Ramblings

I sure hate that Ed McMahon died. He was such an icon thanks to Johnny Carson. I know he has been on hard times lately but it's sad he is gone.

I've been trying to come up with an easy to stay in touch with my family and close friends. I don't want to put information on my blog until after I leave a place so I came up with the idea of keeping my Google calendar up dated and give them permission to view it. Brilliant! So I get everywhere I'm gonna be posted to my calendar and then click share and it brings up an email to mail to recipients. I fill all the addresses into the To and then explain what I'm doing and why. The first email I get back is from my BFF, Debbie, asking what she is to do next. I just naturally assumed there would be a link for her to click on and then she could proceed from there. I click help and see what's up. Well, everyone has to have a Google account in order to see my calendar. That would have been nice to know before hand. Oh, well, I'll help her out tomorrow night and then I'll know how to talk others through it.

I really like Google and all it offers. I have this blog, Picasa for photos, gmail, and other things I'm just beginning to explore. Oh, and their maps and Google Earth is just the best. Gmail has chat, IM and video chat, however everyone has to have a Google account in order to chat with them. Video chat is much like Skype and that works very well for me.

I've been busy planning my travelling schedule through my birthday, July 2010. It's been fun and a little challenging. I had found one place in Miami I thought would be good. I called a good friend, Bill, who is from Miami and his family still lives there. I asked him if he knew anything about the park. He said it had been years since he had been there but he would ask his sister. He said NO WAY I should stay there, high crime area. I love friends. They never steer you in the wrong direction so his mother (86) is on the hunt for me a good place to stay a month. Lots of her friends have RVs and know the best place. I love it! Thanks Bill. Hope it works out. Hope I haven't waited too late. South FL in winter, hum, may have.

I hope the next leg of my trip is as easy to plan and that I have a definitive trip in mind. I think that is what made it so easy to plan. Since it's my first time out, I'm sure I'll refine some things and learn from mistakes. One good thing is most of my trip will be paid for before I retire so the most expensive trip will not hurt so badly. Anytime you make reservations at a state park in FL, you pay for it upfront. That works well for me now, next year I'll be on a tighter budget so it will be interesting to see how that does for me.

I got an email from my friend, Margie, today asking how I kept up with what I wanted to see in different states, sort of a Bucket List. She keeps an Access database which is a great idea. I keep my info in an alpha folder by state. Any article I read that is interesting or a place I want to go, I tear it out of the mag, newspaper, print a copy and in that state alpha. Works fine except when there are more than one state in an alpha, i.e., MI, MN, MA. Yes, you get the idea. I'm sure that will be something I'll perfect as time goes on.

Margie and Roger are preparing to go full time as soon as their house is sold. She keeps a great blog that outlines their preparation for full time. She also is selling her class B motorhome. It is just about the best style I have seen for "Bs". She has a link to her sell site. If you are interested, check it out.

Sedona is going to Duchess' birthday party tomorrow night. She is trying to decide what to wear. Such a hard choice for a little one. There will be many other cute dogs there. Should be interesting. I'll have pictures later.

Talked to Becky today. They are all moved in, now they just have unpacking ahead of them. It's nice for them to be 2 hrs behind us. Especially after 9:00 Verizon talking.