An Eastern U.S. Sidetrip - Salt Lake City and Back   June 17 to the 23rd, 1999 At this point in our travels, we left 'Harvey' stored at Camp VIP in Salt Lake City, Utah. Camp VIP is west of the downtown area, directly adjacent to the fairgrounds, and just 5 minutes from the airport. Throughout the summer, we found ourselves returning here. But this was our first stop and we were surprised to find this large, urban campground to be a pleasant and well-maintained location. It did not have the expected big city 'feel,' even though we were finding our favorite campsites to be in more scenic, remote locations. A big plus was finding this location was a good place to get work done and convenient for travel into and out of the airport. Camp VIP had a limited number of sites with 'instant' phone access; that is, you can hook up directly to a phone line at your campsite. It was best to reserve one of these phone sites a few days ahead of our stay, but we were usually able to get one. We flew from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then rented a car.   We motored out to the Hershey area where Annette was to work with a local school district. On our drive, we encountered a sobering scene of a burnt-out motorhome along the turnpike. We experienced a brief road delay, even listened to an accident road-report on our car radio, but not until we cleared the 'gridlocked' area did we see that someone had lost their RV. All that was left at the recent fire-site was a charred metal hulk and a few pieces of torn-out furniture by the roadside. We never learned the exact cause or details of the mishap but hoped that they were all safe and well-insured for their loss. Kinda scary, sobering! We soon reached our destination; a quiet, rural, Victorian bed and breakfast, where we stayed two nights (Left Photo). Annette facilitated two-days of workshops at the nearby school. One unexpected treat was a fantastic evening meal out at the Hershey restaurant. From this rural Pennsylvania setting, we traveled back to Philly and spent a day touring some of the historic sites: Independence Hall, the grounds at the Franklin Court - the museum was closed for telecommunications renovations, the Liberty Bell, and also the Poe and Thaddeus Kosciuzko homes. Late in the same day, we motored on to Atlantic City for this year's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC).   At NECC, we presented a workshop and conference sessions. This has fast become one of the premier yearly educational technology conferences, and again was attended by thousands of teachers, computer and technology coordinators, library media specialists, and administrators. We saw a lot of our friends and colleagues from around the country. But one of the most memorable conference events for us was the opportunity to see and hear the swing group, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. There we bumped into Mike Russ (literally, I believe) and a small group of other 'boogying' Evansville, Indiana School Corporation teachers. It was a great evening of listening and dancing to the energized group; they (BBVD that is) were amazing, seeming to never slow down or tire. We positioned ourselves about ten foot in front of their outdoor stage and soaked-in the fast-paced, toe-tapping concert.  After the conference we flew back to Salt Lake City, Utah with a change of planes and brief stopover at Chicago O'Haire airport (June 24th). There we were joined by 17 year-old son, Benjamin, who was going to travel and vacation with us a few weeks before he joined a youth work mission camp in Montana. At Salt Lake City, we took 'Harvey' out of storage and stayed overnight at Camp VIP. Created by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, 1/99. Updated, 9/99.   Return to Trip Page