Vladimir

It was a real eye-opener when Medicare became my primary. I still have the same coverage when I was working for the secondary.......so now I just refuse the Medicare restrictions and say bill my secondary insurance. Last time, Medicare regulations required TWO trips to the office for a routine physical. Really, I have better things to do with my time that go for a unneeded doctor’s office visit, when one will do. So I refused to do two visits....funny part was my secondary insurance just paid all fees....just as if my visit was being paid primarily by Medicare. Somebody really needs to examine the waste of taxpayers dollars by 90 day prescription requirements and two visits when one will do, etc, etc.

The real surprise for us in Canada was that COSTCO did not accept VISA, only MASTERCARD. That was interesting...we finally wrote them a check from our personal account.

Having retired from the Forest Service where my last job was managing campgrounds I really feel weird not telling the public about THEIR campgrounds. So I even post them on my blog. There are so many different needs when it comes to campgrounds that I suspect most people will ignore many of the suggestions. This forum, is the exception. You guys camp EVERYWHERE!! I do want to use Dutch’s campground though....but it sounds like it is in the south.

Somewhere in this thread....somebody made a comment about avoiding water systems in National Forest campgrounds. The campground water is tested every two weeks when the water systems are operating. A bad test would get another test immediately, and a second bad test would result in trying to track down the problem in water quality. In ten years.....on a National Forest with several hundred water systems.....I can remember only three bad tests after the first one. One was using bleach on the well pump. Can't remember the second, but the third was linked to lack of a back flow restrictor on a water system that served the campground and special use permittee. I ALWAYS fill up at a National Forest campground. I know the water is tested on a regular basis and bad tests are followed up on. Can you say that for your commercial campground?? Your tax money paid for SAFE water at National Forest campgrounds. Take advantage of them. BTW...the Forest Service discovered that the vast majority of the bad tests were related to the threads on the faucets. Which is why all the faucets in National Forest campgrounds are smooth....so if you are really paranoid, clean the faucet before using. The Forest Service folks that RV......don't drink the water out of their tanks. To many things to go wrong, not to mention those "drinking water hoses". It is good to see people raise the issue of water hoses and contamination. I carry one gallon jugs drinking and distilled water jugs. IF I run out of water I run my drinking water through a gravity water filter. Anyway....use the water systems at your National Forest campground. The water is good.

I have a Curt front hitch. Paid $75 to have it installed. I had two installed....the first actually cut the power steering lines on rough roads after two or three years....when I complained to Curt they did send a free replacement hitch....they thought all the installers caught the mistake. Mine didn't, so I was out the power steering repair. Check tolerances!!! Then a Yakima front rack....http://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2012/08/usbackroads-product-yakima-holdup-bike.html Our local RV dealer recommended AGAINST a bike rack on the rear of the 5th wheel, particularly one that is ladder mount. At that end, things move a LOT MORE than up front. We did have issues mounting a hitch to our Carriage 5th wheel. Front hitch is a pretty simple easy solution.

My prescriptions are pretty much generic. The Dr. writes the prescription for a year.....so I go to Costco and fill the entire year at once and pay for it out of pocket. For most my generic’s it is a push between the insurance costs for 90 days and paying for a years supply out of my pocket. Costco....did ask me to ask the Dr. to clearly note a years supply at one time is fine. Seems they don’t keep enough stock on hand to fill a years priscription for people. So I usually have to wait a day or two for the entire supply to come in.... But it sure beats not filling a prescription every 90 days!!

Check your water pump filter.

Couple of comments. I have owned electric bikes for a few years. Buy a step-thru bike (woman’s) regardless of your sex. Throwing your leg over the bike seat gets more difficult every year. Ask about panniers when you shop for the bikes. That was a adventure to find a set that would fit. Ask about battery rebuild or replacement. I suspect my five year old bike will soon be non-electric for this reason. Thanks Trek. Make sure the battery is low on the bike. Top heavy bikes are less fun to ride. I am still looking for one that can be recharged with solar. Really important if you boondocks a lot. They are a kick to ride. I don’t like throttle bikes. Get a good pedalec bike, I never used the throttle on the bike that had it.

I started thinking about all the issues I had to address when I started....... Telecommunications. Out west, you are probably going to need a amplifier for your phone if your going to boondock. You might even need to change your cellular company. Phone amplifiers are not cheap and there are lots of choices. Not to get into a long winded discussion, but Sprint and T-Mobile will not work as a cellular company once you leave the interstates. Given the size of your rig.....you might want to START looking at places that you want to stay at and visit. I had all that in my mind, and had ALL the maps I needed and information. Even so, it did take awhile to organize and set priorities. That could take two years in itself. Here is a application worth exploring BEFORE you leave: https://www.avenzamaps.com They also have Forest Service travel plan maps for free, as well as USGS topo maps, etc. etc. They also see electronic copies of Forest Service at a considerable discount from the paper copies. You really want to have the app set up and be using it BEFORE you start traveling. There are LOTS of maps and it takes a bit to find everything. If you want off the beaten track, you definitely want access to this site. Hobbies and interests. OK...I have LOTS of hobbies and interests.....fly fishing, astronomy, bird hunting, bird watching, hiking, photography, kayaks, rafts, float tubes, bicycles and on and on..... I needed to pare down the "stuff" so it would fit in the RV!! I did need to purchase "new" stuff in some cases to make it useable while traveling. The RV stuff, the clothes, shoes and all that other stuff has pretty much settled out, but even now I am constantly making adjustments to the hobby stuff I drag along. One regret when I started I never wrote down the must visit or see stuff. That way you have a focus to your travels, and it sets you up for "new" opportunities as you travel down the road. It gets you out of the mode of repeating your travels.

I would spend as little money right now. Once you get on the road then decide on what to spend money on....your thoughts will probably change. I wouldn't get a washer/dryer. On extended trips, I just made a point of pulling into a full-service park with laundromat. Timed it so I could dump my tanks, do the laundry, watch cable TV, and all those other city things. Then back out again, until the black tank was full again. It is a nice break from boondocking. Likewise, with the water filter. Like other I don't trust the RV water system to stay clean. BTW....in campgrounds it is the threads on the water bib that will get you a bad water test in most cases. Clean off the bib treads before hooking up. In parts of the desert southwest, the water is just awful anyway. So drinking water and coffee water comes from Wal-Mart, the shower and sink water I use the campground system water. Solar....that I would probably get now. You need solar to keep the batteries up and run the fans, computers and TV's without starting up the generator. How to lose friends you never met......start your generator in a quiet, scenic spot. I bought one of these for solar. Expensive, but works great...simple to store and travel. https://gpelectric.com/products/90-watt-portable-solar-kit/ I would do this ASAP..... https://www.escapees.com/education/smartweigh/ Good luck

But it was ALL Rocky Mountain spring water!! Actually, pretty clean and run through a RV water filter before filling the tank. But I don't drink out of that water in any case. I suspect it might be a result of not using the trailer for a couple of months in summer with water in the tank. If your not using the freshwater tank on a daily basis...all sorts of bad stuff. I did see an video on cleaning out the filter and he also had the exact same sludge situation. Sounded like he was always on municipal water systems. But he didn't look old enough to be a full-timer. I like the idea of shut off valves, but not installing them. I think I will go ahead and make a point of cleaning the filter when I blow out the line in the fall. That way there should be no water in the system.

Kodiak...I did think about crimping the line, but decided that might cause more problems...thought about a plug, but decided towels also work. Kirk.... When I looked at the system I thought without any pressure I would lose maybe a pint of water at most and things would stabilize. I forgot about the pressure in the hot water tank from the air bubble. Looking back on it....I think the water was coming from the hot water heater like you said....so when I turned on the pump that sent the water to the faucet instead of the floor. The water line was higher than my water tank so that water didn't run onto the floor!! The filter is on the "upstream" side of the pump. The water flows past the filter and then into the pump. From there it feeds the hot water heater and the cold water side of the system. I believe I had the hot water system on "flow" rather than bypass....that means the water came from my hot water system flowing backwards through the pump??? I copied your message, put it in a zip lock and stuck it next to the filter. See how it goes next time. I was shocked at the gunk and "smell" of the clogged filter. I suspect that would give one a bad water quality test!! I don't drink or cook with the water in my freshwater tank since I think they are impossible to keep clean. This was an "eye-opening" experience. When I winterize the trailer after blowing all the lines I am going to go ahead and clean the filter at that point in the process. It was almost four years before the filter clogged.

That was interesting....now that I have done it. Does anybody have tips on HOW to do it without flooding the trailer?? I have a standard Flojet Model 03526144 with an inline filter. Basically you snap a couple of taps and the filter slips right out. Handy...works great except with the water pump OFF, water started pouring out of the filter housing. It was counter intuitive, but turning on the hot water faucet significantly slowed the water flow. Enough to get the filter cleaned and reinserted. However, is there a better way?? With the fresh water tank and hot water tank filled?? I do use creek water in my water tank, but pre-filter with a blue inline water filter. Right now, I will do it every year as part of winterizing after blowing out the lines. But it was be nice to be able to do it in mid-season without draining the system. Any thoughts...thanks.

Comments....on above. Not sure how important heated underbelly is....waterlines tend to freeze around 25 degrees....Are you planning on spending time in that cold weather?? If your into landscape photography the walkable roof and ladder....defiinitely handy.....otherwise forget about it. The only tank capacity is that REALLY matters is the black tank. Don't get hung up on tank capacities for one person. For hiking and mountain biking....small, narrow RV.....or see suggestion below. Storage in a truck is a "pain in..." Hard to access. I have a 30 foot 5th wheel that lives in Arizona. Great for living, awful rig for traveling the backroads. I also have a 19 foot Casita. Great little rig as someone mentioned. Fine for ONE, short person. My dog sleeps in the truck. It is that small. Great rig, well built. I am seriously thinking about buying a 4-wheel pop up camper to use with the Casita. You can buy a model base model without bath, etc. https://fourwheelcampers.com That gives you TWO RV's, the trailer and the pop-up on your truck. You can then leave the trailer and use the pop-up for really rough roads. As someone mentioned Lance Trailers are very well built and designed. Saw one and I was impressed. Expensive, but very well designed. I would also look at this trailer: https://escapetrailer.com/trailers/the-21-escape/ Good luck finding any of these trailers used. The Casita and Escape need to be ordered in advance from three months to a year. Oh, get a front hitch for the front of your truck and haul your mountain bike there. http://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2012/08/usbackroads-product-yakima-holdup-bike.html Hope this helps.....didn't comment on the other advice in this thread, but it was all good. Just new stuff from me that no one else covered.

I kept my "red card" qualifications when I retired. I do make a point of taking a fire assignment fairly early in the season to make sure that I keep my incident qualifications current. After three years without being on an incident your qualifications are taken away from you and as a retiree they are almost impossible to get back at that point. Fire seasons in the Wenatchee area generally start at the end of July and finish at the end of September most years. This past year I did get an assignment in September, but had to turn down three assignments as we were in the Yukon and Alaska. We also have a vacation home that we rent. The busy time of year for that is Thanksgiving through New Years. That pretty much means being around Wenatchee in August and September for fire season and then mid-November through mid-January for rental season. So right now I am watching it snow and the temperatures in the teens!! I am looking for a weather window so I can drive to Arizona starting Thursday morning. As others have said, the money is real helpful. It does put a crimp in the year when there are months when you have to be in Wenatchee. I am trying to get a schedule so that we travel more during the shoulder seasons, but with hunting and fishing times there are just not enough months in the year!! Thank God, I am not working anymore!!

So why was it random?? I was always on the edge of any reception.. Could that be the cause??

Came back from Alaska a couple of weeks ago. Eboost worked great on the trip. It was really impressive on flat ground. Similar to the data bast Chris was reporting. The boost mode did not work in several cases UNTIL I went ahead and dialed a number. Then the boost would kick in....anybody have an idea of why that happens?? I am beginning to suspect that was the problem with the units when I was testing in my driveway.

Just north of 100 mile house in BC. Looks like everything is working fine with eboost including data.

First night on the road update. Camped at my spring/fall fly fishing lake. Cell phone previously showed no service. Period. In twenty years....never had a signal. With eboost....had a voice connection and actually completed a phone call. I tried sending a text message with photo attached that failed. It did download my inbox, but I could not connect to the internet. Right now, it appears data is NOT getting a boost. I am impressed with the voice boost. Tomorrow Canada.

Yeah, that is what I told them. Are you going to walk away from 80% of the smartphone market?? The answer was yes....not our problem. But those are the folks "working" for the company I suspect management might feel different about walking away from the IPHONE market. We are finally leaving tomorrow....so we shall see.

Thanks to Gord, Jim2, and others for their comments. After THREE tech support people and TWO days of time this is what I learned from the experience. Please correct me or ask for clarification if you don't understand my comments....English is my fourth language! The problem appears to be limited to IPhones according to Wilson Tech Support. They said their amplifier worked fine....it is a IPhone issue. As such, they do not plan to address or fix the problem. I do have thirty days to decide if I want to return the eboost to Amazon. BTW...Amazon was great in getting a replacement booster to us in one day so we could leave for Alaska. Basically it appears the eboost is quickly shifting from 4g to 3g and then gives up on boosting the signal. On the advice of tech support we went into settings and forced LTE to OFF or DATA ONLY for enabling LTE. In that mode, the Voice "boost" held and did NOT flicker as previously. It looks like the Voice boost works fine. Tech support did think that I was NOT getting 4G with DATA ONLY. I did do a speed test and got 20 Mbps. Not sure if that was 3G or 4G. All this was on one IPhone only and now I have to see if it works on MINE. I did learn that the manual is poorly written. The 18-36 inch distance standard for the transmitting antenna is bogus. Both tech support guys had me "GLUE" the transmitting antenna to the back of the phone. I pointed out to them that this made it operate as a cradle!! and not a wireless connection I have been pleased with Wilson service in the past, but this was NOT a pleasant experience particularly given our time frames for leaving. At this point I think I am heading north with the eboost and will decide on later on sending it back to Amazon. Good luck. Please comment or ask questions. Really I do not have that good of a tech background so it would be helpful for me to better understand the situation. ps...Dale...thanks. I suspected that was the case. I have had great success with Wilson amplifiers in the past in mountain and rural areas. I was just wishin and hoping.

I did download an app for the phone or maybe it was just the IPHONE to reflect signal instead of bars....that was it. I guess I should download an app.....which one is simple, and basic for those without networking backgrounds?

Thanks....I had a -102 but that could easily be the measuring error. Any hints on finding the sweet spot?? How much boost in dB should I expect on the meter if it is functioning correctly.

No today is a holiday. Yes, I have been impressed with their service.