Lunch with Bloggers, LuminAID Lanterns

When we realized we were headed directly to Washington, and Barbara saw that we would be in the same area as her and Ron would be in, we all decided to have a “blogger meet up”, which typically means, “Lunch or Dinner”.  This time it was lunch, and Barbara, being low on bits and bytes with her cellular data plan, asked me to find a place and email her the location.  Well, I picked a place called “Chestnut Cottage Restaurant”, and it turned out to a perfect place for a blogger lunch.  The menu had variety, the food was good, the service was good, and the place was charming.  Best of all  was the company…it was truly a pleasure to meet Barbara and Ron.  Barbara has been authoring the blog “The Road Less Traveled”, in its current format, since early 2008.  Prior to that she was doing another blog, might have been under the same name or another, that I cannot remember.  I know I have been reading her blogs since at least 2005, give or take a year.  I also follow her sister’s blog, “Life on the Open Road”, but I did not realize they were sisters until just a few years ago.  It is always a pleasure to meet fellow bloggers who are on the road, and a real pleasure when you have followed them for so very long.  And yes, she follows and comments on our blog too.

We were telling them about how we had recently ordered LuminAID PackLite Spectra Lantern and set one up in the motorhome last night as a floor light.  By 3 am its battery ran out, and I turned on the second one. At 7:30 this morning that one was still going.  What is nice about them is they are solar powered, and they fold up to take a very small amount of room for storage.

We refolded them and put them on the dash of our car as we traveled into town, and later on our short road trip up to Hurricane Ridge. Now they are ready for tonight.  There are so many large trees at our campground that we just could not get them charged by setting them outside.  Normally we turn on our floor lights, but without any electrical hookups in the park, this was a better way of handling lighting for the floor.  Amazingly, it puts out a lot light.  You blow them up like a beach ball, and the light just luminates out from all sides except the solar side.  The style we got comes in many different colors just by clicking the on switch.  There is an orange strap which allows you to hang them from hooks, awnings, side mirrors, cabinets handles, etc.  It shinned so much last night that I ended up putting it on the floor near the fridge across from the bathroom…and that worked out just great.   LuminAID, has distributed over 10,000 lights in more than 50 countries to individuals in need of a better, safer, and cleaner source of light through their “Give Light, Get Light” program. Marsha first saw these on Shark Tank, and this is the first time we have had a reason to use them. 

About a dozen miles up the road from our campground is the Hurricane Ridge area.  We stopped and picked up the dogs, and headed on up there after our lunch meeting and a drop by to Walmart.  Unfortunately, the smoky/smoggy skies would not allow a good picture, so I am going to try and head up there early in the morning and see what I can get.  So I will tell the story of Hurricane Ridge tomorrow.