RVIA Expo. Monday Nov. 29
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Greetings to all from Louisville, Kentucky! Linda and I are parked at the Expo center campground. (Under the topic of “name dropping”, we are next door to Bob Tiffin’s son’s motorhome) It is nice to see that at least some of the manufacturers actually “go rv’ing”!
Since the actual show doesn’t start until tomorrow, we went over to the center, registered, and then went on a tour of Louisville, and our main objective was to visit the Louisville Slugger factory and take the factory tour. If you are in the Louisville Ky area, and if you have ANY interest in baseball (and what good American doesn’t?), this is the place to go. The factory, museum, and gift store are all located together, downtown, near the Ohio river. The downtown area is very clean, and parking in this area is plentiful. We parked right across the street from the museum, and of course took the requisite photo of the world’s largest baseball bat.
This is a fun tour, at a reasonable cost which varies from about $8 to $10, depending on your age. In addition to the tour, at the end of the tour, you receive a souvenir mini-baseball bat. The tour is conducted by an employee with stops to see how bats are made from beginning to end, including some of the “special” treatments provided to major league stars like Derek Jeter and Manny Ramierez. I was amazed that they have the entire collection of autographs used to burn the brand onto bats, all the way back to 1903. This is a collection that is priceless and could not be replaced and amazing to see.
All in all, this was a good beginning to our week here in Louisville and we are hoping that the rest of the week is as much fun and as educational. Keep the questions coming in and we will try to get as much information for you as possible.
Larry
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Topic Suggestion — Based on the experience of you & your readers during travels around the 48 contiguous states, what is the best cell phone service network (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) for RVers, 2nd best cell phone service network & 3rd best cell phone service network. As important as ranking the 1st through 3rd choice is the analysis of why is #1 thought best, why is #2 thought 2nd best, etcetara.
We hope to be RVing within a year or so and the question of which cell phone network does best in terms of reception, dropped calls, etcetara when one is visiting the lower 48 comes readily to mind. It may very well be that the “best” in one region of the country is not the best in another region.
We have searched a number of RV user sites to date but have found little to no advice available. Hope that you & your readers can assist in our knowledge quest about cell phone service.
Thanks,
David
In 2004 we traveled around the country with a Coleman Pop-Up, (our first unit) for 12,519 miles in 73 days. We had Verizon cell service and still use it. We are very pleased with its service. Our basic route was from CT. south to RT 40, west to CA.,North to Wa., east on 90, up to U.P. of Michigan, and then home. Hit a number of Great National Parks. Was Great….
Good Luck
I would say to check each carrier’s web site and look at their coverage map, take the time to also zoom in from the national level to local – area’s that looks covered at one zoom level may be at the edge or not covered at the local level view.
I have VZ and have good coverage. Friend’s of ours have AT&T and when standing next to each other I will have full bars and they will have one or two maybe three bars at times if lucky.
The farther you plan to get away from it all the lower the signal reception is going to be. In some area’s you may find your self in a third party network (non VZ, AT&T or Sprint) and will roaming mode and will charged for air time by both your carrier and the third party, a indicator will show on the screen of the phone or will say extended network.
also keep in mind are you going to use your cell for calling only or you planing to tethering off your phone for web use. there may be an additional cost doing this – the carriers are catching on to this type of use.
happy researching
OK, doing the ‘Teddy Tourist’ stuff was fun & all that but reading the questions so far that have been asked of you, sounds like your work now begins. You have a following it appears, that trusts you to get the goods. Because RVing is in my future with my guy, I will file away all pertinent info from your findings. Don’t let us down with your expertise.
David, we also have Verizon, both cell service and our air card. I have been very happy with the coverage and service as we have traveled. Linda is typically able to be online with the aircard whenever we are driving down the road. As suggested elsewhere, it would be a good idea to check out the coverage maps for where you think you will be traveling.
SugarfreeDK, sorry if you didn’t like my baseball travelogue!
I will try to get down to business today. Glad to hear you will be hitting the road soon. Maybe we can camp together sometime.
We have been full timing now for over 12 years. Our cell phone provider is Verizon. (We used AT&T many years ago.) There is no one cell phone that will simply work everywhere! Our experience, however, is that Verizon has the best possible service for those outback locations. We also use a Wilson Amplifier and the large outside “Truckers” antenna for getting a signal in those hard to receive and send areas. Sort of an expensive solution, but we’ve been using it for many years. Do the math! It is a means to an end when it comes to being in the outback that we love and also staying in phone range with those occasional calls that are actually important.
Hope your research proves fruitful for you!
OOPS! I forgot to mention that if you have the Motorola Droid, (with the Verizon service), that you’ll not have to buy nor rent the Air Card…. The Droid will do the job for you if you download the FREE PDANet from the Android market. Works wonderfully!! All the Best to you!
“We live in South Central Wisconsin and have had U.S. Cellular for over 10 years. In that time we have rv’d in every state except one, and have taken 2 trips to Alaska. Our coverage has been way beyond our best hopes. I can think of only a couple of times when we did not have coverage, and those were sort of way off the beaten track. Since I have not had any other coverage I have nothing to compare it to. Our service has been excellent whenever we had a question. I would get it again.
Francis Young
While in Louisville, how about finding a way to express your disapproval of the KY Dept of Revenue’s recent pursuit of RV owners who have used Montana or Florida LLCs to purchase their motor homes. I think that RV organizations should move their business, in the form of conventions, etc, to states that are more RV owner friendly. This initiative by the KY Dept of Revenue will impact many retired RV owners and full timers.
david, the decision to hold the RVIA expo here in Ky. is made by the RV Industry Association
http://www.rvia.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=HomeRVIA
You may want to contact them directly to express your opinion.
Larry
We also use a Wilson Amplifier and the large outside “Truckers” antenna for getting a signal in those hard to receive and send areas. Sort of an expensive solution, but we’ve been using it for many years. Do the math! It is a means to an end when it comes to being in the outback that we love and also staying in phone range with those occasional calls that are actually important.
Hope your research proves fruitful for you!
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