My husband, Bob and I with Izzy the Wonder Pup are fairly new to RVing. Currently on a cross-country trip from Southern California to The Villages in central Florida, Up to now, we've just been to local SoCal places like Pechanga Casino and RV Park (which we love, by the way), the cross-country trip is a new adventure. Being in the motorhome for a month or more is also a new adventure. So far, it's going well - and even I (Laura) am driving the Beast and the toad. I think Bob is going to stop white-knuckling any day now when I'm behind the wheel. My biggest gripe is the lack of decent wi-fi in parks - it seems to be the endless problem and even if we are retirees (although at 58 and 61, we're YOUNG retirees and we still work as writers), we need to check in regularly and post RV Park reviews! If any park owners are reading this (doubtful, but you never know), please please please do not assume that the over 55 set doesn't want or NEED decent wi-fi. It's what will get you a golden review - seriously. And with more people working who are location independent (actually that is us as writers), it's gone from nicety to necessity. Anyway - hello and hope you enjoy reading the reviews that I've posted. Look forward to getting to know you better, too. Oh, and because we're currently at a park with LOUSY wi-fi, I'm sitting at a local Starbucks as I write this.
Welcome to RVPR and thanks for all the reviews you just submitted. I'm sure they will be posted soon.
I fulltimed in a 5th wheel for 11 years and found wifi to be a hit or miss thing. When I was unsure I would add data time to my smart phone and use the hotspot for wifi. If the camp had good wifi that I could use theirs. It has gotten better over the years though. When we first started out we were lucky to get a phone line for the modem in the club house or office.
Welcome to the forum! Enjoy your trip from California to Florida and safe travels on all your future Rving adventures! Mike
Parks understand what is needed, believe me they've been hearing from us for a long time. We old people have been keeping up with kids and grandkids with Skype and realizing that the connection was too slow. We also understand "buffering". Your need for a work connection is just another facet of the same problem. The parks have not "assumed" anything there is only so much some can deliver. Where I am now Verizon parcels out bandwidth and there is no more available for this park. We use a Sprint "Pocket WiFi" very successfully. Also on a very boring day we can drive out to I-10 and watch all the cable laying equipment bringing fiber-optics to town for the first time. When the town gets high speed internet, we will get it too. We are all looking forward to this new day. I fear that many of the really beautiful spots, wonderful little towns with folks so rewarding to meet are by definition rural and maybe wifi deficient. I hope you don't miss them.
Thanks for the nice welcome! Yes, I do agree with you, Jack B., about how it's improving. We bought in 2014 and even from then it's better. I guess I am preaching to the choir here. But we are getting to the skype stage with our grandkids - one is 3 1/2 and our second one is getting near to one, so we have years of visits and skype and iphone facetime to go. Last night when I wrote about my frustration, it was in a park with horrible wi-fi (yes, hooray for Starbucks, but they aren't always right nearby). Today, though, we're at a park that not only gets it, they installed their own towers (and we happen to be right near one - yay!). We're here in Sulphur, Louisiana and were we able to, we'd stay another day or two - but the road calls and we need to get to our next stop (and then maybe spend a day riding out the coming thunderstorms.) Anyway - thanks again for the nice welcome. Look forward to contributing to the community! After all, I use you guys before I make my own decisions, too.
What I find amusing is that so many park owners use the "that's all the bandwidth we can get defense" regardless of the location of their parks. It's one thing for a rural park to claim limited bandwidth and entirely another for a park in an urban area to make the same claim. Furthermore, it's often not just a question of what Verizon or AT&T or Comcast will provide, but, rather, what will one of the smaller, more creative telecom companies offer to do. My personal experience has been that "it's not possible" may be the correct answer in a particular case but when the problem is truly researched the answer more often becomes "it can be done, but lets decide if it's economically viable."
Welcome to the site. You and the rest of those who do extended trips are in the same boat (RV) with wanting decent WiFi. Don't forget the library, especially in a small town, for getting online. Congrats for taking on driving duties. Husbands don't ever get over the white-knuckle thing. We have a DNA gene. Tell yours to go take a nap on the coach. It's what I do when my DW drives. Be sure to stop in Texas for some good BBQ and TexMex. It's gonna take you two days to get across our state so you have plenty of time. The indication of a good place to eat it is the one with the most pick-up trucks in the parking lot.
RLM, yep, we love Texas! In fact, some of my pending reviews are of parks in Fort Stockton and Boerne. Correct about how long it is to get across on the I-10 - I counted 880 mile markers!! Plus my bonus son (I think we used to call them step-sons, but bonus son is so much nicer, and when I married Bob ten years ago, I inherited four and he got one bonus son, so we're parents to five young men) and his wife just moved to Dripping Springs, outside of Austin, so you know we'll be here often. That's where the 3 1/2-year-old granddaughter is.
Love you already Ellistea! Welcome aboard to a fellow Californian. We used an "air card" for the first 4 years on the road. Laptop crashed at some point, and we discovered all that unlimited wi-fi time, had gone the way of the dodo bird. We too use cell phone hot spot when the need overwhelms the will to drive to a coffee shop with free wi-fi.
