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hiljoball

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Everything posted by hiljoball

  1. From the BBC web site - 5 hospatalised with minor injuries. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65529027 John
  2. Another "You have to see it to believe it" John
  3. What do you do for...? - Medical coverage Two part answer – first check your credit card for 31 day out of province medical coverage. Then buy ‘top up’ coverage for the balance of the trip. Shop around- I use Sanderson Ince Broker – they find the best plan from several companies to match pre-existing conditions. https://sandersontravelinsurance.com/site/ - Domicile address Use a family member or friend if possible – we used a Mail box but it had issues for use on drivers licence. - Phone, TV, Internet Phone depends on usage – roaming out of country is expensive – we make few calls, so we had a pay by the minute plan (35 cents per minute) and put a $100 on the phone which is good for a year, and the balance rolls over- and we bought a plan in Canada (petrocan mobile) and a separate plan (ATT) for the USA – so total cost was $200 per year. Just swap the sim cards on the phone. - need an unlocked phone. TV – we used Shaw Direct but that will die out over the next two years due to satellite changes and no signal to be available south of the border. Internet - we had a site in a SKP co-op park and had a land line – put it in vacation mode while back in Canada - Prescriptions Took enough to cover the trip – if over 90 days, my plan would not pay directly, so I paid the cost, and submitted a manual claim to my insurer Other questions; - Do you have a US bank account or credit card? I opened a US$ account at my Canadian bank, and would transfer funds when the rate was good. Then I got a US$ credit card from the same bank.- Now it is easy online to see the accounts and transfer monies and pay the credit card each month, - Are there specific challenges entering the US or returning to Canada in an RV? Never had a problem – going south they may ask about food stuff, fruit, meat. Dog needs certificates. Also use medical insurance doc as proof of duration. Coming north, booze, cigarettes, weapons. Main things to note – max is 6 months. But also be aware of US IRS. Read up on Closer Ties. IRA uses a formulae to calculate income tax exposure using last three years. - Who do you use for roadside assistance? Shop around and read the small print – limited or max recovery distance and watch out for ‘any’ or ‘qualified’ repair facility. John
  4. I always check the weather on the I5 through the Siskiyou summit for my planned travel days. https://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/United-States-Of-America/Oregon/Siskiyou-Summit/14-Day-Forecast.aspx John
  5. There was no indication of the location. Zooming in the tow vehicle license plate looks like California, and there is no license plate on the pickup bed component. John
  6. I was shocked when I saw this picture and thought it worth posting here. My first thought was 'Unsafe and any speed'! I would not want to be in front of or along side this rig if he has to do a hard stop! All he had to do is trade his 5th wheel for an appropriate travel trailer and be much safer. John
  7. Canadian news coverage is far superior to the narrow US focused news on US TV. Also we have several advert free public supported channels that carry a range of programs not available on PBS, plus we get several PBS feeds too. Then there is better sports coverage for Ice hockey, curling, and figure skating. The loss of Canadian satellite coverage in the southern 'provinces' due to aging related satellite hardware failures and the beam angle of the remaining satellite will be hard to replace. No easy answers. John
  8. I've been running W11 for a while with no issues. I did not like some W11 defaults but it was easy to reconfigure to look more like W10. John
  9. I did the update yesterday - the download took some time but the transfer rate was low - I guess their servers were busy. From memory, the restart to load the new version took about 45 minutes. So far no issues. I have not tries any new 'features' - I did it to get the latest security updates. John
  10. The main item is to complete the ArriveCan app. There may always be questions about dutiable and restricted products, eg booze, tobacco, guns, ammo. May also question food items. John
  11. I would take I-90. Take your time and enjoy the scenery. An option to avoid most mountains is to go around the bottom of the Rockies. So I44 to I40 and head for Abuquerque and then Salt Lake City to Boise and on to Seattle. This is almost 1000 miles longer. John
  12. You appear to be connected to the internet as you are able to post here - and you must have access to another web browser - eg EDGE for same reason. I suggest that you uninstall firefox, and then use EDGE to download and reinstall Firefox. To uninstall, go to Control Panel and select Programs and uninstall Mozilla Firefox. If you have a choice, select to keep your data (favourites etc) and they should be reconnected when you reinstall the software. John
  13. I had a brief experience with Linux Mint, but ran into an issue that I was not prepared to troubleshoot and solve, and went back to Windows. I authored an extensive collection of articles for my hobby that were written in Word, and saved as pdfs for publishing on my web site that is referenced around the world by many radio control sailboat skippers. https://sites.google.com/site/johnsrcsailingrulesandtactics/ The issue was with Libra Office that comes with Mint. When I imported the Word docs into the writer program, the font substitutions significantly changed the page layouts, spoiling the relationship between text and diagrams. Mint worked fine and was easy to install and learn, but I needed MS Office too much. John
  14. At minimum, change the leaf spring on the other side of that axle. If the leaf spring is even slightly different than the original, it will affect the wheel alignment of that axle. John
  15. I have used Thunderbird for a number of years. It works well, and has not suffered any of these issues listed above. John
  16. try to log in to gmail through your web browser. See if that works. John
  17. I use this link to check the long range forecast for traveling over the Siskiyou on I5 John https://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/United-States-Of-America/Oregon/Siskiyou-Summit.aspx?sday=3
  18. My current AT&T plan is the pay as you go 25c per minute for calls and 20c per text. Consumers Cellular also offers it. So that type of plan still exists. John
  19. I have an HP laptop with an 8th gen I5 chipset and it is WIn 11 capable. I have two laser printers, a Brother HL2170W and an HP laserjet Pro MFP M127 and neither printer is on their manufacturer's sites as having driver support for W11. Both printers have 64bit drivers. I posted a question on the HP printer User forum and the feedback was that it would probably work. I do not want to switch to W11, only to find that two perfectly good printers will no longer work - so I am going hold off for now and let the early bugs get fixed, and perhaps find more user experience about the old printer drivers working - or not! John
  20. Just announced - land border reopens Nov 8. https://globalnews.ca/news/8268245/canada-u-s-land-open-nov-8-official/ John
  21. Wrong question - should be what can I stop! or what can I control going down a steep grade. Better question is what is a suitable tow vehicle for the trailer I want. But to answer you - look for the tow rating for your SUV, and especially, what hitch weight without exceeding its GVR. You need to find out for the tow vehicle, its GVWR, GCVWR, and for the trailer , its GVW. Then do some math. You may find that it is able to tow (say) 5000 lbs, then you would be better with a 3500 lb (fully loaded) rig. John
  22. I have an old Acer 11 inch notebook with 2GB ram and an Atom processor. It came with WIN 7 and over time I upgraded it to Win10 when that came out, but recently Win10 has grown so fat, it has become so slow as to be almost unusable. This is a computer that I take when traveling, so it is used only occasionally. So I converted it to LinuxMint, which came with a useful package of software - Firefox, a compact PDF reader and Libre Office suite - just about everything I need. So far it is working fine and is fast enough to give me a few more years out of the hardware. This is my first venture outside of Microsoft - so far so good! I will not convert my other two (big) laptops as they are fast enough, and have software that is not available on Linux - eg the Garmin downloader for my GPS updates. John
  23. Being on the ground is not really the issue - if it is on the ground it is flat - no flow to drain properly. What you should do is set the sewer hose on a slope from the rig to the drain so that it empties efficiently. John
  24. As a Canadian Snowbird, here are the issues we see that will affect our decision to travel south this winter. First, our 'out of country' travel insurance will almost certainly exclude Covid-19, so the first hurdle will be the availability of a vaccine, so we are protected. Second issue is how 'locked down' are the facilities like restaurants, movie theaters, and other entertainment and shops. If everything is restricted then it will be no fun, and we will be reduced to sitting in our rig. If that is the case, we are more comfortable just staying at home, and will not travel this winter. If we do make it, we expect a late start (waiting for vaccine). John
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