Test driving true 4G:
In our rural area, our AT&T cell service data is 2G, forget all those constant TV adds for the wonders of 4G, it's not happening in our neck of the woods! Or even any area around unless you drive at least 30 miles to get HSPA +, or 3.5G.
But with this trip to California, I got to see and actually live with 4G service, I loved it!!
The best 4G, of course, was in the San Jose area. I could use data on my Galaxy S II with response as quick or often quicker than even our Wi-Fi at work. Stacy's iPhone 3GS only goes to 3G speeds so she did see some better and way more consistent speed but my phone is the only 4G capable phone we have at the moment. I also take care and monitor data usage so I was really curious how I'd do with the 4G availability as for the week we'd have to primarily use our phones for Internet.
Now it was true, just about every RV park we stayed at said they had 'wireless Internet access', but most places we could never connect, not a strong enough signal where we were parked, or if we did the rate (measured by the 'Speed Test' app on my phone) was so slow we would switch back to our phones. I will say that even with the free reign of 4G, and since I wasn't interested in watching lots of video, I only used 400 MB of my 2 GB monthly limit. I did find out that what I've read about 4G eating battery life could be true IF you don't change settings, stop constant updates, or don't carry around extra batteries. I already had the battery part covered though by buying a double sized battery and new back cover for my phone shortly after getting it for only $7.00 on eBay. It was, and is, very nice indeed to not have to worry about battery life!!! Replaceable batteries and user customization are why I like Android best!
Summertime Trips:
I know I mentioned in my last post that I really don't like to take summer vacations. I was spoiled years ago because with most people taking time off for trips during the summer in our Animal Control days, we could very seldom even get scheduled to take trips in that traditional vacation time. So we got used to planning and taking our trips in either the spring or more often early fall. So much nicer then! Cooler weather, usually no crowds, no need for months in advance reservations. To me this early fall time frame is absolutely the best time of the year to go places!
In fact we were so used to not worrying about reservations we felt we didn't need any, especially since we had our trailer, and found out how wrong we were! Our first night we wandered considerably longer than we had planned since we couldn't find any RV parks or campgrounds that were not full. From the Dalles and all the way to Portland and then partly down the I-5 before we found a place. And with the heat we had to have electricity for the trailer to run the air conditioner, just too hot to 'park at a Wal-Mart'! Which we have done twice before on trips.
It was just plain hot everywhere, heat wave central the entire area of the trip. When we got to Redding California it was still 103 at 7ish in the evening. But by this time Stacy had started to call ahead and make sure there was a vacancy or get a reservation if needed in the area we'd decided would be the destination for the night. And still hot all the way home and even back home. While we were spending time in Winnemucca, I checked the weather app on my phone hoping it had finally cooled from the heat that was going when we left North Idaho. I was so happy to see that the weather was 'supposed' to be back into the 70s, and that was about 30 degrees cooler than it was where we were. Then we finally get home and find out three things;
Those Crazy California Drivers!:
I guess I would probably still fall into that category if we still lived in California. If you drive a lot in it all you kinda just get used to it but I always thought it so odd that the more crowded the traffic got that the more people would tailgate and sped, no wonder there are so many accidents there! Now with a trailer in tow it wasn't really a problem, you just kinda hang in the slower lanes and try to run with or avoid getting run over by the big rigs. I was surprised how most of the big trucks weren't speeding like the cars or as I recall many trucks did in Southern Calif. But after we were settled in the San Jose RV park, and during our 20 minutes drives to Sandy and Erik's place, it was often 75 or 80 MPH, just to keep with the flow of the traffic!! And the speed limit was supposed to be 65 MPH.
Most days in getting in the car pool lane going to or coming back from Sandy's, I'd be doing that 75 or 80 and holding up the cars behind us! CRAZY!! And sooooooo dangerous to!
But our only 'almost' accident of the whole trip was while we were in the old 'stop and go' heavy traffic heading back to Sandy's from Ikea. So we're in the stop and go in the slow lane all set to change freeways about a mile ahead and to my left an overly tanned balding older guy, complete with all the gold jewelry and cut off t-shirt, in his 'mid-life crises' mobile of a Mercedes convertible, he apparently thinks that the roughly car and a half length gap between our truck and the car in front of us was just big enough for him to take a chance of being two seconds closer to wherever he was going. So no signal and what makes it worse is that his car misses a beat as he stomps on it and goes NOW right in front of us and comes so close to getting slammed in the right rear side by our truck. Had we been towing our trailer I couldn't have stopped and would have clobbered him. Whew!
The Palaces of the Technology World:
While we were driving around the San Jose area that week in the general area and epicenter of almost all things "gadget", Sandy pointed out a few headquarters of major players in the tech world. I don't know about you but I can kind of imagine them to be an almost Disneyland kind of place. I mean I've seen the photos of all the giant sculptures of Android and Google things at the Google headquarters, didn't see that one though. Or the designs of the to be built 'spaceship' at the Apple "campus", we didn't go to Cupertino though, but we were so close!
But in honesty they're almost all in your normal office building type complex. It's the selling of the product that gives the illusion of a wonderful tech playground. Like the Netflix headquarters Sandy pointed out as Erik works there, it looked like a Spanish style motel actually. Microsoft, except for the signage, just another glass walled office complex. And the horse show Stacy and I went to was just down from the eBay headquarters, and that looked like any other business office complex in any large town USA except for the eBay sign at the entrance to the enormous parking area.
Like so much of what's really valued in today's America, it's all an illusion!
Till next time- Tad
In our rural area, our AT&T cell service data is 2G, forget all those constant TV adds for the wonders of 4G, it's not happening in our neck of the woods! Or even any area around unless you drive at least 30 miles to get HSPA +, or 3.5G.
But with this trip to California, I got to see and actually live with 4G service, I loved it!!
The best 4G, of course, was in the San Jose area. I could use data on my Galaxy S II with response as quick or often quicker than even our Wi-Fi at work. Stacy's iPhone 3GS only goes to 3G speeds so she did see some better and way more consistent speed but my phone is the only 4G capable phone we have at the moment. I also take care and monitor data usage so I was really curious how I'd do with the 4G availability as for the week we'd have to primarily use our phones for Internet.
Now it was true, just about every RV park we stayed at said they had 'wireless Internet access', but most places we could never connect, not a strong enough signal where we were parked, or if we did the rate (measured by the 'Speed Test' app on my phone) was so slow we would switch back to our phones. I will say that even with the free reign of 4G, and since I wasn't interested in watching lots of video, I only used 400 MB of my 2 GB monthly limit. I did find out that what I've read about 4G eating battery life could be true IF you don't change settings, stop constant updates, or don't carry around extra batteries. I already had the battery part covered though by buying a double sized battery and new back cover for my phone shortly after getting it for only $7.00 on eBay. It was, and is, very nice indeed to not have to worry about battery life!!! Replaceable batteries and user customization are why I like Android best!
Summertime Trips:
I know I mentioned in my last post that I really don't like to take summer vacations. I was spoiled years ago because with most people taking time off for trips during the summer in our Animal Control days, we could very seldom even get scheduled to take trips in that traditional vacation time. So we got used to planning and taking our trips in either the spring or more often early fall. So much nicer then! Cooler weather, usually no crowds, no need for months in advance reservations. To me this early fall time frame is absolutely the best time of the year to go places!
In fact we were so used to not worrying about reservations we felt we didn't need any, especially since we had our trailer, and found out how wrong we were! Our first night we wandered considerably longer than we had planned since we couldn't find any RV parks or campgrounds that were not full. From the Dalles and all the way to Portland and then partly down the I-5 before we found a place. And with the heat we had to have electricity for the trailer to run the air conditioner, just too hot to 'park at a Wal-Mart'! Which we have done twice before on trips.
It was just plain hot everywhere, heat wave central the entire area of the trip. When we got to Redding California it was still 103 at 7ish in the evening. But by this time Stacy had started to call ahead and make sure there was a vacancy or get a reservation if needed in the area we'd decided would be the destination for the night. And still hot all the way home and even back home. While we were spending time in Winnemucca, I checked the weather app on my phone hoping it had finally cooled from the heat that was going when we left North Idaho. I was so happy to see that the weather was 'supposed' to be back into the 70s, and that was about 30 degrees cooler than it was where we were. Then we finally get home and find out three things;
1. The weather information was so wrong! STILL in the 90s in our own area!
2. Our place looked like a jungle after being only gone a week and a half
3. A 60 foot tall fir tree had somehow been blown over from the middle of a small group of trees and just missed taking out our bedroom deck or a chunk of the house!
Those Crazy California Drivers!:
I guess I would probably still fall into that category if we still lived in California. If you drive a lot in it all you kinda just get used to it but I always thought it so odd that the more crowded the traffic got that the more people would tailgate and sped, no wonder there are so many accidents there! Now with a trailer in tow it wasn't really a problem, you just kinda hang in the slower lanes and try to run with or avoid getting run over by the big rigs. I was surprised how most of the big trucks weren't speeding like the cars or as I recall many trucks did in Southern Calif. But after we were settled in the San Jose RV park, and during our 20 minutes drives to Sandy and Erik's place, it was often 75 or 80 MPH, just to keep with the flow of the traffic!! And the speed limit was supposed to be 65 MPH.
Most days in getting in the car pool lane going to or coming back from Sandy's, I'd be doing that 75 or 80 and holding up the cars behind us! CRAZY!! And sooooooo dangerous to!
But our only 'almost' accident of the whole trip was while we were in the old 'stop and go' heavy traffic heading back to Sandy's from Ikea. So we're in the stop and go in the slow lane all set to change freeways about a mile ahead and to my left an overly tanned balding older guy, complete with all the gold jewelry and cut off t-shirt, in his 'mid-life crises' mobile of a Mercedes convertible, he apparently thinks that the roughly car and a half length gap between our truck and the car in front of us was just big enough for him to take a chance of being two seconds closer to wherever he was going. So no signal and what makes it worse is that his car misses a beat as he stomps on it and goes NOW right in front of us and comes so close to getting slammed in the right rear side by our truck. Had we been towing our trailer I couldn't have stopped and would have clobbered him. Whew!
The Palaces of the Technology World:
While we were driving around the San Jose area that week in the general area and epicenter of almost all things "gadget", Sandy pointed out a few headquarters of major players in the tech world. I don't know about you but I can kind of imagine them to be an almost Disneyland kind of place. I mean I've seen the photos of all the giant sculptures of Android and Google things at the Google headquarters, didn't see that one though. Or the designs of the to be built 'spaceship' at the Apple "campus", we didn't go to Cupertino though, but we were so close!
But in honesty they're almost all in your normal office building type complex. It's the selling of the product that gives the illusion of a wonderful tech playground. Like the Netflix headquarters Sandy pointed out as Erik works there, it looked like a Spanish style motel actually. Microsoft, except for the signage, just another glass walled office complex. And the horse show Stacy and I went to was just down from the eBay headquarters, and that looked like any other business office complex in any large town USA except for the eBay sign at the entrance to the enormous parking area.
Like so much of what's really valued in today's America, it's all an illusion!
Till next time- Tad
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