Preparing for our Computer Learning Rally

It’s still 10 days away, but, since we are in the general area, we decided to stop by the RV park where our Techno-Geek Learning Rally will be held.

The park is Paradise Oaks in Bushnell, Florida.  We’ve stayed here once before and were impressed with the facilities.  That’s why we chose it.  But we weren’t sure of the details like the kitchen facilities, the Wi-Fi etc.  We can still take more registrations, if you’re interested you can learn more here.

It’s a pretty new park, so the sites have good 50amp hookups and large paved pads.  And they just completed an upgrade of their Wi-Fi system.

One of my requirements is a nice hot tub – so that was my first stop!

It's important to check out the facilities before a rally!

See that big white screen in the background?  We didn’t remember that.  It’s a movie screen!  Oh Boy!  We can have an outdoor movie night during our rally and show our favorite RV movie – Long, Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Our main questions were about the kitchen.  This is the first rally we’ve ever done, it’s small enough (about 30 people) that, between the TechnoRV folks and us, we should be able to handle the food preparation if the kitchen has everything we need.

It does … and then some!

4 ovens!  2 stovetops and a microwave.  A full size refrigerator and a full size freezer side by side.

and plenty of equipment like coffee urns, chafing dishes, roasters and other food warmers.

There’s even a Kitchen Aid mixer available!  Not that I’d have any idea what to do with it Smile but maybe Tracey, Phil, Ally, or Josh do?!

And the meeting room is very nice.  The only problem is it may be difficult to get it darkened for the projector.

We were also happy to see that there is a second, smaller room.  So we can break the group into two.  A couple of our hands-on segments were aimed at beginners and our survey of attendees indicates that most people are more advanced than that.  So we’ve revised the rally schedule and I’ll take the folks wanting basic Windows 7 training in the small room, while Jim and Phil show off mobile Internet devices and explain how best to use antennas and routers.

Most everyone is interested in photo editing with Picasa, so we’ll do that hands-on class in the big room.  But, the little room will still be available if a small group wants to work on something else.

I am most looking forward to the every morning panel discussion where we’re asking for questions from the audience on anything!  This is where we’ll all get to learn something.  I love questions that bring new topics to our attention. And I know we’ll learn some things from our audience as well.  There is so much cool, new technology coming out every day, no one can possibly know it all.  We will also have that most knowledgeable of all computer resources … teenagers!  Phil and Tracey’s kids, Ally and Josh, will be with us during this rally.  Ally makes great videos, and Josh is our Macintosh expert!  They are home-schooled using online curriculum while traveling the country with their parents.  See our video about Phil, Tracey, Josh, and Ally for more info.

Hopefully, this will be the first of many Techno-Geek Learning Rallies.  We’re already looking at dates in November, after the Good Sam rally in Daytona.

Techno-Geek Learning Rally 'staff'
The image above was created using Picasa.  I was showing off Picasa’s ability to combine the faces feature with Collage and the Text feature.  As it turned out, I really like it as a promotional picture for our rally!

MrsGeek
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