Tuesday May 11

Hunkering down from the wind.

Still at Cottonwood campground at Navajo Dam NM state park. Tuesday the wind has come up with dust storms and very low visibility. 
Weather Alerts claim gusts to 55 mph. Not a day to be on the road so Monday we signed up for a couple more days.
We do plan to hit the road on Wednesday and head east. 

I did a post on RV.NET ... OK my current plan is to go from Farmington on US 64 and then go up US 84 to Pagosa Springs and next on US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass to Alamosa.
OR stay on US 64 and go north at Teres Piedras (west of Taos) and go north on US 285 to Alamosa. 
Which would you take.May 11
First reply was...  IMHO, easiest route would be to stay on US 64 to Chama, then take State Route 17 north into Colorado to Antonito and then US 285 to Alamosa.

So I got to thinking about it and Route 17 it is.

We have driven it before without pulling the 5er when camped in Chama on a day trip. It has some big switchbacks but I would rather take switchbacks slow than long straight downgrades. On Switchbacks I can go real slow. 

As for today we went to Bloomfield to do laundry (it has been awhile) needed propane and to gas up for tomorrow.
We had gone to this one before.  One of the largest and cleanest anywhere. 

Terry was being funny and refused to smile or look at me for the picture.  I was giving him guff as this was the very same pump he had trouble making work years ago. He said my card doesn't work and that I would have to take it inside. I said do I have to get out and show you... just flip it over and it will work, just like last time. It worked this time and he didn't like. 

Next Terry story of the day was after we got back to the campground. We discovered Terry left our jeans and towels in a dryer. I was playing with my new Droid and hadn't paid any attention. Terry right now is on his way back to get our stuff.  This is a 25 mile one way drive from Bloomfield to Navajo Dam. I called, they were still in the dryer, and they will hold them. I even got a low cell signal to make that call.  So Terry with tail dragging went on on his way back to get our clothes. It will be OK as he doesn't have to cook tonight as he is going to pick up a couple of KFC dinners. 

Oh and if you are in Bloomfield, NM and need propane it is only available at Desert Rose RV park (east of the high school by several blocks), But be aware they are only open form 9 to 1 and 4 to 6. But the price was right @20 for 7 gal. We had to go back after we had done the laundry don't ya know. 
 

More about connecting to the world while on the road. 

I did a post on  forum in the Technology Corner section where the topic was  Air Card vs MIFI 
The links lead to Wikipedia Encyclopedia to explain what each is about. 

My Post... 

Let's expand on the possibilities... 

I travel fulltime and have a Hughes (Datastorm) satellite on the roof of my RV. Goes up and finds the satellites all by itself. Have a LNB attachment so I can get HD DirecTV off the same dish. I get 350M rolling usge in 24 hours. (If I use some bandwidth and come back later I'm back up to full availability again) Look at it as if the usage bucket is constantly filing as I use from it. That is way more than double the 5G you get a month from wireless air card. It costs $79.95 I get unlimited downloads for 4 hours late at night to download anything I want. Movies etc. Can set up auto download program to do this. AND I don't need a wireless signal in the outback camping just open sky. This is a must for me. 
Just did a download test at testmy.net and got 780Kps. down. I can go up to 1 M. Sure sometimes it can get slow.

NOW I just got a new Droid Incredible smart phone with unlimited data (internet access) costs $30 a month above my old cell phone cost. BUT I can teather it to my laptop or desktop and use it (unlimited) if I'm parked under under a tree. And if no cell service I can still go WiFi off my dish with the Droid.

So the bottom line is by upgrading my Verizon cell service to a smart phone and paying $30 more a month I get unlimited 3G service) for my smart phone and if needed laptop or desktop. 
My Verizon cell service lists my service as email and unlimited internet access for $29.95. 

So why get a USB air card or Verizon Broadband Access Connect when you can a smart phone and teather it to your computer for 1/2 price. Now sure if you only want to turn the Verizon Broadband Access Connect
on and off when needed it could be cheaper for you. 

Just wanted to share the options out there.
But the deciding factor for me was the unlimited data (internet) for $30. Not the usual $60 for just 5G of bandwidth. 

A reply on the forum was...

I have both a Verizon Air Card and a DROID. I just spent a week in a marginal reception area, where I tested the Droid against the Air Card connected to an external Wilson Antenna.

Results

Signal strength:
Tethered DROID with a 10 foot USB extension cable, placed to get best reception. The DROID always matched the Air card with an external antenna.

Speed Test:
DROID was alway faster then the Air Card

Now that's the kind of news I like to hear about my just purchased "Big Boy Toy"

I will try to get back to life in a campground on Sunday as we watch the weekenders pack up and move out. They are having fun and good for them. We just stay out of their way knowing we will have all this to oursleves on Monday. 

Parting shot... Terry playing pyro yesterday... We did sit out and have a nice fire. 

So today with one of my new Weather Apps. I get an Alert about a Fire Warning for northern NM on Monday as low humidity of under 15% and 20 mph  winds could make for possibe fire events. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on Terry. 
 

Slugs of the blogging world.

Look at the date... and no posts. What is wrong with us?
What is wrong is we are in vacation mode, not traveling each day but having fun in a real campground not in a RV park. Just enjoying being in San Jaun River territory in the high county of NM. The weather has warmed up, still a bit breezy, but not bad. We are expecting the campground to fill fast today for the weekend. Makes for good people watching, me thinks. It was slow during the week. But then it will be crowded for fishing.
Terry went fishing a couple days and caught good sized trout... He never comes back with pictures. He sez how do you take a picture when standing in the middle of the river holding a pole and a fish. And since he is a catch and release kind of guy he doesn't bring them home either. 
I got off my butt and got on the phone (we are getting cell service on the low end if you stand on your head on the picnic table) and called NuWa in Chanute, KS.  We have a screw starting to work its way up in the kitchen floor and if not corrected it will pop through the linoleum flooring. This is the second one that has done this. They have to drop the underbelly and drill out the screw and fill the hole with liquid nail. Not a big deal but it needs to be done. 
So I called and Darrel in NuWa service and said he just had a cancellation and the date he offered was perfect. May 20th right on our schedule. I need the rear axle on the trailer aligned as both rear tires are starting to wear a little more on the inside edge. So he hooks my up with the large Ford truck dealer in Chanute that can do that for us. They are right across the street from the free city RV park where you can stay when getting work done on you trailer at NuWa. This is going to work out, if I'm not careful and screw it up somehow.  It is always a pleasure talking to the people at the NuWa Hitchhiker factory. They don't look at it as... What do I need from them, But how can they help us! It comes across on the phone and when you hang up you have a smile on your face.
Anyway that's all set up. I was putting off calling, as I didn't know our travel time frame and I hate to be on a schedule and HAVE to be somewhere on a certain date. But this is OK. 

Took the truck in for service on Wednesday at High Country Chevy in Axtc, NM. Oil change, that kind of stuff. Another place with great customer service. But before our appointment there, we heading down to Farmington, NM to Best Buy. 

You must know that means it's time for a "Big boys and their Toys" buying event. 

I had called ahead the day before and they had what I wanted in stock. If bought online wouldn't ship tile after mid month. And in my cae to where? Did my research online and knew what I wanted. I had been putting this off as in telling myself... You don't need one. But this just came out and I deserve it, Don't Ya Know. What the mind wont do... 

A new cell phone... Not just any cell phone like I have now, a Droid Incredible. That's it name Incredible.

I had looked at the orig. Droid only online, not in person, when they first came out, but now with this latest just released marvel I was hooked. 
So now the real reason no posts. I have been busy learning how to use it. This is a whole other encounter with a FRED. 
Playing with this is, would believe more fun than blogging. 

With built in GPS it knows where we are so we can get the latest weather and radar when on the road.
Maps and navigation unbelievable. Just say what you are looking for and it brings up maps in the area with, like campgrounds etc. with ratings and links to their web site. Bing a bang. OOPS now that's a Microsoft thing isn't it. Stop that talk, since this is a Google based machine. 
With the NPR app. and GPS it can find the local station and brings up the feed to that one with just a couple of clicks. With the Pandora app or built in FM radio I can plug in my FM wireless transmitter and not have to use head phones. Droid uses the mini plug headset cable as antenna for FM use.The FM transmitter below works fine as antenna. Or for big sound use the mini out to the mini input of my big portable XM radio boombox. Come to think about it why would I still want XM radio. I have been on special $5  a month rate for years with XM. I love getting NPR on the Droid. XM just doesn't have the NPR news programs. We can't get NPR FM broadcast stations many places we camp.

The built in Droid speaker is more than loud enough to lay in bed in the morning and lsiten to the NPR app on its own. 
Has removable battery, and micro SDHC slot. I got a 4G card but it can take 16G.

The new Droid has POP3 email so I can use any of my hosting servers emails and and not just Gmail or Exchange.
Internet access (unlimited 3G data) for $30. I know I already have satellite internet in the RV but now if we park under a tree I can teather the Droid to my netbook or desktop and be online. Or it can use my WiFi if we are out of cell range. 
I like switching the Droid to WiFi so I can by bringing up in the browser the local IP addresses of my satellite dish controller and wireless router. I can fine point the DataStorm Hughes satellite dish on top of the RV via the smart phone to adjust the DirecTV LNB  receive levels. The DirecTV LNB is also mounted on the internet dish. Cool me thinks. 

The wired thing is done in the canyon in this campground I get only extended cell service (if that) but do get Verizon 1X or 3G data service. I thought I would be stuck just looking a the smart phone or burning my WiFi bandwidth on it out here, but I can actually use it on the 3G network with unlimited usage. I love that.
I had orig. thought a while back of getting a iPod and using it over my WiFi. Boy am I gald I waited. This is a whole lot different than my first Commadore 64 computer of so many years ago. Both were just as exciting in ther own time. 

You did have one of these didn't you? Remember the big floppy drive that was in short supply do to demand. 
Or using a tape recorder to input code. This was cutting edge. 

Anyway might have a little campfire later after Terry comes back from fly fishing. Think it's cheep steak and corn on the cob done on the grill for supper later.  Bill Maher on HBO after that. Just ruffling it in the outback of northern NM. 

 
 

Getting ready for next week.

We went for a day trip around the area and drove through the campground. It's Sunday afternoon and the weekenders were packing up and leaving.  For fulltimers that's the time to loop the campground and gather up the left behind firewood don't ya know. You have never done that, right?

The weather is to clear up and be nice next week so we plan on having several campfires. 
So extra firewood will be welcome and used. 

Later on a side channel of the San Jaun river we spotted this heron. Cool.

Each doing our  own thing.

Terry went to Ab's Motel and Fly Shop on Friday afternoon to get the fishing report and a fishing lic. 
The Lic. was $61 for a year for a NM for non-resident. $30 for resident both include all the stamps.

He later checked out the river and said the hatch was a late one each day so he would not have to get up early on Saturday to go fishing. And you think I believed him? He did do his thing about 12:30 PM and returned about 3 or so. As he came in he stated that he now remembers why he doesn't go fishing on weekends. When he got to his favorite spot he was the second one there but when he left, there were 12 cars in the lot at Simon Canyon center top in the picture.

The NM State Parks Cottonwood campground is center left in the above graphic. 

(File photo from Ab's web site)

Meanwhile I did my thing that I had been putting off. I went through and screened the pending blog listings for ww.hitchitch.com and added only six new ones. Getting more fussy in my selections. Have a few left over I'm still thinking about. Still have to weed out the older ones already listed that are not being updated. Then wait for the emails complaining that you removed my site. Me thinks, if you don't post you lose.

The campground is busy and some are outside with kids running around. They must be locals who think this is warm weather after their cold winter. For us 55 ° is still not sitting outside weather. Wonder if we are spoiled, NAH... When they have to go back to work next week it is to warm up to the mid 70s. My kind of weather. Sorry for them who will miss it. 
 
 

Move day in-between wind storms. 

When we go up at Lone Rock rec area at Glen Canyon it was cold. Ya the wind was a cold front that moved in.  We got going and it was not that hard a deal as we were still hooked up. Truck to 5er. Off we went and drove and drove. We blew by Monument Valley thinking have done that so next time maybe. It was cloudy and windy still (mostly a tail wind) (we could see the sand drifts across the road from yesterday) and a spit of snow at times and the temp readout in the truck rear view mirror was reading about 44 outside. We thought we should get to Navajo Dam today as if we got there on Friday we might not get a campsite.

It was a long day and we lost an hour when crossing over into NM.  We got to NM Navajo Dam State Park, Cottonwood campground after stopping at the Farmers Market in Bloomfield. A great food store with great prices. When in the area we always stop there. 

As we drove the loop most of the sites were taken and I knew of only a couple that we could get satellite service out of as we have stayed here many times.  I thought I saw as we entered a couple of end sites that were open. So when we got back around the loop. we found site #2 open. The site I remembered would work for satellite service. The last site that was a non reservation site available, and it was open, just for us. The best site me thinks and we can have it for 21 days if we so desire. 

 (I drive and Terry backs) so I waved my arms and got him into the site. He drives me nuts as he backs at a snails pace.  We used to use two way radios but gave up on that. Just stay so he can see me in the rear view mirror and do hand signals. Before we unhooked, leveled, or put out the slides we deployed the dish to make sure it could get access. It worked... after a second deploy through a small tree and we moved a couple of feet forward for better line of sight. That little sucker we have to lock onto for internet is 22,500 miles up in the sky so at times it can be a chore.  Now we are online with a great signal. And DirecTV HD service.  We are happy campers. We started to have snow flurries while setting up, and now our heat pump is putting out wonderful heat. The paid site tag is on the post for at least 4 nights at $14 each night. We have landed. NM parks lets you stay for 21 days at a crack. And this is one fine campsite. See the covered picnic table. 
Now to see if the trout fishing is doing anything. Terry lives to be able to do his thing with his fly road. This is a world class trout fishing river.  Read more about it at The San Juan River Fly Fishing site  and see their map of the river.   Note to all: Cell service is very iffy here in this canyon campground. It has never worked well for us in the past.  So email is the thing. Hint. 
 
 

The big blow did arrive, a tad bit late. 

We go up and it seemed calm sunny and warm, so we got our email and I download the USA Today to read. 

We gave our Wep security WiFi code to a nice young couple who pulled up next to us, to also get out of the wind, so they could get on the internet using our system. They are here from Switzerland. We had a great chat with them and they used our access to use Skype to call back to Europe and were thrilled to be able to do that from ther laptop via our WiFi. 

But you can be sure by early afternoon the wind did fire up and hit us full force. We took down the Sat dish and unhooked the truck from the 5er and headed to Page to gas up for an early departure tomorrow. Of course we stopped at WalMart. I got a some new shorts and shirts. We got back and they had opened up the entrance station so we showed my Senior Pass and paid $5 for camping here tonight. 

It seemed as if the winds were dying down after we watched a couple of DVRed shows, so we put up the dish but as I type this at 8:30 PM  AZ time the winds have kicked up again. We have recorded American Idol and other shows so we may stow the dish very soon after I upload this. Opps. Terry just yelled Leno and Letterman were just starting to record. so we shall see if we can get them on DVR before the dish is blown off our roof. We only most times watch their monologs so if it gets bad I will shut it down. The wind has died down a bit for now so we shall see. Seems we get a blast and then it calms down for awhile. 
This wind should die down by morning and we shall be on our way. Did I say it was 80 today. Strange as I thought this was to be a cold front moving through. Oh I guess right now would be a good time to upload this or all this is for naught, as you will not see any of this post. 
 
 
 

Staying put for the big wind to come.

Today was for the most part getting ready for the the the big wind to come. The forcast is for a big storm expected for Wednesday. 
We moved from our edge viewing spot and loaded up with potable water to give us balast. We hunkered down behind a rock pile on the upper level of the Lone Rock Rec. Area. 

As the day wore on other RVers moved up from the beach area to this higher parking area. 
We shall see if we are protected with winds predicted to gust to 70 MPH. 

As in so many times like this we were able to meet our RV neighbors who were gathering, as in round up the wagons in times past,  coming up from the beach, to servive the upcoming storm on this higher landing. 
 

Day trip to Page.

I finally got my Quarter Pounder fix at Mc Donald's. I screwed up and said # 3 instead of # 2 meal. So when Terry brought the food to the tabel Isaw I had ordered a DOUBLE Quarter Pounder. Now if you are on the Atkins diet that may be good but that was a whole lot of beef. Tasted good and Yah I ate it all. Terry had a Big Mac meal and we both had fries loaded with all that good awful salt they pour on them . That should do us for several weeks of fast food me hopes. 
Next waddled off to explore the area. Drove by the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park Antelope Canyon and on down to the Antelope Point boat marina. Later we stopped for propane at a little Solar Power place that sold more than just sun power, but propane also.  It was about $19 in Q this winter and up here is was $23 for 7 gal. not bad me thinks. 
The very friendly guy, even said he sold solar in Q in 2000 so knew the area. Right next to his sales place was his pontoon boat up on blocks. See the car underneath it. Makes for a nice garage don't ya think. Boats are evwrywhere in Page. This is a city possesed with the Lake. The city was created to build the dam to make the lake after all. 

If when in Page and you need propane or a solar fix he is at the insection of HW 98 and Bia- 20 on the south side of Page. Right where you trun left to go to the Antelope Canyon on HW 98 when going south out of Page. 

On the way back to Lone Rock we took the lower 5 mile drive through Wahweap Rec. Area.  Just had to show my Senior Pass and my drivers lic. at the entrance station and we we good to go. 
We stopped at this view stop. Terry enjoying the view. 

We didn't make it to the the John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum in Page today but of course I planned it that way. 

We will have time for all that as the weather is about to close in on us. 

A STRONG SPRING STORM WILL IMPACT NORTHERN ARIZONA WITH VERY STRONG WINDS ON WEDNESDAY. STRONG WINDS WILL DEVELOP OVER NORTHERN ARIZONA LATE MORNING AND LASTING WELL INTO THE EVENING HOURS. SUSTAINED SOUTHWEST WINDS OF 40 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS OF 55 TO 65 MPH ARE POSSIBLE.

Don't think we can outrun it as Weather Watcher sez Tuesday is going to be windy also. Not sure where we could run to as we were heading to Monument Valley. Bet the wind will be there also. Without any protection. So we will have to hunker down and maybe move the 5er to back it into the wind. Our back end has no windows and is solid. There is a rock pile we can move behind right here to give us some more protection. The dump station is also right beyond the rock pile so we can fill up on potable water to give us more ballast. 

It's what you do when you live in a RV. You pay attention to the weather. But I do know I will have to store the Internet, TV  combined satellite dish due to winds that strong. It all depends if the wind is blowing against or side ways across the dish. That's the sad part me thinks. Might just have to go to WalMart in Page and get the Avatar movie just out on DVD Blue Ray. We have not seen it yet. We were isolated in Q all winter and didn't make to Yuma to see it. I got a Blue Ray player free when we got our new Sony LCD TV and have not used it, but for only one DVD. What a waste, this might the the time to put it to use. 

We shall see.  At least we are not in the southeast and have to worry about the storms that they all just went through. We still have to go through Kansas Toto in May and me doesn't like that thought at all. Then land In Iowa for a couple of storm filled months. 
 
 
 

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