Pardon me for being an oddball RVer, but I’m just not the GPS type. Give me a map and compass, or a local to ask for directions any day.
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The day before we were set to arrive at Vickers Ranch to settle in for our summer workamping jobs, our Datastorm F2 satellite internet dish stopped working. It refused to lock onto our satellite (91W).
We’ve experienced intermittent trouble and lengthy searches before getting online in the past. But this time it wouldn’t lock on at all. The dish went up, stopped at every bird in the sky attempting to identify the signal, only to continue searching. After calling MotoSat for help – and sending them a few photos of what we assumed was the problem – they determined that an “in house” repair was required to fix the issue.
With our online lifestyle, there was no way we could make it a week – let alone through the summer – without a serious hack job, and a way to find our satellite. So, we took a 900 mile round-trip detour to Salt Lake City for a factory repair at their headquarters.
The only other option was to remove the entire dish mount ourselves, get it off our roof somehow, and find a freight company to get it from Creede, CO to Salt Lake City for the repair. Not to mention re-installation. It was quicker and cheaper to just drive it there. And the trip turned out to be fun. Or at least interesting.
Bookmark this post and set aside time to watch this entire End of Suburbia program about peak oil with people close to you. Pending or not, crisis or melarkey, what’s most important is to listen to and realize who is saying the enlightening if not disturbing things in this documentary. Read Matthew Simmons’ Twilight in the Desert book for more oil industry insight.
Click the bottom middle icon at the bottom right of the YouTube player to view at full screen. Better yet, get the End of Suburbia DVD and show it to everyone you know. Or give them a copy to pass along. Or email them this page link so they can watch it right here.
When we first left on this trip, our friend Ranger Mike told us horror stories about how often generators would get ripped off at the parks where he worked.
This would truly be a horror for us indeed, because I love my little Honda. I don’t love using it, but whenever I have to, I love it. You see, the Honda EU200i lives up to its “Super Quiet” branding.
And that’s a good thing when you’re in a campground with others and not boondocking way out in the woods by yourself.
Did we happen to mention that this blog is now officially one year old? (Hold the applause.)
It’s been over a year actually, considering we started it as a marketing tool to sell the graphics company we built up for ten years. We slowly turned it into a travel blog once we hit the road, so there is no firm anniversary date.
With that said, I hereby present my state of the blog address, with analysis, on the one year anniversary of launching our full time RVing sabbatical road trip adventure travel lifestyle change property search community escape tribute blog.
Nearly a year ago now – way back in Deadwood, SD – I wrote about how the view is always different from our kitchen table. Another view that always changes for us is out our Bathroom window.
Being a skylight, the view is usually of the sky. Light during the day, but sometimes we see stars at night. Until it fogs up.
Nevertheless, I am always reminded that this adventure is still fun and exciting whenever I look up and see new trees. Or the best yet, this view of the bluff above our site at the 4J+1+1 Campground in Ouray, CO.
Considering the millennia it took to form Capitol Reef, not much has changed in Cohab Canyon over the past dozen years.
But we sure have.
Looking at the canyon, I recognize the old rock formations. Looking at the young tent campers nearby, I realize we would have bagged on all these big RVs and us old “campers” running our noisy generators.
We’ve found ourselves back at the campground in the grove at the trailhead to Cohab Canyon where I proposed to René about a dozen years ago on our legendary motorcyle tour of the southwest.
We are just feet from where we tent camped. We probably would have moved if this big ol’ rig parked next to us at the time.
I also just found the following autobiographical early “web page code” and have hereby salvaged it from becoming internet detritus….
Surprised? I saved the cartoon shown for many years before giving it to the woman I knew would marry.
Just the other day, I was thinking of writing about how much I love our satellite internet system. It provides us with connectivity even when we have no cell phone coverage camped deep in a National Forest campground, alongside a roaring stream, in the snow.
Then our Datastorm F2 refused to deploy. Luckily, we had made it back to civilization at Mountain Views RV Resort in Creede, CO with full hookups and WiFi. But now we are taking an 900 mile round-trip detour to Salt Lake City for a factory repair at MotoSat.
book for more oil industry insight.
and show it to everyone you know. Or give them a copy to pass along. Or email 
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