A Forced Break - No Internet

We thought we'd hang around the rally fairgrounds for at least one day as we recuperated and wound down from a very busy week, but it was not to be.  The electricity was turned off around 10am - a sure sign that we were being asked to leave!
We turned on the generator so we could take care of the necessary things, but slowly got ready to hit the road and head back south.  Our next 'gig' is at a computer club in Sarasota, Florida.  It is apparently still winter and Florida is the place we want to be!
So, we headed south, not knowing where we would get to the first night.  I studied the Allstays App for a spot somewhere around the Gainesville area and Ginnie Springs jumped out at me.  Jim and I have been scuba diving in those gin-clear springs and knew it to be a very special forested campground as well.  We've never been able to stay with the RV before because they don't allow pets.  We've been sadly pet-less for about a year now ... there are a few advantages.
Now this is what most people have in mind when they say "campground."

Such a pretty place, and the birds have the most beautiful voices!  Jim got right to work setting up a homey camp, with a table cloth on the picnic table, the awnings out and the grill ready to receive dinner fixin's.  I sat down at the computer and was very disappointed.  Our Verizon phones which normally provide Internet to our computers would bounce back and forth between one bar of 3 or 4G and a 1X signal, or simply NO signal at all.  I tried our iPad with it's AT&T service and found the same lack of connection.  I got out our Wilson "Sleek" 3G booster and it didn't help either.  We walked up to the office where there was supposed to be Wi-Fi and had not much more luck there.
OMG ... what do we do??

It is a beautiful place for a bike ride!  Lots of people were swimming and scuba diving in the springs, but we thought it was still a bit nippy for that.  I finished one book (Coast to Coast with a Cat and a Ghost) and started another (Going Home with a Cat and a Ghost) that I had already downloaded to my phone's Kindle App.  I did the download while we were on the road, just in case we were going somewhere with no Internet.  I really like reading on my Droid phone - it's so easy to hold in one hand, it lights up to read in bed and I can even turn the page using just one hand.

It was actually quite a delightful, peaceful 2-night stay.  But, after 2 nights, we really MUST have Internet!  So, it's off to Orlando and the Thousand Trails park there.  Good Internet, great hot tub, near Disney World where we have season passes, and best of all it's FREE.  Well, "Free" isn't quite the right word ... pre-paid maybe describes it better.  We have a membership in Thousand Trails and we pay roughly $500/year maintenance - then when we pull into a park to stay for a while, we don't pay any more.  It's home!

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Facebook and Old Friends

I find facebook.com a little complex – there’s so much you can do with it; notes, photos, blogs – it’s hard to know where to start.  But, I’m on it (Christine Guld) and I check in fairly regularly.

 

The amazing thing is how many people are connected to facebook.  Within minutes of joining, I had at least a dozen ‘friends.’ Over the last few months, I’ve reconnected – thru facebook – with dozens more people, many of whom I haven’t seen in many years.  There are even a couple that I haven’t seen since high school, and I graduated in 1971!

 

If you like having –and keeping- friends, you will like being on facebook.

 

One man, Eric Somers, was a friend who I met back in the 80s.  I met him when my Mom and I had just started our computer training center (Computer Savvy) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  He was involved with a high tech company that was taking advantage of the Internet … realize the Web didn’t even exist back then!  He ended up giving guest classes at Computer Savvy – teaching telecommunications – you know, 300 baud modems and Compuserve!  Eric is probably the brainiest person I’ve ever met and I always enjoyed our fascinating conversations.  We haven’t seen each other in over 10 years, but we would always share at least one annual email. 

 

Eric is one of my Facebook friends and he left a comment when we posted photos of Salem, MA.  That started a conversation and when our next stop was Hyde Park, NY (to go to FDR museum) I noticed that we were right next to Poughkeepsie where Eric lives.  We were able to meet up for breakfast and it’s definitely Facebook that made this possible.

 

So nice to get to visit with you Eric!

DataStorm RIP

By Jim

We are retiring our dish.

 

You who have been following us for a while know how much we love our Internet satellite service.  We had it installed in ‘03 before we left Florida, our first year out.

 

Back then, cellular broadband was almost non-existent and Wi-Fi was in its infancy.  Dial-up was out of the question for us.

Our fledgling business plan was based on the ability to be connected with high-speed Internet wherever we traveled.  Satellite Internet was the only viable solution at the time.

 

So, we bit the bullet and forked over the $6K for the (then) state-of-the-art F1 DataStorm with the 4020 Hughes modems and D1 controller.  Service with one static IP address was $115/month through Ground Control.

Over the years, we only had a few problems that were readily handled by MotoSat or Ground Control.  The DataStorm Users Group and especially founder Don Bradner were our lifeline and support.

 

I turned off service last fall while we were in Florida for the winter because our home park, Paradise Island, has good Wi-Fi.  Besides, our 3rd set of modems had finally bit the dust and I needed to upgrade.

 

Since we left Florida this year, I replaced the Upper Control Board on the mount, got the newest D4 controller and a new 7000S modem.  I figured I was all set.  Wrong.  I was not able to get everything working together.  Hours were spent on the phone with MotoSat technical support.  More hours were spent on site by a MotoSat tech at the FMCA Convention in Bowling Green.  They finally decided that a new LNB and arm might fix it.  But our dish was just too old, they didn’t have a replacement to send.

 

We could spend big bucks and replace the dish.

 

What we will do is use our Verizon cellular broadband and Wi-Fi when it is available to access the Internet.

 

Next year we might replace the dish for our travels west.   There are still lots of places we want to go where cell towers are scarce and Wi-Fi is not available.

 

Like we always say, “If you *Need* the Internet, you need all three ways to connect.  Satellite, Cellular, and Wi-Fi”