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!