If you know me or have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I don’t usually mince words. I have stated before that in a park of two hundred sites there are going to be a couple of north ends of a horse running south…if you get what I’m saying! They come in all shapes and sizes and sooner or later they all will raise their head and expose their true character, last night we had a sighting of a large one, short stocky, bald headed, pot bellied, and spoke of himself in the third party…true to form this one was fuelled by some sort of recreational medication, not alcohol I have seen enough drunks, and didn’t act like a pot head (I know a few of them to), no this one was a glassy eyed goof that I found outside pissing on the shrubs beside his neighbours trailer with his rottweiler leg cocked pissing on the bushes beside him, how cute I thought a bitch and her master marking their territory!

Let’s just call this this goof Jack Anderson in fact let’s call him Jack A. for short and in changing his name I’m just trying to protect his identity, after all I don’t want him feeling bullied. So the encounter starts Jack A. I said calmly some people in the park have voiced concerns with the volume of the music you are playing, Jack A’s instant response was I should tell them to go home (I have got to admit I didn’t see that one coming, and that wasn’t one of the solutions I had even thought of), so I tried to explain to him that did not seem like a viable solution, so I suggested maybe just turning the volume down might be easier, hell I even said please, to which I got the “who the hell are you to tell me to turn my music down?” So I explained that I was the park manager, and that was when he started the whole third person thing telling me Jack could play his music untill 11 o’clock, I said no you can’t play Jacks music so loud that people three rows over are complaining, and then the line I love the best Jack A. rolls out the “I know the owner” line, I said Jack A. so do I which seemed to be a lot for Jack A’s little drug induced mind to handle so when he recovered enough he wanted to speak to the owner well Richard and Bonnie were not in the park, but through the wonder of modern technology I was able to get the Richard on the phone so Jack A. was able to hear from the owner that this was not an acceptable form of behaviour in the park.

Of course after the call Jack A. still had to act defiant after all he had just marked his territory, so I just headed down the road to give the drug induced mind of Jack A. a little time to try to understand what was happening, and when I did my next drive by about thirty minutes later the volume was much better, and with my next trip by the drug induced Jack A. had left the park. That’s great, well no, not so much as now I’m feeling bad about not just called the police at the beginning of this encounter, now Jack A. is out there driving impaired risking the lives of innocent people, now I am second guessing my self, I followed the directions given to me but here is a case of what could I have done different. If I had seen him leaving I could have reported it to the local police, then Jack A. who is to my understanding a truck driver would probably have lost licence and his livelihood, but after a little pause for thought at least everyone would still have been alive and well….I think that this one has to go down in the books as a failure on my part….it definitely will be an ahh ha moment and I will handle it better next time. A few quick photos for documentation, licence plate number to report to the police, and some proof of Jack A’s interactions with me, yes next time I will be better prepared, and may take a second person for videoing the incident or a dash cam operating on the cart would make it much easier when it comes time to renew Jack A’s lease agreement…or not…just thinking.

When Laurie and I started this adventure nearly two years ago we used to look at the web sites of the camp ground and all would advertise free wifi…we have learned that there is no such thing as free wifi. And in the two years I have heard so many excuses as to why the wifi is not good, or why it’s just not good today…let me put all these excuses to rest with one simple warning you get what you pay for…if you are paying nothing you’re expectations should nothing and on that note every park has given me what I paid for…nothing!

Every campground we checked into stated they had wifi and like fools we kept believing that the next one would have the promised internet but in reality none did. Now that is not totally true we stayed for a month in a small town in Arizona and as much as I complained about the internet there it was probably some of the best we have experienced, I was able to do some work but we were not going to be streaming movies. But even big expensive parks like one we stayed at in Las Vegas had terrible internet as well, the sad part is we kept thinking there was something that we could do to make it better. In Newfoundland last summer we would have to walk up to the office and sit outside to get internet, last fall I purchased a WineGard signal booster and it did help picking up and staying connected to the parks signal and that is when I totally understood the problem was bandwidth no other reason just bandwidth and the lack of it.

If camp owners wanted to they could provide great internet, but they don’t want to because it’s too dam expensive for them, so they provide a service that has no band width because it is the most inexpensive way to offer free internet and if your close enough to the antenna and there are only a few people in the park you may be able surf the web if you are a patient person…I do not fall into that category!

So we have taken steps to keep ourselves connected, some work well, some don’t given different circumstances each has its benefits. We have a cell phone package still through my business that gives us 20 gig of shareable data, it is expensive enough in Canada but it is usable in the States as well through a plan “roam-like home” which in the beginning was $5 a day per phone when in the US but it topped out at a maximum of ten days (so 2 phones @ $5/ day X 10 days $100 total) but in typical Canadian cell phone provider fashion they have jacked that to $7 a day for fifteen days (2 phones @ $7 X 15 days $210 total) and that happened in January of our first season on the road with thirty days notice…OUCH

In Canada we have a Rogers Rocket hub it will give us speeds of 60 mbps if the cellular is strong, problem it is very expensive to purchase data in Canada plain and simple we are getting ripped off. I also have to pay to put the plan on hold when we are in the States and pay to reactive it when we return. And to add insult to injury the coverage is bad, real bad, it’s not even real good along major through ways. In the United States we have a Verizon JetPak that the cost is $70 a month, on a pay as you go unlimited data but can be throttled after 40 gig, the best speeds I have seen are 20 mbps which is more that enough to meet our requirements.

In the fall of 2017 when we first started out and I was trying to finish off some of the business documents, we purchased an upgrade plan from Pilot so when ever we we near a Pilot or Flying J we could hook up to high speed internet, I think the package was $99.00 US and ran for a year, it was designed for the benefit of the trucking world but it did work for us as well, while not the most convenient as long as we were on the interstate highways there was usually a Pilot near by. As we quickly learnt this was going to be a major issue.

So we land at our work camping job this summer and internet is part of our compensation package and it sucks as well, they charge for internet $245 for season for first device, and $30 per device for additional units and the bandwidth is limited no streaming and it is poor then the park is not busy and none existent when it is. Because of the camp location the only option is cellular and the best cellular here is Bell Canada and it is poor…so we were bouncing between the parks Bell service and our Rogers service using which ever would work the best. People weren’t buying it because it sucked and the owners knew that, they were just trying to cover their expense as the bad service to the park was expensive…and then came a man named Joe, not an alias he is a local fellow that has figured out how to solve the poor internet problem in the area and I’m pretty sure he is making a buck as well. There are wind turbines in the area and apparently they are controlled by a fibre optic internet connection. He has been able to cut a deal to use the unneeded bandwidth and to beam it to a satellite receiver on the roof of the office that has amazing speed and is unlimited data…too good to be true?

Well no it is true, we are on the parks connection and have been streaming videos with little or no issue, he has set up the park on the same type of a system, pay per device with discounts for multiple units, speed is set at 6 meg per second and is unlimited, it’s been up and running to the whole park for two weeks and he is signing up all kinds of new clients (over 40 the first week) as the word travels through the park, and no one is complaining, it is a campground miracle!

Our WineGard still has a valuable purpose, when we are on the road travelling and staying in Walmart or any parking lot actually it picks up what signals are available and repeats a boosted signal into the coach. This has been very handy as we like to park away from the buildings but like to use some free internet when we can…one of the best companies for free internet seems to be Lowe’s in the States, but be prepared for early morning shipments…lol