Our RV Adventures

Well, that didn’t last long. Apparently Verizon is tweaking (or maybe twerking?) the new XLTE installation here, since for the last two days, the signal on my phone has alternated between 1X and 3G, with not a 4G bar to be seen.

But the increased 3G speed that I’ve been getting on my aircard hasn’t dropped off, with the 2.5 Mbps still the norm, so that’s still working out OK

I mentioned yesterday about how much data I’ve used so far this month – a little over 45 GB, noticeably higher than our normal 25 GB or so. I attributed the increase to the 3 or 4 TV shows we had streamed, but this morning I suddenly realized the real reason for the increase.

I forgot that Jan recently got hooked on the HBO series Big Love. On the air from 2006 to 2011, it details the life of a fictional fundamentalist polygamist Mormon family, Starring Bill Paxton, the series revolves around Bill Henrickson, his three wives (Barb, first/legal wife; Nicki, second wife; and Margene, third wife) and their (combined) nine children.

Featuring stars such as Ellen Burstyn, Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Kay Place, and Bruce Dern, it received critical acclaim during all its five seasons.

Anyway, about a week ago, Jan started watching the series, streaming it for free through Amazon Prime. She’s now up to Season Two, Episode 9 now, so that’s 21 episodes of HD video Jan has streamed in the last couple of weeks.

So that’s where my extra GB’s have come from.

I  also forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that for dinner we drove into Columbus to get our Whataburger fix. And this time we both with something a little different. Jan tried a Chop House Burger with two patties, bacon, tomato, grilled onions, melted shredded cheese, and creamy steak sauce. while I sampled the A-1 Thick and Hardy Burger burger, with two patties, bacon, tomato, grilled onions, cheese, and of course A-1 Steak Sauce.

We both liked our choices, but agreed we really liked our normal Whataburger Jr’s better. We did get a Root Beer Shake to go to have later as dessert. All in all, a nice meal.

For dinner tonight, we had our leftover steak from Monday’s night Texas Roadhouse visit, which Jan sliced thin and put it some of the rolls we also brought home. Along with a baked potato, it made a really good meal.

I talked to Barbara Spade, the park ranger, this afternoon, She said they had got her new residential refrigerator installed and she really loves it. I’m going over to her rig tomorrow to take a look at her taillight problem. And then maybe a carwash/rig wash using my pressure washer may be in the cards.

Sign up for Passport America before 4/30 and get 4 extra FREE Months!

We’ll see.

“A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed.”

asdfsdf

Cue the BeeGee’s.

One thing I noticed about Verizon’s XLTE upgrade in this area it that it has apparently spilled over to my 3G aircard. Where normally I get around 1.5 Mbps day in, day out, now on XLTE, I’m pushing 3 Mbps, usually around 2.75 and up. Very Nice.

When I mentioned still having a 3G aircard, several readers wanted to know why I haven’t upgraded to a 4G model. The reason is simple.

My aircard, which dates back from 2007, still has unlimited data. And boy, do I need it.

Here’s my usage for this month.

Yes, that says 45.160 GB!

Now my usual usage is 25 to 30 GB for the month, but we’ve streamed 3 or 4 hour long TV shows this time, so it does add up. But I reset in 2 days, so it’s all good.

I came across an app a couple of days ago that solves a problem that has irritated me for a while on my Galaxy S5 and Tab 4. I hate it went I’m using an app, like Google Maps, and the screen shuts down on me. I’ll be using my phone to navigate somewhere and the screen goes black, so I have to reactivate it. Over and over.

Well, Stay Alive!, a free app, fixes that for you. Yes, you can just set your screen timeout for longer, but only up to 10 minutes, and then it stays on for everything whether you need it or not. Which doesn’t help your battery life.

But Stay Alive! takes care of that problem by letting you pick what apps you want to keep the screen on. For that me, that’s Maps (Google Maps), Sigalert, and Torque. And when you close the app, Stay Alive! turns off and goes to sleep.

Google Maps you know about, and Sigalert lets you check out the traffic data and cameras for major cities around the country, and Torque lets you monitor engine parameters using a Bluetooth interface like this one.

fgsdfgsf

Installing Stay Alive! is super easy, but the setup can be a little confusing. After you open the app initially, all settings are done from the Notification dropdown menu. Like this.

Sign up for Passport America before 4/30 and get 4 extra FREE Months!

Then when you tap on the Stay Alive! tab, it brings up this menu,

that lets you configure the app for the programs that you want to Stay Alive. 

A great app.

Let me know if you have a problem setting it up.

Recently when we needed more laundry detergent, rather than getting our usual Tide, we decided to try Persil, the new one that’s being advertised. Actually though, it’s only new here in the US, and it’s been the #1 seller in England for a while.

And here in the US, it has dethroned Tide as the best liquid detergent, as determined by Consumer Reports. However I’m not sure we can really tell any difference, since we don’t really get that dirty, but give it a try and check it out for yourself.

fgsdfgsf