You guys are just the best, you know that? Your comments on yesterday's entry left me with a lot of chuckles. Art thinks Jane needs to go play on the interstate highway near a truck stop. Poolie and Shear agree and Carolyn thinks we need to take Jane out into the forest and tie her to a tree - DEEP into the forest. When we return from our trip and Jane starts lipping off again I'll certainly consider those. Dick and Jane left on a bike trip about a week ago going up the north shore of Lake Superior. Jane wasn't exactly speaking to me at the time they left, so who knows what the situation will be by the time we return.
We met the remainder of The Circle for supper last night at the Watering Hole. General consensus was that Jane needs to come back from this trip with a very definite attitude change - for the positive - but I don't know that Jane's capable of that.
And to respond to Art's suggestion to use the satellite dish for internet service while we're on the road: I used to have internet satellite service at our house a number of years ago. It was extremely spendy like $70 a month on top of our satellite TV service. But at that time that's all that was available to us as we were too far out of town for cable. Now I have a wireless service that's broadcast from a tall building about 15 miles away and it's much cheaper and faster. Yes, internet satellite/tv service is available for motorhomes, but to install the gear that's needed for it runs in the several thousand dollar range. And that's just for the equipment. The monthly fees range in the hundred dollar neighborhood, depending on what TV package you subscribe to. When we've traveled to Quartzite, AZ in the winters we've checked these systems out, and have put it on our "someday" list.
For those of you who don't know what/where Quartzite, AZ is: it's known as the Snowbird's Paradise. It's located on the border of Arizona and California, about halfway between the Nevada and Mexico border. It's got a stable population of about 150 people but in the winter swells to thousands due to all the RVers that make it their headquarters. During January and February it hosts the biggest RV show in the United States, along with vendors that supply anything you could ever want for a motorhome. It's also a rock hounder's paradise and home to a lot of desert rats. It's a wonderful place to spend time and we'll be doing that again this winter. We park out in the desert on BLM land and usually spend anywhere from two to four weeks there. We're self-contained with solar panels on the roof, so we can go about 10 days before we have to take on water and dump the tanks. It's SO relaxing. Anyway, enough on that. I kind of got off on a tangent there, didn't I. Sorry.
On to today's tasks. Ole will finish up fixing the satellite. (By the way, Art, it takes a special satellite to run the internet service. One that both receives and transmits. The satellite that we get TV reception on only receives.) Then he'll service the batteries, clean the solar panels, load the tanks with water (150 gallons) and by that time I should have clothes and food packed. Hopefully, if everything goes right for Ole, we'll be out of here tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.
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10 comments:
aw i didnt know it cost an arm and leg and thigh for sattellite innernet service! aw well!!! heres my fingers crossed that tomorrow is a go and blastoff!!! wheeeeeee!!!
Fingers crossed!
Wow! How big is your Motorhome?!? When you mentioned 10 days without dumping, it sparked my curiosity but then filling up with 150 gal of water?!? wooo-eeee! Please post a picture. I would love to see it! I miss traveling (have I said that before? only yesterday? sorry) Ours is only a 34' with 1 slide out (living room and dining area). A few feet more can make such a difference in how they are laid out. If I remember correctly, our water tank is only 70 or 75 gal. and we can do 5 days dry camping before we have to 'dump'. Oh, I so envy you this trip...and Quartsite! Flea Markets and treasures galore!!
I traveled around New Zealand for 18 days in a camper and never dumped it - because we never used it. We were too scared! We would pull off the road and do our business! We used the toilet as a closet for our sandy beach clothes.
I will post a picture soon - thought about one with Ole up on the roof this morning, but didn't get too it.
It's a 40' Allegro with a super slide, diesel pusher. We used to have a 35' Aerbus that was a gas engine, no slides. So we're really enjoying this one.
A couple of years ago we had the Aerbus in Death Valley. We headed west out of Death Valley on our way to California, pulling a 27' trailer with a street rod and the Harley inside. If you've ever been over the pass to the west of Death Valley you know it's a killer. The climb out isn't so bad, but going down the other side - 15 miles of a 9% grade. Even though we had trailer brakes and Ole is a very skilled driver and stopped a number of times to let things cool down we still lost our brakes about 5 miles from the bottom. He managed to get everything pulled off at a wide spot and used the trailer brakes to assist stopping. This took place 120 miles from the closest town and we had no cell service. Fortunately my brother was traveling with us at the time, so he and I took his truck and went the 120 miles to the next town and got a tow truck to come get our rig.
After that experience we decided we needed a diesel pusher with an additional exhaust brake for going down the big grades. I didn't EVER want to go through that again.
Our goal in two years is to spend the summer traveing up the Alcan highway to Alaska and spend the summer roaming around there. That is if we don't have to pay $5 a gallon for diesel!!
Here's to a safe and fun trip for you two - and the cat!
Here's to a safe and fun trip for you two - and the cat!
I want you to have double the fun apparently!
Hope you get to go soon. Hope you have a great time, I am so envious!
Enjoy and don't let the sour lady get you down!
Hey Lena! I live by an RV Park, so just keep going until you reach Montana! Have a great trip. I love to hear about your rv trips since my mom and dad are snow birds. They go to Salome, but I've heard them talk about Quartzite.
Anyway be safe!
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