Tonight I am settling in and staying warm in the Winnebago. I am in a campground outside of (chilly) Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
This campground, like most campgrounds, advertises that wi-fi Internet access is available. The claim is accurate, or at least somewhat accurate. There seems to be a wi-fi hotspot in or very near the main campground office building and store. However, it is a large campground and the signal doesn't cover the entire campground. I haven't yet experimented by walking around and measuring signal strength. However, I am camped about 200 feet from the main building and I only see a very weak wi-fi signal. It is so slow as to only be marginally useful.
I received a surprise today. I left Massachusetts before daybreak and drove to the Providence, Rhode Island airport. The weather was abnormally warm for the last day of November: in the mid-50s, even before daybreak. I flew to Jacksonville, Florida. I then left the airport and headed for the motor home campground. It was cold! It was colder in Jacksonville in the mid-afternoon than it had been before dawn in Massachusetts.
It's travel time again. So what else is new? By the time you read this, I should be in Florida, moving into the motor home for a few days. However, I'll only be there for a week.
Part of the reason for living in the motor home for only a week is to perform a bit of a "shakedown cruise" and make sure all systems are operational, ready for a longer stay. I hope to have full Internet access during my stay and should be able to post new articles here on a regular basis. However, if the computer gods don't smile at the right time, there is a risk of not being able to post new articles.
The rearview mirror in the middle of the windshield in my Winnebago is nearly useless. All I can see is the hallway and a bit of the bedroom, not too handy for checking traffic. I can also see a bit of the back window that is 31 feet behind me and sometimes I can even look through the back window to see a truck behind me. It doesn't work too well for seeing automobiles, as most of them are too low to be seen easily through the rear window that is about six feet off the ground. I use the outside rearview mirrors most of the time.
Now a Chinese company has announced a kit that replaces any standard rearview mirror with a GPS and Bluetooth 2.1-enabled unit featuring a 4.3-inch touchscreen for multimedia playback and even playing touchscreen games (!), while DVR capabilities let you record what goes on inside and outside the car. And, yes, it even functions as a rearview mirror as it displays video from a tiny video camera mounted on the back of the vehicle. This thing has more gadgets than a Swiss Army Knife!
I have written before about security issues when using wireless wi-fi networks in public places. Most public access wi-fi networks are not encrypted, meaning that anyone with the proper software can intercept and read whatever you are sending and receiving. I wrote about this recently in an article entitled Turn Off File Sharing in Your Laptop! that is still available at http://goo.gl/jqGgh. When traveling with a laptop and connecting from hotel rooms, coffee shops, airport terminals, and elsewhere, I always use a VPN (virtual private network) to encrypt my communications and to keep everything private. However, until today, I didn't have a good VPN product for the iPhone.
Unhooking the motor home from all of its connections and driving down to a local store or out for sightseeing is inconvenient, to say the least. Many people haul small autos or motorcycles behind the motor home as their "runabouts."
I have been trying to decide whether to haul my SmartCar on a trailer behind the motor home or perhaps to simply take a bicycle, scooter, or motorcycle. However, Chris Lamb sent a picture of the "perfect solution." Well, it's perfect if you have money:
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