Austin for iPadpalooza June 2015

Well, I have been excited about this trip for a long time. I won a discounted registration to the iPadpalooz conference almost a year ago in a Twitter contest. Att that time, I was totally enamored with using iPads for education from a technologist's perspective. Now, I want to learn things to apply to my new position. It should be great. On top of that, I am staying at McKinney Falls State Park for five nights- how cool is that!

I originally planned to come up today (Monday, June 22), but Josh asked me to come up on Sunday so that we could go play trivia with his awesome girlfriend Cat. I had to make a second reservation, but that just caused me to go checkin for the remainder of my stay this morning.

Yesterday, June 21st, 2915

The trip to Austin was totally uneventful. There was more traffic on I-35 than I like, but that is just how it is these days. Rachel was shocked at how fast I got here when I texted her to say I made it safely. I drove a steady 65 MPH, which is faster than usual for me when pulling the trailer. You can't do 55 on I-35 and survive it.

They assigned me to site 29. It is a beautiful pull through site. It started to sprinkle just as I pulled into it. I hurridly got the trailer off the hitch, plugged into electricity, and stablized. I had just enough time to get my stuff (clothes, food, supplies, etc.) in the Colby T before it started to pour for real. I just spent the storm setting up the inside. It takes about 30 minutes to get everything stowed properly and set up the cabinets and countertop for use.

Once I was convinced that the rain was over, I hit the trails. I took the long Onion Creek Trail, then walked to both the upper and lower falls. Then I got back on the stretch of the Onion Creek Trail that goes in between my campground and the park headquarters. I noticed that it was getting a little darker. Then the wind started blowing and a light rain was begining to fall. I still had about a mile to get back to camp. Then  I saw a white truck through the trees. It was my Silverado. I could see it and the Colby T, but didn't want to bushwhack to get over to them. Last summer (the same week in June), I suffered the worst chigger bite episode of my life. Ths time I am bathing in DEET, but still paranoid of high grass. Anyway, I kept walking on the trail, albeit a lot faster. Suddenly I saw the Colby T through the trees from a different angle. There was a footpath headed right to the site near it. I took it and got inside right before another downpour.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing games on my iPad. Then at 6:00 I went to HEB on Riverside to get some meal replacement bars for my lunches at the conference. I forgot to get them in SA. I also left my ten oranges that Rachel made a special trip to get for me. I am missing those. They are my main snack these days. Now I am snackless! I should have picked some up at the store while I was there. But, NEWSFLASH- I'm an idiot!

I got to Josh's apartment at about 6:45. I was supposed to be there at 7:00. It worked out though. We just drove over to pick Cat up. She was going to walk over to his place by 7:00.

We headed out to the Blackstar Coop Brewpub. I love that place. They brew some really nice beer and the food is really good. Josh and I ate, but Cat wasn't hungry. Because it is a coop, you don't tip. You also bus your own tables and wipe them down before you leave. Weird. I know. It's Austin. I love it.

We played great for 7 rounds. We were actually in 4th place out of 21 teams. Then the 16 point 8th round killed us. We ended up in 10th place at the end.

I dropped the kids at their apartments and headed over to the park. I was dreading it. You have to get out of your car on a dark deserted road and open a combination lock, open the gate, drive through, close the gate, and lock it back up. As much as I love camping, that little process gives me the heeby jeebies. By some really amazing stroke of luck, the gate was open late last nght, and I just drove on through.

I got home at about 11:00. I pretty much went straight to bed and read for awhile.

Today, June 22, 2015

I set an alarm for 6:30 so I could get up early enough to get a long hike in before going to pick Josh up. I needed to help him with his truck. There were some electrical problems, but he couldn't really do anything about them until he got his battery charged or replaced. 

I took my time with breakfast. Today I had oatmeal with sausage flavored TVP and Mexican seasoning. It is one of my favorite meals these days. I prefer savory to sweet for breakfast, and this hits the spot. After eating, I cleaned up the camper and made the bed. Then I dressed and headed on the trail at about 7:30. It was a nice walk. There was nobody else on the trails until the end of it. I got to take some really nice shots of the falls without people standing all around, The ony bad thing was the humidity. I felt like I was pulling the Colby T behind me most of the way. I just can't get enough air in my lungs when it is humid. I was dripping wet and couldn't wipe enough sweat away to make a difference.

I am going to stop here. I am suddenly really tired. It is probably the glass of Merlot.

Okay, it is now 8:46 on Wednesday night. I was out too late last night to get any writing done.

Back to Monday morning... when I got up to the area past the falls, there were some red mini vans from the Austin Fire Department. About 30 or so fire fighter recruits got out and started stretching and doing some excercises. Later, when I was finishing my hike, I got a glimpse of them running in formation through the trees, They went some odd way that took them past the campsites instead of on the trails. At the very end of my hike, they were somewhere in the distance running and singing in cadance like soldiers. It was pretty neat.

Back at the camper, I got cleaned up and then headed to get Josh. I drove him out to O'Reiley's to get his battery tested. He has had somme electrical problems. It was going to take 90 minutes to charge it and test it, so we headed over to Pint House Pizza and had a pizza and some beers. 

When we got back to see the results of the battery test, it was dead. It wouldn't even charge. I suspected as much. It may have been the original battery from 1999! I bought him a new one. We put it in his truck and it took care of all the problems.

It was late afternoon by then, so I came on back to camp and took a nice long hike. My friend Susan texted me and told me she had shingles and wasn't coming for the conference. When I got back from the hike, I set up a shared folder in Evernote so she could see my notes. Then I wored on this for awhile.

right before going to bed, I saw some tiny ants on the counter top. I sprayed some ant poison and haven't seen any sign of them since. I inspected the outside looking for trails, but there weren't any. They probably came on board at the storage lot or maybe even at Kerrville Schreiner.

I set my alarm for 5:30 and went to bed. I wanted plenty of time to eat breakfast, shave, dress, and get to the conference. I wasn't sure what traffic would be like, or if the gate would be open. I pulled out of here at 6:45 and made it to the conference by 7:15. I sat in the truck for a while until I saw soone go in the school. When I got in, they were already setup for registration, even though it was supposed to start at 8:00. I got my badge, a purple knapsack, a water bottle, and some sunglasses. I took it all into the auditorium and sat there until 8:30 when the keynote was going to start. I got to watch all the sound and lighting checks.

I started to worry that I was in the wrong place. then suddenly at about 8:20 people flooded in. I guess they weren't letting people into the auditorium. They didn't seem to mind my being in there.

It was a full day of sessions. I didn't even break for lunch. I brought some meal replacement bars like I do for TCEA. By the end of the day my behind was really sore from sitting all day. Most of my sessions were clustered pretty close, so I barely walked the length of a football field all day. 

Westlake High School is beautiful. They have a lot of really nice features that only a really rich area would ever have. Their auditorium had two huge sections that rotate and form two smaller (but still huge) auditoriums. It is amazing.

I came back to camp for awhile to freshen up, etc. Then I headed out to pick up Josh for trivia. I was pretty late because of the traffic, even though I left super early because it was raining at camp. We drove over and picked up his girlfriend before heading over to a parking garage. then we walked to the Drag Bar and played triviia. (It is a bar on the drag- not a bar for people dressed in drag). We really stunk this time. We ended up 13th out of 14 teams. It was brutal.

We still needed dinner so we went to some bar with anchor in its name for burgers. They were cheap and really good. Josh wanted to stay later and play darts, but I begged off and dropped them both off before heading back to the  Colby T. 

I messed around for a little while then set my alarm for 5:30 again and went to bed. I wanted to have plenty of relaxing time in the morning.

This morning (Wednesday) I got to the school at about 7:30. I went to the cafeteria and found John and Doug sitting at a table. I joined them. After awhile we headed on over to the auditorium for what they called a "keynotathon". There were about 8 or 10 presenters who each got to talk for 3 minutes each. It was great.

The rest of the day was spent in sessions. They were all pretty good. The last one was a kenote address by Guy Kawasai who worked with Steve Jobs during the early days of the Macintosh. He was pretty good. As soon as he finished I took off. I wanted a headstart on the traffic. I had been invited to go eat BBQ with the NISD group, but I didn't want to 1) eat the calories, 2) spend the money, and 3) most importantly miss out on an opportunity to hike the trails.

I got a 4.20 mile hike in. It was pretty uneventful, but very nice. I got back and had good scrubbing. I noticed that the black tank is pretty full. Now I am debating whether or not to stop using the toilet the rest of the trip and dump it on the way out Friday, or jpulling the Colby T over to the dump station tomorrow after the conference, dumping it, and pulling it back to the site. I will probably just stop using it. I don't use it when I camp in the winter, and that hasn't been a problem. The bath houses at this park are really nice. This time of year the park is mostly full of RVers. They use their own bathrooms.

Anyway, I am done writing for today. I can already tell I got pretty lazy with what I have done today. I am really tired and ready for bed, but I am afraid I will forget everything.

Thursday, 8:16 PM

I am going to try and have this finished before 9:00. Rachel told me that Rookie Blue is premiering tonight on ABC. I hooked up the TV and see that I get 48 channels here. One of them is ABC.

I got up at 5:30 this morning and took my time getting ready. At 6:50, I drove over to the closest bath house to do my business, since the black tank is nearly full. It was locked. They only open that one on the weekend. I just got back into the truck and went to the conference. I got there at about 7:10, but the doors were opened. I hiked way back to the back of the school before I saw a bathroom that wasn't locked.

I went back to the cafeteria and got a cup of coffee. Before long, John Moran joined me. We compared sessions and sat and talked for awhile. Then we went our seperate ways. 

My sessions were all good today. Even the one that really didn't show us much new stuff for augmented reality had some great nuggets that were exciting. I got a free teacher's account to a great AR site that actually does all the work for you. It was free for attendees to the session only.

John and I both decided to skip the closing keynote. I had no real interest in hearing someone's opinions about whatever. I also wasn't interested in any of the drawings. I never had time to enter any of them. John headed home to San Antonio. I headed back to the Colby T, stopping to fill up the truck on the way. I also bought a huge cup of diet Dr, Pepper. It was mostly ice and will last me through tomorrow.

I changed clothes and headed off for a 5 mile hike. I took water with me this time. It was damn hot! The thermometer in the Colby T said it was 103 outside and 81 inside. I'm not sure about that. Yes, it was hot as hell outside, but Weather Bug said it was only 89 here. Inside, I was comfortable, but 81 seems a litttle outside of my comfort range. Regardless, the hike was hot. It felt good to get back. I cleaned up and just sat here for awhile. 

I ate a quick dinner of beef tips over mashed potatoes. It was one of those Hormel Complete meals that I am so fond of these days. I'm going to have some microwave pork rinds later. That will bring my calorie count for today to 1440. I try not to pass 1500, so I am pleased.

As I said earlier, I hooked up the TV. Then I ended up watching the Mexican version of Ameirica Has Talent, Mucho Talento  (or something like tha). Now I am finishing this up and waiting for Rooky Blue.

This trip has really worn me out. the week after next, I am supposed to go to Stephen F. Austin SP for three nights. I am thinking about cancelling. I'm afraid I will be too tired for the drive to St. Louis. I haven't driven on a long trip in six years. I am a little worried about doing it again.

Like the last several posts, I won't add more when I get home unless there is something out of the ordinary to tell you about.

Happy Trails!

Friday, June 26, 2015

Well, Here I am updating, so you already know something must have happened.This is what I posted to the Open Roads RV Forum:

 I was heading home from a great five week stay at McKinney Falls in Austin, Texas this morning. Suddenly, I felt a strange vibration. I pulled over on I-35, but the traffic was so heavy there was no way I could get out of the truck. I could see the trailer tires in my mirrors. They didn't seem flat. The Truck computer indicated the truck tires were fine. I slowly drove on the shoulder to the next exit and managed to pull in behind a gas station. The tread had come off of one of the trailer tires. It did a little damage, but nothing compared to what could have happened. I have heard horror stories about blowouts.

I immediately used the GS app on my iPhone. I got a call from a rep almost the second I put my phone back in my pocket. She was very nice and told me that I would get a text telling me who was coming and what the ETA was. The text came about 20 minutes later with an ETA of 90 minutes. While I was reading the text, the Jack Rabbit Network people called me to tell me the tire service was on the way and would arrive within 45 minutes instead of the 90 mentioned in the text. 

About 50 minutes later, the tire guy arrived. He jacked up the Colby T, changed the tire, aired up the spare, let the Colby T back down, handed me his receipt book to sign, gave me my receipt, and drove away with a $10.00 tip.

I got back on the road within two hours. I was very satisfied with Good Sam's response, the wait time, and most important to me- the quality of service I received from the tire service.