Left Home December 1st with our little R-Pod and Toyota 4Runner for a two-month excursion across the country to Florida. Our intent was to spend Christmas at Disney World, then make a quick trip down to Key West and then home by February 1st.

Well, it hasn’t worked out that way. We did make a really great trip from Phoenix to Florida, stopping along the way and meeting some really wonderful fellow RV people. However, once in Florida, we traded our 18′ R-Pod in for a 36′ Keystone Montanna 5th wheel with 3 expansions To tow this monster we traded the 4Runner in for a 2011 Chevrolet 2500 HD, Diesel truck. We are now full-fledged members of the traveling RV community. It was never our intent to make the traded on this trip. It just happened that we stopped and looked a the Montanna and recognized that we truly loved this rig and the RV life.

I have never towed a big rig like our Montanna, and our first trip was to Key West with a stop in Fort Lauderdale. The first leg of our journey was really uneventful as most of the time we were on 4 lane roads. The second leg was different. I chose the scenic route through Miami to route 1 to Key West. The weather was overcast with spots of heavy rain, and wind.  Route 1 is a beautiful drive on a mostly single lane road where your average speed is like 45 mph. Needless to say its a long 130 miles. But once again the tow was easy.

We are back in central Florida till the end of February when it off to Kissimmee, Florida for a week to meet up with the kids and grandkids. We are taking the kids to Disney World for a couple of days. From there we plan to head back to Phoenix… well that’s the plan. Who knows we may be home by April or ???

Retirement is tough, but you know someone has to make the sacrifice. I hope to blog more about our experiences and the wonderful friends we have made along the way.

Here is Sandy with the two Bee’s we played bingo with every Tuesday night.

Here we are at the southern most point in the Continental US…

Moving back to the iPhone from android continues to be a great experience. For me it does everything I want effortlessly. Even the AT&T service seems to have improved. There people seem to be friendlier and are very helpful. Most importantly I no longer have dropped calls. 

Holding the phone where it is totally enclose by the hand does degrade the signal strength. I have tested this in several locals and find it only happens where the AT&T signal is down to one or two bars. With my speck protective case installed I can't reproduce the problem. I'm sure all the tech pundit's will continue to rail about this issue but really it's a non issue for real people. Yes pundit's are nor real people but a collection of talking heads spouting anything that will get the noticed. And yes I am referring to you Molly Wood. 
The iPhone camera is fantastic. It is now my only camera. Our trip the month of August was solely record with the iPhone. Actually sold my Canon digital SLR on eBay. For me the camera in the iPhone meets all my needs.

One real reservation about moving to the iPhone was giving up Google navigation. Turns out that the AT&T navigation system really works great. It's not free. However I actually like it better then the Google system. But if it were free I would really love it. For me the $10 per month fee is worth it, as I use it almost daily to navigate around my area (Phoenix, AZ).

I really tried to like PC's. For years I would buy the their new incarnation. But none ever really worked for me. The hardware was cheep and the operating system was flaky… The same is true of Android. I switched from an iPhone to a Verizon Blackberry Storm. Then upgraded to a Storm 2. Neither really met my needs. Went back to the iPhone… and later switched to a Verizon Droid. It was OK but still didn't meet my needs. Next switched back to an iPhone. Then because my entire family is on Verizon… I switched back to a Droid, and later upgraded to a droid x. Of all the non-iPhones, the droid x comes closest to meeting my needs. The droid x has a great screen, and camera. Its fast and loaded with non-removable Verizon crapware. Syncing with a computer is a pain… Verizon's thinks we all use PC's so gears its sync interface to PC's. I have spent ton's of time figuring out how to get the system to work for me… but it cant.

So its back to the iPhone for me… its AT&T I know, but the little computer that can also make phone call's  just works.

Just another peaceful retirement morning. No rush, no traffic, no meetings,…. just peace and quite. This is the 27th day of just beautiful mornings…

Verizon, just one of the blood sucking leaches that masquerade  as a service provider, has pretty much screwed up an otherwise good phone, the Droid X, with crapware. Guess they took the lead from PC makers. Verizon's crapware cannot be removed unless you root the phone and void there warranty and terms of use agreement. How nice.

Its back to the iPhone for me… its a crapware free zone.

Sandy and I purchased a 2010 R-Pod 175 from Jack and Nancy in Tucson, AZ. Jack was kind enough to deliver the unit to our home in Chandler, AZ last week on Thursday. This R-Pod is in better then new shape as Jack performed many of modifications discussed in this Wiki. Upon receipt our first action was to replace the bed. We found a queen size (60" x 80") foam mattress at our local Cosco's called NovaForm, Memory Foam 12". It comes vacuum packed. We just placed it on the bead frame, cut open the sealed bag, and within a couple of minutes the mattress expanded to fill the bed space. No cutting or other action was required. The very next day we took the R-Pod on its maiden voyage to Rancho Sedona RV park in Sedona, AZ. This was a 140 mile trip through some very steep mountains. Our pod towed flawlessly. The tow vehicle is a 2007 V6 4WD Toyota 4Runner. Passed many slower vehicles and achieved around 14 mpg. Needless to say we are pleased with the towing experience. The living experience at our campsite was great. As expected we discovered things we had forgotten to pack, but otherwise it was a most positive experience. Will post pictures on the bed modification and trip experience in the appropriate sections in a couple of days.

We do want to thank the members of the r-pod nation wiki community for all their help and sharing of R-Pod experiences. It made our decision to purchase both easy and a posative experience.

Beware of bluehost.com (Web Hosting Company), they automatically set you up for a 24 month "Renewal NOW". This setting is hidden some place on there web site. To cancel your account you have to call into their offices. Doing so is not an assurance they will actually cancel. I know, in my case I called to cancel my account and was told it was done. Then several months later I find a charge on my credit card for $190 to cover a 24 month renewal.

I purchased a new HP Mini 210 netbook from Sam’s Club. I have a limited need for a windows system and think this might work. Its been awhile since I set up a new PC and I forgot the pain. This system came with Windows 7 Starter. So my first action was to upgrade to Professional. Next was virus protection, and ESET’s nod32 is my choice. Cleaning all the unwanted junk took some time. Then installing Office 2007. Finally, I created a set of restore disks, backed up HD to an external drive and created an emergency recover disk. I am so spoiled… non of this is required with the Apple Mac.

The HP Mini 210 is definitely an improvement over my previous HP netbook. Centering the touch pad makes an improved typing experience. Windows 7 is a big improvement over XP. The keyboard is improved and the system seems much lighter. Its still underpowered with only a 1.66 GHz Atom processor. Perhaps upping memory to 2 GB will help. The system has only a three cell battery with 5 hr life. In spite of its shortcomings I like the system for light work and portability. I may need to invest in a 6 cell battery for a longer life.

This post is via Windows Live Writer… its great. Puts the fun back into blogging.

Encountered what I think is a unique bug using my Nexus One Google phone. When calling out the answering party could not hear me talk. However, incoming callers had no problem hearing me. Clearly this is not a hardware problem. As others have discovered, there is no way to contact Google for help except via email. Email to Google must be routed to the trash, cause there was no acknowledgement or response in over 24 hours. I called the service provider, T-Mobile, who rerouted me to HTC. HTC was very professional and resolved my issue. Just restore the phone to its factory settings, log into your gmail account and all is well.

The Nexus One with Android is really a great system. However, the total lack of customer support from Google ruined the experience. Until Google wakes up, I can never recommend anyone purchase their phone or use their services. Google customer service is the proverbial black hole. 

Time to switch back to an iPhone.