{"id":97,"date":"2017-07-01T22:54:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T22:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2017-07-01T23:06:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T23:06:33","slug":"lazy-day-and-technology-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/01\/lazy-day-and-technology-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazy Day and Technology Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings! \u00a0We arrived in Ft. Nelson, British Columbia, Canada last evening, about 5:00 after driving about 6 hours, and traveling about 300 miles. \u00a0We will be here until Monday morning (today is Saturday, July 1). \u00a0So, since we have some down time, and I have an internet connection (weak and need to reconnect sometimes), I thought it was a good time to give an update.<\/p>\n

We ran into some of the same folks who we met down in Dawson Creek while we were walking around the campground last evening. \u00a0I have a feeling this will happen more and more as we travel up the Alcan…there are only a few routes to travel to Alaska, and not all that many campgrounds along the way, especially if you are traveling in a beastly sized RV like we are :). \u00a0It’s kind of nice seeing someone familiar and trading stories of the day’s drive. \u00a0We learned that many folks saw bears (black and grizzly, including one with cubs) and a moose yesterday on their drive….we saw none! \u00a0And I was watching for animal activity, that is I was when I wasn’t turned around talking to Gerry in the back. \u00a0He continues to do great on the drives, sleeping much of the time and making efficient use of potty breaks when we take them.<\/p>\n

We are at Triple G campground in Ft. Nelson. \u00a0Very nice, they have a restaraunt on site with a patio, and they allow dogs to sit with diners on the patio – a real bonus. \u00a0So we had dinner there last night which was a nice change of pace. \u00a0I haven’t taken any photos of the campground, but will try to and post next time. \u00a0We decided to spend 3 nights here, which will give us 2 full days of non-driving which will be a good break. \u00a0I have a photo below of the lilac bush we saw last evening full of butterflies – the photo doesn’t do it justice, the bush was quivering with butterflies. \u00a0Lilacs, peonies and other spring flowers are in full bloom up here, several weeks after the ones back home finished.<\/p>\n

It’s a rainy day today, gray and drizzling. \u00a0I made pancakes this morning along with a quick syrup I made out of some homemade huckleberry jam we had purchased in Montana – yum! \u00a0Gerry’s first pancakes, and I can \u00a0report he likes them and they will be added to his list of favorites! \u00a0We use our fireplace every morning, it is cozy and warms things up nicely on cool mornings. \u00a0Great to have tea and coffee in front of the fire and Gerry gets in my lap every morning to nap. \u00a0Speaking of naps, Steve is enjoying one right now also! \u00a0I have a pot of soup (vegetable beef) simmering on the stove now, and am doing laundry.<\/p>\n

I also tried to hook up a coax cable this morning, but failed. \u00a0The campground has cable at each site (many do, I have found). \u00a0Since our DirectTV install failed miserably back when we were in Montana, I thought we’d try to hook up to the cable. \u00a0Maybe watch an old movie or something on this nice rainy, relaxing day. \u00a0So we bought a coax cable in the office here and I hooked it up this morning. \u00a0Our TVs are supposed to be already set up for cable, just plug in the coax from the campground and go. \u00a0Nope. \u00a0No go. \u00a0I give up.<\/p>\n

I will spare you all the gory details of the previous failed DirectTV attempt; here’s the cliff notes version: \u00a0we had DirectTV satellite installed on the RV when we purchased it; we purchased 2 DirectTV receiver boxes from an RV supply place; \u00a0I spent 4 hours on the phone with DirectTV one day when we were in Montana to install the receiver boxes (1 for TV in living room and 1 for TV in bedroom); after repeatedly explaining to the young lady on the phone that we do NOT live at the house we used to live in and had a DirectTV account for, and we do NOT have those same receivers any longer since we do NOT live in a house, rather in an RV and have purchased NEW receivers; and she activated the OLD, previous, from our house and already returned via mail back to DirectTV receivers and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working! and I finally got transferred to a “level 2 technician” who straightened that mess out but couldn’t figure out why our NEW receivers in our new RV, connected to our new DirectTV satellite would not work. \u00a0I then spoke to a local RV repair guy who said he quit doing any work on DirectTV set ups because it was impossibly complicated and usually ended with him spending 8 or 10 hours on the project with no favorable outcome. \u00a0And we have learned from other campers that even if you do get it installed (fat chance), you then have to call DirectTV each time you move locations to have them reset the location\/set up. \u00a0Who wants to do that?! \u00a0This is why, I’m sure, that when we mentioned we were having DirectTV satellite installed to the nice neighbors Ray and Cindy at the RV factory in Indiana (remember them?) they looked at us funny and said, “we would never do that, it’s way too complicated”. \u00a0The wisdom you gain from experience…..<\/p>\n

So no TV, which is not a big deal. \u00a0We have managed to watch 2 movies in the month we have been on the road, using Netflix. \u00a0That is until I learned our Verizon mobile wifi (JetPack) UNLIMITED wifi is only unlimited til you hit the limit. \u00a0Yup. \u00a0Spent another 2 hours with Verizon support to figure that out. \u00a0While in the US, you get up to 10 MG per month of 4G (fast) internet. \u00a0When you use up your 10 MG you get “prioritized” – the word they actually used – to 3G. \u00a0Not fast enough to run Netflix or Amazon movies. AND then, when you arrive in Canada, even though you have been assured by the nice Verizon sales person when you purchased your new Verizon JetPack that it works in Canada “just the same as in the US”, you only get 1\/2 of 1 MG of 4G internet per day, then you are “prioritized” to 2G. With 2G you can’t even get Google to come up, and certainly can’t watch Netflix. \u00a0They assure me that when we arrive in Alaska, we will go back to the US system which will work as described above. \u00a0I will belive that when I see it, I’m guessing Alaska will be more of an “extended network” scenario with limited access.<\/p>\n

All of this technology stuff is a huge stretch for me, and I don’t enjoy spending time on it at all. \u00a0I would like to find a technology guru for hire, who understands RVs and how to use mobile technology for RVs, and have them come install\/set up and instruct me on how to operate. \u00a0I am going to search for such a resource for when we arrive in Alaska, I’m thinking Anchorage may have some services, given the popularity of RV travel in Alaska. \u00a0 In the meantime, we will continue to not watch tv or movies, and will limp along with whatever internet we can get, which is okay with us. \u00a0We have actually enjoyed not having TV most of the time, and are reading instead. \u00a0Steve is reading a very large civil war book, “Battle Cry of Freedom” by James M McPherson, and I just finished George Orwell’s “1984”. \u00a0It’s an older book (maybe a classic now?) but I had never read it…very good, a bit scary it is so insightful in how we live and may live in the future….and the role TVs (or telescreens as they are called in the book) play, it may be a good thing ours don’t work! \u00a0I just started another book by Jan Karon, “Come Rain or Come Shine”, the very last book in the beloved Mitford series. \u00a0Many of you have also read the Mitford series, and this is the last book, where Dooley and Lace get married. \u00a0Completely relaxing and a peaceful book.<\/p>\n

So there you have it, that’s what we are up to! \u00a0A few pictures below of the inside of the RV. \u00a0I’ve received requests for pictures of the inside, so I will start with these. \u00a0Sometime later I’ll get pictures of the bedroom and main bathroom area. \u00a0If you’re interested, our RV is a 2017 DRV Mobile Suites model 39DBR S3. \u00a0You can find the floor plan online. \u00a0I’ll share more about the RV in a future post. \u00a0I discovered I can increase the size of the pictures attached to the blog posts – let me know what you think.<\/p>\n

Today is Canada Day, and soon it will be 4th of July. \u00a0Enjoy the holiday, we are fortunate to live in a beautiful country with freedoms and opportunity many can only dream of.<\/p>\n

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Driving up the Alcan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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What did people do before SiriusXM?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Greetings! \u00a0We arrived in Ft. Nelson, British Columbia, Canada last evening, about 5:00 after driving about 6 hours, and traveling about 300 miles. \u00a0We will be here until Monday morning (today is Saturday, July 1). \u00a0So, since we have some down time, and I have an internet connection (weak and need to reconnect sometimes), I … Continue reading Lazy Day and Technology Woes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}