Tech

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Tired in Harlingen

I am at the motel in Harlingen. My internet connection keeps cutting out for some reason, so I may not be able to churn out all the news about today’s adventures.

One thing I do have to say about today: I ran into Marianne and Randy Edwards!!!!!! We were actually parked next to each other on the beach the other day for a few hours and didn’t recognize each other!  They were parked in the Corpus Christi tourist info centre when I pulled in this afternoon, and we ran into each other at the Kingville Walmart.

Marianne Edwards with Rae

Marianne Edwards with Rae

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A Strange Weather Day

I spent most of this afternoon at the McDonald’s in Port Lavaca until my Mac was fully charged. It was pretty pleasant until a teeming mass of high school kids came in and then the place just got too busy for me. The kids weren’t rowdy or anything and they took up the complete opposite corner of the restaurant, but their chatter filled the room completely. I was glad the laptop was just about charged so I could get out of there.

After the mega storm, the weather vacillated between sunny with white clouds and very overcast. It spit occasionally, but that was it.

I got home to discover I’d gotten 2% worth of charge and was sitting at a 88% battery capacity. Voltage readings were good, too, but that didn’t last of course. Voltage drops in the evening are crazy, I can’t even turn on two LED lights at the same time. I know my wiring and and connections are good so I’m wondering if the problem is the house wiring being too small.

I also now know that my fridge has to do with the low voltage readings I’m getting as it was OFF when I came in, probably because it was competing with the computer for voltage during the storm. I installed my thermometres and will make it a point to check the status of the fridge more regularly. All that to say, I got in and my voltage readings were 12.48 and as soon as the fridge kicked on, voltage dropped to 12.1. I just repeated the exercise, 11.7 with nothing on but the fridge, 12.3 with the fridge on. What a sneaky devil! It only consumes 0.5A, but it’s a voltage monster!

So maybe I don’t have as much of a problem as I thought this morning. That 12.3 reading is very close to what my battery monitor is saying right now. So my problem has to do with voltage drops. Anyone care to chime on that? And, again, all of my modifications were made with 1-gauge wiring in very short lengths. So my wire gauge and connections are NOT suspect!

At any rate, a good part of tonight was devoted to planning my trip!!! I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to think about it! Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking to be great, so I’m not too motivated to set off at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The plan is to wander down to Port Aransas to check it out and scout out the boondocking opportunities. Then off to Corpus Christi for the latter part of the afternoon to see what it’s all about. Then off to a hotel near the border for the night. The weather is too iffy to count on sleeping in the truck and a looooooooooong shower would be so appreciated!

I wasn’t able to get a good enough deal on Priceline, so I booked through Hotwire, where I found the cheapest rate of all, $44.15 (including taxes and fees) at the La Copa Inn in Harlingen. Reviews for it are fair, so I’m optimistic. It’ll be a 40 minute drive to the border on Friday morning.

My appointment with the dentist is at 1PM. I have good directions and plenty of time to find him. I will be able to explore in the morning, have lunch, and get in line to cross back at a reasonable hour. I plan to do a cannonball run to home in the evening, unless I get a repeat of Tijuana and get stuck at the border for three plus hours.

Wow, it’s late (10:00 p.m., ha ha ha ha I can’t get used to my new schedule). I’ll update from my hotel tomorrow night.

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Amazon Prime Shipping To General Delivery

I get free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. They ship with UPS and it’s always been my understanding that a courrier company won’t deliver to a post office. So I did a little research and found a post on an RV forum by a guy who seemed to have all the answers. He claimed to have often addressed packages along the lines of “1 Big Bus Parked At the Hot Springs” and never had a lost delivery! His tip for Amazon Prime shipping to general delivery made sense and I decided to try it.

This is the format:

Your name
GENERAL DELIVERY
The street address of the post office
City State Zip Code

I placed my order late Monday and got my delivery confirmation this morning. I let the storm pass and then headed into town (hauling both computers to charge them at McDonalds, an expense that will be categorized under electricity and not food! But I digress.)

I told the lady at the post office counter that I had a general delivery package from Amazon (the boxes are distinctive) from UPS. She said that UPS had passed, but the packages were not yet sorted. She was willing to go have a superficial glance at the pile (was it really that big?!), otherwise I would have to come back tomorrow. She was gone about two minutes and returned triumphantly holding my box. Yay!

Part of my order was thermometres for the refrigerator and freezer, recommended by Andy Baird. My near disaster made me realise I should be monitor such things. I also grabbed a cheap keyboard for my iPad. I want to see if such a thing really will make me use my iPad even more before I splurge on a good one.

Now that I know that I can get Amazon Prime orders shipped general delivery, I will be making use of this service more often. I did feel safer sending an order to reader Pam’s mom in Houston, however!

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A Full Charge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I can be excused for the number of exclamation points in my title; no?

I was FINALLY able to recalibrate my battery monitor. From now on, it will tell me the TRUTH and I will truly be in control of my electrical destiny!

IMGP5644

This was an almost equally welcome sight:

IMGP5645

This reading tells me that I am putting in more voltage than I am taking out. In other words, I am charging my computer for FREE.

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Early Morning Visitor

No sooner did I have the front door open this morning (the weather has been lovely enough to just use the screen door all day) and the truck started that there was a knock. Thankfully, I was dressed! I turned off the kettle as it was whistling and turned my attention to my visitor, a French Canadian gentleman with the very, very French Canadian name of Jean-Guy.

He asked me if it was my wifi signal that he had picked up the night before on his booster. I explained that I use Verizon and he noted the info, impressed by the fact that I can use the voice plan in Canada. The cost would be a bit much for someone looking just for email, but it sounds like he uses a lot of bandwidth as he actually understands the concept of bandwidth usage.

I gently told him that I consider using those wifi boosters to seek and use open wifi signals is theft (I put it much more politely than that). I said the same thing to the other French-Canadian couple parked near me. I have no problem with the idea of using one of those to get access to a McDonald’s connection from a parking lot since their wifi is free (no purchase necessary) and it’s too slow to be able to steal any bandwidth worth mentioning. But using one to find a random signal from a house in the wilderness is wrong, as evidenced by the fact that the signal was locked down while he was using it.

He’s essentially traveling the same route as me, but backwards, and is headed for New Orleans, having stopped here to avoid the Super Bowl crowds.

Finally, he asked me an amusing question, do I pass myself off as québécoise or French Canadian? I replied the latter. He nodded in agreement, saying, “Me too! Franco-Ontarians and Franco-Manitobans hate our guts! Here’s a tip: don’t wave a Quebec flag around unless you want to alienate the neighbours!” I suddenly had this vision of him and his wife getting run out of a campground by a bunch of angry non-separatist French Canadians waving dirty sewer hoses!