RVing - Best of Times, Worst of Times

Our Summer Tour is getting off to an auspicious start! Just 3 nights out and we've covered some of the best and the worst that RVing has to offer. We got a late start the first day and decided there would not be time to enjoy the Harvest Host winery we had planned for the first night. Jim just kept on driving. We made it to Daytona where there is an RV park that we're familiar with, but the office was closed and we didn't see any notices about after hours arrivals - so Jim kept on driving. We ended up at a Cracker Barrel in Ormond Beach for the night.

That was a Saturday night. We were scheduled to do our weekly webcast at 2pm on Sunday. This meant we would either need to do it from a parking lot running the generator, or put it in high gear to check in to our next destination after 1pm (their rules), plug in, set up equipment, keep our fingers crossed for good enough Internet connection, do a sound check, video check, and go live at 2.

Jim said, "No Problem" so we proceeded to Gamble Rogers state park on Sunday morning. They didn't release the site until about 1:15. Jim backed in and plugged in to power. We started the A/C units going - it's in the high 90s and got one slide extended. The second slide has to be manually maneuvered and takes us 10-15 minutes, so we left it in. Jim got the cameras, lights, and computers set up, I got my lesson plan notes together and got our Geek shirts out. We didn't want to put them on until the last minute because they would get all sweaty! Lights, camera, action, and we went live at 2:01. Everything went off without a hitch!
Big Sigh!
Here it is:


When we signed off - Jim was prepared with a little bottle of champagne to celebrate! And then we took a deep breath and took a look around at where we were.

WOW

One of the reasons we came here was to go to a winery called Flagler Beachfront Winery. Jim had heard about it long ago because it is owned by the same folks who own a very special Winery/Restaurant we went to in Ohio called Tarsitanos. In my blog post from that past visit, I said I'd be dreaming about the food there for a while to come. Well, the winery here doesn't have a full menu but the baguette and cheese plate was equally to-die-for! And I don't think I've ever had a wine I liked better than their Cabernet Sauvignon! We got a bottle to take home and a glass for the memory.

Flagler Beach right across the street from the winery

We went back to the RV and rested for a while, we were able to start a movie (Steve Jobs) from Amazon prime on our smart TV and it played just fine connected to our Verizon hotspot on my phone. But about halfway thru, I looked out the window and saw that beautiful golden glow of impending sunset. I paused the movie, grabbed the camera and told Jim we had to go outside!

OOOOhhhhh  AAAAAhhhhhh

It just doesn't get any better than this! See more pictures in our Google Photos album for July.

The next morning we were relaxed. Check-out time here is a very civilized 1pm. We had our coffee and read our emails and Facebook, and Jim said "How about a bike ride?" Sure! There's a nice sidewalk along A1A here. I really like bike riding in Florida ... it's flat! We rode as far as a county park and noticed this great workstation for bicyclists:

Self-contained Bicycle repair station

Read the QR code with your smartphone and get how to videos on bicycle repair!

By the time we got back, it was time to stow and go. The plan was just to drive until we felt like stopping, no plans for this night's stay. The following night we planned to be at a friend's B&B in North Carolina BigMill.com. A rest area, or another Cracker Barrel would be find for  this night.

About 5 o'clock we were hungry and decided to stop at a rest area to make some dinner. After dinner, Jim turned on the ignition, started to pull away, and the engine stalled - refusing to be revived. He raised the hood and looked to see if there was anything obvious. That's one very nice thing about the design of our motorhome - it's referred to as a Super-C. It's a class C with the cab over floor plan, but it's on a diesel medium-duty truck chassis (Kodiak chassis) with a front engine. You just lift the latches and raise the hood up and forward to gain access to the entire engine, unlike Class A motorhomes with the engine in the back that need a specialized RV service shop to work on it. Ours is a Chevrolet DuraMax 5500. It has a very good reputation and we can add our vote to its reliability.

This is a first in the 5 years we've owned this motorhome.

Anyway, Jim didn't see anything obvious. After letting it rest a bit, he tried again and it just wasn't going to start. So we called our Good Sam Emergency Road service and, after a bit of a hassle about an expired credit card allowing our membership to lapse just a few days ago, they made arrangements for us to get towed to a nearby truck repair shop. We slept in the RV in the shop's parking lot and they worked on it in the morning. It was a relatively simple problem with a clogged fuel filter, but it still took a few hours and $500 to diagnose and repair.

We're back on the road and very grateful that there are ways to get these kind of problems fixed. If that's the worst of times ... not so bad.

Even broken down and being towed ... Jim and I looked at our motorhome, then looked at each other and said, "Isn't that a nice looking rig?"

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New Years 2015 starts out Hot and Cold

We were supposed to leave Palm Creek in Casa Grande on Dec 31, but the day dawned windy, rainy, and freezing cold so we made arrangements to stay another night. That suited me fine since I had to get our newsletter done. Our monthly Geeks on Tour newsletter has turned out to be a month in review piece, so my deadline is the last day of the month. Here is the December 2014 newsletter.

By New Year's Day, the weather had cleared - there was no wind, and we were ready to go. One month in one parking place is a long time for us! It felt great to be on the road again. Arizona scenery is so interesting with the Saguaro cactus, the flat land and the abrupt mountains.

We didn't plan to go very far, we were headed to Quartzsite, but we didn't need to be there for another 10 days. Our favorite hot springs, El Dorado hot springs was just about half way - sounds great!

We pulled in and parked at a designated RV site with 50 amp electric, and made arrangements for a soak in one of their private tubs that night and again the next morning. The deal is $55 for the site and 2 hours of soaking. In the past, we've happily paid $30 for one hour soak, so I figure we're paying for the soak and the RV site is thrown in. A great deal and lots of ambience. Check out the wildlife:

When we woke up the next morning, there was ice on the ground! What?! Weather reports said there was snow in Havasu City ... the first time ever recorded! And we're about to go outside and take our clothes off??!! Man! What we'll do for a good soak in hot springs!

That's frost on the bicycle seat!

Ahhhhhh ... hot water.

We've been here before, even as recent as 3 months ago, and I thought I recalled there being good Verizon signal here. Boy was I wrong. Only 2 bars of 3G. We could barely check email, let alone get any real work done. So, we had to leave. We're only 35 miles west of Phoenix, so we figured we'd drive that way until we hit the outskirts of civilization. There's bound to be good Verizon signal a bit closer to the city.

OK, so how's this?!

The prettiest sight for Geeks' eyes - a nearby cell tower. We get 5 bars of 4G XLTE here!

While we were checking in, we exclaimed over the great Verizon signal provided by the tower right IN the park! Five Bars! and someone told a story of a customer who overheard a conversation about there being Five Bars at this RV park and wondered if that meant that all the local drunks congregated here. They'd never heard of an RV park having even one Bar, let alone 5!

For those of you who look at speed numbers, feast your eyes on this test:

We'll definitely stay here thru Sunday because we do our weekly show live over the Internet on Sundays. We might even stay thru next Sunday to be sure we can get two good shows done! We start our seminars in Quartzsite next Monday.

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Behind the Redwood Curtain

After leaving  Crater Lake we had no reservations and had no luck finding a campground on our route with an opening. Our backup plan was to stop at the rest area on I5 at Valley of the Rogue State park, but it was just plain Closed. I assume it was for lack of funding – what a shame, looked like a great place as we drove by.  So, back to our plan C – Walmart. We did need to do some shopping anyway, so Grants Pass Walmart it was.

Then we had a full day for our next drive. Even though it was well under 200 miles, it was a very scenic route and included yet another National Park, right on the way. Redwoods National Park.

The last time we were here, we didn’t have the National Park Passport. Now, whenever we’re near a national park, we have to stop at least to get our passport stamped … so we can prove we’ve been there? Aren’t the pictures, and the blog, and Facebook, and Google+ … enough? I guess I just have a love of stamped passports! So, we stopped at the Visitor Center which isn’t in the Redwoods at all! It’s right on the beach.

Then we drove thru some Redwoods. It’s not just one park, they even call it Redwoods National and State Parks – there’s a whole series of them as you drive thru this area. And then there are the private attractions as well.

Our purpose in coming this route was to see our old Datastorm User Group friends Don and Joy. They let us park in their driveway and we stayed a couple nights. The first day we went geocaching in the local city park. It’s called Sequoia for good reason!

Joy and Chris admiring a tree

Don and Joy take us Geocaching in their local, city park!

When telling us a bit about their history here in Eureka, Don mentioned that they liked being “Behind the Redwood Curtain!” The weather is always cool with fog from the Pacific. It’s a bit isolated, so they have their own culture, and not a lot of outside interference. It also means they can be a bit lacking in services – all the gas stations seem to have an agreement on the prices, and Internet connections are not the greatest. Don told us that there is only one Internet trunk line in and out of the area and it’s owned by AT&T. Verizon has to lease from them. And, yes, our Verizon connection was nowhere near as good as it has been in most cities we’ve visited. But it was better than on the road here! I don’t think we’ve driven anywhere in this country where we’ve been out of cell service for as long as we were on the drive here. Not even in the Rocky Mountains.

We also went to lunch with Don and Joy at a restaurant with a great view down by the Marina. We watched boats come and go and noticed several signs for fresh tuna for sale. Let’s check it out! We expected to be able to buy a couple of tuna steaks, but no, they were selling the whole fish. They asked if we wanted them to clean and filet it .. uh … yes please. We ate some that night and froze the rest. I had no idea tuna could taste SOO good.

After leaving Don and Joy’s, we drove thru Avenue of the Giants … I think this is what I remember as THE Redwood Forest.

Oregon Coast and the Spruce Goose

After the NW Area rally in Albany, we took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership to stay at a park called Whaler’s Rest on the Oregon Coast.  We always love the natural surroundings of most Thousand Trails parks and this was no exception.  The sites were beautiful and it was a short walk to the beach, BUT, we had no Internet.  That’s a problem for us since we run an Internet business. 

There was good Wi-Fi at the clubhouse, so anything we had to do we schlepped our computers up there.  We only planned to stay a few days, we could make it.  And, look at this great path to the beach!

Lynne came to visit, and we spent a wonderful day together. She came bearing gifts!  She sewed us a windshield cover for our old Honda that we used from 2004 to 2013.  Then we bought a new Honda … it has a much bigger windshield!  So she sewed us a new one!  And, I thought sewing was just for hemming pants!

 

When we left the coast, we made time for a stop in McMinnville at the Evergreen Museum that houses Howard Hughes’ gigantic airplane, the Spruce Goose.

That plane is definitely impressive, but the museum has a lot more to offer.  An Imax theatre, a World War II airplane collection, and a Space museum.  It’s 3 huge buildings.  Jim has always been a big fan of planes and especially space exploration.  I just love any kind of history.  I especially liked the story about Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler – 2 pilots in WWII.  Click the picture below to read the story.

And, check out these missiles.  Can you even see Jim?

Once we left the museum we got back on the road and traveled north thru Portland and the horrible traffic there.  Our destination was the Elks Lodge, just on the north side of the Columbia river.  We’re scheduled to get our slide serviced on Thursday.  Wish us luck.

Cell Phone service

Our cell phones are our only phones. Us, and every other full-time RVer we know! We went with Verizon when we first started this lifestyle 4 years ago and we've been pretty happy. We have a national plan with no roaming. That means we can use our phones anywhere in the US, provided there is signal. If we're in an area that would normally work, but incur roaming charges - ours won't work. We don't use our phones that much since 90% of all our communications is via computer. If only Verizon plans had 'rollover' minutes we wouldn't think of switching. Our plan includes 1500 minutes/month shared between the two of us. Often, we only use 400. Occasionally we do go over the 1500, and, boy do those extra charges hurt! Our normal bill is $115/mo. Way too high, in my opinion, for our normal 700 minutes. But, I can't lower the plan because of those 'sometimes' that we go over. We've had $300+ bills when overages apply.

No cell service works *everywhere*, but consensus has been pretty clear that Verizon is the best for nationwide coverage. The landscape is different now though, than it was four years ago. I'm looking at AT&T/Cingular because they have rollover minutes. If we sign up for a 700 minute plan, and only use 500, the extra 200 'rollover' to the following month. That would sure be nice! But, it's coverage that counts when you travel. From their coverage maps, it still looks like Verizon is the winner. The maps don't tell the whole story though, let's hear from people who actually use the service.  I googled for the zip code - 97756 - and I checked it out. Here are some of the comments:

"Cingular: I get great service all over central oregon"

"Cingular: This phone works fine in Lapine, but at my house I have to lean against a certain window to get 2 bars. The old TDMA was fine, but when I switched to GSM is hardly works at all.

"Verizon: Verizon is horrific in Bend. Treo is impossible to use as it locks up and is worthless. Over 1000 people work at the Bend Airport, but Verizon does not support the area"

"Verizon: My reception is good"

Well, that doesn't help much does it? If you read a lot of these comments, you learn that the particular phone makes a lot of difference as well. We learned early on that having an external antenna like this Wilson Trucker cell antenna, makes a LOT of difference. I think there's even more to learn about cell phones than about Wi-Fi! If you're going thru this process too - good luck! And, let me know what you find out.