WE’RE IN QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA

 By Monique & Barry Zander, the Never-Bored RVers  Monday we reset our old analog clock to Mountain Standard Time as we crossed into Arizona on our way to the craziest gathering of RVers on the planet.  We are here to visit the big tent filled with everything RV, plus the never-ending booths displaying gems and minerals.  And, we remember from our last visit that the swapmeet is an adventure all its own. To capture what we experience, I’m going to do this as a journal rather than an article, so you can see what we are seeing through our eyes.  NOTE:  Internet service is bad.  We found the library today and got online.  We’ll have another report tomorrow … I hope!   PART I – ARRIVAL Let’s start with Monday driving in from the west.  The first two days of the RV show had ended, and we passed dozens of RVs of every size and condition heading in the opposite direction.   As we neared the town, we began seeing rigs parked in the desert, scattered at random in proximity to hard roads that come to life each year in January for the RV invasion. Then we began seeing huge RV parks, crowded with rigs parked side-by-side, more densely populated as we approached town.  We were amazed, given all those rigs that we had just passed on their way out of town. On suggestion of veteran show exhibitors Ken and Carole Adams we passed the town, turned back westward and then north and drove five miles to a free BLM miles-long camping area.  We pulled in on a narrow path cleared... Read more

Motorola Droid: Verizon Data Roaming

by Chris Guld We use our Droid cell phones for Internet browsing, email, Facebook, Google Earth, and many other data applications.  We *Love* it!  So we were quite distressed this summer when, in Bowling Green Kentucky, they did not work.  Voice service was fine, but there was simply NO data service.    Kentucky is not a Verizon State We called Verizon and were told, very apologetically that, indeed there was no data service in Bowling Green, Kentucky (and much of Kentucky.)  Luckily there was Wi-Fi in the RV park where we stayed.  From Bowling Green, we went on to Cave City and had the same experience.  In conversations we heard that “Kentucky is not a Verizon state!” But wait!  We met people who had Verizon data cards and they were online just fine.  What the …? We soon moved on from southern Kentucky, and our data service returned to normal thru most of our travels this summer, but that discrepancy kept haunting me.  If data cards could get service, there’s *got* to be a setting somewhere on the Droid to allow access to data service. Data Roaming Setting worked in Washington The next time we experienced the lack of 3G connection was in Mary Hill, Washington.  I talked to someone else in the campground who was using a Verizon Mi-Fi very happily, yet I had no Internet connection on my Droid.  I hunted thru all the settings until I happened upon the ‘Data Roaming’ setting.  Oh – that sounds promising! Turning it on produced a scary “You may... Read more

What Maps are for: Finding Hot Springs!

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com Jim and Chris of Geeks on Tour show you a little about their RVing lifestyle as they share computer tips for travelers. In this episode, we’re coming to you from Saratoga, Wyoming. We talk about how Microsoft Streets & Trips helps us find Hot Springs, and then show you how we connect to the Internet when there is no Verizon service available. Read more  Read More →

See you at The Rally!

We hope to see you all at The Rally in Louisville, KY this week.  We’ll be hanging out in the RV.net booth (#340) much of the time.  Check out this listing of all 278 Vendors and their booth numbers. When we’re not in the booth, it’s probably because we’re presenting one of our 5 seminars: Internet on the Road: Wed 8:30 – 10 Seminar E Every RVer Needs a Blog Thu 8:30 – 10 Seminar C Picasa  Fri 1pm – 2:30 Seminar B GPS & Streets and Trips: Sat 8:30 – 10 Seminar G Photo Story 3 Sun 1pm – 2:30 Seminar E And, we’re not the only ones giving seminars!  Here’s the listing of all the seminars you can attend at the Rally.   Here’s a video with Brian Brawdy from last year’s rally:  Read More →

Gabbing with the Geeks: Connecting to the Internet with Droid

Coming to you from Indiana, Jim and Chris talk about their summer tour of RV Rallies: The Rally – July 21-25 in Louisville, KY Family Motorcoach Ass’n (FMCA) Convention -  August 11 – 14 in Redmond, OR Gypsy Gathering Rally – August 30 – Sept 3 in Elkhart, IN Escapade – September 12 – 17 in Goshen, IN Then they show you how they connect to the Internet by Tethering their Motorola/Verizon Droids. del.icio.us Tags: Droid Tethering,Geeks on Tour  Read More →

Our Satellite Dish: Part III of 3

Any two people who consider it a highlight of life to drink $18.00-a-bottle wine from an empty Pringles canister must be compatible.  So, despite the counseling of her four sons to think twice about marrying me, Monique followed her intuition, which is practically 100 percent reliable. There have been three disruptions in our marriage which we have overcome.  Most recent is  the mistake of trusting the GPS 100 percent.  I finally learned to trust Monique’s navigating more than “Camille’s,” the name we’ve given our GPS. Instead of siding with Camille, I just turn left when Monique directs me to (most of the time, anyway).  That has gone a long way toward keeping us happy during our 24/7 together. A second “disruption” was when I bought a 13×12-foot camp shelter that came in about 30 parts.  We erected it for the first time in Joshua Tree National Park, California, in 108-degree heat.  Those steel poles burned our fingers through the gloves for most of the hour it took to get it up.  I told the store manager when I took that confounded Erector Set back, “Either give me back the money or I’m leaving it here anyway to save the marriage.”  He agreed to the refund and life returned to glorious. And most disruptive:  the internet-TV dish atop our first trailer.  When we left our working lives in Southern California, it was with my employer’s agreement that I would continue working from the road, which required constant internet communications with... Read more

Our Top 10 List: RV-Related Electronics Part II

Yesterday, we mentioned five of our favorite electronic devices that help keep us sane as we live life on the go.  Now to complete our list with the other five: 9. Atomic Clock/Weather Station – A device that deceives us regularly, but we always have an accurate time check, and the little man in our LCD window is cute, even if he’s wearing shorts on cold, rainy days.  We see folks with the complete set-up including wind and rain gauges, but we’re mostly interested in knowing whether to wear short sleeves or a sweater.  As an added weather monitor, we can look up at the skylight to see weather phenomena like sun, rain, ice, snow, etc. [pic] 7. GPS – “Defenestrate: the act of throwing a person or thing out of the window.” Monique spent a year threatening to defenestrate our GPS.  It screws up regularly — like a few days ago when it had us going around a two-block area over and over (that’s the truth!) — it’s maddening, and you and everyone else using one has horror stories to tell.  BUT, when it finds what we are looking for in a strange land, all is forgiven.  GPSs take patience but are probably worth it. 5.  Inverter – Motorhome and other RVs come with these, but I don’t know if it’s common in 5th wheels, trailers and smaller rigs. We bought one on recommendation of our long-haul trucker son; then, I spent almost a year getting up the nerve to attach it to the on-board batteries.  Why did I wait so long? Now, when the campground reg... Read more

Wi-Fi is Like a Box of Chocolates

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksonTour.com Wi-Fi can be the best way to connect on the road: All current laptop computers have the capability to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots Wi-Fi hotspots are easy to find.  Lots of RV parks, cafes, truck stops, and libraries have Wi-Fi hotspots. There’s no contract, it’s pay-as-you-go.  Many hotspots are even free. Some Wi-Fi hotspots are extremely fast. BUT … “You never know what you’re gonna get.” You may get a Great Wi-Fi Hotspot One RV park may have multiple Access Points (the antennas/routers you connect to) and have a full T1 connection to the Internet (a high-capacity, high-speed, direct line thru the phone company.)  In this park, you could be just about anywhere and get a good connection.  When you do, it will be a nice fast web-browsing experience because of the T1. You may get a Poor Wi-Fi Hotspot Your next RV park may be using a residential size satellite dish for their Internet connection and only have one Access Point/Router.  A residential size satellite dish may be a good way for one person to connect to the Internet – but not for dozens of people to share.  And the one Access Point means you need to be close to it – it may only work in the clubhouse. You may even get a Great Hotspot that Turns Bad Lots of things can change or go wrong. You may have a great connection – and then some large RV pulls in next to you and blocks your signal so you can’t connect to the hotspot. Radio Frequency (RF) interference... Read more

Droid watches Traffic

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com:  We were recently at a State Park in Georgia (Fort McAllister – a wonderful park) when a fellow traveler advised us that we might want to avoid I-95 on our way south.  “There is a lot of construction on I-95 between here and Florida”, he said. We heeded his warning, but also have our own reluctance to travel on two lane roads with a lot of stop and go.  So, we decided to check the map on our Droid app phone.  It has a layer you can turn on for Traffic information.  Here’s what we saw: You can click on the picture for a larger image.  The fat green line going vertical is I-95.  If traffic was moving slowly it would be colored yellow or even red.  This is real time traffic data.  We decided to take I-95 after all.  Yes, there was definitely construction going on, but it did not slow down traffic The Droid continues to delight and amaze us.  If you have a Motorola Droid from Verizon, you can see this traffic feature by touching the ‘Map’ app icon (it comes with your phone, it’s Google Maps – all free.)  Once the map is displayed, then touch the menu button on the Droid -    and you’ll see an option for ‘Layers.’  Traffic is one of the layers you can turn on.  Touch it, and you’ll see the green checkmark – and you’ll be back at the map with the traffic data showing up. If you don’t have the Droid, do you use any other traffic data tool?   Chris Guld www.GeeksonTour.com  Read More →

GPS Navigation with Netbooks and Droid

by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com We love GPS systems.  Maybe too much!  All of a sudden we have more GPS navigation devices than coffee cups!  And we can’t decide which one we like best.  So, we’re using them all.  We’ve been using Microsoft Streets and Trips on a laptop since the beginning of our travels in 2003.  Actually, the first 2 years it was Mappoint -  S&T’s big brother – but basically the same thing.  See this previous article about that.  A couple years ago, we got a Garmin Nuvi 255 – a dashboard navigation device.  And just a few months ago we bought our Motorola Droid cell phones which includes GPS and a Navigation application for free.     The photo above is what the cab of our Class-C motorhome looks with all three navigation devices.  It’s tough to get a good photograph of this, but hopefully you got the idea.  What you can’t see is that I am usually sitting in the passenger seat with a large print Road Atlas on my lap to keep me grounded in the midst of all these screens. Laptop GPS Jim always plans our travels using Streets and Trips.  Every route we’ve ever plotted is stored on a S&T file somewhere.  It’s so easy to see the entire route (8,174 miles planned for this summer) or zoom in on one spot.  And, with the Points of Interest megafile, we are assured of finding anything we want like a Thousand Trails park, a Walmart, a Flying J, or a hot springs!  One problem with using a GPS system on your laptop is how... Read more

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