Carlos
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Posts posted by Carlos
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There's a Turkey Creek near me here in AZ. I assume that's not the one you mean.
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When I get devices from customers, I wipe them and donate them either to a domestic violence shelter, or a facility that helps the homeless get jobs. Both groups of people need a cheap way to get phone calls. Both of those organizations give people something like 300 minutes a month so they can get job interviews, talk to police about their situation, and stay in touch with family.
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We spent about 12 years with a boat in a marina, basically a floating RV in an RV park. We got to see a lot of stupid. I was always the first one to volunteer to help, or that the marina would call if needed. But some people would either mildly or aggressively refuse help. I can recall a few who said something like "mind your own f-ing business" a few seconds before the sound of crunching fiberglass and breaking dock wood. Yup, I won't get in your way, but I will take video and put it on Youtube.
Even if I disagree with someone, I'll take their opinion and mesh it with my own.
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Yeah, it's definitely not a huge deal. Also I toss our normal RV rug under the spot where I'm working. Really the dirtiest part is my hands, and I keep various types of work and nitrile gloves for that.
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Dress pants? Who wears dress pants while RVing? And why?
But yeah, shorts and jeans simply don't need washing all the time. My brother carries a "bunny suit" mechanic's onesie in his rig, I should do that. If you have to work on something, put that on, and none of your real clothes get dirty. The mechanic suit lives in the basement.
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Washing and showering depend on your own body chemistry, the weather and location, clothing, etc. Wife and I don't get smelly easily, so skipping 1-2 days of showers doesn't feel like prison (which is odd, because I think they shower daily). Particularly in cool weather. Jeans should never be washed daily or even weekly anyway, so there's one item that you can bring only a couple of. T-shirts are mostly a one day thing. Neither of play dress-up on trips so it's not like we're bringing dress shirts and dresses or anything like that. Underwear needs daily rotation, but it's small. It's also easily washed in a sink and hung over a door to dry, same with t-shirts.
Again, planning with variables based on your own expectations.
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1 hour ago, nwtraveler said:
Ok, I didn't read all the posts.
So you have nothing useful to add?
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Yeah, keep an open mind. You have no idea what you'll like until you do it. We were also cabin boaters for over a decade (floating RV). We thought we'd hate marina life (campground), but then loved it. We ended up paying nearly $500/mo to keep a boat there for a long time. I have to say though that most marinas and most boaters are better FOR US than most campgrounds and most RVers. But you never know.
Worst mistakes I've made in my life are pre-judging how I will feel about something or how it will work out.
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Most parks and campgrounds have rules, and within those, I don't think anyone has room to complain. I've been in a campground where someone's unruly kids were louder than my quiet generator, from about 150' away. That's worse than the generator. But during the DAY, we have to put up with some loss of quiet.
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1 minute ago, Bigthinkers said:
I'd ask the question, "how do neighbors feel about others running their generator when they're out in the wilderness seeking solitude") but I suspect that could get heated!
I already answered it for the most part.
13 minutes ago, Carlos said:If we're away from people, we don't worry about disturbing anyone.
The secondary answer is that if WE don't want to hear a generator, we make sure to park away from other people. Everyone has a right to run a reasonably quiet generator. It's a different story if you're running one of those junk contractor generators.
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36 minutes ago, Bigthinkers said:
I guess I must be reading all the wrong blogs and forum topics then, because I got the very distinct impression one of the joys of boondocking is the quiet. It's the ability to hear the nature around you. It's not having to listen to other people's generators.
Everyone has different standards and needs. I think that's the point a lot of us are making. If we're away from people, we don't worry about disturbing anyone. And while I hate generator noise, we never just sit around camp all day, so we run it while we're away.
If it comes down to it, an hour of generator isn't going to destroy my enjoyment.
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You said it Joe. I am 54 and have been RVing mostly in the boonies since 10 years old. I have never owned or been in an RV with solar. Same with various cabin boats we have owned, which are just floating RVs
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It just depends on usage. I've done ten days in the desert on batteries and a generator. The batteries would hold for a couple days, then run a few hours of generator, repeat. We were in the middle of nowhere, the generator can run while we go play in the Jeep or on the dirt bikes, and we didn't even need to hear it.
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Yes, it's important to remember that this is still satellite, and still not as "portable" or as easy to use as cellular. The current satellite systems such as BGAN use an antenna like this, which likely will still be used with the new stuff, at least at first:
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The big differences in the new system are the orbit level, and the throughput. Current systems orbit higher, which means farther, which means high latency. Latency makes some applications annoying and others unusable. Web usage with high latency means an annoyingly slow response to clicks. For things like voice and two-way video, it means a long delay between the person speaking and the person hearing. I have had two satellite phones, and had to train everyone I talked to that they need to wait half a second between speaking and hearing a response.
The throughput on this is huge, while old systems were super slow. That means the old systems had to charge a lot. These will have lots of capacity so it will be cheap.
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Yeah, you're almost guaranteed not to have health issues with most water in the US, or with any tanks that make it here. But we just hate the taste of tap water in most places, so we use bottles. There's also the convenience of just having a sealed non-spill container next to you all the time.
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3 hours ago, Bigthinkers said:
Their goal was to visit every state in the lower 48.
Goal-based travel is called "work." When I used to travel for work all the time, I had deadlines and goals, and it was work and stress. It would be crazy to think you can have fun that way.
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4 hours ago, Sehc said:
What happens when other countries appropriate as many satellite orbits as the USA?
They coordinate the same way people are doing now and have been for a long time.
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They don’t cause any issues. This is part of the planning and testing. It’s impossible not to make these puns, but the space in LEO is...astronomical.
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I just find random water too nasty to drink in many places. So it's either bottles or a filter for us.
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19 minutes ago, FL-JOE said:
My idea of costly filters in an RO system for an RV was way off then. I was basing it on what I had to pay for my 3 filters on my sticknbrick system, which if I recall correctly was about $30 to $35 each and they had to be changed every 4 to 6 months. RV systems sound cheaper to maintain.
The home system I linked to above is about $40 per year, I actually over-estimated it. The system I had prior (Watts Premier) is $55 per year. That includes a full pack of filters, some replaced more often than others, but add up to one year. I've never heard of an RV-specific system.
We're not full time, so bottles are fine. We never drink the onboard water.
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Just now, FL-JOE said:
What I learned about these RO systems was that the filters (mine had 3) are not cheap.
Yup, you will spend $55-60 per year on filters. We have both RO and softening, and spend about that much on salt too. So $120/year.
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On the RO, I really recommend that you look at units which replenish the minerals and alkalinity, like the one I linked above. There have been some studies that correlate pure RO water with mineral and bone loss. We get some of those things just from water, and normal RO is 99.999% pure, which actually seems to be bad when we talk about minerals.
I have a change dump that about once a year nets $150 and I just make myself spend it on something completely stupid. Otherwise I look at cash as fungible, but like the "stupid fund."
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You use whatever "tricks" work for you for this. Don't let people get you down on what YOU think YOU need. This forum as a whoe is so judgy about doing unconventional things.
On the water, I forgot to post this. Someone else had talked about it on another thread, and I got one for home. Great RO unit:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XELTTG/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
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This will be totally different from cellular networks, and they don't replace each other. What I wonder is how the cell networks will collaborate with these new networks to provide transitional services between them. A collaboration between Amazon/SpaceX and Verizon/AT&T could provide a great seamless experience for users no matter where they go. The equipment will be very different however.
Some Newbies Don't Want Help
in Beginning RVing
Posted
I treat women and men equally. I've NEVER had a woman tell me to f-off when I offered to help, only men.
Just recalled that last night I was talking with a neighbor and great friend about this very topic. He made a life-long camp friend by offering to help fix his VERY screwed weight distribution setup. He may have saved a life, and now always has great Mexican camp food when they go to the same campground a couple times a year.