Photo-A-Day #2296

Today was a pretty awesome day. At 9am the Chevy Camaro Convertible arrived. It is bright yellow! I was so excited because I could drive BumbleBee around for the better part of the next week (more on that later). I signed my paperwork and got the keys. The guy dropping it off asked if he wanted me to have him pull it into the driveway. I said no thanks and took off up the road. I drove the car up by the farms on Ellis road with the wind flying by, it was Awesome!

I got back to the house, and tweeted that I’d bee driving BumbleBee for the week, I put the carseat in the back. There is a latch system in the car and even though there is barely a back seat in the car there was enough room for Eva’s seat and for her to sit comfortably.

It is crazy hot in the Northeast today and I was sweating big time after installing the seat. I went upstairs and showered and changed, collected Allison and Eva and we hopped into the car.

I used my TeleNav app on my DROID to get directions to Evelyn’s Drive-In in Tiverton, RI. I liked using the app because I could get an approximate ETA at any time. I could then tell Eva how much longer it would be before we got to our destination.

Stopped for a potty break, there is my TeleNav app running.

She enjoyed the convertible for a while and then wanted the roof up because she doesn’t like the wind too much. We put up the roof when we got to Evelyn’s and we were pretty early for lunch so we took the car for a ride around the area.

I used the TeleNav app to search for places around where we were. I wasn’t sure if we were close to Buttonwood Park Zoo so I typed in Zoo and I discovered a place that I’d really love to get to on another family trip, The Butterfly Zoo. If we decide to go there I’m going to need my DSLR. Also it was so hot that a zoo might not have been the best place to go. So we just drove.

Our driving took us to Courtyards. This collection of shops had some very interesting finds. There was a beautiful children’s clothing shop and another shop with a bunch of outdoor statues and these flowers made out of old china and glass place settings that were mounted on rebar. Those were pretty cool.

Today was about discovery and fun and being together as a family. It is always hard on Fridays because that is the day that daddy goes back to work. Even though I’m home so much more than before it is still hard when Friday rolls around and I have to go back to work. So when we can do some fun stuff on Friday morning and early afternoon that is good, it sort of eases Eva into the weekend.

After we were done at the shops we drove back to Evelyn’s and the place was hopping. we were lucky to get a seat inside but we did. You see, I chose Evelyn’s because I wanted to eat by the water, but with temps in the 100′s I did not want my 3 1/2 year old daughter, my pregnant wife and my chunky butt getting blasted with heat exhaustion. So we were lucky to get inside.

Allison and I went to Evelyn’s a number of years ago (in 2004!) and I remember the giant seafood platter. I secretly wanted to get that again but I wasn’t sure if Allison could eat much of it. Well, she wanted to get it too and we split that and Eva enjoyed some as well (and chicken fingers, the staple of the toddler). Eva also wanted clam chowder. She does not like the clams or potatoes in it, just the broth. So funny. She was excited to have a big menu too.

She told our server that she must have thought that Eva was older because she gave her an adult menu. Eva did get a kids one too and crayons. We colored a bit as we waited for the food. It came very quickly too and it was well worth it!

With butter on the scallops, perfectly light and buttery, the best I’ve ever had.

This platter was a monster. We didn’t go for the lobster addition this time. I thought it was pretty small last time and not worth the extra $6 for it. Besides the Company picnic is coming up and I’ll have my yearly lobster there. But the scallops, Shrimp, Calamari, Whole Belly Clams, Fish, Clamcakes, Fries and Cole Slaw were so delicious! We brought some home too. We couldn’t eat it all but man we tried.

This thing was seriously HUGE!

When our lunch was done we headed out to the parking lot to get back into the Camaro, now with the top up, and headed home. We stopped and took the family photo but it was insanely hot out so we didn’t take a bunch of photos as I had intended. But I took this one.

We had a fantastic family adventure. It was too much for Eva because she was zonked out asleep before we left the Eveyln’s parking lot.

Here is a video that I made of our adventure.

Disclosure: I am a member of the TeleNav Navigator in Chief dad panel and was provided compensation to participate. While I have received compensation to participate in the program as with anything that I review the opinions are 100% mine.

You can find out more about TeleNav through these different outlets.

• Navigating Life (blog): http://blog.telenav.com/blog/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/telenav
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/telenav
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/telenav
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23382466@N03/

Disclosure 2: I am testing out a Chevy Camaro Convertible for the week. I have some contacts at Chevy and I asked them for the car. I’ll be blogging about it and my adventures as well as those of my Dad, Allison and my friend Rob Merlino (We’re doing a Hot Dog Adventure on Wednesday). The opinions that we will share about the car are 100% ours.
You can learn more about the Chevy Camaro.

Disclosure 3: I combined two things in this one post, there is no official association between Chevy and TeleNav. I just used both on the trip. I also used my Kodak Cameras and my XShot. I use what I have, what I’ve been given and it becomes part of my daily life.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Family Road Trip to Evelyn’s Drive-In

Photo-A-Day #2269

When I got my new DROID nearly two years ago I was excited that I’d finally gotten navigation on my phone. I fired up Google’s navigation and was quickly disappointed in the service. On my first time with the navigation I turned it on and drove into Boston only to have the signal get lost on me and thus have me end up getting lost. It has been frustrating using the navigator that comes with the phone. I did not realize that I had any other options….

Enter TeleNav.

I learned about TeleNav from my friend and fellow blogger Adam Cohen who runs the blog DadaRocks. He’s also podcasting and a conference speaker. He’s everywhere. He asked if I’d like to participate in something related to families and GPS. So because of him I got brought on as a TeleNav Navigator in Chief Dad Blogger.

For the next couple of months I’m going to be using the TeleNav app on my Droid. I’ll be learning all about how it works and what makes it a better choice than the navigator app that comes with an android phone. I’ll also be, talking with the media, taking mini trips and more.

So far I’ve only used the free version of the app and I’m already impressed. The app is far quicker than the navigator app I had been using. I turn it on and I can click Drive To. Immediately I see that I can click my home location so instead of typing in my address every single time I want to go home I can just click home and from wherever I am I get directions home. You do have to set your home location the first time you use the app but that is better than typing it every time.

There is also a places button. With places you can click and see places like ATM machines, places for Food, Gas, grocery even Wi-Fi. I discovered a few places near me that had free Wi-Fi that I didn’t know existed. And that is the thing with the TeleNav app, it isn’t just for directions and GPS navigation, it helps you discover new things and get more done in your life easier and quicker. I like also that there is a local apps feature and movies is one of those apps. I can put int he name of the movie I want to see and be shown where it is playing near me wherever I happen to be. It was faster than movie specific apps that I was already using on the phone.

Yesterday when I was driving to work I noticed that there were signs indicating a concert at Gillette Stadium. since I drive to work on the weekends and this is when there are concerts or games I’d better work out alternate routes to get to work on time. I hadn’t done that. So when I went to work today I used TeleNav for the first time.

I put my destination address into the app and was given 3 different routes to chose from. I wanted to avoid the regular route so I chose one that was far enough out of the way to avoid the traffic. Even though I had the route selected I went even further out of the way and while TeleNav did re-route me and try and get me back to the route I had chosen it did re-route quickly.

I do use my phone to listen to podcasts while I drive so I turned the sound off on the turn by turn directions. I would have liked a quick mute button on the interface but I couldn’t find one so I turned off the sound in the settings. So far that is one complaint in the app.

I did get to work on time and I like the running visual of an approximate ETA and I knew that if I kept following the route I’d get to work right on time.

I’ll be upgrading to the full version to unlock some additional options that will make my daily driving even better. But in the meantime you can follow the TeleNav Navigators in Chief Dad Panel on Twitter with the hashtag #TeleNavDad. There are five of us in all including the aforementioned Adam Cohen (@dadarocks) of DadaRocks, Josh Becker (@DadStreet) of DadStreet, John Taylor (@TheDaddyYoDude) of The DaddyYo Blog, and Tshaka Armstrong (@Tshaka_zulu) of Digital Sheperds. We’ll be talking about the TeleNav app and how it can enhance your everyday life. So please join us and learn more about TeleNav.

You can find out more about TeleNav through these different outlets.

• Navigating Life (blog): http://blog.telenav.com/blog/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/telenav
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/telenav
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/telenav
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23382466@N03/

Disclosure: I am a member of the TeleNav Navigator in Chief dad panel and was provided compensation to participate. While I have received compensation to participate in the program as with anything that I review the opinions are 100% mine.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

I’m a TeleNav Navigator in Chief Dad Blogger

Photo-A-Day #2114

At the beginning of the month I went to Affiliate Summit, CES and the North American International Auto Show. Initially I was only going to go to Affiliate Summit. Because of this I booked myself a SouthWest Vacation. I booked three nights at Harrah’s and a roundtrip ticket on SouthWest. I often choose Southwest because I can get round trip non-stop tickets to Vegas on SouthWest and usually they are pretty cheap. I got a good deal at $546.83 for flight and room. But that was the beginning….

I was asked to go to the North American International Auto Show by GM. Because I was asked to be there as a guest my travel to Detroit plus my hotel room was taken care of. This also meant that I would be leaving immediately after my session at Affiliate Summit. So because of that I would basically be forfeiting most of that trip that bought from SouthWest anyway. So I’d be losing out on much of what I paid for. Then there was a snow warning.

Around Christmas there was a big storm here and we got dumped on big time. There was a forecast of a big snowstorm that would hit the morning before I was to leave for my trip. I panicked and figured that my flight would either be cancelled or delayed. So, I cancelled the trip itself and bought a new ticket. Yeah, it was hasty because that virtually guaranteed that there would be no snow and yes, there was no snow, no delays nothing on the day of my original departure.

I knew that I would lose my airfare and there would be a hotel penalty for cancelling the trip. I figured it would be worth a try to see about getting a refund anyway. So I had Allison send in the tickets to see about a refund. I got this e-mail today. My comments in bold.

“Hi (No name here, how personal)
There is no refund due on this booking, the penalties were more than the package price.
Without having purchased the waiver (an overpriced scam), the penalties are $100.00 southwest penalty (why a penalty, you are already keeping my money and will resell the seat, vultures), $330.10 non-refundable air cost (I knew and accepted this before I made the cancellation) and $121.50 one night hotel penalty (that wasn’t the per night price, if that was the case then three nights would have been $364.50, fuzzy math there, fuzzy math).“

So, in addition to me not getting any refund I’m pretty sure that the leeches at the airlines will be billing me for the $4.77. Granted this is airline policy and granted that I did not buy the insurance and granted I cancelled the vacation. Do you think that a seat went empty on that flight? Absolutely not. Airlines overbook every flight these days and so in addition to getting all the money from my vacation and not having to actually fly me anywhere the airline also got paid for whomever took that seat. And the hotel, well I’m sure that they got a paying customer for the room I gave up too, it was CES that week, you know.

I sincerely dislike everything about air travel, it is so tiring, dirty, inconvenient and expensive. The more we pay now the less and less rights, less room, less amenities and less civility we get these days. Indignities suffered from the TSA, mishandling of baggage (that we have to pay for) and the endless delays, forced bumps and overbooked planes. It is sickening and I’m fed up with it. If It were feasible to travel by car or train to all of these conferences I certainly would do it and wash my hands of air travel forever.

I do have to thank some people who made this past week’s trips so awesome. Daniel M. Clark for sharing his space with me for two nights. I know how much having your own room while being away is important. And it I didn’t find someone to share a room with me It certainly would have been karma for me not wanting to share a room at another event. I’d also like to thank Lisa Gilpin and the GM crew for getting me an extra day at my the Marriott when I was stuck in Detroit. When you’ve got good people who help with the little things like that it makes a huge difference. This is in direct contrast to how I was treated by Delta when they needed people to get off the plane. I was lied to by the gate agent and basically given nothing for my troubles except additional headaches. So I figure that a bill coming to me for $4.77 is just going to be the topper on this latest foray into the sky.

I’m sure that Andy is going to love my rant for today.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

No Refund for You!

Photo-A-Day #2105

Today was an extra day in Detroit. I was stranded for the day because of some major weather in New England. So I was booked on a flight for 9:45pm tonight. Thankfully, Lisa Gilpin and her team authorized me to stay anohter full night so that I would have a room to stay in and work in for the day. And I did a lot of work. this morning I banged out posts from the past four days and set up videos from all the press events that I attended in the past four days as well. It was great to be able to stay in the room and just work without the distractions of anything. I had no internet other than my phone so I wasn’t constantly distracted. I was still engaged but at intervals. It was good. I made the best out of my time.

I also went to the movies, I hadn’t been to a movie on my own in a long time. A very long time and while I love attending movies with Allison I really miss just hitting up a mattinee when the day was done. It was so nice to be able to do that. I went and saw True Grit.

I now want to see the original movie and read the original book because it was a very compelling story and it was so well acted by all involved. I loved the interaction that young Mattie had with everyone in the movie. She was so direct and abrupt with everyone but so educated and knowledgeable. I was worried for her a few times but she was one tough kid. Jeff Bridges gave another amazing performance, he always does. Matt Damon was very good as a Texas Ranger and even Josh Brolin as the man that they were chasing was also great in the movie. I liked the story very much and had a great time watching it.

I also spent some time int he Ren Center, home of General Motors. This is a phenomenal building but it is a pain to walk around. You can’t get to anything directly either. the floors have spokes like wheels on them and there are circles everywhere. On the bottom floor they have a display of some of the GM vehicles. I walked around and took a bunch of shots.

Eventually it was time for me to take my ride to the airport. I was picked up by a lovely woman named Pam and she took Zane and I to the airport. Zane is a New Hampshire guy who runs the site GM-Trucks.com, Great name and he gets tons of hits every month. We talked about affiliate marketing and how there are often people who feel the need to express how much of a guru they are. If you have to say it out loud then you are not that thing. I think there was a candidate for the learnings of unguru.me in the crowd.

We got the the airport, my flight was all set and I sat and waited. Around me I heard horror stories from people who had been stranded for 5 days in the same clothes. I really felt for them and was confident that I was all set and was getting out on the flight.

Well, that didn’t happen.

First the agent asked ofr one volunteer to get a $400 voucher and take another flight. Then the agent said that they needed 15 people to volunteer to go on another flight. No one volunteered so they started with the bottom of the list and pulled 15 people out of line. I’m writing this at 1:00am on Wednesday night so you can guess that I was one of those lucky folks.

I immediately started tweeting about the situation. I started with a few tweets that there would be 15 people pulled out of line. when my name was called as one of the lucky 15 I tweeted to (@DeltaAssist) this is the the offical twitter handle for Delta to help. I got a response very quickly and spent the rest of the time while I was in line getting set up to be on the 9:45pm flight tomorrow night. It is not ideal but they were making everyone else go on the flights on Friday.

I seriously contemplated pulling people together and renting a car to drive home. The drive would be 14 hours and with shifts of people drivng we could have made it quickly enough. There were no takers. I half jokingly asked Lisa gilpin if Chevy needed a car driven from Detroit to MA. She was great and looked into helping me as well. She is awesome. I made calls back and forth to my dad and to allison. I feel really awful because we told Eva that I’d be home when she work up. this is going to devastate her and will make it so much harder when I have to come home tomorrow late night and go right to work and not see her first thing in the morning. That is going to hurt me big time as well.

So I wait in line, I tweet and I get help from DeltaAssist. It is not ideal but it is the best that can be done with the weather issue. Then I get to the counter. this is where things go downhill.

At the counter I learn that because I did not volunteer to give up my seat that the voucher I receive will only be $200. That is a kick in the teeth because not only are they punishing people who didn’t willingly give up their plans to see loved ones, go on scheduled job interviews or attend other things near and dear to them but they are giving us money towards going back on an airline that has already wronged us. Apparently there was something about the weight limit and so they could only fly out with 35 passengers and the luggage of all passengers including those who were kicked off.

Some people got food vouchers and hotel vouchers. Some people were put up at a Days Inn and I was put up at the Hyatt Regency. That sounded good and what sounded even better was that it was off site from the airline but only a mile away and there was a shuttle every 35 minutes. This was what the gate agent assured me when I got to the counter. That was a bald faced LIE. There is no shuttle from the airport to the Hyatt Regency. The Hyatt is in Dearborn over 30 minutes away from the airport and considerably more miles than… say, ONE.

Luckily I met a great guy named Alex who was behind me in line. He convinced the Marriott driver to take us to the Marriott so that we could catch a cab from there. We ended up getting a car from the Marriott and thank goodness for Alex because he not only expensed the car ride and took care of me but he then gave me his food vouchers for the next day. He was taking the early flight out. Me… not so much.

We got to the hotel and there was a nother line, luckily this was a short one and we were able to get our rooms quickly and get settled in. I figure that I would write about everything while it was still fresh in my mind. That way I could clear and go to bed with an empty head. I’ll pay for Internet access tomorrow and work from the hotel and hopefully tomorrow I’ll fare better trying to leave for home.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Snowbound in Detroit

While at The Evolution of Women in Social Media Conference I took part in the Photography hands on Session. The session was lead by Aimee Giese (@GreebleMonkey), Casey Mullins (@Mooshinindy), Jennifer Cisney (@KodakCB) and Jen Lemen (@jenlemen). The photography session took place at the Red Pine Cabin, a short 12 minute gondola ride up the mountain. The group meet in the upper room of the lodge and we were introduced to each person and their shooting styles as well as their tips and tricks. There were giveaways of cameras and also great photo tip cards from Kodak. After the panel discussion portion we went outside and took a photowalk around the area. I decided to go with Aimee’s group and immediately asked her about shooting out in bright sunlight because it was a bright day and a skill that I think is my weakest.

Aimee was very helpful to me and armed with that new knowledge I walked around with more confidence to shoot the great scenery and have fun doing it. The photowalk portion was not nearly long enough but it was still fun. I added my photos to Flickr as part of the Evo’10 set with the tag “Evo Workshop Photography”. Please visit and let me know what you think of the photos.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

EvoConf Photography Session