Michael R. Hicks's Blog, page 27

Blogging: How Important Is It?

If you've read much at all about promoting anything on the web – your books, business, whatever – you've no doubt come across articles about blogging. Blogs are all over the place. I mean, you're reading a blog at this very moment, right? And everyone prattles on about how important they are, in one way or another.

The importance of blogging to me was driven home in a very stark way: declining book sales over the summer, starting in late July. Using the Kindle version of as a benchmark, sales were rock steady in the 400 range for Kindle store rankings from mid-April (after the book had taken off in the wake of the release of Season of the Harvest in February) through mid-July, when they began tapering off. That slump continued until recently, when the book went on sale for a brief time at $0.99, pushing the rankings from where they'd fallen to a low of 1600 back up to around 350.

Now, you may be thinking that's not much of a difference at all in the great scheme of things: a ranking of 1600 or so certainly isn't bad! You're right, it's not. But I'm using this to illustrate my point about blogging.

You see, the only major factor that I can come up with that changed right around the time that started slipping was that I'd stopped blogging. We were on our summer RV trip to New England and Canada, and we were so busy that I just didn't get around to posting anything new. And when we got back, I was wrapped up in working on In Her Name: Dead Soul and sorting out all the details of leaving my day job to write full time that I never got back into it.

As far as I can tell, the other variables that I could control stayed mostly the same. For example, for the most part my activity on Twitter stayed roughly the same (which means: a lot!) and the book prices stayed the same.

Now, I know I'm not the only one to have suffered a "summer falloff." Joe Konrath commented on this on his blog (see Ebook Sales Down?), but Joe made that post in late June, and June has been my second best month after July.

No. I think the main factor for me has been the falloff in blogging. And I also have to wonder about John Locke's approach to blogging, which he goes over in his book How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months, in which he advises making few posts that tug on the readers' heartstrings (that's what it boils down to for me, but I don't want to steal the man's thunder). Now, obviously he's doing something that's working well for him, but he was already a millionaire businessman before he set pen to paper as an author, and I suspect he has the ability to deliver things in a way that most of the rest of us don't. I think it's a great idea, but I suspect that he's the exception, rather than the rule. Just sayin'.

And if you're thinking, "Holy cow! I don't have time to blog!" keep this in mind: I was holding down a full-time job, was writing novels at a completion rate of around nine months per book, and was blogging at least weekly for most of the first half of this year. Was it exhausting? Hell yeah! Did it pay off? In spades: I gave up my day job in mid-August to write full-time. And I'm now convinced that blogging was a big help in getting me there.

So, the bottom line for me is that while you can hook up with people on Twitter or Facebook easily enough, I think you have to give your readers and potential fans more meaty tidbits to educate and entertain them on a steady basis to keep them coming back to your blog. It's really all about exposure, giving them more opportunities to learn about you and – hopefully – check out your books (and get on that all-important mailing list)!

Related Posts:Who's Your Favorite Hero?The Joys of Technology!

Who's Your Favorite Hero?

As I write this, Hurricane Irene is approaching us, and it started me thinking about all the everyday men and women who do extraordinary things in times of crisis, the heroes who seem to emerge from every terrible situation.

That got me wondering: who was my favorite hero?

I know that a lot of people have heroes they carried with them from childhood: sports stars, TV or movie characters, and so many more. Other folks discover their heroes later in life, many of whom are amazing people by any measure, and have done extraordinary things.

But for me, the answer to the question landed a lot closer to home. And I don't have one favorite hero, I have two: my mom and dad.

You see, even though I never really appreciated it until I had kids myself, my parents have always been there for me, a solid presence in my life. When I was young, rare were the times that at least one of them couldn't be at an event that was important to me, like a band concert, and most of the time both were there. When one of them couldn't attend, I often felt hurt by it, wondering what could be so important that they couldn't come, or wondering if they didn't really care.

It's easy to draw those conclusions when you're young. There are also some parents who don't hold their kids up as their top priority, and who blow a lot of things off because it's not convenient or they have other "commitments." Looking back, and knowing now what I didn't know then, my parents weren't like that: the few times they weren't there, it was because they really couldn't be. I just wish I could have appreciated that a long time ago.

So, why are they my heroes?

Well, let's start with my dad. He's the man I would have liked to be. He's fun, smart, humble, and works hard at everything he does. He's also an extraordinarily loving and compassionate man who also has the spirit and courage of a warrior. I watched him save a man's life, and have seen him risk his own on more than one occasion. And we also had loads of fun when he took me camping and fishing (Mom wisely staying home!). Some of the best memories of my life are from some of those trips and the crazy things that happened. A lot of those things probably would have made most men angry or upset, but Dad almost always just laughed and somehow turned potential minor disasters into a great time.

As for my mom, she probably won't win the "touchy-feely" award, but she certainly gets the one for patience! For one thing, I went to the elementary school where she taught, so she had to deal with my shenanigans and probably wore a track in the concrete on the way down to the principal's office for her miscreant son. However, she got a bit of revenge in eighth grade when I was in her class for algebra, where she had the joy of giving me the only math test I ever failed, before or after!

But Mom was also always there when I needed help with something, and didn't dodge any bullets: if I was having a rough time with something she didn't know about, she went and learned enough about whatever it was to help me out. She spent a LOT of time on things like that, again that I took for granted at the time, but that in the end helped me out tremendously.

Did I get everything I wanted? Heck no! My parents weren't rich, by any stretch, and even if they'd been rolling in money, they weren't the spoiling type. But I never wanted for anything that really meant something to me, and I can say without hesitation that I had an awesome childhood, as nutty and crazy as our lives were sometimes.

As a young man, I no doubt viewed my parents with the disdain that seems to so often go with the newfound freedom and invincibility of youth. But even after I left home to seek my fortune, they never interfered with the path I chose to follow (and I took some turns that led me to places I'd rather not have gone), and were always there when I needed them. Even as a grown man, I was still their number one priority.

More importantly, as I grew older, they became more than just parents: they became great friends. I know that we don't talk as much as we probably should, but the line's always open and we never fail to have a blast when we talk and get together, and I love them like crazy.

So, my mom and dad. They're my favorite heroes. Who are yours?

Writing Reader Reviews

One of the most important things you can do for an author whose work you enjoy is to leave a reader review, telling potential readers what you thought of it.

A common misconception, and one thing that makes a lot of folks shy away from leaving a review, is that you have to write some big long thing about the plot, characters, etc.

Nothing could be further from the truth! It's great when folks take the time to do that, but you don't have to. Just leave a sentence or two telling others why you enjoyed the book. Imagine you're in an elevator, and a friend you haven't seen in a while just hopped on. You really want to tell them about this book you just read, but you don't have much time. That's all it takes to make a great reader review!

The reason your input is so important is that it tells other folks who are taking a look at a particular book whether it's worth spending their hard-earned cash on.

Reviews are also like votes: the more votes, the better! And don't feel that it's not worth leaving a review just because other folks already have. Your vote counts!

So, if you've enjoyed any of my books, please do consider taking a few minutes to leave a quick review to let others know what you think!

Author page on Amazon US

Author page on Amazon UK


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Sony eBookstore

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The Joys of Technology!

My profuse apologies, but I'm in the process of switching web hosting providers after mine had a catastrophic crash last night (17 August). So please be patient while we try to patch things back together!

Interview on WNAV Radio

[image error]

In the WNAV Studio...

If you're interested, here's an interview WNAV radio in Annapolis did with me this morning – enjoy!

Play/download the MP3 file…

2011 Summer RV Tour: Boston

3 July, 2011. Location: Boston.

I'll say right up front that we could easily have stayed another several days in Boston and still not seen all that we'd probably like to. Talk about a place steeped in history…and with a ton of really neat-looking places to eat!

After our successful trip to Cape Cod the day before, we headed out in the CR-V from the Boston/Cape Cod KOA to snag the subway into the city. The subway was easy to navigate, there was a ton of parking available at the subway station, and we didn't have any trouble with the fare card machines or readers, which was nice.

First stop: the Boston Common, where we began our walk along the Freedom Trail. Now, I'll confess that when we visited a lot of these places, my thoughts went to the National Treasure movies, but beyond the Hollywood aspect of it, it really gave me a bit of a shiver down the spine when we saw some of the places here. I mean, not to belittle the other critical and important places and events of the revolutionary period, this is where so much of what went into the founding of our country happened that it's just, well, amazing. Even amid the modern buildings, you're still walking the same path and visiting the same places that were pivotal in our history.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on each place we went, so this is mostly going to be pictures (and we didn't go to every place on the Freedom Trail). But since each tells a thousand words, this is actually a pretty long blog post! So let's get started, shall we?

2011 Summer RV Tour: Cape Cod

2 July 2011. Location: Cape Cod (Provincetown).

Okay, technically it was 1 and 2 July, but 1 July was spent in our own personal Escape From New York to the Boston/Cape Cod KOA. The drive was mostly uneventful, although I'll say that getting the RV out of the New York City area (and no, we didn't drive in Manhattan, although that probably would've been an…interesting publicity stunt!).

Traffic, however, was terrible. We were heading out on I-95 across the Bronx area when our GPS, an RVND-5510 with the live traffic receiver, suddenly decided that we really needed to be on I-87. I had absolutely no clue: sometimes these GPS gadgets lead you to greener pastures, and sometimes just into a deeper pile of manure. Take the I-95 parking lot, or…

Well, I took door number two toward I-87, but we missed the first exit the GPS told us to take. I probably would've missed the next one, too, except I decided that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So I closed my eyes (well, not really) and hauled the RV over into the right hand lane (although I have to say, nobody honked at me!) and headed up this ramp to Whatchacallit Street. All I remember is it was a steep climb up the exit, then we were under this rusty metal overpass thingy with steel I-beam supports all over the place that I had to weave through, making sharp turns while praying that none of the oncoming traffic would hit us. It sort of reminded me of Han Solo piloting the Millenium Falcon through the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. Okay, maybe not that melodramatic -- Han Solo had it easier than me.

Anyway, the upshot was that once we were on I-87, it was pretty much smooth sailing the rest of the way. We ran into traffic here and there, but nothing too bad, and that little detour probably saved at least an hour's driving time. So, to the RVND-5510 GPS: thank you!

Okay, enough of that. We got to the Boston/Cape Cod KOA, and had our first (and I pray only) major "incident" for the trip. As some of the KOA's do, one of the staff was leading me to our site, with him in a golf cart and us all in the RV. I had to make a sharp turn to get into the site, and I felt a little…resistance as I made the turn, fortunately moving very slowly. When you feel something holding back a 24,000 pound vehicle, there's usually a problem.

In this case, it was our Honda CR-V, which some of you may recall is the replacement vehicle for our Nissan Quest that was totalled last September by an idiot who was texting while driving. For anyone who does that, please stop. Nothing you're texting is as important as your safety and that of the people you're going to run into. In our case, this guy's stupidity caused permanent damage to my right wrist, and could have easily killed some pedestrians he otherwise would have run into if he hadn't run into us first. It also wound up costing him the use of his car and thirty days in jail. So, don't text and drive. Please.

Anyway, I heard somebody shout something, which, unless they're shouting "Free BEER!", is usually another bad sign. So I put the beast into park and took a look.

Ugh. We had the CR-V still in its tow position behind the RV, and when I swung to turn into the site, I ran the poor car into a guard pole for the park's propane tank, which was low on the passenger side; I never even saw it. I'm not making excuses, just a mental note to really understand my surroundings every time we pull into or out of a site.

The good news is that nobody was hurt and there wasn't any major damage. I'm sure it'll cost a fortune to repair (hey, that plastic is expensive!), but a quick visit to a local dealer (Silko Honda treated us VERY well!) verified that there wasn't anything but cosmetic damage, and the car was safe to tow and drive. The guard pole was knocked askew a bit, but that could probably be straightened out by strapping all the kids at the KOA to it and having 'em do a tug-of-war.

I also readily took the advice of one of the Boston/Cape Cod KOA staff folks (who, by the way, were great about the whole thing): unhook the car near the office, and hook it up the same place (or wherever is safe and out of the way, but not in the camp site) when you leave. Gotcha.

The bad news…well, this is called a "learning experience." If nothing else, we met half the people at the KOA in the first fifteen minutes after I hit the pole, and we were instantly the most popular people there. You always have to find the silver lining…

After we recovered from the infamous pole incident, we headed off for Cape Cod the next morning (2 July).

And I thought traffic was bad in New York City, hoooowaaahh. There's only the one bridge to get across to the cape, and you and twenty bazillion of your closest friends all want to get there at the same time. Bring some popcorn to watch with the movie.

It was a long wait, but in the end it was worth it. After we got across the bridge, things sped up, and we wended our way toward Provincetown, which is at the very end of the cape. We had planned to ride our bikes along the dunes somewhere, then spend a little time in town before taking a whale watching cruise. Unfortunately, not having taken the horrible bridge traffic into account, we had exactly twenty minutes to ride our bikes before we had to get back to the pier for the cruise.

As the picture here gives the merest glimpse, Provincetown is one of those places you need to spend at least a full day or two, wandering around, doing some biking, and just generally hanging out. On the drive out there, we discovered that there are at least two RV parks actually out on the cape, and in a future trip we'll park the rig there to make the trip to Provincetown that much shorter.

Oh, before moving on to the highlight of the day, I should point out that we had lunch at a restaurant called Moby Dick's (yeah, I know: go figure) that was on the way along the cape toward Provincetown. The seafood there was really good. The only thing that was a bit odd (but not in a bad way) was that you order and pay for your food at the register, then they bring it out to you. I just had fish & chips (go ahead, say it: "Booooring!"), which were yummy, and Jan and the boys had other stuff that was quite good.

Now for the highlight of the trip: the whale watching. As my parents will readily attest, I'm not exactly a naturalist. But Jan signed us up for what has to have been one of the top ten whale watching trips of all time! We hopped on a big boat (one of the Dolphin series boats that puts out of Provincetown) and headed out, maybe thirty minutes or so, where there were maybe a dozen or so whales having dinner. Over and over again.

I put together a little video from clips I took with my iPhone. What you see in this video happened again and again -- I've never seen the like, and as you can tell from the gal on the PA system who was our "guide" for the trip, she thought it was pretty special, too!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xaAcUGqh4Q

After we got back from that little outing, we stopped at Twisted Sisters Pizza (sort of makes you wonder where the pepperoni is coming from, right?) for a quick dinner before making the drive back to the RV. Fortunately, there weren't a pile of people trying to get across the bridge at the time, but it was still a long drive. We got back late (maybe 10:30 or 11:00) and collapsed into bed.

Next up: Boston!

2011 Summer RV Tour: New York City, Day 2

30 June, 2011. Location: New York City.

While our first day in the Big Apple was a lucky fluke of timing, we'd planning to spend one full day in the city, and this was it! Now, I'll be honest here and say that I probably won't remember everything that we saw and did. I tried to keep track, but it was such a whirlwind day that I likely missed a few hundred things.

I'll apologize up front for the format of this post, because I crammed in a bunch of pics, and they may be smashed in a bit with the text. So just consider it a bit of an Easter egg hunt, trying to match up the right pics with the words that go with 'em!

[image error]After snarfing down our traditional breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, we hopped on the water taxi and again headed over to Wall Street. After a quick stroll among all the expensively-attired men and women of the financial district (who no doubt lusted after our FiveFinger shoes!), we visited Ground Zero.

I was somewhat disappointed that there wasn't a place to get a better view into the site, but I wasn't surprised. However, one of the construction folks helpfully pointed out a building on what I believe was the west side where one could get a decent view into the site from the second floor (unfortunately, we didn't really have time to go find it).

Be that as it may, it's hard to come here and not be moved. Never having visited NYC before 9/11, it's hard for me to appreciate how huge the towers were, and what a horrendous thing it must have been when they collapsed. We've seen photos and videos of it (I was watching the live news at work when the second plane hit), but standing here and looking around, it's really mind-boggling.

[image error]From the view above, if you turn around there's a red brick building that houses one of the fire stations. Again, it's hard to imagine the courage of the firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel who went to help after the planes hit, and who became victims themselves when the buildings collapsed. I don't think I can say anything more than that. I think the mural on the wall of the building says it all a lot better than I ever could.

Our next stop after Ground Zero was to take a look at the Empire State Building, which is another gawk-induing sight. Of course, maybe that's not saying much, because I was gawking at pretty much everything in the city. Anybody who'd been there more than a week must've thought I was a country bumpkin, and maybe they're not far wrong.

But I digress! No, we didn't ride up to the top of the Empire State Building: the wait was supposed to be pretty long, and being someone who doesn't care for heights, I was quite okay with passing it up. Of course, Jan had signed us up for a trip to the "Top of the Rock" at the Rockefeller Center at sunset. I thought that'd be okay, never having seen a picture of the place and thinking it was some moderate height. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Anyway, the Empire State building is an awesome sight from anywhere around the city. And there may be taller buildings in the world now, but I'm not sure any of them are as classy-looking. We didn't see King Kong, though. Bummer.

[image error]Then it was on to Times Square with all its neon. It's not quite the same as I pictured it from the New Year bashes held there every year. Then again, there weren't two million people packed in there, either, for which I was quite thankful. Having only maybe twenty thousand of my closest friends at my side was quite cozy enough, thank you very much. We saw the big glowing ball, although we had a running debate as to whether it was actually moving up and down the pole very slowly over time (I think the final consensus was that yes, it was). It was cool that there were places out in the middle to sit, and I hadn't realized that Times Square was pedestrian-only, which was nice. It would've been a bit of a challenge to get to the sitting areas while dodging through heavy traffic. Just sayin'.

I have to make a confession here, though. While Times Square was cool, the thing that really made it for me was discovering that there was a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant here. My wife and I LOVE Bubba Gump. In fact, we may plan some of our future RV trips to just coincidentally visit cities that have them. Of course, it may be a bit tough to get the RV to places like Kuala Lumpur, but where there's a will, there's a way!

Oh, and yes, that's me and my family in the picture. Well, at least my wife, Jan, is there (the hottie in the back on the right). I'm not sure who those other two clowns are. They just sorta sat down and started eating our food. Anything can happen in New York, right? Yeah.

Speaking of anything can happen, I had to share this pic of a rather uniquely adorned bike that we came up as we staggered down the street, bellies laden with shrimpy goodness. [image error]I'm not sure exactly what the message was, but I like to think that it was a statement about how much of a pain the metro cards are and how they're really only good enough to decorate one's bike (side note: while I was pleasantly impressed with New York's subway system, the fare card machines sucked on a galactic scale). This person did a fine job, and even made little frilly things hanging under the handlebars. This was the bike equivalent of a car that we once saw in Honolulu that, aside from the tires and glass (windshield, lights, etc.) was entirely covered in gray duct tape. I kid you not.

[image error]Next stop: the New York City Public Library. I have to confess that the main reason we wanted to see this was because it was featured in the movie The Day After Tomorrow (which is one of our favorite end-o-the-world flicks), and looked really cool.

It's even cooler in real life. The interior, in particular, gives one the impression that the library was built in an age when books and reading in general were  held in very high esteem, indeed.

[image error]We went and explored the inside a bit, trying our best to stay in the "unauthorized personnel only" areas. Mostly. But wow, the inside is spectacular! We didn't spend a lot of time in there, but it's a really impressive sight and well worth taking a peek.

From there, we made the trek over to the western side of Manhattan (New Yorkers: my apologies, as I don't have all the locational lingo down!) where we caught a ride on "The Beast."

[image error]Jan had seen this while she was making up our itinerary, and it looked pretty darn cool. It's basically an oversized speed boat with room for a bunch of lunatic passengers. Since we clearly fit into that category, it only made sense that we should give it whirl. They have rides of various lengths; I think ours was maybe 30 to 45 minutes or so, and it was a blast!

One thing I have to say, though, is that they are VERY serious about anyone with heart, spine, neck, or other physical conditions (including pregnancy) NOT riding this thing. It can get really rough. Not as bad as some of the crazy roller coasters you can ride these days, but close enough. I was a bit worried because I tend to get motion sickness nowadays, but I took some dramamine and after the first ten minutes on the boat I was fine: I was having too much fun to worry about anything else!

[image error]One thing that I really liked about the boat we were on (I think they have several that run simultaneously) was the first mate, "Sandman." The guy was an absolute hoot, and was great with the kids on board. He was also an acrobat who probably could've easily made his way in the Circue du Soleil: even with the boat bouncing around at high speed, he was making his way up and down the aisle, squirting the kids with little water guns and keeping everyone entertained (and thus keeping our minds off the possibility of simply flying off the edge of the planet, this thing was going so fast).

The captain of the boat (who probably rode a Harley to work, and handled the boat the same way!) made no bones about it not being a sightseeing cruise: we were out there to go fast. But we did stop by the Statue of Liberty for a little photo op, and for everyone to make sure that their hearts were still beating.

I make no bones about this not being the greatest picture ever of the Statue of Liberty, but any picture of her is a good one. Gorgeous!

So, after some more turning and burning, we finally rode The Beast back to its pier. After that, it was on to the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum and is just north of where The Beast was.

[image error]Okay, I'm an unapologetic military hardware junky, regardless of service, and I took at least one picture of every plane on deck and a bunch of Intrepid herself. However, because I know that most of you would be bored to death and either fall into a catatonic state or send Cousin Vinnie over to bust my kneecaps, I'll only torture you with one pic of the carrier.

For better or worse (well, probably for better, because Jan and the boys weren't as enamored with the whole thing as I was, which I'll never understand), we arrived pretty late and didn't have time to see everything. But we got to walk along the deck to see the planes on display (mostly from the Vietnam era, and includes an SR-71 Blackbird), and go through the island that has the bridge and other shiply stuff (I was in the Army, so I can't do all that Navy-speak stuff). We didn't get a chance to look at the Concorde up close, but did go through the USS Growler submarine, which was an early missile submarine. I've always been fascinated by subs, but would never want to serve on one. Bless you, men (and now women) of the Silent Service. And, yeah, all the other military services, too!

Next up is Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which was on our way to the Rockefeller Center.

[image error]Like just about any cathedral, it was really impressive and absolutely gorgeous on the inside. It's open to the public, but please be courteous, because it is indeed a "working" church, and I suspect there are worshippers in the pews at just about any time of day. Again, an awesome, must-see sight.

From there, it was time to head over to the Rockefeller Center for a trip to the "Top of the Rock." As I had mentioned earlier, I'm not terribly happy about high places (Samuel, our 15 year-old son, is even less enamored, or so he says), and was a bit appalled at just how tall the place was. The observation levels at the top are, as I understand it, 70 stories up. Ouch.

Well, what the Higa, as the boys would say. Let's go. The toughest part was finding the dang entrance to where you go for the ride to the top. It's down in the basement, and not really very well marked (at least for us yokels from the 'burbs, ya know?). After a bit of running around, we finally found it, and after a pretty short wait were in the elevator heading up. That was sort of a cool ride, because the top of the elevator is transparent, and they have all these lights lining the shaft that gives you a bit of a light show as you zoom up to the top.

Once you get there, you've got a choice of, if I recall, three observation levels. The first one, where the elevator shoves you out, is partly enclosed, partly open, with thick protective glass on the outside edges. Above that is another level that's all open, but with glass. Then, above that, is a completely open area that just has the stone parapet (or whatever it's called – a wall, basically) to keep you from falling over onto the observation deck below. Splat.

I have to say, though, while it gave me the willies being up that high, and the motion of the building made me a bit queasy (yes, tall buildings do wobble a tad at the top, and you can sense it that high), it was an awesome view. I didn't take any pics of the Rockefeller Center itself, but the view around it is amazing. While we didn't stay until it was completely dark (we wanted to get back in time for the last water taxi from Wall Street, which was at 9:40 PM), we got to see the lights start to come on. The Empire State Building was even more awesome!

We also got a great view of Central park, which unfortunately was the closest we got to it on this trip. Next time we'll be taking more time to explore the sights, and Central Park will definitely be on the list.

Then, alas, it was time to cut and run for the subway so we could make it to the water taxi. Not wanting to get turned around among all the different lines and trains, we headed for a subway stop that was on the line that we needed.

When we got to the subway stop, we had to wrestle with the stupid fare card machines and readers. Again, New York City, PLEASE get better fare card machines and readers! We bought tickets and half of them didn't work in the stupid machines, so we had to keep adding to the fare. Maybe this is a cheesy way to bilk more money out of subway riders. Needless to say, those flippin' subway cards were definitely the low point of our visit to the city.

Worse, it cost us time. When we finally got back to Wall Street (I can't remember which station we wound up at), we had almost exactly ten minutes to get to the water taxi stop. We started out walking, but realized that we would never make it. So we started running! Actually, I have to admit that it was sort of fun: the four of us were laughing and hooting the whole way, with everyone probably thinking we were nuts. I suppose in a way we were, but we had a blast and ended the day on a good note, reaching the water taxi pier just as it was pulling up. Perfect timing!

So, that's a quick wrapup of our run through New York City. Again, we had a great time – thank you, New York! – and will definitely be back for a longer stay. There's a ton of stuff to do there that we didn't even touch on. Hey, I'd just like to sample even a few more of the bazillion yummy-looking restaurants there, and Jan would like to see one of the musicals. So, next time…

Next up: Cape Cod!

2011 Summer RV Tour: New York City

Them thar's some taaaallll buildings

29 June 2011. Destination: the Big Apple, New York City, in our RV.

While saying "RV" and "New York City" in the same phrase never ceases to raise some eyebrows as people suddenly think of this big honkin' RV trapped forever in the traffic in downtown Manhattan, we actually found an incredible gem in the Liberty Harbor RV Park, which is on the Jersey side, right across from Ground Zero and in sight of the Statue of Liberty.

After getting the RV packed up, which is an all-day process (why it is continues to elude me: it never seems like we need that much stuff, yet there it all is), we finally got on the road this morning at around 10:30, and made it to Liberty Harbor at around 3:30. So we made good time, especially considering the break we took for lunch and (for me) a quick nap at a rest stop along the way. Having awakened at 4 a.m., the nap was definitely needed!

The boys were pretty psyched when we hit I-78 and had a decent view of the skyline. We didn't have any problems getting to the RV park, really, although our route right toward the end was a bit interesting because  the new GPS unit I got (a Rand MacNally RVND-5510, which I'll cover more in another post later) was trying to helpfully steer us around a stretch of road that it thought we couldn't negotiate. However, after a little "city driving," we got where we needed to go.

Now, Liberty Harbor RV Park is definitely not a bells and whistles kind of place. It's basically a big parking lot with asphalt drives and gravel sites, and hookups that include up to 50 amp service and water. There are NO sewer hookups, but there is a dump station on site. With maybe a couple of exceptions near the office area, the sites are all back-in (no pull-throughs), with the pedestals at the rear. The office is small with a very nice staff, there is a security guard on duty at the front gate (I believe 24/7), and – at least for this Wednesday night – the park is very quiet.

The boys were initially bummed because there wasn't a pool, basketball court, etc. But I said, "Listen, the beauty of this place isn't in that sorta stuff, it's over there…" And I pointed to Manhattan, right across the river.

"OooooOOOOoooohhh…" Their reaction reminded me of the little green alien guys in the movie Toy Story. Gotta love it!

Even better is that there's a water taxi stop here, and a metro stop about a ten minute walk north.

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Our First Water Taxi Ride

Since we got here so early, after we set up the RV, we hopped on the water taxi and headed over to Wall Street. The trip is $6.50 a person each way, if I recall (sorry: I haven't been keeping too close an eye on the moolah aspect of the trip so far, although I'm sure I'll regret it later!). The taxi was really nice and had only one stop before getting to the Wall Street ferry terminal thingy.

Then we started walking and gawking. I felt like such a country boy (even though it'd be more accurate to describe me as 'Burb Man) in the Big City. Wow! There's so much to see here, and I don't mean fancy stuff: the architecture, watching a guy in a really expensive suit snap his fingers to attract the attention of a cabby who placidly ignored him, being an impromptu judge in The Shortest Skirt EVER competition, wondering what the heck all that interesting looking stuff is in the markets in China Town, seeing the red lights set out in front of the Trump building (Freudian symbolism?), and lots more.

Since this was just sort of a recon mission, we didn't have an agenda and just wandered around. Our only real goal was to find a place to eat in Little Italy, as everyone we've talked to said "Hey, if you're in New York, you have to eat in Little Italy." So we did.

Actually, that in itself was an interesting experience: I've never been anywhere where restaurants had gregarious folks prowling the sidewalks reeling people in like fish! We landed at the Da Gennaro restaurant and had a great meal (I had cannelloni, which I haven't had in a long time – yum!). It was a bit more expensive than I'd normally go for, but for this trip I've been working on trying to keep the cheapskate side of my personality (thanks, Mom!) locked in a closet. I don't want to go overboard, but just this once I'm going to try not to order from the menu by looking at the right side (prices) first.

Anyway, I had the cannelloni, Jan had a risotto with asparagus, mushrooms, and shrimp, and the boys had cheese pizza (hooray, right?).

After that, we were going to be bad. Jan had gotten a recommendation to go to the Donut Plant and get some disgustingly decadent donuts. So we walked over there (about half a mile) from Da Gennaro, and – you guessed it! – they were closed! Oh, nooooo, Mr. Bill! Ben (12) wanted to make a beeline for a soft-serve ice cream truck that was across the street, but after boxing his ears we convinced him that we'd just get something back at the RV (from now on referred to as "home").

Locksmith in China Town: Ur Doin' It Right

Not wanting to walk all the way back to the Wall Street pier, we took the metro. The most difficult part was just finding a bloody station out of the China Town area. Used to the Washington, D.C. metro system, which has stops that stand out fairly well on the street, it took us about five minutes standing like idiots at an intersection where GoogleMaps said there should be a metro. Samuel (15) finally spied someone mysteriously emerging out of the sidewalk behind a nondescript green railing. Behold! A subway station!

I'll be honest and say that I've heard a lot of horror stories over the years about the New York subway. I had no idea what was urban legend and what wasn't, but – aside from wrestling with the stupid fare card machine for a bit – we had a very pleasant experience. Sure, the stations could use some freshening up, but the subway cars were nice, the fare was reasonable, and everyone else on the car was as normal as we were. I'm not sure what that really says about them, but take that as you like it.

After snagging some milk at a corner store, we walked back to the Wall Street water taxi terminal and got there just as our boat was pulling in. We piled in and sailed back home.

That would be the end except for one of those classic things that happen only now and again. The boys take showers in the evening, while Jan and I take ours in the morning so we we have enough hot water and it doesn't take forever.

So Ben, the younger of the chiluns (or Ben The Younger) got n00bed into going first. He bumbled around in there for a while, and finally reported that he couldn't find the shampoo. Jan tried to explain to him where it was, but he couldn't find it, so she had to go find it for him. Not wanting to embarrass him by just barging into the bathroom, she instead yells through the door, "BEN, ARE YOU NAKED?"

All the windows in the RV were open. It was dead quiet outside. And I suspect that the entire RV park heard.

Samuel, the elder (hereafter referred to as Samuel The Elder, or just "Granny") and I just started howling.

We howled even more after poor Ben finally emerged after finishing his shower. He was shivering. "The water's freezing!" he said.

Only then did I realize that I had never turned on the hot water heater…

Why Your Twitter Avatar Is Important

It seems like such a little thing, but I have to tell you that the avatar – the picture or image – that you use for your Twitter profile can make a fair bit of difference.

In my case, my avatar (which is also what I use on my personal page on Facebook and my bio page here on the site) is a photo that my cousin Wendy took while we were flying in her Piper Cub over the Great Salt Lake. It wasn't anything elaborate at all: she just held up the camera and took a snapshot of the two of us (I was in the back seat) while we were buzzing along in her plane, "Flip."

But that silly picture is one of my all-time favorites of me (and, like many, I suppose, there aren't many photos of me that I like much), because I think it really speaks to who I am inside. I was having a blast, doing something that I've always loved (flying), but hadn't been able to do in years, and it just clicked.

"So, what's your point, Mr. Adventure?"

Well, my point is this: you wouldn't believe how many comments and questions I've gotten from people on Twitter (less so on Facebook) about that photo! And when people ask you things, that opens another opportunity for you to interact with them, which is what Twitter, Facebook, and other social media is about.

That pic has opened discussions with pilots, spouses and friends of pilots, people who just wondered what the heck I was doing, somebody who wanted to know where I got those really expensive $10 sunglasses or that colorful jacket (it actually belonged to my cousin, and I should've swiped it from her – I really liked it!), what those funny white things were on the side of my head, what was in the background, etc.

So just keep that in mind when you pic your avatar. It's another thing you can use to generate interest or curiosity from other people without saying a word.