Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Internet on the road
If I'm gonna be out there by myself, with a dog and a complicated machine, communication is important. It's hard to tell until I've done it, but it seems likely that I'll spend some of the time I'm not driving or setting up camp or breaking camp or fixing food doing what I do here at home: Reading, writing, listening to music, admiring the view outside, playing with and caring for the dog.
The first three involve internet access. Almost all of my recreational reading is now done with my Kindle device or my iPad. By definition, all of my email and web surfing and blogging. I don't think I'll spend a lot of time watching movies, but I don't do that much at home.
There will be times, I hope, when there's no cell service and I'm really on my own. But I have to confess that being out of touch is a bit more daunting than it once was: medical crap limits my mobility. I hate that, but I need to deal with it. Hell, my reduced mobility is why I'm in the RV, not hiking and sleeping on a tarp out there somewhere back of beyond.
I can get internet through my ATT cell phone. I can read books and email, spend quality time with my feed reader. I can send emails and blog posts. But I want a little more ease in doing that. I want my iPad and, yes, my laptop.
The answer: a mobile hotspot. I had fun the last few days researching that, and wound up with a T-Mobile gadget which connects to their net and makes it available as a wifi hotspot for a distance of perhaps 30-50 feet. It's expensive bandwidth, but it can be turned off when I'm not on the road, unlike the competitors which ask to you buy X gigabytes a month, every month. I get unlimited bandwidth from ATT, so the phone will be the way to stream music and ball games and movies.
So that seems to be the answer, at least for now. The device is made by Samsung, which makes the Apple fanboy in me a little uneasy, but I can deal with that.
The first three involve internet access. Almost all of my recreational reading is now done with my Kindle device or my iPad. By definition, all of my email and web surfing and blogging. I don't think I'll spend a lot of time watching movies, but I don't do that much at home.
There will be times, I hope, when there's no cell service and I'm really on my own. But I have to confess that being out of touch is a bit more daunting than it once was: medical crap limits my mobility. I hate that, but I need to deal with it. Hell, my reduced mobility is why I'm in the RV, not hiking and sleeping on a tarp out there somewhere back of beyond.
I can get internet through my ATT cell phone. I can read books and email, spend quality time with my feed reader. I can send emails and blog posts. But I want a little more ease in doing that. I want my iPad and, yes, my laptop.
The answer: a mobile hotspot. I had fun the last few days researching that, and wound up with a T-Mobile gadget which connects to their net and makes it available as a wifi hotspot for a distance of perhaps 30-50 feet. It's expensive bandwidth, but it can be turned off when I'm not on the road, unlike the competitors which ask to you buy X gigabytes a month, every month. I get unlimited bandwidth from ATT, so the phone will be the way to stream music and ball games and movies.
So that seems to be the answer, at least for now. The device is made by Samsung, which makes the Apple fanboy in me a little uneasy, but I can deal with that.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Report from the shakedown cruise
Tuesday and Wednesday I took the Beast and my friend Jeff to Catalina State Park about 10 miles north of here. The park has great views of the Catalinas, and some hiking trails which I explored a bit a few years ago, but the primary goal for the trip was to go through the full cycle of making camp and living and breaking camp. I wanted to see if I'd learned enough about the rig to be confident taking it further afield, or alone, or both. I also wanted to see if there were problems with the rig that my briefer encounters in a parking lot hadn't revealed.
First: if you're taking along an extra pair of hands, make sure he's a professional cook. Jeff fixed a dinner and breakfast which were simple and delicious and elegantly presented. And cleaned up. And was good company. We shared a bottle of wine to celebrate the Beast's maiden voyage with me, and my 71st birthday.
Emma went along: Another part of the agenda was to get her used to being in and around the rig. She made good progress, although she's still not entirely at ease. There was a lot of panting and trembling, but she can now hop up into the rig with ease, and decided that the funny-looking cloth thing was really a water dish in a clever disguise.
I had no difficulty with the setup and takedown. My attempt to master the outdoor awning, this time with extra help, didn't help --it was just breezy enough that the thing really wanted to be a sail, and a friendly neighbor camper offered help. Turned out he was giving directions to fold it up, rather than unfold it, so we did just that and stowed it away neatly. The major problem is that I've never seen one set up, so I have only the haziest of notions what success will look like.
Two problems did surface. One is that the house battery (as opposed to the truck battery, which is in the usual place and does the usual truck things) seemed not to be recharging from the external power we were plugged into. It did seem to recharge when we were in motion, just not when we were camped. I took it out of its hidey hole under the top step and brought it home to my battery charger and AC power. It was pretty well discharged. Even though it may be close to the end of its life -- it's three years old -- I don't think that's the problem. I have some suggestions from my online advisers at rv.net about how to tell if it's getting charging power from the 120V AC external power. If it's not. I may have my first trip to an RV repair guy ahead of me.
The second problem was that the furnace -- a nifty little propane-fired forced-air number -- made a horrible caterwauling noise when turned on. Really shrill, really obnoxious. I turned it off as quickly as I could, to avoid inspiring my camping neighbors to mayhem. When I tried to duplicate the problem back home, it purred away quietly. I hate intermittent problems.
It was a great trip. Too short. I'm thinking my next foray will be down to Bisbee for a weekend. It's about 2 hours away, right down near the Mexican border. Somehow I expect I'll get searched on the way back at the Border Patrol/Homeland Security checkpoint. Sad.
I figured some things out about how to get internet service on the road. I'll give details in a subsequent post.
The trip was a success! More! More!
First: if you're taking along an extra pair of hands, make sure he's a professional cook. Jeff fixed a dinner and breakfast which were simple and delicious and elegantly presented. And cleaned up. And was good company. We shared a bottle of wine to celebrate the Beast's maiden voyage with me, and my 71st birthday.
Emma went along: Another part of the agenda was to get her used to being in and around the rig. She made good progress, although she's still not entirely at ease. There was a lot of panting and trembling, but she can now hop up into the rig with ease, and decided that the funny-looking cloth thing was really a water dish in a clever disguise.
I had no difficulty with the setup and takedown. My attempt to master the outdoor awning, this time with extra help, didn't help --it was just breezy enough that the thing really wanted to be a sail, and a friendly neighbor camper offered help. Turned out he was giving directions to fold it up, rather than unfold it, so we did just that and stowed it away neatly. The major problem is that I've never seen one set up, so I have only the haziest of notions what success will look like.
Two problems did surface. One is that the house battery (as opposed to the truck battery, which is in the usual place and does the usual truck things) seemed not to be recharging from the external power we were plugged into. It did seem to recharge when we were in motion, just not when we were camped. I took it out of its hidey hole under the top step and brought it home to my battery charger and AC power. It was pretty well discharged. Even though it may be close to the end of its life -- it's three years old -- I don't think that's the problem. I have some suggestions from my online advisers at rv.net about how to tell if it's getting charging power from the 120V AC external power. If it's not. I may have my first trip to an RV repair guy ahead of me.
The second problem was that the furnace -- a nifty little propane-fired forced-air number -- made a horrible caterwauling noise when turned on. Really shrill, really obnoxious. I turned it off as quickly as I could, to avoid inspiring my camping neighbors to mayhem. When I tried to duplicate the problem back home, it purred away quietly. I hate intermittent problems.
It was a great trip. Too short. I'm thinking my next foray will be down to Bisbee for a weekend. It's about 2 hours away, right down near the Mexican border. Somehow I expect I'll get searched on the way back at the Border Patrol/Homeland Security checkpoint. Sad.
I figured some things out about how to get internet service on the road. I'll give details in a subsequent post.
The trip was a success! More! More!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Breakfast for Emma
Emma has never really figured out the folding dish. Until this trip. Hunger is a powerful motivator!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Hitting the road
The Beast's first prowl... OK, I'll stop with the "Beast" stuff.
Overnight tonight at Catalina State Park. I spent some time yesterday "moving in" -- pots and pans and dishes and utensils. Towels. Sheets and blankets. A few more items in the toolbox. Checked all the fluids -- still need to find where the power steering fluid reservoir is. It's making that Ford power steering noise I learned to love in the Ford pickup I had for 14 years.
Spent some time researching wifi "hotspots" while I was home waiting for the carpet guys to arrive. If I do indeed hit the road for a week or two at a time, it would be good to have something bigger than my iPhone for staying in touch. And blogging.
What I'm pointing at is using my phone as as that hotspot, sharing its cell data connection via tethering. That lead me to consider changing my service from ATT to T-Mobile. TMO has an interesting business plan. And they'll buy me out of my current ATT contract. Essentially I'd get unlimited data, voice, and text plus 5 gigs of tethered data per month for exactly what I'm now paying ATT.
The issue is coverage: TMO is just ramping up its 4G coverage areas. This feels like ATT when I got my first iPhone. There's a lot of negative talk in the blogosphere about their coverage, but there's also a recognition that they've done a LOT in the last year. I have no loyalty to ATT, but their coverage is now pretty good.
I'm tempted.
Another adventure.
Overnight tonight at Catalina State Park. I spent some time yesterday "moving in" -- pots and pans and dishes and utensils. Towels. Sheets and blankets. A few more items in the toolbox. Checked all the fluids -- still need to find where the power steering fluid reservoir is. It's making that Ford power steering noise I learned to love in the Ford pickup I had for 14 years.
Spent some time researching wifi "hotspots" while I was home waiting for the carpet guys to arrive. If I do indeed hit the road for a week or two at a time, it would be good to have something bigger than my iPhone for staying in touch. And blogging.
What I'm pointing at is using my phone as as that hotspot, sharing its cell data connection via tethering. That lead me to consider changing my service from ATT to T-Mobile. TMO has an interesting business plan. And they'll buy me out of my current ATT contract. Essentially I'd get unlimited data, voice, and text plus 5 gigs of tethered data per month for exactly what I'm now paying ATT.
The issue is coverage: TMO is just ramping up its 4G coverage areas. This feels like ATT when I got my first iPhone. There's a lot of negative talk in the blogosphere about their coverage, but there's also a recognition that they've done a LOT in the last year. I have no loyalty to ATT, but their coverage is now pretty good.
I'm tempted.
Another adventure.
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