UPDATE (7/19): Fire is now 100% contained! However, the River Fire grew to over 9,600 acres.
UPDATE (7/12): We woke up to an acrid smoke haze this morning, but it cleared by the afternoon as the wind changed. The River Fire is now 9,000 acres and 10% contained. The Highway 41 road into Yosemite is threatened.
About 5:30 pm (our time) today I noticed what I thought was a developing thunderhead in the distance . . .
The River Fire
Nope. It wasn’t thunderclouds. It was smoke from a nearby fire — dubbed the River Fire. The fire is about 15 miles from us here in Mariposa.
What started as an 80-acre fire bloomed to a 2500-acre fire a fire hours later.
From 80 to 2500 acres in a few hours
So, we have our “Go” bags ready. We’ll keep you posted.
(1) Trying to Keep Cool. It’s been a hot week. A friend of ours who has lived in Mariposa several years said she has never seen it this hot so soon. Great.
(2) Painting the House. This has been going on for a few months as we’re trying to do it “right” — washing, scraping, priming, and painting two coats of the final color. As of today we have 3 sides down with the area under the garage the last to go.
(3) Getting Driver’s License. After we sold the RV, there was no need for Jan to get a Class B RV license (a real PITA). So here’s Jan with her Class C license:
(4) Gave Flirt a Summer Cut for those hot days ahead.
A Very Different Looking Doggy
(5) Home Improvement Stuff.
Replacing Non-Working Ceiling Fan
Installing a New Garage Light
Putting Up New Blinds – We’ve Install a Lot of These Since We Arrived
(6) Looking for a New RV. Well, actually a used Class C motorhome in the under 30-foot range. Almost as soon as we sold our Newmar RV, we started missing RVing. So . . . we’ll probably buy a used one early next year . . . along the lines of this 26-foot 2004 Majestic Class C:
I’ve been meaning to write an update to our Starlink saga, but we’ve been busy with house stuff. More on that in the next post.
First, apologies to my former high school and band mate Wally who sent me a link to a Starlink review ( https://www.theverge.com/22435030/starlink-satellite-internet-spacex-review ) over a month ago. The article’s title (“SpaceX’s satellite internet service is a technological marvel — when it works”) signaled the direction of the Starlink review.
In a nutshell, in the whole week he evaluated the service, the author seemed most concerned about the fact that Starlink was not as fast as his cable Internet service.
Dumb. Starlink was designed from the getgo as a rural, not urban, Internet service.
Internet in the Boondocks
First, as a rule there’s no cable Internet available in the sticks because it’s just too expensive to run cable lines for so few customers.
So rural Internet options are typically cellular, microwave, and HughesNet.
For example, here in Mariposa, CA where we live, before Starlink our Internet options were cellular (Verizon, AT&T, etc), microwave (unWired broadband), and satellite (HughesNet). I’ve had experience with all of them and reviewed my cellular and microwave services is an earlier post ( https://rvseniormoments.com/2021/03/23/starlink-vs-att-verizon-microwave/ ).
We’ve been using Starlink since March and we’re very happy with it. If anything, Starlink service has become more dependable and faster over time.
Recent Starlink Numbers
Our Fastest Download Speed
About a month ago, we moved the Starlink dish from our backyard fence to our house roof:
Dishy McFlatface Looking North
In order to mount the Starlink dish on our roof, we used a special Pipe Adapter kit and a Cable Routing kit. Both kits were exemplary for what they included . . .
The fire is about 3 miles (as the crow flies) from us here in Idlewheels RV Park. Close enough to be concerned, but so far the prevailing winds are blowing South East, away from us:
rvSeniorMoments 