the hospitality area when I got a call from Curtis Coleman, founder/CEO of RVillage, inviting us to his rig for a chat.  We spent an hour with him and Patty (village tart) and his dog, Augie, who was very cute and friendly.  The central focus of our conversation was FMCA and how to get the leadership to understand what RVillage is, and how an FMCA/RVillage relationship is a win-win situation.  I have been appointed to the FMCA National Education Committee, which is charged with examining this issue and making recommendations to the national executive committee and that is why Curtis and I have been trying to arrange a conversation for awhile.

Curtis had an online business meeting to attend so we made our exit and headed over to the Geeks On Tour seminar on The Cloud.  In many respects the “cloud” is just another name for the Internet, with a subtle but important distinction.  In the past our interaction with the Internet (World Wide Web) was conscious, intentional, explicit, and initiated/controlled by us.  We typed in web addresses and navigated websites.  With the Cloud, much of the interaction with the Internet has been moved into “apps” that automatically move our data around and make it accessible from multiple devices from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.  Take a picture on your smartphone and it shows up on your laptop and tablet.  Click, click and it’s in your latest blog post which shows up in a subscriber’s aggregator/reader.  It’s not magic, but it seems like it at times.

L-2-R Cherie and Chris of Technomadia and Curtis, founder/CEO of RVillage.

L-2-R Cherie and Chris of Technomadia and Curtis, founder/CEO of RVillage.

We went back to our rig and Linda prepared fresh grapes to take to the RVillage social at 4:30 PM.  We had a good turn out with about 90 people in attendance.  Many of them were already RVillage members, but some were not.  Just prior to the social there were 39 RVillage “members” “checked-in” to the 54th Escapade, although some of them, like us, were couples.  Everyone brought a snack, hors d’oeuvres, or beverage to share.  We mingled for a while and then Curtis connected his computer to the projector and grabbed the microphone.  He spoke at length and his vision, enthusiasm, and passion for this project was obvious.  Even those of us who are active on RVillage learned something.

After the social we moved the car over by Lou and Val’s 5th Wheel, which is parked near the Assembly Hall.  We watched the slide show and were pleased to see that quite a few of our images had been used.  We did not win a door prize, and left before the Ham-O-Rama talent show began.  Lou was there so I did not need to stay and take pictures.  Since he was taking photos I gave Val the Compact Flash card from my camera so Lou could transfer the photos to his computer after the talent show.  We then returned to our rig.

As the sun sank low in the western sky I photographed the infield of the horse track where we are parked.  The fairground is placing large quantities of gravel to try and repair the rutted, muddy mess that has developed as a result of the rains this past week and vehicle traffic going in and out of the infield.  The fairgrounds and Escapade management worked out a deal whereby we have been asked not to move our rigs until Sunday in exchange for a free night’s stay Saturday night.  We have been towed out of two other fairgrounds in the past, and would rather not repeat that experience if it can be avoided, so we will be staying until Sunday.  We would like to get out then as we have company coming for dinner Sunday night, but if not we will stay until we can.

I worked with Butch via telephone to get them set up on RVillage.  Even though they are parked next to us, we were both comfortably situated in our own buses for the evening and did not want to go back outside.  The high temperature today was around 50 degrees F and dropped quickly as the sun set.  With a strong wind from the north the wind chill was even lower.

2014/05/13 (T) A Full Day

The Escapees RV Club Escapade started yesterday afternoon and ends on Friday afternoon, so Wednesday evening is the middle of the event.  Many attendees arrived on Sunday, and many others, including us, on Saturday.  Most of the event staff, and many of the volunteers, arrived even before that so today probably felt like we were well into the event even though it just started yesterday.

Curtis Coleman, RVillage Founder and CEO.

Curtis Coleman, RVillage Founder and CEO.

Yesterday we crossed paths briefly with Curtis Coleman, the founder and CEO of RVillage, at one of the seminars.  Although I had communicated with him in the past via RVillage messaging, e-mail, and telephone, it was the first time we had met in person.  We were all on our way to somewhere else and agreed to meet up at the Paul Evert’s RV Country social at 4:00 PM.

Linda and I continued our work as volunteer event photographers while also trying to attend a couple of seminars that interested us.  Kelly Hogan, founder/president of WiFi Ranger, gave an excellent talk on mobile connectivity.  Chris and Jim Guld, better known as the Geeks On Tour, did a nice overview of technology tools for travelers.

 

Chris and Jim Guld, the Geeks On Tour, presenting a seminar.

Chris and Jim Guld, the Geeks On Tour, presenting a seminar.

We take a stroll through the vendor area and ordered a new regen tube and end caps for our portable water softener.  We bought the softener from A-1 Water Treatment of Michigan at one of the RV rallies in Gillette, Wyoming last summer.  The owner sold A-1 but retained the portable RV softener business and now operates as RV-Water-Treatment.

Nick and Terry Russell of the Gypsy Journal in the vendor booth.

Nick and Terry Russell of the Gypsy Journal in the vendor booth.

We had hoped to meet up with Curtis at the Paul Evert’s RV Country social at 4:00 PM, but we had to leave for the Photography BOF social before he arrived.  BOF stands for “Birds Of a Feather,” the name the Escapees RV Club uses for special interest groups.  BOFs are distinct from Chapters which are geographic in scope.  We had a dozen folks show up for the Photography social.  Most of us had never met, so we spent some time sharing our photography background and interests. By the time the social ended the weather had turned.

The gathering storm.  It's been strange weather lately.

The gathering storm. It’s been strange weather lately.

Dinner?  What’s that?  We went early to the evening entertainment to see the slide show Lou had put together from our previous day’s effort.  Once again we failed to win a door prize.  The Homestead Pickers, a bluegrass trio, gave an excellent, high energy performance.  Linda wasn’t feeling quite right and left early.  I stopped at Lou and Val’s 5th Wheel after the concert so Lou could transfer my photos from today to his computer for inclusion in an upcoming slide show.  It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a long, full day.

The Homestead PIckers in concert.

The Homestead PIckers in concert.