On the move again - Mid October - Mid November 2019

Hard to believe it has been a year since I've cracked open this blog.  Certainly does not mean nothing has happened since last November,  just that I've not paid much attention to our personal blog.  But here we are in Year 7 traveling full time with our usual May - October stay in Mallet's Bay Campground (Vermont) And now we're on the move again.

We left Mallet's Bay mid October and headed to southern Vermont, where we parked in a school yard for almost 10 days.  

and worked with students and teachers at Shaftsbury Elementary School to integrate more creating and making into their learning.  I'll blog more about that at the Create Make Learn blog,  but if you're wondering what our days look like inside a school, check out these short videos.

From Shaftsbury, the bus  headed to to Turkey Swamp Campground in Freehold, NJ.   It's one of our go-to campground when we want to spend time with Craig's NJ kids and Lucie's Brooklyn kids and grandkids.  And as you can see, it's a beautiful spot.

Craig got to spend his 65th birthday with both his kids and their spouses (and even 3 of his 4 sisters) as everyone gathered in Manhattan for a very fancy wedding. 

and for those of you who have never seen Craig in a suit - here's  a rare occasion.

Then Craig and I said goodbye for a few weeks, as he headed out in the bus towards Iowa to get the leveling jacks repaired at a factory in Moscow, Iowa and I headed into Brooklyn to spend some time with these babies and their parents. 

Not only did I get to spend Halloween with my grand babies, but I got to cheer on runners in the New York City marathon with them, too.

Then for a real treat, my son, Matt, invited me to join him for his Broadway debut where he played piano, accordion, and conducted the music  for Hadestown - a Broadway play with a Vermont origin.

and as a bonus I got to enjoy the show with his twin brother, Adam.

Lucky me! 

Then back to Vermont via a beautiful train ride along the Hudson river

just in time to watch the white stuff cover the ground, as I spent a few days with my Dad

where 2 of my sisters showed up unexpectedly for an early birthday lunch.

The visit also allowed me to sneak in a little extra time with my 3 Vermont grandkids.

Got to watch my oldest grandson and his friends building a skateboard ramp in their barn

and take my only grand daughter to the gym

and play in the snow with this special guy. 

And finally one more early birthday dinner with my cousin, my Mom, and sister at the Single Pebble!

After some great family time, I put my work hat back on and made a quick trip back to 

Shaftsbury school for more making with 4th graders

and then launched right into my conference director role

for VermontFest 2019 - Vermont's annual Fall EdTech event. 

Exhausted but pleased with the outcome of the conference, 

I put EMMA (my mobile studio) into winter storage and took a cab to the airport.

After several false starts due to mechanical issues with planes in the Burlington Airport, I finally made it to Denver.

It was great to reunite with Craig after 3 weeks of traveling in separate states.

On the Road Again - Year 2

On 11/11 at 11:00 a.m.  we hooked up the Saturn+car dolly to the bus, started her up and plugged in Savannah Georgia to the GPS which let us know we'd be there in 1111 miles.   Three days after leaving our campsite in Shelburne, Vermont,  we arrived at Skidaway Island State Park  just after dark (6:00 p.m. ) and boy was it dark.  So dark that it was impossible to tell where the campsites were, so we  are boondocking for the 3rd night in a row.

Our first night on the road we made it to New Jersey when we blew a tire on the dolly along the New Jersey Turnpike.  The good news was that the service area just a few miles down the road had an OPEN Tire Shop -- Talk about captive audience!  Wondering if that cement construction barricade that caught our tire was strategically placed?  Even though the service area was slated for 2 hour parking, there were plenty of truckers spending the night and the mechanic who hooked us up with not 1 (but 2) new dolly tires assured us that nobody checks and we'd be fine to stay the night.

The next night we made a planned overnight stop at a Walmart in North Carolina, and enjoyed a chance to stretch our legs as we restocked the fridge.  This morning I woke up and declared that I was moving my birthday forward one day so I could do something more exciting a little more exotic.  So for this year - my birthday will not be celebrated on November 13.



But I did do something I really liked on my birthday,  I created opportunities for teachers and students by connecting amazing people using

my very mobile office and the incredibly robust wireless network that my husband has hooked up to keep me connected  to the Internet while driving down the road.  I worked on connecting teachers and professionals interested in increasing the number of girls in tech to see if we could launch Vermont's first Girls Who Code Club;  I worked on connecting innovative educators through a project I started a few years ago (PROJECT IGNITE); I worked on connecting Google using educators through our newly launched  G+ Community of Vermont- GEG (Google Educator Group);  I connected with members of the  Maker Space of which I'm a a member of (The GENERATOR) using Google Groups; and connected with members of the ENable Google+ Community where I had a nice chat with a super smart high school senior girl  from New Brunswick who has just "3D printed an eNable hand that she plans on automating by using Servo motors and a programmed Arduino chip and a 5 button panel to individually control which finger is bent and to what degree it is bent"; and much more.   For those of you who read the signature line on my emails, you aren't surprised that this is how I like spending my days.  And for those of you who are wondering... this is the quote at the bottom of each of my emails.

--------------------------------------
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
- James M. Barrie
---------------------------------------

So on the first three days of our Year 2 journey, while Craig burned through about $393 worth of diesel during our 1111 miles, I burned through 4898 mb of data.  The good news is that we have purchased 70 gigs of data between (AT & T and Verizon's double your data October deal).   With Craig keeping his Verizon plan and my keeping my AT&T plan we hope to be able to connect to most places we travel. (Although I was not smiling when I first drove into  this dark forest to see no bars on my phones - which means no birthday calls --good thing I moved my birthday to tomorrow ;)

Tomorrow we'll walk around the camp ground and pick out a site to spend the next 6 days based on many factors (from cell signal to flat enough to keep our 35 Bluebird Wanderlodge level).  Craig will catch up on the service tickets that have backlogged while he's been busy driving and get his school in good shape for the upcoming end of the trimester learning showcases.  I'll post next week's modules in my two online classes and provide feedback on final projects.  And then my guess is we'll go find a nice place in Savannah for a belated birthday dinner.

Stay tune for this year's journey out of Vermont as Craig and Lucie continue to Live and Learn and Mobile as today's  technology provides us the opportunity to work from anywhere.  Hope its as safe and enjoyable a journey as last year.

November 2103 - May 2014 in our 1983 BlueBird Wanderlodge
May - 2014 - November 2014 we enjoyed Vermont from our Travel Trailer at Mallet's Bay Campground. 

Leaving These Green Mountains

It's REAL.. we are officially on the road and leaving these Green Mountains for the next leg of our journey after spending 3 days with the bus parked in the Upper Shed Parking Lot of the Killington Grand Resort in Killington, Vermont. We spent the first night in the bus, but moved into the conference center for the next few days while Craig and I attended Vermont Fest - Vermont's Ed Tech Conference.  Craig helped with tech support; I presented  3 workshops and co-presented the closing keynote.  The best part about VermontFest is catching up with other educators and fellow ed-tech specialist.  It was so cool to have my own personal 'tech support"  at all 4 of my sessions -- thank you, Craig! 

Midday the snow started coming down and I could sense Craig getting nervous about getting the bus safely out of the mountains, so we cleared out of the conference center quickly. Craig managed to carefully navigate his way around the vehicles that had filled up around what had originally been a very remote isolated section of the parking lot. NOTE to SELF: (when you park in an empty lot,  do not assume it will be empty when it comes time to leave) 

Rand McNally RV GPS App  took us down some Vermont  roads that made Craig wish for a option where he could select -  novice bus driver pulling a car dolly behind a 34 foot bus.  But now that we are on I-91 S things we are cruising.  Starting to learn the sounds of the road - such as rattle from a non functioning compass and the directionals blinking when our speed drops below 45 on Vermont's hilly highways.

One of the highlights of the conference was that Steve Jarrett and I launched the very first VermontFest APP.  Below is an entry for my workshops from our first VermontFest App.  I posted my presentation materials on my professional website - Learning With Lucie.

Lucie deLaBruere
Higher Ed, Learning With Lucie
Colchester, VT

Twitter

learningwithlucie.com

Freelance educator - living and learning mobile

Speaking Schedule

Wednesday, November 6

6:00pm

 Mobile Media Making

Thursday, November 7

10:45am

 Using Google Tools to support the Common Core

6:00pm

 The Magic of Making with Your iPad

Friday, November 8

12:40pm

 On the Road to iPad App Development –

2:45pm

 Keynote: Connected Voices - Bringing Vermont Students Together

Frost on the Pumpkin

Frost on the Pumpkin

Watching the forecast as we weather the last week in northern Vermont. Craig is playing with the furnaces in the bus to keep pipes from freezing.  We're due to leave Shelburne Campground one week from today and head to  Killington Vermont for a few days.  Craig's deliberating whether to change the plans of driving the bus to southern Vermont while we attend VermontFest (Vermont's Fall educational technology conference) for 3 days, and actually leave it plugged into a campsite at Shelburne  Camping (open year round) while we are at the conference.  We'll be watching the 10 day forecast closely as we take care of all the odds and ends that need caring for this week.  

Not only are we preparing for leaving Vermont I am also frantically prepping for my 4 presentations at the annual Fall Ed Tech Conference (Vermont Fest).   The sketchy campground wifi at Shelburne Campground  make that a bit challenging.  Sometimes it's clear sailing; other times its a 30 - 60 second wait for a page load.   Thank goodness Craig has configured our bus to be able to easily switch back and forth between campground wifi and Verizon.  I'm learning to be very aware of which connection, and making  very deliberate choices of whether to click on the videos my friends post on Facebook or whether to wait another day before downloading the latest iOS update.  Gotta save that metered Verizon bandwidth for those times when in the middle of Google Hangout planning meeting, the campground wifi gives out forcing me to switch over to Verizon (which  ended up being a 2 GIG video conference) UGH!  

I am super thankful to my husband for setting us up so is possible to switch back and forth so easily. However,  I'm afraid I was NOT a good bandwidth steward yesterday ;-(   I must do a better job at monitoring and keeping us within our monthly Verizon allowance.    Today should be an easier day, since I'm heading out for a few appointments and will be able to squat at St. Albans City School between appointments - where the wifi is AWESOME  (thanks to the talent of their awesome network admin - who I happen to be married to!

Am I ready? I think so!

It was almost 10 years ago that I wished Craig Lyndes, a fellow edtech colleague, "Best of Luck" as he headed out on a one year trek with his motorcycle and a small motorhome. Many of Craig's fellow colleagues from around Vermont envied his ability to "leave it all behind" and pursue his goal to take a year to travel the United States. We watched his journey, which he documented faithfully in a travel log, using an old Windows 98 laptop equipped with primitive web design tools and FTP software.  (Craig's travel blog transferred to an ebook (2005) and (2006 - 2007)

Little did I know, that almost ten years later, I would be joining him, in ROUND 2 of a similar journey. Craig and I were married almost 4 years ago. I knew very well that he had wanderlust and didn't say YES when he proposed. Instead, I asked "What would I have to say YES to?" We talked for a few weeks about the differences in our need/desire to travel, and finally he convinced me that what I would be saying yes to was a commitment to a new journey that we would define together.

So for the next few summers I practiced living in an RV. The first few years, I practiced living in a 35 foot trailer with a sunroom add on, parked in a campground on Lake Champlain in Swanton, Vermont. Every fall, we would return to our apartment in Colchester, Vermont for the winter where I enjoyed long baths and large square rooms.

Then, Craig, pursued another dream of his - to own a BlueBird Wanderlodge- and placed a bid on a 1983 bus he spotted for sale on eBay.   For the next few summers, I practiced living in even smaller quarters as we traded in the camper/sunroom for a bus and LL Bean screen room parked in the same  lakeside campground.

This year, we took another big step and gave up our apartment to pursue an 18 month stint in the bus. After some negotiations, we came up with a plan of living in the bus 6 months in Vermont, 6 months on the road, and 6 months back in Vermont. (Grandchildren, were a major factor in this negotiations) The past six months (May - October) have been filled with the adjustments that come from giving up the apartment. (more on that in a future post). But alas the leaves are turning colors, and the snow looms around the corner, so it's time to take mobile living to the next phase. Am I ready? (I, think, so)