Internet and other things

Being places we have never been before presents problems we haven't had to deal with before. For instance, internet that works sporadically. When you are in your sticks and bricks house you usually are connected to your internet by a cable service or satelite or something that makes your internet work whenever you turn on your computer. And, it works rather quickly. Browsing the internet is a quick process.

But, out here on the road we rely on our Sprint service and the wifi hotspot on my phone. Doesn't work so good when there is only one tower and it is about 10 miles away. Soooo, to insure that we will mostly always have internet service we purchased a Verizon aircard to use whenever we are in a verizon area and the sprint area doesn't work so well. Now, we have a choice so that we can have internet, so that we can blog, surf and work.

Well, the problem we run into with verizon is that there is also only one tower in this area...albeit it is only TWO miles away...pretty close...but when traffic gets heavy we start getting s....l....o....w...e....r service and occasionly get kicked off.

Ok, with me so far? So now we have purchased a Wilson Antenna, an amplifier and a wireless router. Believe it or not it was relatively easy to set up and now we have our VERIZON signal boosted and surfing and working on the internet seems to be much easier. Of course that doesn't help the TRAFFIC problem, so we just try to stay off the internet (at least the working part) form about 8 until 830am, around lunch time and about 5pm to about 630.

Ok, sorry about the long internet explanation but that's my excuse for a WHOLE week of not posting........

So, what did we do this week? Well on Saturday we went to Oracle, AZ and visited the Biosphere 2.

The drive down there was south 40 miles through the desert. No towns, barely any houses, and those were mostly very far off the road. We did stop at a nice little rest area....

Here's the link to our Picasa Web album to see the rest of the pictures: Trip to Biosphere

It was a very interesting tour...walking for about 3 hours down into the heart of the biosphere...When we finished the tour and walked back to the parking lot, we decided that we weren't taking anymore tours (in desert heat) that were all downhill, because then the walk back was all uphill and under the sun!!

On our way home we just HAD to stop and take THIS picture:

Dave wants to know where the rest of the Arnold's are to help clean up this highway??!!


Nothing very interesting the rest of the week. On Tuesday dragged the 5er up to Phoenix to a DRV dealer to get some warranty work done. We will have to go back next Friday, as they needed to order more parts. We drove around Mesa and Gilbert and just kind of wasted the day away while we waited. Took the dogs to a park to run around, went to Camping World and Petco, had lunch and then went back to the dealer. We got back to Desert Gardens about 3:30, got set back up, had dinner and then watched TV.....see....not very exciting.

Today, Thursday, we will be working for a few hours, then Skittles has a vet appt to check her Thyroid levels, then shopping while we are near Walmart and then who knows!!

We have an Easter potluck here at the RV park on Sunday, but don't know what else we will be doing.

We will be taking the 5er back to the dealer next Friday and then head north from there. Planning on staying in the Flagstaff area a few days...see the Grand Canyon and whatever else there is up there....We might even take an ATV tour of the canyons around Sedona...we'll see.

OK, that's got you all caught up.

SHOUTOUT to our Daughter in Law Jennifer....she has quit smoking and is doing great! We are so proud of her! Also to our Granddaughter, Erica!! She just got elected to the 2nd grade Student Council! Future Politician in the family??