Jun 6
One of our neighbors at Emigrant Lake, our previous campground, had a portable hammock that we really liked the look of. So we bought one and had it sent to our next campground.
At under $100 delivered, the Kwik Set Hammock is one comfortable, but heavy, hammock.
Love at first . . .
Jun 5
We’re about 1/3 of the way through our West Coast trip. I thought it was a good time to summarize our experiences with campground Internet, a service we depend on in our travels.
At a campground, we can get Internet services through one or more of the following:
So how did each of these work out in the last 16 campgrounds we stayed?
Here are the results . . .
Click on graph to enlarge
MY CONCLUSIONS:
First, and foremost, any conclusions are tentative as 16 campgrounds is just not enough data. That said . . .
Jun 3
Redding to Ashland (click on map to enlarge)
After our stay in Redding, CA, we headed for Oregon.
I drove the first leg of the trip to Ashland, OR and thought I had it rough because I drove our RV through several 6% grades and over a 3,000 foot summit.
Was I wrong. Jan had the same amount of 6% grades plus a long final descent into Ashland from 4,000 feet.
Mount Shasta
On our drive up, we drove past Mount Shasta which had an unusual amount of snow cover.
We arrived at our campsite on Emigrant Lake about 2 pm on Saturday while a large festival was taking place in one end of the county park. Very crowded, but our campground was at the other end of the park.
Our RV Site 8
Emigrant Lake Panorama (We’re the 2nd RV from the right) — click on the photo to enlarge
DOWNTOWN ASHLAND
For Wisconsinites, think of Ashland as a combination of Madison and Cedarburg (university town & tourist trap) . . . an abundance of quaint, pricey shops with a number of theaters including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Plus, beautiful Ashland Creek runs through the town. Yeah, we could live here.
We ate at the Brothers
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
May 31
Shrimp Benihana . . . It’s the Sauce
. . . We Cook!
We’ve been near Redding, CA for 4 days and when it wasn’t raining (everyday), it was/is hot.
So we dined out and cooked in.
For dining in, we dug up three Bon Appetit magazine recipes:
SHRIMP BENIHANA
PEPPERED BEEF TENDERLOIN
Coating Beef with Pepper
DINING OUT
Great Views
MISCELLANEOUS
Scrub Jay Outside Our RV
Stealth Camper Down the Road from Us
May 29
VERIZON WIRELESS
Let’s start with the bad story — Verizon.
On Friday, May 17th, I ordered a Verizon modem (USB730L) and an Unlimited data plan with it from Verizon’s web site. This is the plan I gushed about previously on my blog: Verizon’s Prepaid $65 Unlimited Plan
The USB730L modem and 1-month of the Unlimited plan cost $345.67. I thought it money well spent as I now hoped I could ditch my other costly Verizon data plan.
Or so I thought.
The modem arrived at our mail forwarding service on Monday, May 20th, and we had it sent with our other mail to our current RV campground in Redding, CA. Our mail and Verizon modem arrived on Friday, May 24th.
From the MIRC (Mobile Internet Resource Center) I knew that after May 21st Verizon’s Unlimited plan would no longer be available. However, I thought I was safe because I bought the modem and plan before May 21st. I was dead wrong.
The modem came packaged with a note saying it had already been activated. However, after spending several days speaking to Verizon reps, supervisors, and managers, I was unable to activate the Unlimited plan on my USB760L modem.
During those several days, I was given correct, incorrect, misleading, and I think outright lies from Verizon. While several Verizon reps truly tried to help me, others were more interested in getting me out of their queue as quickly as possible.
Awful experience, but I was not surprised by it.
I sent the modem back to Verizon today, Wednesday, May 29th, but it should take 5 or so days to get back to Verizon. There is a 14-day window to return the modem which ends on Friday, May 31st.
Please take my survey:
(A) All of the $345.67 I spent will be refunded.
(B) Some of the $345.67 will be refunded.
(C) None of the $345.67 will be refunded.
(D) None of the $345.67 will be refunded, and Verizon will add additional charge(s).
APPLE
On Friday, May 25th, my Apple email account stopped working. No email on my iMac, iPad, or iPhone. I thought “What did Jan (my wife) do now?” Actually, I thought it was something I did . . . some inadvertent click or swipe.
I contacted Apple via their online chat. The first rep was nice enough, but gave me instructions (which I followed) that closed my browser and the online chat session with it. Not too impressed with Apple support at this point.
The next rep recommended that we talk via phone instead of online. Great idea. He asked if he could watch my iMac screen while he did the troubleshooting. I gave him permission, but after several attempts to fix my email, it wasn’t happening, so he got an Apple engineer involved.
Pretty rapidly Jason, the Apple engineer, figured out that my email problem was not on my end. He admitted that Apple had an “event” (or “issue”, I forgot his term) on their end. I felt better for no particular reason.
Anyway, Jason said it might take a few days to fix as this was Memorial Day weekend. He emailed me on my Gmail account (always have a 2nd one, guys) with a case number and his personal voicemail number. He warned me that I might lose email that was saved on my Apple account.
On Tuesday the 28th I left a message on his voicemail asking if he could expedite my email fix. I didn’t expect much as Jason is off Tuesdays. Nevertheless, a few hours later, my email began working again. There were 100 or so new messages, plus all my saved messages were still available. Eureka!
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