Wandrin Blog - RVing Life

Staying Connected....

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:18:33 -0700

This remote location has marginal cell phone signal. Thousand Trails Pio Pico park is located in the hills east of San Diego. There are several locations in the park which are dead zones -- no signal at all. To use cell phones, many of the guests walk or drive to those locations where a signal is available.

So how do I maintain my access to the internet. Wi-Fi is available at the clubhouse. However, that means getting to the clubhouse. I would rather get on the internet at Wandrin Wagon.

Within the E Loop, there is a marginal signal. That was enough to order a signal amplifier from the 3GStore internet site to improve that signal for my Verizon USB720 Air Card. That was a good decision. Just using the Wilson trucker's antenna and without the amplifier, I was getting a signal from -105 dBm to -100 dBm. That was marginal at best and many times there was no signal at all. With the Wilson Amplifier, the signal was improved to -95 dBm to -90 dBm. That was the specified improvement that could be expected with the ampliefier.

The amplifier has made this stay at Pio Pico an enjoyable experience. The nearby access to the hiking trails is great. Additionally, this location behind the hills kills the road noise of motorcycles and eighteen wheelers. That is great for sleeping.

Satellite Internet Dish is Gone

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:33:50 -0700

It had been sold while I was in Yuma. The salesguy-installer-technician came out to my rig in Yuma to check it out. I had checked it out before he had arrived. Of course, I had the usual result. I had a signal, but could never get it into the acceptable range. When G showed up, he had me change the way I had always been finding the satellite. Within ten seconds it was locked dead on with a high signal. Cross polling worked without a problem. Once again a high reading.

I started to express my amazement and wonder why it had worked fine for 18 months then all of a sudden for the next three months, before I canceled the system, I couldn't do it right. Now I come to Yuma and it works within seconds. I stopped my blubbering because I was sure G thought I was crazy.

I asked if he might know of someone who would want a used system. He did. He called the lady who had an older system which had failed and my system would provide the necessary parts to make it whole once again. I had $500 in my pocket the next day when the system was picked up.

However, that $500 will cover some of the costs of a signal amplifier for the air-card. When parking in fringe signal areas, that amplifier will help the air-card to connect to the internet.

Recalculating

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:34:27 -0700

That is what the British accented voice on the the Garmin Navigation system says when I make a wrong turn. I can manage to have that repeated several times when I ignore the commands. Then there are those times when I should "make a U-turn". Yeah. Right. Like that is going to happen when pulling a trailer.

That "recalculating" refrain is rather frequent these days since the map that the Garmin C330 is using is over two years old and more than likely some of the data is older than that.

When not being guided to a destination, I will set the unit set to display a map of the world I pass through. Frequently I note the display shows that I am driving through undefined terrain -- not on a road that the C330 understands. The road I happen to be driving on is obviously less than two years old; the road's landscaping has to be done.

There is new map software available for the C330. However, I am not ready to part with the $70 that is wanted to update the unit. It is foolish to wait since it will be the same map a year from now for the same price. Of course that map is also out of date when it was created; at this date six months ago. There will always be new roads and housing developments.

In spite of its short comings, the GPS unit was a worth while investment. Mistakes have been made when it led me down a dead end street or the times it insisted a house number was a location several blocks in another direction. The greatest feature is the identifying of a destination on the left or right allowing time to get in the correct lane. Similarly when entering a freeway from a surface street, the directions specify to stay right or left.

An independent guy seeking directions -- and being told where to go. Is there a problem here.

Lessons for the new RV full timer...

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:19:00 -0700

This is the result of a question asked by one of my readers. It seemed appropriate to share these lessons for those considering full time living in an RV. (These are the lessons I learned; other full time RVers would report other lessons.)

...The first year is a learning experience. Be prepared. That first year may also be more costly than subsequent years.

...With all the free time to vacation, you will find yourself in "vacation mode" -- trying to do it all. Don't frustrate yourself. For all your working years, vacations were limited to one or two weeks and you filled each day from rising sun to setting sun. As a full time RVer, you have lots of time. You can take days off from exploring -- and vacation. Do the laundry. Go for a walk. Go to a movie.

A word of caution. You can't do it all. You never will. It will take twenty life times -- and more -- to see and experience all the world has to offer.

...Don’t make reservations or commitments. If you do make commitments, say something vague like you “will be at X place sometime in the summer.” Or specify some month. I do make reservations once in a while. However, I find it very stressful to meet those commitments. On some rare occasions, I've made reservations over major holidays. Most frequently, that is July 4th.

...Be prepared to be lost. Full time living on the road and arriving in a new town is like going into a different grocery store. You will have no idea where anything is located. Where is the post office. Where is the cheapest fuel. Actually, you don't even know where the grocery store is located.

...It is less expensive living the nomadic life than retiring to the home in Denver.

...The most expensive thing about retiring early (I was 60) to hit the road is the cost of health insurance (actually it is estate insurance). However, several of my under 65 road acquaintances manage to live without health insurance.

...Investments that allow alternate camping options will prove financially beneficial. A rig that is self contained with solar power and/or generator will allow extended camping on government lands for free or very little cost. A self contained rig is also essential for overnight camping on concrete parking lots such as Wal-Mart. Additional ways to reduce camping costs can be done through campground memberships such as Passport America, a SKP membership, Good Sams (even though they send lots of junk mail), AAA, etc. An Elks membership will allow RV camping at those Elks Lodges where there are RV facilities available.

Finally there is the "time share" solution to camping. Buying new campground memberships can be pricey. There are also used Campground Memberships For Sale. All of the mentioned options have advantages and disadvantages.

Do the research to determine which of the options may be best for your traveling style. To round out your information, talk with other full timers to find out how they address the costs of RV camping.

These aren't lessons, but I have found that...

Nomadic traveling is more fun than I thought it could be. The fun is exploring where ever I am; meeting and talking to people; walking streets looking for photos; checking out local wineries; find that off the beaten path eatery (not a chain restaurant); National Parks; etc.

Retirement to that Denver home would have been a boring existence. I would have gotten a job or found some volunteering position.

All that stuff that was in my home is not missed. In fact I recall little of what I had. And I certainly don’t miss being a slave to a home or even home ownership and its attendant issues. Considering my home was built circa 1890, I was nothing more than a caretaker for the short time I lived there.

Internet Access Solution

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:59:53 -0700

A Verizon air card (USB720) was purchased almost two months ago. Since then, it has been my only means of access to the internet.

During that time I tried to access the internet via satellite. Once again the equipment failed me. Obviously a hardware problem. I put the system on vacation until I get to Arizona.

The experience with an air card... This new card supports 1xRRT, EVDO-O, EVDO-A. After my initial purchase of the card, I happened to be located in the EVDO coverage areas. The downloads were equal to the speeds that I had with my internet satellite. Uploads were faster. For the past month, I have been in the 1xRRT areas where the speeds are much slower -- perhaps about a third of the speeds with broadband (EVDO). For one stop I was in an "Extended Coverage" area without the Verizon signal. That also worked.

I have found myself in "1x" areas when there is a requirement for greater download speeds for such things as software updates or new software. I put the items on a queue and wait for free Wi-Fi or until I have EVDO speeds.

At this point, I am very pleased with the new air card and access to the Internet. It makes for a lot less struggle when setting up at a new RV camping site and a faster exit as well. This has made life easier. I could get used to this.

Hail Storm in Rapid City

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:20:03 -0700

An RV acquaintance, Paul Martin, happened to have his home on wheels parked at Hart Ranch when a hail storm recently went through the Rapid City area. Paul was away from home when this happened and returned later to find the "dings" on his less than two year old home.

Check out the damage that baseball sized hail can cause: Damage to Paul's Airstream

Fortunately, I had left the Rapid City area long ago. No more complaints about smoke from me.

This nomadic existence

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:59:34 -0700

What makes a full time nomadic RVer? That is a question I have asked myself many times. Frequently, I pose the question to full timing RVing acquaintances. The answers are varied -- if they had ever thought about it all. Sometimes the answer is that they do it for their spouse. Frequent geographic moves for the military or some corporation is another answer.

For me the answer is complex. However, curiosity is the root for my nomadic RVing.

I want to know more about the world in which I live. I can still remember an illustration in a fourth grade geography book from the perspective of the over story to the jungle floor below. Wow. There was no National Geographic in my childhood home, but when I graduated from college that was my first magazine subscription. I am always curious about what's down the road -- or where do those train tracks lead. Then there are atlases and the maps they contain. Road maps. I lose myself looking at a road map.

Learning is a result of curiosity. It challenges me to learn about my world. One dream I had about my retirement years was to audit college courses to learn more about many different subjects. However, I certainly do not want to go back to school for grades. I just want to learn. One of those subjects was geology. Once I stop this nomadic travel, perhaps I can pursue that dream.

Meeting people is also part of that curiosity. Fortunately, we are all different people and (for me) meeting new people is a joy. I am curious about their lives, their world, their life stories, and their travels. Perhaps some would consider that nosy. However, most people are more than willing to talk about themselves and their world. In the course of those conversations, we find that we have more in common than the differences we may have.

Finally there is boredom. I get bored with the same old thing. In the world of RV travel, there are new challenges each day. Driving into a new area, I don't know the roads or the layout of the city I am passing through. Where are the groceries. Where is the post office. Where is the cheapest fuel. My curiosity requires me to find those places. In the course of that search, I find I learn about the area and what there is to do and explore.

And once in a while I find a bakery that has cinnamon rolls.

Comments and thoughts from other nomadic RVers are welcome...

Satellite Navigation

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Sat, 26 May 2007 08:22:00 -0700

I like reading maps. I still do. But, in a weak moment at the Map and Flag Store in Tucson, I bought the Garmin Street Pilot C330. This talking "nagivator" was given the name Maggie. Rhymes with Naggy.

Before the acquisition of Maggie, I planned my exploring and errands around the cities by printing maps. Many times there were four or five maps that I referred to as I drove along. With the PC, I had MS Streets and Trips. Since that was not available on the iMac, I used Google Mapping on the internet. That worked pretty well. Still there were lots of printouts. Most times I ended up at my destination(s) without too many wrong turns.

My experience with the Garmin Street Pilot has been mostly positive.

When I bought it in Tucson, I had a chance to use it several times. It was quite helpful in getting me to my destination without having to circle an area several times. The other positive was that no longer did I have to print out maps. All that was required was to enter the street address, and Maggie was ready to direct me to my destination -- clearly spoken in a female voice.

Not only does the data base include maps, but also has something like the Yellow Pages. If looking for a place to eat, select your type of food and the unit will return a list of options: the name of the place and distance from the current location. Tap on your choice and Maggie will give the directions. Looking for a post office turned out to be a breeze.

Once out of Tucson, I didn't have much need for it as I traveled the main roads. When I was headed to the Elks Lodge in Las Vegas, NM, I used it to direct me to the Lodge. Since I had never traveled in the town before, I trusted the directions to the Lodge. When I was less than three blocks from the Lodge, I was directed to make a right hand turn onto a residential street. It seemed unusual. No yellow line in the middle of the street should have been the clue. It was a dead end street.

Maggie was turned off. After a turn around in a driveway, I headed back to the main road. With the help of a small map in the Elks book, I eventually arrived at the Lodge. It didn't help that the street intersections near the Lodge were under construction.

Once parked, I checked the unit to make sure I entered the right address. Yes. However, the unit insisted that the Lodge location was two blocks south of where it actually was located -- explaining that erroneous right hand turn. That is a great example of documentation not equal to the real world.

After that incident, I paid closer attention to the directions. However, there have been no similar misdirections.

Traveling Solo

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:58:23 -0700

For those who are concerned about my solo nomadic travels, this quote was posted on Rolf Pott's Vagabonding blog.

"It seemed an advantage to be traveling alone. Our responses to the world are crucially molded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others. They may have particular visions of who we are and hence may subtly prevent certain sides of us from emerging

Regarding boon docking...

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:39:00 -0700

After responding in an email to a correspondent about boon docking, it seemed appropriate to share this with all readers interested in boon docking.

Water and electrical power are the major issues when boon docking.

Water... Wandrin Wagon capacity is 70 gallons of fresh water, 50 gallons black water and 50 gallons gray water. With this setup, I have been able to live for three weeks without having to dump. That requires that I take sponge baths once in a while in order not to fill up the gray water. Black water has never been a problem. All the water I drink is bottled water. That brings in a small amount of extra water.

Three weeks is the longest I have ever boon docked at one place and that was for a single time. The more frequent time is about two weeks and even that can be rare.

Electrical... I have 300 watts of solar panels and four 6-volt AGM batteries. This provides all the power I need. The trailer's inverter is a 1250 watt unit. At one time I had a 300 watt inverter that I would plug into the 12 volt outlets. Over time I have used it less and I use the 1250 volt inverter all the time now. The one exception is a 75 watt inverter that is used to power a satellite radio and speakers. The 1250 watt inverter would be overkill for that.

Electrical usage... The usage of electrical varies from day to day. The TV is not turned on every day. When TV (via DirecTV) is watched, it is a minimum of about an hour a day. That can vary depending on PBS offerings or what movies I happen across when surfing the Encore channels. My real addiction is sitting at the computer maintaining web sites, writing, surfing the net or doing some graphics project of photos.

Once again the electrical usage will vary from day to day. Total usage between radio, TV and computer will be about 35 amp hours to a high of 65 amp hours per day. In the middle of January, there is no way to recover the maximum usage with the 300 watts of solar. Since I do not tilt my panels to take full advantage of the low angle of the sun, I do not get the full output of the solar panels during that time. However, by the time March rolls around here in the southwest, it will recover the usage -- assuming there is no cloud cover. For those January days or when there is cloud cover (or parked in forests up north) or when I realize that it will not recover the used electrical storage, I start my Honda 2000 generator to do the bulk charge. With that bulk charge at about eight in the morning and charging to the point where about 20 amp hours remain to be recovered, the solar panels manage to recover the rest by the end of the day.

Batteries... When I first started RVing, I had flooded batteries. It was only a matter of time before I realized, I do not want to be bothered with the maintenance issues of batteries -- making sure they have proper amount of water and that there is no corrosion on the posts and cables. That is when I had AGMs installed. AGMs are a very expensive alternative, but they also address the storage space issue. They can be laid on their side -- no venting required. My Trojan AGMs are also smaller dimensioned. In the space where my four are located (built roomily for four), I could fit six. A RVing friend with an Airstream stored two of his four batteries inside his trailer under the couch.

That is my high level view of water and power while boon docking.

Excellent source for RVing 101... For more information about living on the road in an RV, some of the best and most concise materials regarding value living as a full time RVer and boon docking can be found at: http://www.phrannie.org/phredex.html

Camping or RVing

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:45:20 -0700

When browsing the internet, I found an article that some National Forest campgrounds are being closed due to Federal budget cuts and lack of usage. This really doesn't surprise me. Especially the usage part. Even though I have only traveled full time for just over five years, I have noted in that short period of time in the increase in the size of RVs. 35 feet and larger is the norm and it is not an unusual unit that is 40 feet. Needless to say, that size unit cannot get to those forest campgrounds. Most of those spaces were designed and laid out 30 years ago when people actually went "camping" with tents -- or at most -- a pop up camper tent.

What I find amusing is the number of ads for RVs showing them parked in some pristine and scenic world of trees and mountains next to a river. That ad is all part of marketing and sales. The RVer would be hard pressed to find a location with that scenery to actually park that 40 foot RV that was just purchased. The real world of camp grounds (private or public) are parking lots where your fellow RVer is less than 20 feet away.

When I was working many years ago, one of my clients had said that his "idea of camping was poor room service." That seems to be why the RVs get larger with all the gadgets of home -- including TVs for both inside and outside. You don't have to leave home without it! Consider a 40 foot unit times eight feet wide is 320 square feet. That is before including the three and four slide outs that the unit may have. That is the size of some condo studios.

Where has camping gone. As one drives along freeways and main roads, there are the frequent signs pointing to a campground. The symbol was usually a tent. A few years ago, I had followed one of those symbols to the entrance of an RV park. At the campground entrance was the permanent sign "No Tents". Camping is now an RV!

One more story about the way most people treat camping. When my children were small in the early 1970s, we were camped on the Blue River in Colorado's Summit County. As we were enjoying our evening cookout, an RV was backing into the next space. It was belching the smoke of the diesel engine of that era. Once parked the quiet of the river could be heard once again. The man got out of the RV and walked down to the river with a camera. When he walked back he was calling out to his wife to come out so he could take a photo of her in Colorado. She opened the door to the RV and leaned out and he snapped a photo. I'm not sure that any part of Colorado was in that photo. The door closed and that was the last time we saw either of them.

My point with all this is that I can still get my 24 foot fifth wheel with no slides into most campgrounds. However, there just aren't enough of us little guys using those campgrounds and there are less all the time.

There are more RVers and less campers.

It is time for me to head to the Arizona deserts to put some camping balance into my RVing life.

Solo Travel

nospam@example.com (Lloyd Treichel) — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:31:02 -0700

Solo traveling.... Fortunately, we are all different people. It is a good thing that we are not all full timers -- or solo travelers. Diversity is great.

Perhaps my personality has always been pretty much a loner. That may be congenital, but more likely it was the way I grew up. On the farm with no neighbors with young children, I went on my own journeys. Remember this was before TV. I would go off to the nearby forests or rivers and would explore the natural world.

Once I had the freedom of a car in my late teen years, I found that I wanted to do something different than the crowd once in awhile -- not the same old things every weekend. So I started going my own way. In college, my social life was minimal since I worked my way through college. That probably was a good start in feeling good about enjoying a solo life style.

Just so you don't think I was a misanthrope, I do have friends and acquaintances. My social life can be quite busy at times -- depending where I am parked.

Lonely times .... Sure. There are times that I get lonely and long for some human interaction. ... That happens after a few days of an especially busy social calendar on the RVing circuit. I would have had more lonely times if I had retired to the bricks and mortar home in Denver.

Remember the last time you were traveling and you left your room at the same time another guest had left a room near you. Did you say something to that person. Probably not.

In the RVing world, most everyone will say "Hello" to you in some way. There are sour pusses out there, but you allow them to live their life. There are plenty of others who are willing to chat. Everyone is from someplace else, so a license plate can identify where some one is from. That is the way to start a conversation with anyone. I use it frequently.

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