I Want My WIFI

We embarked on our annual trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival this weekend. I had taken the RV into the shop about three weeks ago to fix a weird problem with the brakes - the left front brake would stick on and either pull to the left or just make a terrible grinding noise - until we would run over some rough road and it would shake loose.

Also, the air conditioner, which for a long time, would only run when the fan was on high, started having a thing where some louver or door deep inside the dash would flip and cause it to stop blowing cold air out the vents and apparently get re-routed into the engine or something.

So I took it in and picked it up this week. The guy said it was all fixed and when I asked him what was wrong with the brakes, he looked at me like he'd never heard of the problem. Great. He assured me that nothing was wrong with them so what could I do.

Well the drive up was uneventful. The brakes seemed to work fine and not stick. The air conditioning you ask? Well, I wouldn't know because it was so cold that we actually had to turn on the heater. This, on June 24 - Summer!

We got to the campsite and checked in. When they showed me where the site was, I remembered what had happened when I made the reservation. They didn't have any room in the section we always stay in so they put us on the upper level. I remember having walked around this area and it seemed like it was more of a tent/pop-up area. I remember wondering if this was going to be okay or not but I didn't have much choice.

We drove around to our site and our jaws dropped open. It was a tiny site and we were practically wedged between two other rigs. I looked at Deb and we knew we couldn't stay here. I managed to get my door open and walked up to the office. They were very nice and said we could have another site in that area or we could take an overflow site in the "regular" area. I walked back and took a look at the other site and it was really no better so I drove around to the overflow site. It was basically a grassy field but with hookups. It actually looked like pretty much the best site in the place.

I parked the rig there and walked back to the office to claim it. They sent a guy over to show us where to park - since it wasn't really that clearly marked. He also helped us get power and water since they were in the process of changing things around.

The next day, I drove Deb to the quilt show and came back to the campsite to do some web site work. I walked up to the office to buy my 24 hours of WiFi access but when I went to pay, they said they only took cash. Of course, Deb has the only money I had.

"Um, can I write you an IOU?"

"No, they might come collect the money at any time. Sorry."

"Can I *buy* a ten dollar bill from your cash register with my credit card?"

"What?"

"Can I buy something in the store and you charge me for that plus ten dollars on my credit card, and then give me ten dollars in change?"

"No, you can only pay for WiFI in cash."

(face palm)

So I walked back to the camper fuming. Of course, before I had walked up to the office, I had unrolled the awning, hooked up the water and power, and got settled in for the several hours it takes Deb to do the show. After fuming some more and deciding against a frontal assault on the office cash box, I packed up the rig and headed down the road to find an ATM that I had located on my phone browser.

I got the money and pulled back into the camp site and stopped at the office. I had played out the entire scene - the one where I walk in and calmly ask for WIFI access. She looks at me cheerily and says "Oh, found some money huh?". I look at her, my eyes piercing her soul - "No, I didn't *find* the money, I packed up the rig and *drove* to an ATM to get it."

That was take one. In take two, I don't say a word. I just look at her and she gets very uncomfortable in the silence and hurries to give me the password.

A few dozen variations on those scenes play in my head. I'm not sure which one it will actually be but I will cut her down swiftly and mercilessly with my icy stare and acerbic wit.

I open the office door and - she's not there. Crap!

In reality, she's probably just on her lunch break but I push that thought from my head and convince myself that she spotted me getting out of the RV with a ten dollar bill in my hand and that *look* in my eyes, and had to get out of there. She asked Mildred to cover for her because she was "feeling a little queasy" and slipped out the back of the store. Clever girl...

So I buy my WIFI password, park the camper, and setup with the laptop in our little screened-in patio thingy. I quickly forget about the WIFI Nazi and work on web sites until Deb calls. Heaven!

We had a good rest of the day, booming thunderstorms, kabobs on the grill, and a few rounds of Rumikube.

On the drive home the next day, it was warm enough to turn on the A/C. It ran fine for a while and then started blowing inside the dash again. If I turned off the A/C and put it on vent only, it would eventually start blowing out the vents again. Turn the A/C on again and it would run for a while and then stop blowing. Seems like something is either getting cold or hot enough to cause some door to close or open. Turning off the A/C let's it cool down (or heat up) and open (or close).

All in all, a pretty normal camping trip.

Ridin' the Rails

A little follow up on the new GoPro helmet cam I got a couple of months ago. Over the Memorial Day weekend, we went camping on the Cape and took the tandem. The campsite is right near the Cap Cod Rail Trail which we've ridden a few times. As the name implies, it's a railroad right-of-way that's been converted to a MUP - Multi Use Path - (a bike path) that covers a good part of the upper Cape.

We really enjoy the trail, there's a great little Mexican Cantina right off the trail that has the best pulled pork soft tacos in the world. We usually get on the trail in Brewster and take it down to Dennis and then over to Chatham on the cost. I have an app on my iPhone that uses the built-in GPS to track my rides and then uploads them to the MapMyRide web site as a sort of personal training log and ride sharing system.

Here you can see how it captured the ride.





Not only that, but they also create a Google Earth "fly over" of your ride.



I captured some video of the ride with my GoPro camera and edited it into a short little movie and posted it to YouTube.