JUBON, a wonderful way to keep in contact with home when far away!

By Co-Founder: Bonnie Meier

As I travel around the world and am pretty well out of contact with all familiar services, including my cell phone, Jubon has proven to be a wonderful resource to keep abreast of things at home. In one Internet contact I can keep track first of the obituaries, via Oolman's web site, then through Long Lines with a direct e-mail contact. Although the Internet contact on board the ship is not super fast, it is much faster than I remembered it from a disc golf cruise Lee and I went on several years ago. At least now my little MacBook Air can get on through Wi-Fi and I can access everything in my own stateroom.

While in port, I continue to seek out Wi-Fi spots. In Sydney, Australia, we found a Starbucks that was wonderful, $3.00 for an hour connection - and a good, fast, connection. We took the computer along to Melbourne, Australia yesterday, but didn't find a good place to stop.

We are now gold card members of the World Cruise and, as such, we each get two free hours of Internet until this segment of the cruise is complete. Cunard has some really nice perks for people who sail with them often. After one completed Cunard voyage, you become Silver Cunarders, which carries some nice perks. After two completed voyages you become a Gold Cunarder, which carries additional, perks. After seven completed voyages or those who have sailed 48 consecutive days you become a Platinum Cunarder. Today (written on February 23) is Lee's and my 39th day on board the Queen Victoria. So we will become Platinum members quite soon. The last and highest level is Diamond. We won't reach that this trip. I believe it is 150 consecutive days and we only have 103.

I really encourage you to check Jubon often if you are away from home. There are a few other locations in Orange City that I wish were on Jubon so that I could keep track of a few more events, but I am grateful for the ones that are on and will definitely support them with my business when I have the opportunity.

Osage's Stats Holding Up Well

By Co-Founder: Bonnie Meier

Every Sunday we get a report from our web hosting as to the number of hits that we received the previous week.  They have been consistently between 300 - 500 unique hits every week.  Until this last week when we jumped up to well over 600 unique hits.  These reports are sent to the respective administrators of the communities on Jubon.  Osage continues to outperform even Orange City who has more than triple the number of businesses on Jubon.  Congratulations for a job well done, Osage. .

Jubon supports disc golf

By Co-Founder: Juliana Korver

Jubon is a proud supporter of the sport of disc golf.  Jubon recently helped sponsor a women's only disc golf tournament held in Live Oak, FL.  The event was called Juliana Korver's La Vie en Rose.  Yes, the event was put on and named after Jubon Co-owner and long time disc golfer, Juliana Korver.  Because of the connection Jubon has with disc golf, we are looking for ways to help support disc golf while growing our company.  Perhaps the easiest way we can do that is to put all disc golf courses on our Jubon maps for free with their own billboard that links to relevant disc golf resources such as the PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) website.

Currently there is only 1 disc golf course contained within our 4 Juboned communities. Check out the Sioux Rapids map and use the navigation arrows to scroll to the bottom of the map to see the disc golf basket icon that represents a disc golf course. Click on that icon, drive to that location, or use the Quick Find links to get to that location to see it's billboard.

Around the World in 103 Days

By Co-Founders: Bonnie Meier

Co-founder Bonnie Meier and her husband Lee are on a once-in-a-lifetime trip cruising around the world on Cunard's Queen Victoria.  They boarded the ship on Friday, January 15.  You can follow Bonnie and Lee's adventures by following her on Facebook or Twitter.  They will be repeated in the Jubon Journal:

Day 13. Wesday, January 27. Today was wonderful. We met son, Clint, granddaughters Serena and Sophia and Uncle Darlo and his friend, Mariwyn on the pier and spent the day with them. Serena showed us around an old ship that her class spent a night on doing what they used to do on ships. Also wonderful because I could finally use my cell phone and I made contact with daughter, Juliana, in Norfolk.

Day 14. Thursday, January 28. Back at sea until Hawaii. Learning more things about the ship all the time. As soon as we have enough days at sea, we will start getting some Internet minutes free. Can't wait!

Day 15. Friday, January 29. At sea. One of the most enjoyable parts of the cruise is meeting people from all over the world. Right now people from the USA are a minority. There are over twice as many Brits plus many Germans, Australians and people representing about 20 other countries. The staff represent about 60 countries with the majority coming from the Phillipines.

Day 16. Saturday, January 30. At sea again. Tomorrow we have at port in La Haina and the next day Honolulu. Robin Oakley, a political analyst is one our guest speakers. Lots of lively discussion around his talks. Lots of formal nights. Lee looks very nice in his tuxedo.

Day 17. Sunday, January 31. Sitting at an Internet cafe in LaHaina, Maui. Beautiful. This is the nicest port so far weather-wise.

Day 18. Monday, February 1. In Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. Lee saw 8-10 porpoises outside our window in the morning. Saw the banyan tree we saw on our honeymoon 11 years ago.

Day 19. Tuesday, February 2. In port at Honolulu, Hawaii today. Spent time with Lee's good friend Eddie Matsui and also our friends from Orange City, Teresa Heyer and her two children. First day that it rained on our trip.

Day 20. Wednesday, February 3. At sea on the way to Pago Pago, American Somoa. Great lecturers aboard the ship.

Day 21. Thursday, February 4. At sea again. There are 1861 people aboard our ship from 26 different countries. The most are from the United Kingdom (945), 385 from the United Stated, 150 from Australia, 149 from German and 82 from Canada and 19 from France. The rest are from around the world including Chile, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Monaco, 21 from the Netherlands, 39 from New Zealand and 1 from Russia, etc. etc.

Day 22. Friday, February 5. At sea. The speakers we have for Cunard Insights are fantastic. I think mostly college professors really expert in certain area. One is an astronaut, one a cold war British spy and another a linguist. I love the talks.

Day 23. Saturday, February 6. The seas are really rough today. In fact the decks are all closed off to us. Lee and I are lucky that we don't get sick. Getting a lot of pleasure reading done. I'm trying to read stories about places we are visiting.

Day 24. Sunday, February 7. In port at Pago Pago in American Somoa. This is a very religious country and almost everything is closed on Sunday. Took a tour this morning on a very primitive bus. They were hit by a tsunami last year and there are still signs of it.

It is Day 25 but the date is Tuesday, February 9. We completely lost February 8 because we crossed the International Dateline last evening around 11:00 p.m.

Day 26. Wednesday, February 10. Lautoka, Fiji. Stopped at a village to see native dance, etc.Hard to believe that these people were cannibals until 1867 and then they became Methodists. Found a very hot Internet cafe, $1.00 an hour.

Day 27. Thursday, February 11. At sea. On way to New Zealand. Two of our table mates flew back to Sydney, Australia yesterday from Fiji. Looks like there was a terrible snow storm in NE United States. I've been going to a physiotherapist for my back. He has helped a lot. We were invited to the Captain's party for people who are going around the world.

Day 28. Friday, February 12. Serena's (granddaughter) 11th birthday today. My cell phone isn't working here so can't call personally, but left a present when we were in San Francisco. Good entertainment each evening. Over 70 people on board ship formed a choir. They gave a performance this afternoon. The first standing ovation of any program so far.

Day 29. Saturday, February 13. Had a personal tour of Auckland, New Zealand by a personal friend of Juliana's and Shawn, Bob Gentil. He's a great disc golf promoter. Beautiful country and a beautiful day. I'm finally at a good Internet site.

Day 30. Sunday, February 14. Valentine's day. Nice day on board ship. Relaxing.

Day 31. Monday, February 15. In port at Lyttleton and Christchurch, New Zealand. Good Internet connect at local tourist information building.

Day 32. Tuesday, February 16. Took shuttle into Wellington, New Zealand. Went on a tour of the pubs. Happy group. (I drank pineapple juice). Fascinating. This is where all the Antarctic trips start from. Beautiful city.

Day 33. Wednesday, February 17. At sea. Rested most of the day.

Day 34. Thursday, February 18. At sea. On way to Sydney, Australia. The Tasman Sea is a rough sea.

Day 35. Friday, February 19. Getting caught up on the Internet at a Starbucks. Going to a zoo this afternoon in Sydney, Australia. First stop that we've stayed overnight. New segment of our journey.

Day 36. Saturday, February 20. Sydney, Australia. Back at Starbucks. Didn't make it to the zoo, but will try to hit one in another port. Beautiful day.

Day 37. Sunday, February 21. Took a bus tour this morning in an open top deck. Leave at 5:30 for Melbourne.

Day 38. Monday, February 22. Melbourne, Australia. Wonderful city. In the evening we had a red carpet dinner for everyone going around the world -- about 600.

Day 39. Tuesday, February 23. At sea. Relaxing. Reading another good book. Jubon's stats really jumped this week. GREAT.