Gertrude Goes Back Online!

I have decided to start fresh with this blog. So having said that, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dorsey. I'm a 40-something wife and mother of two. My husband, Kyle, and I live full-time in our Class A motorhome. We currently travel around the United States collecting memories and friends as we go.

Back in 2014 we were living in a suburb of Dallas, Texas with our son away in the U.S. Navy and our daughter embarking on her senior year of high school. We lived in a 3000 sq. ft. house and were contemplating what our future would look like for us as an empty-nesting couple. We thought maybe we would move into a smaller rent house, apartment, condo, or something similar. A co-worker of Kyle's happened upon a listing on Craigslist for a Class A Motorhome and ask us what we thought of it. I received a message asking if I though I could live in this. Sure! I grew up camping in tents, pop-ups, RVs, and such. Why not?!?! The RV was located in Galveston, Texas so we had a family member that lived in the area check it out for us. We got the thumbs up and started the process of making this our future home. Over the course of a year, we donated or sold a large amount of our belongings and ventured into a life in an RV as our home. Kyle still worked in the area and that particular job was less than remote-friendly. So we moved into an RV park in town and took the occasional trip around Texas and the surrounding states, while dreaming of the day he could work fully remote and we could explore the country from our new home. Our daughter found her footing after high school graduation and started her life as a full-fledged adult living on her own. We were officially empty nesters! To see the full story of how our Motorhome got her name (Gertrude) please refer to this post.

In early 2018, he happened upon a job posting through Facebook by a former co-worker. The position fit him to a "T" and was fully remote! The interview process went great and in April 2018 he accepted a position with the new company and we hit the road! So Monday through Friday, he can usually be found in the front of the RV working away at his "desk" and then we use our evenings and weekends to explore and enjoy the areas where we choose to stay. For our internet connectivity needs, we primarily rely on Starlink. We also use a Verizon and AT&T hotspot when Starlink is less than optimal. 

In 2017, when our son was exiting the Navy, we went on a 2 month road trip to pick him up from Virginia, explore a bit of the East coast, and bring him back to Texas. While planning this trip we found a campground organization called Thousand Trails to aid in our travels. This membership has allowed us access to around 200 campgrounds/RV resorts across the country that we can utilize for up to 3 weeks at a time. I am planning a later post further explaining our membership and the options available to those interested in learning more about this down the road. For most of the year we tend to stay within the system of the Thousand Trails parks we have access to, only occasionally venturing out of the system for a variety of reasons.

Currently we are staying in a park in North Fort Myers, Florida that is part of our membership. Here's a little review of the park. 

Name of Park: Encore Pioneer Village 

Address: 7974 Samville Road, North Fort Myers, FL 33917

Date of first stay: 26 Nov - 3 Dec, 2023

This is a park that is part of our Trails Collection (an add on to the base Thousand Trails membership). There are 505 sites in this year-round park. We are on a FHU (water, electric, and sewer) site that is on grass. We have a concrete patio beside our site and a picnic table, as well. There is more than enough room for the motorhome and our Honda CR-V.  All RV sites in this park are FHU. There are RV sites and manufactured homes (park models) here, no cabins available at this location. There is laundry on-site.They have a pool and hot tub (although sadly the hot tub is currently in disrepair), shuffleboard, pickleball, Petanque courts, and a community room. So far it has been a pretty quiet park. There are many Canadians here for the winter. Grocery stores and Walmart are less than 10 miles away. I would return to this park if we were to stay in the area again.

That's it for now. I'm looking forward to more reviews and sharing our adventures in the future. Be well friends and safe travels!

Gertrude Goes Into Lockdown

 

Since February of 2020 our lives on the road traveling have looked VERY different. That month we traveled from Florida back to College Station, TX. Our son was living there and we wanted to help him out with some furniture projects in his RV, as well as take care of some more of our own renovations. We made the long journey over two days. We arrived and quickly got to work. Our original intention was to stay until Mother's Day weekend when my family had an annual camping trip at a lake nearby. This was going to be a longer time in a campground than we'd become accustomed to, but we had an end date and were looking forward to all the progress that could be made in the 3 months we were to be stationary.

We were progressing along quite well when the country, and the whole world, shut down. Stay in place orders were being sent out all over and campgrounds were shutting down and canceling reservations throughout the country. It started with school spring breaks being extended by a week and people trying to be a little more conscious of gathering in groups and such. As the weeks continued, schools went 100% online and stores began having abbreviated hours to try and give opportunities to restock. Then masks were bring required and/or suggested in many of the shopping establishments. And let's not even TALK about the whole toilet paper debacle! Suddenly we were told we COULDN'T travel. We were still a couple of months away from our exit date, but now we craved travel even more. Strange how when you're suddenly told you can't do something, you want it even more. Local lakes closed and Thousand Trails denied any day use of their facilities. This was a major downer as now I had nowhere to get out and kayak like I'd looked forward to when we planned on being in the area.

We did make a few day trips while in lockdown, mostly cooked at home but got carry-out about once a week from a local establishment. We tried to limit large gatherings of people and did our best to stave off the mania that feeling cooped up seemed to bring about in all of us. We had a few times where we wondered if we'd been infected with COVID-19, but did our best to self quarantine and be safe. We had family members that did test positive and others that told everyone to stay away until we knew it was safe to visit with them again, as they were in a higher risk category. 

Our summer 2020 plans to travel the Great Lakes area was looking bleak. The heat was rising in central Texas and becoming a miserable working environment for my hubby. We started hearing some encouraging news that campgrounds were going to start opening again in June, so we began the travel planning process again. There was a lot of nervous energy and a few frustrated hours spent online/on the phone making reservations in our desired campgrounds. But in the end, we were able to book all of our desired locations and our trek to the Midwest began May 31st. 

We have been enjoying our travels once again, albeit a little different as many of our favorite activities are not accessible in these current times. We haven't been to a movie since January 2020 in Florida, not that there has been anything released or available. We don't dine out as often as we did, in general, as many restaurants are still maintaining carry-out only or have not been able to stay open in these times. 

We have our masks and we wear them when shopping or out in public, but have missed a lot of the social opportunities in the parks. I will do my best to put up a few reviews of campgrounds we have visited in our time in the Midwest as well as tell you about some of the upgrades that have been done to Gertrude recently.

Be well and stay safe friends! 

Gertrude Goes "On the Line"

Howdy All!

This is Kyle posting for Dorsey.  One of the things that draws attention to us when we are parked is this telescoping pole with some wires running to gadgets at the top of the pole. 

One of us will be sitting outside or I'll be sitting with my office window open and someone will walk by and ask, "Hey!  What's that thing at the end of the pole up there?  Does it get better wi-fi or something?"  In a word, yes.  The why and how are a strategy I've developed to help me stay connected to the internet where ever we go to protect our income stream.  My job...

If you look real close at that pole, you'll notice two items mounted near the top.  The larger more obvious one that looks like kind of like a triangle is called a yagi antenna.  The second smaller one shaped like a rectangle and aligned with the side of the pole is a Ubiquity Nanostation M2 Loco Wireless Access Point.  Together they form two parts of my strategy to "stay connected."

Internet via Cell Service

It's a well accepted fact that unlimited cellular data service is the most often means of accessing the internet.  Certainly, this is our standby to ensure some sort of connectivity is always available to us.  We've gone as far as even using two different carriers.  Dorsey uses Verizon Wireless and I use AT&T.  We've been in more than one situation where we have great VzW access but no AT&T AND where we have NO VzW access and great AT&T.  Cell phone towers are spread throughout the states and both carriers don't always lease from the same towers.  That means inconsistent service.  In some situations we might have service from both carriers but it's weak or spotty.

To help overcome that issue of a weak signal that can make work frustrating at best, we decided to invest in the Wilson Electronics Weboost Connect RV65.

https://www.weboost.com/products/connect-rv-65

This product comes with the mast, yagi antenna, signal booster, internal antenna for the boosted signal and the cabling to connect it all together.  The way I have it all arranged, the mast and yagi antenna are in the rear of the RV and I've installed cabling to bring that antenna signal into the front of the RV and wired into the powered signal booster.  The output of that device then is fed into the internal antenna that provides the amplified signal to the front of the RV where my office resides.  In that part of the RV we can have a boosted cell signal for any US Wireless carrier signal.  Cell phones and hot-spots will have their signal boosted by at least 2 bars.  All of this depends of course on the presence of any signal from a cell tower for your carrier and the fact that the directional yagi antenna that is outside the RV is pointed to a cell tower where the signal is that you want to boost.  

That investment forms the basis of my work from home strategy.

Leveraging the Availability of Park Internet 

If you look at any "unlimited cellular data plan" they all still have a limit.  For example, our "unlimited" VzW data plan includes 15GB of LTE data.  After that 15GB, you are throttled back to 3G data.  The 3G service is consistent providing 300Kbps-600Kbps of throughput but it's nothing near as fast as LTE which I've seen provide 100Mbps or better in some circumstances.

Since our fast internet is indeed limited to some arbitrary value per month, we like to limit its use when we have a choice.  For that reason, if we are staying in a park that has free or pay for wi-fi, we prefer to leverage that option when possible.  Part of that challenge, however, is how well the park offers that service to the entire park...

Because the spread of the wifi signal can be uneven, I employ some technology to boost that signal as well.  To boost that signal I followed the advice I found from the "Out of Our Bubble" blog post about the Ubiquity M2 Loco antenna.

https://outsideourbubble.com/build-a-private-rv-wi-fi-system-for-under-100/

The system I employed was from their original 2014 post, but it's basically the same as their current posting.  I picked this system as I agreed with everything in that blog post and it made sense to me.  The basic gist here is that the Ubiquity Nanostation M2 Loco Wireless Access Point is used by many parks we stay at as a commercial solution.  It's built for outdoor use and can be mounted on an mast/pole to overcome the interference you'll get if the antenna/access point is down between other rigs which will do a great job of blocking your wi-fi signal.  

To get it to work, you have an indoor wi-fi signal (much the same as the RV65 mentioned above) that you can hook your computer, cell phone, ipad to and an external antenna that picks up the park signal and feeds into your internal antenna.  It is also directional (if an antenna is directional it is better able to pick up on and amplify your signal than an omni-directional) and so needs to be pointed to the source you want to get hooked up to.  

Typically the strongest and best wi-fi is the coming from the office.  This is because the internet is typically wired up to that point and the access point at the office is generally wired directly into the router that is hooked up to the internet.  When you point your M2 loco at the office you're able to get your best source.

Pointing Two Directional Antennas

Since I have two directional antennas to manage it makes setup take a little bit longer.  What I usually to is get onto a website like https://www.cellmapper.net/ and find the nearest cell tower to where I am on the map.  I'll then point my yagi cell booster antenna at that location.  Next I'll adjust my Ubiquity M2 loco at the park office and raise my mast.  Once it's up there, the cell booster automatically picks up on all the cell signals and boosts them to your interior antenna.

To get the Ubiquity Access Point to pick up on the park wi-fi takes a bit of management.  Since "Out of our Bubble" already explains that process I suggest you follow their instructions:

https://outsideourbubble.com/build-a-private-rv-wi-fi-system-for-under-100/

If you have any questions or suggestions on how we might improve this blog, leave a comment!

Gertrude Goes Nautical

Alright...don't get too excited. We haven't converted Gertrude to a houseboat. Ha! But she did come into the decision process on a purchase....of a kayak.

Last year some time, we started thinking about exercise once again. Kyle loves to hike about, as well as ride bikes. I enjoy riding bikes, but also feel a draw to the water. I don't enjoy walking/hiking as much (in large part due to my weaker knees and generally being out of shape). So we thought about kayaking. This would be a great way to take the pressure, literally, off of my knees and still get some great exercise in! Another thing we noticed was all the Thousand Trails parks we were frequenting had some sort of a water feature on the property, or very nearby (a lake, river, pond, etc...), so having a kayak made perfect sense to us.

Next step, I started my research. I found that due to my current weight I needed at least a 12 ft kayak. There were a lot of options out there at various price points. Then we started figuring in storage and transportation of the kayak. We have an SUV and we would need to order luggage racks and "J" racks to transport it on top of the car. So now we were up to around $700 for the whole thing (kayak and transporting needs). We were having lunch at  a cafe in one of the parks when we struck up a conversation with a man about the subject. He suggested we look into an inflatable. I didn't realize such a thing even existed. I went home and started searching. I found several options at all different price points. I was hesitant to get one from Walmart or such, as I didn't have a lot of faith in their lasting that long for me. 

I went to YouTube and found a couple that people were calling "top of the line" in easy to transport kayaks. There was the Oru Origami folding kayak that REALLY intrigued us!

The bad thing about this was the price point...$1,599.00 USD!! And I wouldn't have a paddle or life jacket yet. So I kept searching, and found Advanced Elements. They had LOTS of options and priced ranged from $399 to $1,099. 

That priced did not include the pump, PFD (life jacket), or paddle, but I felt we might be on the right path. The weight limits were comparable to hard shell kayaks. And being that I was interested in something that would accommodate me and possible some gear and such, I went with looking at the bottom three kayaks on the list above. 

I watched videos about stability, set up, portability, and just general reviews. Everything seemed to be great! So we weren't really interested in a tandem (2 person) kayak at this time. We figured when we both want to go out, Kyle would just rent from a local place since he wouldn't have as many opportunities as I would due to still working M-F. We went to Amazon and found the Advanced Elements Expedition Elite kayak for about $700. We added an Advanced Elements paddle and their pump, as well as an Onyx MoveVent PFD. 

Altogether, this added up to about $900. I'd be ready to go out on the water when it got delivered! Yay!! We were in Texas at the time and I got everything delivered over the course of a week. We set out to the lake at the campground we were in at the time. I got it out of the back of the car, packed it to the lake, read the instructions on inflation, and got it all set up. Then onto the water! **Keep in mind I'd always been enamored with the idea of kayaking, but never actually done it myself. And it was December. Granted, it was December in Central Texas, but the water would still be cold if I fell in.**

Below are some pics of that first experience.

I was dressed in layers to be warm enough. I was nervous about being "tippy", but found that it was INCREDIBLY stable. I had watched videos of people who regularly do whitewater kayaking and they know how to "roll" a kayak. They had intentionally tried to do that in this model and found it REALLY difficult to do. I stayed out for about an hour and a half that first day and LOVED it. I really wished I had discovered this much earlier in life. I was hooked! And for the record, i stayed almost completely dry the whole time. The most I got wet is up to my ankles, and that happened when I was getting out of the kayak.

Since we have gotten it, I've been out on lakes, ponds, rivers, bays, and even in the ocean! I'm looking forward to taking it out in the Florida Keys this winter. I have been asked by several people about this kayak when I'm out on the water. Until people get up close, a lot of them don't know it is even an inflatable. I have learned on my own, through videos and practice, how to maneuver and paddle. It tracks REALLY well and I don't feel as affected by wind as I thought I would. When we went out with sea kayaks, I had to work a little harder than I had previously, but still handled really well. I'm ending this post with photos from many of the places I've taken the S.S. Minnow (the name I gave it). Kyle thinks eventually he'll get one also, but for now we just enjoy mine.

I would absolutely recommend this kayak to anyone out there looking for a great craft that is tops in portability! It lives in the back of our SUV, always ready to go out on the water! :)

Patten Pond in Ellsworth, Maine

Leonard's Pond in Rochester, Massachusetts

Green River - Kentucky

Green River - Kentucky

Homosassa Springs - Florida

Homosassa Springs - Florida

Ready to go in Contoocook, New Hampshire

Lee County Manatee Park - Florida

Contoocook, New Hampshire

Onset Beach - Wareham, Massachusetts

Patten Pond - Ellsworth, Maine

Sarasota Bay, Florida

Stone Mountain, Georgia

Lake Whitney, Texas

Fort Gorges - Portland, Maine

Fort Gorges - Portland, Maine

Gertrude Goes to New Hampshire

Name of Campground: Sandy Beach Family Campground
Date of first visit: July 2019
Length of stay: 2 weeks
Location: Contoocook, NH (just outside of Concord)

On our venture Northward, we decided to make a stop in New Hampshire for a couple of weeks. The path to the campground was alright overall. It took us about 2 hours to traverse between parks, most of that on a proper highway. Our GPS tried to take us over a small (9 ft clearance) covered bridge, but a quick call to the campground helped us avoid this minor problem.

There was a small grocery store about 5 miles away in the small town of Hopkinton, nestled along a very picturesque river. There was a nice post office just up the road in Contoocook. Walmart was a little further drive (maybe 30 minutes) in Concord.

The park itself was set up rather uniquely, but it was a wonderful place to sit outside and enjoy the surroundings. We happened upon a 50 Amp FHU site with plenty of room to spread out and feel comfortable. The park had pay for WiFi, but it was spotty at times, so we raised the cell extender in an effort to hedge our bet on coverage a bit. There was a great little pond on the property where I regularly enjoyed kayaking. here was no parking near the places to put the kayak in, but it wasn't a far walk to get there. (And the new addition of a cart for my kayak made the transition even easier!) 

The park doesn't have a pool, but they have a wonderful beach area and swimming in the pond is a favorite activity for those here. We purchased firewood from the park and had more than enough for a fire on multiple nights, as well as some smores (I admit I had trouble keeping mine from being messy).

We met some friends we'd made earlier at a meadery (Moonlight Meadery) in a town about an hour and a half away for a tour and tasting. Kyle had learned of them at the Homebrew Convention in Rhode Island and we were thrilled to be fairly close to their facility. We spent a bit on several meads and then went into town for a nice dinner. Touring was quite wonderful in the area! We went to Mount Washington and rode the train up to the top with my husband's stepmother one day. On our way to the rail station, we went by the Old Man in the Mountain and toured about there. After our train ride, we enjoyed lunch at a great little place at the base of the mountain and then went out to the Trapp Family Lodge as well as the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream facility.

Being so close to Concord, we decided to go out to New Hampshire's capitol and then venture over to Vermont to check out Montpelier. Both had beautiful capitol squares that felt reminiscent of small town Texas for us. 

After our two weeks here, we left and ventured onto our next location in Maine. 

Below are some of the pictures from our time in the area.

Concord

Concord

Covered bridge in Hopkinton

Montpelier Capitol building

Train at Mount Washington

Top of Mount Washington

Kayak launch spot at Sandy Beach Campground

Gertrude all tucking in to her spot at Sandy Beach

Swimming area at Sandy Beach

Great time kayaking!

S'mores can be so messy!

Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont

Gertrude Goes to Massachusetts

I've decided to deviate from my original plan of just going in order of the parks we've visited and jump to more present day adventures. 

First time visiting: June-July 2019
Length of stay: 3 weeks
Name of park: Gateway to Cape Cod RV Campground (Thousand Trails Park)
Location: Rochester, MA

We've recently come from three weeks in Eastern Massachusetts. We haven't stayed this long in one Thousand Trails park since our journeys began, but due to some other events happening we decided to this time. 

When we first headed there, out GPS took us through Vermont into a route that Kyle wished we'd not chosen. There were a lot of climbs and Gertrude was yelling at us on more than one occasion as she charged up the hills/mountains. He would give me a look (at more than one point) as we passed the entrance or sign for a ski lodge in the area. Eventually we arrived at the campground. They are surrounded by multiple cranberry bogs in the area (something we had never seen in real life before). There had been quite a bit of rain in the area over the previous few days so there was quite a bit of puddling throughout he campground. We were directed to a FHU site that would accommodate Gertrude and told if we weren't satisfied we were free to move  to a different site the next day. We decided the site suited us quite well and that is where we stayed put for the duration of our time there. It is pretty much a sandy campground overall, with some nice tree coverage. The roads aren't too difficult to navigate. The area we were in was mostly pull-through sites and from what I recall was fairly level. We were at the end of a row and the drainage seemed to be great for our site! Others weren't so lucky in other areas of our same section. We were fairly close to the main activity center, pool, laundry, on-site store, and an on-site snack shack (Admiral Snack Bar). There was a small pond on the other end of the park that I was informed is fed by the cranberry bogs in the area mostly. It wasn't suitable for swimming at all, but was alright for kayaking and I'm told is nice for fishing.

The first night we decided to try out a little snack shack we'd heard about just up the road from the campground called The Robins Nest. We shared a seafood platter that had a cod filet, shrimp, scallops, and clams (all lightly fried) on a bed of french fries served with a small helping of coleslaw, tarter sauce, and cocktail sauce. It was plenty of food for the both of us and VERY reasonably priced! They also had 84 flavors of frozen treats to choose from, but we didn't try that out THAT night. So if you are in the area, I HIGHLY recommend stopping by!

We settled back in and started our lengthy stay. We figured since we were going to be there for longer, we'd set up the hammock and make ourselves truly at home. We posted on FB that we'd be here and another member in the campground stopped by and invited me to join a FB group for connecting with friends in the Thousand Trails campgrounds. She and he husband were going to be playing cards later in the week and invited us to join them. Kyle was headed off to a Homebrew Convention in Rhode Island with his brother the latter part of the week, but I was all in for games! 

While he was away learning all about brews and such with his brother, I was meeting new friends and taking the kayak out on the small pond in the area. We met another couple the evening he returned and I ended up going out during the week and kayaking with them at a nearby beach. We also got to babysit their sweet pup while they went out adventuring since Kyle was going to be home working anyway. We ended up playing games with them on a couple of different nights also and adding to our growing list of traveling friends!

We were there for the 4th of July and ended up booking a whale watching trip with fireworks in the harbor upon the return in Provincetown (P-town), MA. That next weekend we found a close by town with a ~4 mile bike path to ride (Phoenix Bike Trail in Fairhaven, MA). It wasn't a particularly easy path, but not TOO bad, and I managed to finish the whole trip (little did I know what I was in for in another couple of weeks...ha!). That day I ended up riding for 10 miles total. We finished up that weekend by just going to drive around Newport, RI and to a casino in Connecticut our friends had recommended. 

The next week we had more friends arriving that we'd met in previous campgrounds that we were looking forward to connecting with again. We got together with both of the other couples and taught them to play Hand & Foot. After one night of playing we ended up coming to the rescue of a mother and son who had accidentally been locked out of their camper. With some quick thinking we managed to help them get back in without her husband having to drive ~2 hours to bring the spare key from home. We also got another opportunity to do some dog sitting for some friends while they ventured off during the week. This kind of helps to cure our craving for a furry companion of our own and we just liked having a pup around to play with and tend to for the day. 

The last weekend we were there we decided to make the trek out to Martha's Vineyard and take our bikes onto the ferry. We got there in the morning and saw two other cars being turned away from the parking lot. To our surprise the gentleman told us if we were taking bikes, to go on in! We could either take the bike path to the ferry (~4 miles) or get on a bike bus (bike rack on the front of the bus) to get to the ferry. We decided to mount up and ride down there. After all, I'd done 10 miles the weekend before, this would be a snap! It was a wonderful path that was very well shielded from traffic and not too busy. We got to the ferry, bought our tickets, and boarded the ferry to the island. We got there and scouted out a popular path that took us along a beach area. There was some areas that were heavily trafficked with cares, but mostly nice bike paths of the main roadway. I was given a few opportunities to turn back and wait in a populated area for Kyle to finish biking and return to me, but I pressed on. I took quite a few "rests" and walked the bike up several hills that I encountered, but I never fully gave up! And by the end of the day, we'd biked 24.71 MILES over 2.5 hours total time riding!! The next day was moving day and so we came home, went for a dip in the pool, I did some laundry, and we called it a night. We weren't just overly impressed with Martha's Vineyard overall, really. We can say we've been, but mostly it provided an interesting place to bike around. (Truthfully, we felt we could have found a similar experience in another town without having to pay $25/person to take us and our bikes on a ferry to an island.)

Overall I really enjoyed this campground. It was close to several areas to explore. We would definitely stay here again, if we were to be in the area again. It was quite a drive to get out to Cape Cod proper, but that is mostly due to congestion on the bridge going to the Cape. Even that though, was doable overall. We had our fair share of seafood and even stopped at The Robins Nest on more than one occasion for ice cream or an easy meal. 

Below are several pictures from our stay and our adventures...

Kyle, Steve, Jimmy, Christine, Dorsey, & Darla playing Hand & Foot 

We DID it! Fairhaven bike trip!

Gertrude at Gateway to Cape Cod RV Campground

The entrance to the campground

Jackson, our 2nd houseguest that we dogsat

Kayaking on Leonard's Pond at the campground

Over halfway through the Martha's Vineyard bike ride

Kayaking at Onset Beach in Wareham, MA

Waiting in line to board our whale watching adventure

Thar she blows!! A mother and son humpback whale feeding in the harbor