It's Friday, and the RV lot is starting to fill up for the weekend...we've got a great site location, it's a corner, so we have a much bigger grassy spot with a couple of trees to put our chairs and little table than if we were in the middle of the RV sites. No picnic tables for the economy rate, though. Not only am I mentioning this in the blog but I also have a little camping log book that I bought a few weeks ago in our travels. It's pretty cool.
..it's specifically for camping and is called "The Camper's Journal"--it has categories for everything you might want to remember about a campground--phone numbers, contact info, comment section, people you met, memorable events, etc. On the opposite page, it's a full note page. You could tuck some photos in there or add a lot more journaling. They also had another one available that was a "states" journal...tidbits about each state, a little map, historical places visited, memorable restaurants or places, etc. and it was titled, "Let's Go See all 50". In case I have a hard drive crash, I've got a backup log and for people who don't have time to blog, this would be a great gift idea...and sometimes it's nice to still do the handwritten thing, ya know? I get a little wistful sometimes with the demise of the handwritten notes and cards that seem to be going by the wayside. When you travel, it's so easy to send an ecard for a birthday or an email for a personal note, that it seems that many people don't bother with the handwritten card or note any more. In this day and age, it's a special treat to get one, that's for sure!
Well, I may not have had any lucky intuitive feelings, but we did sign up for a casino player card for free, and you can earn points towards free or discounted food, slot machine credits, and other merchandise, so last night we swiped our player cards for a promotional bonus, and Eldy received 10.00 in credits to play the machines and 5 entries for a drawing for a mint '57 Chevy, and I won 20.00 in credits to play and five entries for the Chevy. Of course you have to be present to win...we won't! The psychology of a casino would be an interesting study in itself--the music riffs the machines play, announcements that so and so just won a $1,000.00 on the penny slots (makes you want to keep playing, right? It could be one of the machines in your row, try another one!) After blowing through the slot play credits on our member cards in a very short period of time with no luck, we decided to go check out the town of Manistee...downtown had many empty storefronts and it looked like it was struggling. We then went on a tour of the S.S. Milwaukee, a car ferry built in 1930, that carried cars and train boxcars across Lake Michigan for many years. I find all things maritime interesting, and thought this would be something for 6.00 a person that we could learn about...did we learn much? Unfortunately, not very much...the guide just didn't know how to engage his group and make it interesting. As a former teacher, I have a bad habit of mentally critiquing people who do tours and I start thinking about how I would give the information to the group and how I would pace the tour! Notice the missing variable in this equation: how about the learner making an attempt to be alert and paying attention? I tried taking notes on my little notepad on my iphone, but these aging fingers just can't text fast enough! About all I remember is the ferry carried 32 train boxcars filled with an incredible amount of weight four times a day across Lake Michigan, that it was 118 degrees in the boiler room, and they had salt tablets to keep their hydration up! The guide talked about these ships running 12 months a year, (they were the original ice breakers for the Great Lakes)...he talked about waves coming aboard as high as the pilot house! ( I remember dramatic things...)
Off to the dance floor this evening...a classic rock band is playing at the casino, and Eldy has promised me that we will dance our socks off!
PS. I had the Mary Chapin Carpenter song, "I Feel Lucky" ready to play on a downloaded player for the blog, thought that would be so cool, but I couldn't figure out how to do a song download for one day with the drop in player. It was going to have that song playing for all my posted blogs..didn't want that.. Note to self: learn more about how to blog and add "gadgets"...bloggerspeak for "extras" on your web blog page. BTW, While trying to download the player today, I inadvertently tagged onto a promotional game ad and gave them my cell phone number before realizing the info they were asking me for was separate from setting up a playlist.com account! I backed out of the site as quickly as I could, but not before kicking myself that now they have my cell phone number and my allowable texts are going to dwindle at an alarming rate! Maybe!
..it's specifically for camping and is called "The Camper's Journal"--it has categories for everything you might want to remember about a campground--phone numbers, contact info, comment section, people you met, memorable events, etc. On the opposite page, it's a full note page. You could tuck some photos in there or add a lot more journaling. They also had another one available that was a "states" journal...tidbits about each state, a little map, historical places visited, memorable restaurants or places, etc. and it was titled, "Let's Go See all 50". In case I have a hard drive crash, I've got a backup log and for people who don't have time to blog, this would be a great gift idea...and sometimes it's nice to still do the handwritten thing, ya know? I get a little wistful sometimes with the demise of the handwritten notes and cards that seem to be going by the wayside. When you travel, it's so easy to send an ecard for a birthday or an email for a personal note, that it seems that many people don't bother with the handwritten card or note any more. In this day and age, it's a special treat to get one, that's for sure! Well, I may not have had any lucky intuitive feelings, but we did sign up for a casino player card for free, and you can earn points towards free or discounted food, slot machine credits, and other merchandise, so last night we swiped our player cards for a promotional bonus, and Eldy received 10.00 in credits to play the machines and 5 entries for a drawing for a mint '57 Chevy, and I won 20.00 in credits to play and five entries for the Chevy. Of course you have to be present to win...we won't! The psychology of a casino would be an interesting study in itself--the music riffs the machines play, announcements that so and so just won a $1,000.00 on the penny slots (makes you want to keep playing, right? It could be one of the machines in your row, try another one!) After blowing through the slot play credits on our member cards in a very short period of time with no luck, we decided to go check out the town of Manistee...downtown had many empty storefronts and it looked like it was struggling. We then went on a tour of the S.S. Milwaukee, a car ferry built in 1930, that carried cars and train boxcars across Lake Michigan for many years. I find all things maritime interesting, and thought this would be something for 6.00 a person that we could learn about...did we learn much? Unfortunately, not very much...the guide just didn't know how to engage his group and make it interesting. As a former teacher, I have a bad habit of mentally critiquing people who do tours and I start thinking about how I would give the information to the group and how I would pace the tour! Notice the missing variable in this equation: how about the learner making an attempt to be alert and paying attention? I tried taking notes on my little notepad on my iphone, but these aging fingers just can't text fast enough! About all I remember is the ferry carried 32 train boxcars filled with an incredible amount of weight four times a day across Lake Michigan, that it was 118 degrees in the boiler room, and they had salt tablets to keep their hydration up! The guide talked about these ships running 12 months a year, (they were the original ice breakers for the Great Lakes)...he talked about waves coming aboard as high as the pilot house! ( I remember dramatic things...)
Off to the dance floor this evening...a classic rock band is playing at the casino, and Eldy has promised me that we will dance our socks off!
PS. I had the Mary Chapin Carpenter song, "I Feel Lucky" ready to play on a downloaded player for the blog, thought that would be so cool, but I couldn't figure out how to do a song download for one day with the drop in player. It was going to have that song playing for all my posted blogs..didn't want that.. Note to self: learn more about how to blog and add "gadgets"...bloggerspeak for "extras" on your web blog page. BTW, While trying to download the player today, I inadvertently tagged onto a promotional game ad and gave them my cell phone number before realizing the info they were asking me for was separate from setting up a playlist.com account! I backed out of the site as quickly as I could, but not before kicking myself that now they have my cell phone number and my allowable texts are going to dwindle at an alarming rate! Maybe!
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