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Indian Flat Campground (El Portal, CA)

Click on photo to enlarge

Our Yosemite National Park base of operations.

We arrived last Monday, May 13th, and stayed a week. It pretty much rained (and snowed) from Tuesday until we left. However, we were able to get in a couple of Yosemite visits and tour which we’ll cover in following posts.

The drive up Highway 140 to Indian Flat RV Park and to Yosemite was absolutely stunning. The Merced River, which parallels much of the highway, was roiling with spring runoff from the mountains . . .

Though our campsite was not far from the highway, the view was . . .

Mountain side

River (Highway) side

Honorable mentions . . .

Our HughesNet dish (which allowed us to stream Game of Thrones)

CA gas prices

HughesNET Gen 5 Evaluation 4 Results

In 4 of the last 11 campgrounds we stayed, we had to use our HughesNET Gen 5 portable satellite Internet system. We’re using it far more than we expected.

We thought our Verizon and AT&T Internet data devices and plans (+ campground WiFi) would suffice. So the portable dish is turning out to be a good purchase . . . otherwise there’d be no streaming Game of Thrones.

Click on graph to enlarge

Here’s a link to my RAW DATA (PDF).

You’ll notice that some of the latency (or “ping”) times are quite long . . . where typical cellular wireless latency times are well under 100 ms, satellite Internet times can be well over 600 ms. Latency is the time it takes to send and receive data from a source. Shorter times are better. While Internet servers on earth may be hundreds of miles apart, Internet satellites are thousands of miles (~ 22,000) above the earth. Even at the speed of light it takes significantly more time to communicate with a satellite than an earth-based system.

However, I found that under most circumstances long latency times are not an issue, but there are exceptions. For example, using VOIP (Voice Over Internet) for telephone calling is problematic at best. Also, when using HughesNet, I’ve been unable to upload large (e.g. video files) to my blog. I have a feeling that this website uses some sort of ACK-NAK upload protocol that continuously checks how an upload is going. The long satellite latencies screw this process up. C’est la vie.

Verizon Prepaid $65 Unlimited Jetpack DataPlan Ends 5/21/19

This data plan is a very good deal for RVers, especially full timers like myself.

In a nutshell, this Verizon plan provides a data plan with no caps (“unlimited”). However, the plan is networked managed which means from time to time you may experience slow downs in your data speed. This unlimited plan has been around for a while and, generally, people who have it like it. Here’s the poop from Mobile Internet Resource Center.

To get this plan, you’ll have to open a Verizon account. In fact even if you currently have Verizon service, it’s recommended that you open another account to ensure that Verizon doesn’t screw up your current service. This is what I did.

Directions:

(1) Go to this Verizon Prepaid Plan Web Page

(2) Near the bottom of this page under Tablet & Jetpack Plans, select Shop now:

(3) Next, select an Internet device. NOTE: It’s been reported that the 8800 Jetpack is also available. However, you’ll have to talk a salesman into selling you one:

I went with the unpopular USB730L

(4) Finally, after selecting a device, you select the Unlimited data plan from this page:

The plan will cost $65/month if you sign up for Auto Pay

Here are the plan specifics (“fine print”):

Mariposa Grove

Click on map to enlarge

Earlier last week we took a day trip to the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove about 20 miles up the road from our campground.

Some photos from our trip . . .

WILD FIRE DAMAGE

Wild fire Damage along the Highway 41 to the grove

More wild fire damage

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

THE SEQUOIAS

Fire Damage in the Grove

Journey to Yosemite (Oakhurst, CA)

Click on map to enlarge

After two days at the Success Lake campground, we hit the road for our next campground in Oakhurst, CA. We followed Highway 99 to Fresno and then Highway 41 to Oakhurst.

On our way to Oakhurst, it was orange grove after orange grove after orange grove. What was really strange was seeing lush green orange groves surrounded by parched, brown grasslands. Madera County was a treat — rolling hills, huge granite formations, and the Sierra mountains in the near distance.

Madera County – 1

Madera County – 2

We arrived at our campground about 2 pm. While it’s no RV “resort”, our camp site sits just above the Fresno River.

Site 44

We’re going exploring tomorrow . . . bought a cantaloupe that must have been grown locally because it was awesome !!! More later.