Drink More Wine!

We are finally NOT moving for a few weeks!  Hurray!  Although I made good use of the week long trek from New Jersey to Colorado, catching up on work while Craig drove  us westward.  

We traveled over 1700 miles in 6 days.

The passenger seat of the bus makes for a comfy office.  I was able to give my grad students lots of attention this week. This turned out to be timely since both online classes are entering project mode right now, with some students needing extra time to discuss their project ideas.  Craig was pretty proud of his network setup that made it possible for me to be video conferencing while we were traveling down the road!  I am thankful to have my own personal onsite tech support department wherever I happen to be working from.

In the afternoon I would start to check out possible places for us to pull over for the night.  It was my goal to use our Harvest Host membership more this year, and I was fortunate to find two wineries for us to stop at.  

The first was Knob Hall Winery in Maryland

Turns out they were closed for the day, but we were welcomed anyway with a quick wine tasting.  We picked up a bottle of Cabernet to add to our growing collection of wine!  We need to DRINK MORE WINE… I think!

We were told that we could park right in the driveway and exit (without unhitching)  our tow by following an exit road up ahead.  As we walked around looking for the exit road, all we could find was a field.  Walking through the field revealed a dirt road.  Craig concluded we might be able to PASS  if it doesn’t rain.  It rained!  So we didn’t take a chance and unhooked the jeep, turned around and headed out uneventfully in the morning.

The second was Wyldewood Cellars  right off I-70.  Actually it still had the appearance of an old gas station with the gas tanks barricaded with wooden planks and invitations to DRINK MORE WINE!

There were not many grapes in sight.  Turns out the ‘winery’  was really a ‘conveniently located’  distribution center right off I-70 -- go figure!  ;-)  They specialized in elderberry wine and gave us a variety to taste ranging from sweet Elderberry Mead to a dryer Cabernet/Elderberry reserve.  

We ended up walking away with two bottles - one as a gift for the  Mead-loving Warren and Allison who would soon be our host.  We enjoyed the second reserve bottle while we watched a lovely Kansas sunset.

Hotel Walmart provided us with a place for the rest of our overnights.  Not only do Walmart stops provide a convenient location for  restocking on groceries, they usually are near at least one restaurant.  We’ve decided that any long drive days warrants a break from the RV at suppertime.

Uncertain Times

Wednesday morning was a rude awakening.  As I reached for my phone and saw the news - Trump Wins - I gasped with surprise and a few choice words slipped out.

I have been working hard to keep politics out of my public facing posts, and almost didn’t include anything here, but then I realized.. This is HISTORY!  Big History!  As we passed through 4 states in our drive today (Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio)  I found myself seeing the landscape in hues of red and blue.  I found myself contemplating on  what makes different parts of the country blue, red, pink.  I’m not planning to make this blog post about those thoughts, but instead just want to acknowledge -- THIS HAPPENED TODAY  as we travelled west

I found myself going back and forth between election news and my own work as Craig navigated  I-70.  I did my best trying to find another Harvest Host for us to stay in, but that would have meant going through Columbus Ohio during rush hour.  

So we stopped for the night at a Walmart about 10 miles shy of Columbus, unwinding with a Geek Date (Best Buy, Beer, and Wings).  It was impossible not to process the election and try to make sense of the world.

At 3 o’clock this morning I found myself wide awake.  By 4 I knew I was not going to get back to sleep and realized Craig had also been awake for a while.  By 5 we gave up and decided to get on the road and try to make it past Columbus before the morning commuter traffic. I think that was the first time we’ve taken the bus out on the road before dawn.   Our early morning talk made me realize that the general sense of uneasiness about the world was allowing uncertainties about work and lifestyle choices to surface and keeping us awake.  ;-(

Well one thing we knew for sure was that we had at least 5 more days to drive to reach Colorado - where we plan to linger through Thanskgiving.  

On the Road Again - Year 4

Almost 4 years ago we gave up our apartment and moved into our 1983 Bluebird bus full time.  After spending the Summer and Fall in Vermont navigating life in the bus, we hit the road for a 6 month tour of the Southeast (mostly Florida and Texas, that year) bringing the bus back around to Vermont where our living and learning lifestyle was surrounded by friends, family, and a more intense work schedule.

We repeated the exit strategy  out of Vermont for the next few years - with the bus leaving after VermontFest (Vermont's edtech conference traditionally held first Thursday and Friday in November). This was always a bit later than Craig wanted to leave, but he was a good sport about my need to be at this conference.  Not only is organizing the maker lounge fun,  skipping out  would NOT be a good career move for me right now.

This year we did things a little different.  This year I stayed for the conference, but Craig left October 29 driving the bus to Turkey Swamp Park (about 30 minutes from his daughter's house). This way he got to spend quality time with Maggie and Peter, and   I got to stay behind putting in a SOLID week of work.   After a day at Randolph school, and a day at Bethel School,  I packed up EMMA with everything she needed to spend 3 days in at the Killington Grand Resort, where I was in charge of the Innovation / Maker Lounge for our state's ed tech conference (VermontFest).



I must say that splitting up to leave Vermont was a lot harder than I expected.
I had to pack everything that I wanted on the road for 6 months (EXCEPT the things I needed for a week in Vermont)  in the bus before Craig left.   On top of that, I had to limit what I would keep for my week in Vermont, but also needed back with me to the size of a suitcase that I take on a flight from VT to NY, where I would then transport possibly by train, tax, subway  as I couch surfed in NYC on my way to join my husband and our home in NJ a few days later!

I survived, but just barely!

After an INTENSE couple of days pulling off what I must say was a ROCKIN Maker/Innovation Lounge in Killington,  I unpacked and repacked and grabbed a flight to New York City, where I spent two nights with MY kids.  NOT only did I get to see Matt's brand new Co-op,  I also got to visit both their churches and enjoy a lovely Sunday filled with music and love and family.



Finally  almost 10 days after Craig left Vermont in our home,  I joined him at Turkey Swamp Park in New Jersey, which despite's its name turned out to be a very lovely campground - about 45 minutes from New York.

This morning we started our 7 day trek from the East Coast to Colorado where we'll spend some time with Craig's son Warren and his wife Allison.

We lingered over coffee and took our time heading out (about 11:00 a.m)  waiting for morning commuters to be off the road.  I did a little research looking for some alternatives to Walmart and TruckStops and found a lovely Harvest Host just a few miles outside of Hagerstown Maryland.

Knob Hall Winery 

http://knobhallwinery.com/

We're now both keeping an eye on election results come in, fingers crossed, as we surf around the web, write blog post, and gear up mentally for the next 6 days on the road.

Birthday Present for Craig

 For his birthday,  I gifted Craig a motorcycle lift so he could take his bike on the road.  As a man who has traveled across the US with his motorcycle and also has crossed the country a dozen times (including up to Alaska), I  hope that this might be a way for him to bring along his favorite vehicle. 

Making with Izzi at San Diego Fab Lab

As we travel, Craig and I like to visit and blog about creative spaces and convergences.  While in San Diego we got to visit two different makerspaces (which I'll blog about in more detail later). 

During our  first visit  to the Fab Lab,  I noted four female makers on the poster board that featured their Resident Maker Experts -- one seemed a little younger than the rest.

Yesterday  I got to meet this most amazing young maker at the San Diego Fab Lab - 8 year old Isabelle (also known as IZZI).   When I met her, I could see why she was part of the Team That Gets Things Done at the Fab Lab.  

Izzi knows her way around a maker space! As you can see in this video, Izzi is totally at home with the space, the tools, and supplies.  

When I asked her to show me what she likes to make, she darted towards a back room, stopping  by a box of jumpers, and told me that she was learning to code and then identified a numerical value for each color jumper.

I was immediately curious to know more because, I had never heard anyone assign a numerical value to jumpers before.  But then Izzi proceeded to pull out a set of resistors calculating the value of the resistors by the color bands and then explained that one of her fellow resident makers used the colors on the jumpers to ‘drill her’ about these values. That is totally brilliant!  Izzi has some smart mentors who understand both making and learning!

Izzi quickly moved on to what CLEARLY was one of her favorite rooms filled with black and yellow crates that contained lockable plastic pieces, wheels, gears, pulleys, and a remote.  She pulled down a bridge from a high shelf,  rummaged through the drawers until she found a remote and then became entranced with the structure and its moving parts.  It was obvious that the world of mechanical engineering was one that fascinated her.  

Although I’ve seen a lot of different STEM products, I had yet to encounter the Rokenbok STEM kits and what better way to learn about them than through Izzi’s eyes. This reinforced my beliefs that STEM does not have to be pink or girly  to engage girls, but it does need to have a variety of entry points. The Rokenbok STEM kits quickly went on my list of  products with low threshold, high ceilings, and wide walls which I feel are  key to engaging a more diverse population of tech-savvy creators, makers, innovators, inventors and problem solvers.

When I  learned that another area that fascinated Izzi at the FabLab was the sewing area. filled with different types of sewing machines for various types of maker projects, I shared with her my interest in using Arduino in eTextile projects and showed her my latest hat project -- a black hat designed to show off an Arduino Bean that controls blue and white LEDs sewed into embroidered snowflakes. She was particularly fascinated with the fact that the project included a sensor that triggered a buzzer to play Star Wars music and started dancing to set off the accelerometer.

I asked her if she’d like to do some making together with some of my supplies.  We broke out some sewable LEDs, a sewable battery holder, conductive thread and quickly created a felt bracelet.   Her  comfort with circuits and ability to problem solve shined as she dashed across the room to find a multimeter when our LEDs failed to light on the first try.  

True confession:  My comfort with a multimeter pales compared to Izzi’s.   But her confidence with the tool inspired me to use mine more often until it becomes as second nature as it was for Izzi.  After learning that she had given the mayor of San Diego a soldering lessons, I was tempted to ask her for pointers.    But alas it was time to go and I wanted to leave Izzi with some supplies that would help her move our project to the next steps.   

I pulled out a  LilyPad Twinkle, some conductive thread and  some more sewable LEDs to leave with Izzi so  that she could  experience the way microprocessors  can be used  in her next sewing project. Then I showed her how I was using a more powerful microprocessor called the LilyPad Arduino to control some multi-colored neopixels on a unicorn headband project I was working on.

I would so love to come back and show Izzi to code a future Arduino project.  But my guess, is that Izzi is not going to need me to learn to code.  Izzi is fortunate enough to be surrounded with fabulous mentors from the FAB LAB who have taken her under their wing -- including her mom (Joy) who serves as  Community Relations Manager for the FabLab - San Diego.

The joy I was feeling while hanging out and making with Izzi was slightly dampened when hearing that Izzi school environment doesn’t seem to provide the opportunities for Izzi’s passion to shine.  The strong confident voice I heard from this young lady is not part of the Izzi you might see at school.

It’s sad that more kids don’t get to bloom the way Izzi obviously has by being surrounded in a rich environment for learning like the FabLab.   

It’s sad that students with passions for creating and making often don’t find a place to use that passion as part of everyday learning.  

Thankfully more schools are integrating more STEM/STEAM opportunities for students, and many educators I  work with are building their own maker spaces in their schools.

Thankfully more and more products like the Rokenbok STEM kits are being created with thoughtful attention to engaging a diverse group of students to “think like engineers gives them the skills and confidence to change the world.”

Thankfully many places like the FabLab are offering outreach opportunities to help our schools create tomorrow’s innovators.   

I can’t wait to see what path Izzi will follow as she continues to learn -- but something tells me engineering is somewhere in her future.

Thanksgiving with Warren and Allison

This is another "catch up" post that I'm writing in February while camping on Coronado Island in Southern California.

11/22/15 - Broomfield CO
We arrived at Warren and Allison's house while a neighbor of theirs was having a football party and the street was full of parked cars.  I drove up the block and parked temporarily as we checked out Warren and Allison's new (and first) house.

Once the neighbor's guests left I was able to park the RV on the road in front of the house.  Warren and I got an extension cord run from the house to the RV which set us up to stay happily parked at Allison and Warren's campground for the week.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we enjoyed sharing Allison and Warren's daily routine.  Warren would go off to work in the morning and Allison would work at her home based millinery business while Lucie and I would work from the RV.  In the afternoons we would often go into Boulder, where Warren and Allison had lived until they bought this house in Broomfield.  They would show us their old haunts, often ending with a great meal at one of the many interesting restaurants.

As Thanksgiving approached we stocked up on the supplies we would use for the feast.  This part of Colorado is a great place to enjoy craft beers, which we did with visits to local breweries and a local super store for adult beverages.

       










As our stay continued through the last week in November the temperatures dropped.  Snow fell and as Thanksgiving approached and the thermometer dropped below freezing and stayed there.  This turned into the longest stretch we had stayed in the RV in this kind of weather.  We survived pretty well, putting a sleeping bag on the bed and on several occasions setting a small heater blowing into the spaces where the pipes ran to thaw them out.


 Thanksgiving was spent cooking and preparing the house for the two young couples who would join Warren and Allison and us for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

After dinner Warren hosted a Single Malt Scotch tasting, sharing his collection and explaining the merits of each bottle.

The weather remained below freezing.

The long weekend after Thanksgiving was spent hanging out at home, touring this beautiful part of Colorado, a little shopping and antiquing.

We had Thanksgiving leftovers and opportunities to enjoy Allison's excellent home cooking.

The Monday after Thanksgiving Lucie, Allison and I took a field trip to Sparkfun, which is located in  Bolder.  

Then we all geeked out with Allison's imaginative creations and hats, adding LEDs and microprocessors.

The temperature remained below freezing with snow falling regularly.  Finally on Tuesday December 1, we loaded the car behind the RV and headed south in search of warmer weather.

I so enjoyed our time with Allison and Warren, I felt like I had gotten to share their life for a short time.  It is wonderful when your kids are grown up, independent and doing well.