AT&T MiFi

Since I don't believe I covered this earlier, a Mi-Fi is basically a portable, battery operated device for establishing a private wi-fi network (if wi-fi is over your head you'll need to figure that out on your own, but basically it is a wireless way to connect to the internet).  The Mi-Fi basically gets access to the internet by establishing a connection to a cellular phone network (in our case, AT&T's network).  So anywhere that we have coverage in AT&T's network, we'll also be able to connect to the internet to stay in touch, shop, etc.  The cost of this service is based upon how much data gets passed through the cellular network while we are online.

Alea and I had planned to cut the cord on our landline phone and internet connections soon after acquiring our AT&T MiFi device a few weeks ago.  The salespeople at AT&T assured us that 5GB of data per month should be adequate for us, as long as we weren't e-mailing lots of large photos or viewing lots of YouTube videos.  It turns out that was a load of BS.

While we did cut the cord on our landline phone (the number of which we transferred to Alea's new cell phone), it has become necessary to maintain our CenturyLink wired internet for a while longer, as blogging, shopping for supplies and planning parts of our itinerary could easily have gobbled up at least twice as much data as our plan allowed.  That should be less of an issue once we're traveling, though we'll probably need, at least on occasion, to plan big data usages for times when we have access to free wifi at Starbucks or McDonalds.

We tried a number of things to reign in our data usage before temporarily opting to maintain our wired internet connection:

1. Our Chrome browsers have a data saver option (still being beta tested) that reduces data usage by about 15%, effectively giving us an extra five free days of data per month.  
2. We changed our Gmail settings so that images embedded in the e-mails are not automatically downloaded.  
3. We stopped reading the newspaper online for a few days to see what impact that made.
4. We changed the settings in our Moto G phones so that we don't automatically back up our photos to Google Drive (instead, we now manually specify when to backup, based upon when we are on free wifi).
5. I'll likely plan on drafting blog posts in Google Docs while offline, and then cut-and-paste them into Blogger when online.
6. And we've basically looked for any other way to minimize our data footprint.

Still, with all that, if I shopped a bit too long on Amazon.com or eBay, or spent an afternoon researching a topic of interest, we'd be using data at a clip that would exceed our 5 GB monthly data allocation.  

We had scouted around for mobile internet solutions and reluctantly got into a two year contract with AT&T, where we get 5 GB of data for $50 per month (with an additional $10 per GB for any overage), as that allowed us to avoid the up front cost of the MiFi device (which would have been $150).  We visited the local AT&T store to talk with a salesperson, since we wanted to be clear about the advertised free access to AT&T's "nationwide WiFi network."  That is basically all of the McDonalds and Starbucks, plus some smaller franchises and independent shops.  Since WiFi is already free in those places, we presumed that going there with our MiFi would mean we'd have a secure connection, bypassing, for instance, the McDonald's portal that you go through to access their WiFi.  We were assured that is indeed the way the system works.  I tried that out this afternoon, and it turns out that is NOT the case (no surprise that two different salesmen would tell us what they think we wanted to hear, rather than giving us factual information).

But it is pretty cheesy that AT&T would advertise "access to their free nationwide wi-fi network," when in fact it is a network that is paid for by subscribing businesses, and it is those businesses (and not AT&T) who provide it for free!

I've never been a big fan of AT&T, but we chose them as the least of the known evils and because their cell coverage is better than most of the cheaper options.  Of course they quickly reinforced my lack of faith in them when we received an e-mail notification of our first bill, which they sent to us in VIDEO format, thoughtfully telling us that we'd be using part of our data allocation to view the damn thing!  Needless to say, this served to further validate my mistrust of established telecoms (I'll look forward to dumping them someday when a better option comes along!).  With a little extra effort, it was possible to view an html version of the bill, with minimal impact on our data usage.

In attempting to narrow down our mobile internet choices, one thing we had read is that not everyone counts data the same way.  I have a sneaking suspicion that there's probably some sort of data rounding going on that is bumping our data usage higher than it should be.  For instance, data transmissions are often rounded up, but different services round by different amounts.  You can imagine the difference of one provider rounding up to the nearest 10KB, while another rounds to the nearest 100KB.  The data allocation for the latter would be used up much more quickly.  Given that AT&T wants to jack up the data usage of their customers by sending out video bills, I wouldn't be surprised if their data rounding is less in our favor than some of their competitors.

But the Mi-Fi should function well for what we need it for most often - the ability to access the internet on an almost daily basis to check mail and to update the blog.  If we need to do extended searches for a replacement part or other necessity, we'll likely plan that around a visit to someplace with free wi-fi, unless we've got lots of data left on that month's allocation.  But we'll bookmark intended purchases and order them later, when we have our own secure Mi-Fi connection.

ADDENDUM (15 Aug 2015)
Now that we've been using this MiFi for a while now, I thought that I'd point out that not everywhere that we have a good cell signal has an internet connection.  And we've had better luck finding signals as we cycle through the NW part of the US skirting the Canadian border than we had anticipated.  We've also found that Ancestry.com is a bit of a data hog, as we can very easily use double our daily data allotment with just some casual usage.

Eight Weeks to Go

Tomorrow marks exactly eight weeks before Alea's final day of work (July 24th - she gave notice yesterday).  So the following day is likely when we'll begin our drive from Boise up to Sedro Woolley, WA, the starting point of our tag team adventure.  We have the house in good order and ready to sell.  The ad for selling our CX-5 has been drafted.  Since the beginning of the year we've sold off or given away a large percentage of our possessions.  We've acquired lots of new gear that we feel will enhance our camping experiences while living on the road.  In short, we are ready to go, but we still have no way to get there.  Our new van is still AWOL.

We've been perusing Ford's Transit Connect Forum.  It appears that a six month lead time is standard for ordering TCs from the factory, not the 2-3 months quoted by our salesman.  And we found where, for one person, the time from when their van "left the plant" to when it left Ford's modcenter in Maryland was exactly one month (TCs are all shipped to the US as wagons to avoid a tariff on small trucks - the modcenter is where they take out the extra seats and seat belts and convert them to cargo vans).  From there it is probably up to two weeks getting to the dealer, though one pessimist felt it was more like an additional month to get to the west coast.  So we are now thinking it is most likely that we'll be seeing the van around the 4th of July (hopefully before, as otherwise that is likely to add additional time delays due to people taking time off of work).  If so, the prospects of selling the house this year are dimming, and the timeline for selling the CX-5 is likely to be shorter than we'd like.

So we'll likely spend some time thinking about how we might be able to start trying to sell the CX-5 in advance of the TC getting here, but only after we have some assurance that it will be arriving fairly soon.  If it sells quickly, we aren't likely to be without a vehicle for long, so the question is how do we bridge that gap?

"Left the Plant"

Our van drama continues...

Earlier I blogged about the amount of time that it is taking our new Ford Transit Connect cargo van to arrive.  Once the van gets on a ship from Europe, the transit time is probably around four to five weeks.  Of course nobody at the Ford dealer is willing to commit to any timeline, knowing that far too many factors are beyond their control.  But at this point, if the van has not yet left Spain and if it will take four or five weeks to get here once it does, it will show up about one month before we leave.  And there will be a LOT of things that need to happen in that span of time, not the least of which is to sell both our CX-5 and our house at a fair market price.  But the less time we have before we leave, the more the odds will increase that we'll be pressured to sell for less (though if that happens, we'll likely just winterize the house and sell it next spring).

A week or so ago, our salesman had talked about how he had constantly been checking the status of our van over the past months, and it had been sitting on the dock in Spain ever since rolling off the assembly line in early March.  So I sought to have him tell me just what sorts of status updates that he would be getting from Ford's system.  The idea would be that perhaps we'd at least know when it was on a ship and thus have a reasonably concrete expectation of when it might arrive, and we'd be able to assess what impact that arrival date would have on our plans (we plan on leaving on schedule, come hell or high water, even if it means not selling our house until next spring - if the van is still not here we'd do the first couple of weeks of our trip with our CX-5 and then return to Boise when the van is ready to be picked up).

Anyway, we e-mailed the salesman and waited for a response.  After a few days with no response I left him a voice mail.  Things got a bit twisted up playing phone tag, but eventually we got him on the phone.  Suddenly, he says "Good news!  The van has left the plant!"  Huh?  For two and a half months we've been told that it has been sitting on the dock in Valencia, so how is it that the status is now "left the plant?"  To my cynical mind, and based upon past experiences from salespeople that only tell you what they think you want to hear, this new information sounded dubious.  After all, this is the guy who over a month ago said we'd almost certainly see the van by the end of next week, but now he's saying it's still overseas.

So a long discussion followed about what sorts of updates the Ford system provides, with our main interest being at what point we'd know that the van was in the country.  It was during that discussion that I started to get the sense we were being BS'd, as he couldn't or wouldn't give us the specifics that we were asking for.

We recently discovered that there is a Ford Transit Connect Forum, so I signed up and looked around to see what information was available to help in designing the layout of our gear.  In doing so I happened to find where someone had ordered their TC on the 14 Dec 2014, and it arrived at the dealer on 5 May 2015.   So if our van has an identical lead time, it should arrive sometime around the 10th of June, assuming that the production backlog hadn't increased over the five weeks before we placed our order.

A look at Google Maps shows that the Ford Espana plant is located 10 miles south of the dock at Valencia.  There are huge lots of parked vehicles at the plant (in addition to massive amounts of employee parking), and an equally huge lot of parked vehicles at the port.  So it seems that "left the port" likely means that our van is finally queued up to be loaded onto a cargo ship.  If so, and if that means in the next few days that it will be loaded onto a ship, then the last week or so in June would seem to be the earliest that it is likely that we will see it.

So increasingly we are thinking the thought of selling our house this summer may be unrealistic, though if we soon know for certain that our van is definitely in transit that will be enough for us to go ahead with putting it on the market.  We aren't too concerned about being able to sell it this year, as it is an appreciating asset, and will be worth more next spring.  Our main concern is selling our CX-5, as it a declining asset and will be worth less next spring, so we'd definitely prefer to sell it as soon as possible once the van arrives.

A Garage on Wheels, Part One

Our Camp Inn camper has two main functions: sleeping and eating.  The other 15 or so hours per day are spent outdoors, enjoying the various places that we visit.  Various gear is required (camp chairs, a shade structure, a small screen room for when bugs are annoying, sporting equipment, etc) to optimize our daily experiences.  And the question that every teardrop owner wrestles with is how to carry and organize that gear; the answers are as varied as their owner's interests and the many ways that their campers are utilized.  We'll be living in ours full time for much of the year and we won't be near a home base, so having a place for everything and having everything in its place is essential to allowing us to optimize our time spent enjoying the many places that we will visit on our journey.  

After considerable research of the available options, we feel that the Ford Transit Connect Cargo Van will be ideal for our needs.  It is essentially intended to work as our garage on wheels while we are traveling around the country: it will be our place to store everything that won't fit in our Camp Inn trailer, including our two bicycles.  The color we've chosen is Frozen White, and we've opted for a windowless cargo area.  Both choices reflect the reality that our tow vehicle will always be out in the elements, so we are attempting to minimize heat gain and the associated discomfort that can often accompany hot weather.  We also opted for aftermarket heated seats to help warm things up on cold mornings, as modern vehicle engines are so efficient that it can take a while for a space as large as a cargo van to heat up.

The cargo box of our Ford Transit Connect is relatively huge at 130+ cubic feet.  In contrast, with the rear seats folded down, most compact SUVs of about the same length (Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV 4, Honda CR-V, etc) only have about half that amount of cargo space.  And while an SUV has the flexibility of extra rear seating, they can't easily carry big bulky items like bicycles or whitewater kayaks, and access to the gear that they can store is more difficult due to the narrow standard passenger side doors and a higher load floor. 

Since we plan on spending a LOT of time living on the road, we need places to store things like the many maps that we'll take with us and the many chargers and adapters for our electronics, as well as the more mundane things like laundry soap and the accessories for our emergency toilet, the Luggable Loo.  Fortunately for us, we owned an IKEA IVAR modular 9-drawer pedestal (i.e., no legs or top, just the cabinet and drawers), which we've adapted for use in our van, adding shelves above to store our Solaire Everywhere! infrared grill (we love infrared - so much easier to clean that other grills), a central charging station for all of our electronics, plus our camp chairs and a small folding table.  These items all fit perfectly in front of what our salesman terms the van's rear "barn doors."  The cargo floor of the van sits about two feet above ground level, making even the lower drawers easily accessible and thus providing one convenient point of access for the items that we will use most frequently.  The picture below shows the pedestal in its current state of construction and gives an idea of how it will help us to organize the gear we'll use nearly every day, though without a few critical van measurements, it's not yet possible to complete the upper part of our planned construction.  At one point we had thought about painting the pedestal, but decided to keep with the cargo van theme by keeping it unfinished and utilitarian-looking.  Our plan is to decorate the drawer fronts with pins, walking stick badges or other mementos that we'll acquire at the various places that we'll visit.  We're off to an early start on that with some personal mementos that we've already attached to a few of the drawers.

Our modified IKEA IVAR 9-drawer pedestal (with only two drawers shown).

Since we need our new van to finalize certain aspects of this storage pedestal, the above picture is only to give a sense of how this area will work.  Our REI Alcove shade structure will be stowed strapped to the left side of the cabinet, our dog's shade structure/outdoor kennel stows behind that (both are shown strapped down in the above picture).  On top of the pedestal is our infra-red grill and the power strip that will serve as a central charging station for our electronics (it will be mounted on a small shelf to the right of where it is shown above).  We'll install an AC power inlet on the outside rear curbside portion of the van, which we can run off of either shore power or our 2000 watt Yamaha generator (the van also has a built-in 12v outlet on the interior curbside wall - parallel to where the power strip will be located - so some items can be charged while we are driving from point to point).  On the right side of the pedestal will be a narrow space sufficient to store up to eight Duraflame logs (our standard fuel given the ubiquitous prohibitions on importing campfire wood).  Atop all that will be a deck a bit less than four feet wide that will give us a place to strap down our folding table and two camp chairs.  An existing office organizer will be bolted along the right edge as a place to stack multiple devices for simultaneous charging.

Rear Cross Section showing placement of the drawer pedestal.

The section view above shows our current concept for the area as viewed from the rear barn doors.  The drawers of the IVAR pedestal are ideal for organizing things that we won't necessarily use every day, and the design makes maximum use of the cabinet's compact space.  The friction of the drawer slides should be sufficient to keep the drawers from opening while we are driving, but if they do open it will only be by a few inches before they are stopped by the inside of the barn doors (if they do tend to work their way loose in transit, I may need to devise a means of keeping them from doing so).  Angle iron attached to the sides of the pedestal will be bolted to the load floor to keep everything secure while in transit.  The design makes it easy to remove the entire pedestal for when we aren't traveling and need access to the entire cargo space.  

Our six shallow drawers and three deep drawers can be arranged in a myriad of configurations, and we plan to keep the center of gravity low by arranging them with the heaviest drawers on the bottom and lightest drawers on top.  Thus far, the contents of the nine drawers can be roughly described as:

• Stationery supplies.
• Bicycle route maps.
• Electronic devices.
• Bicycle supplies.
• Miscellaneous repair supplies ("MacGyver" supplies).
• Laundry supplies.
• Emergency toilet supplies.
• Personal files.
• Tools.

This design allows us to preserve the remaining two thirds of the cargo box for the rest of our gear, and still have lots of extra floor space left over for extra temporary storage (though much of that extra floor space would require that we move one of our bikes in order to access the area).  But I'll postpone that discussion for part two of this post...

The Misadventures of Our New Tow Vehicle

What's an adventure without a little drama?  Ours currently relates to the saga of our new tow vehicle, which we ordered on the 19th of January, and it rolled off the assembly line during the first week in March.  It is a critical piece of our puzzle, as it allows us to stow our gear far more efficiently than with our present tow vehicle AND it allows us to carry our bikes out of the elements.  The outside date given in the original estimated delivery range was mid-April, so with it now being a full month past that date, our anxiety is mounting.  Especially since Ford Logistics notes that on average a cargo ship requires 18 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean (the vehicle is made in Valencia, Spain).  Add in the time needed for the trip overland, and from factory to dealer it takes about five weeks once it is on a ship, and that's without an Amtrak derailment creating an unforeseen bottleneck.  And the last we heard, it was still sitting on the dock in Spain.  But while we are waiting for it to arrive, I'll tell you a bit about how it fits into our plans.  

Having such a compact and efficiently designed trailer means that the choice of a tow vehicle is very important, and it is a highly personal choice to make.  Our trailer is exceptionally light (less than 1,200 pounds, fully loaded), so the majority of gasoline powered cars being produced today are capable of towing it - some better than others.  Our 2001 Frontier 4x4, with a supercharged V6, was far more power than we needed.  And our 2013 Mazda CX-5 is capable of towing the trailer very economically, but there is barely enough space inside it for our gear on such an extended trip, and that means that we'd sometimes need to unload half our gear to get at something we would only use on occasion.  And that would also mean we'd do the same drill in reverse when that item was once again ready to be stowed.  So what was the solution?

With both the Frontier and the CX-5 it would have been our preference that neither vehicle had any back seats - a flat floor on which we could build something to store our gear and keep the dog safe would have been ideal.  But it seemed such a vehicle did not exist, at least until we realized it was possible for us to buy a commercial vehicle.  Once we headed down that path it led us to several small cargo vans that are currently on the market.  Of those, our needs were best met by the Ford Transit Connect, which is basically two seats and a 4' X 4' X 7+' long box (the long wheelbase version) that can be accessed from sliding doors on either the street side or curb side, or from the rear barn doors.  It not only gives us a means to store all of our gear in a manner that allows us to get at anything without having to dig through a pile of other stuff, but it was so cavernous that it became possible to easily store our bikes INSIDE - something we had never before considered as a possibility.  No more hoisting them up on the rooftop where there was the ever present danger of driving under a bridge or overhang with insufficient clearance, or hanging them off of a hitch rack where they'd pick up lots of road grime and obscure our tail lights.  Likewise, no more leaving them out in the rain, or advertising their presence to prowling thieves at a campground or shopping center parking lot. 

A 2014+-style Ford Transit Connect Van.

Not having the bikes on the roof allows us to avoid a lot of mileage-scrubbing drag vs. carrying them on top of the vehicle or trailer (this is problem for all vehicles, but especially with highly fuel efficient vehicles, where Consumer Reports has found that it can drop fuel economy by as much as 35% on some cars!).  The slightly taller and longer Transit Connect should improve our overall aerodynamics, providing a better slipstream from freeway winds for our camper.  And despite having 20% more power and torque than our CX-5, the rated mileage is actually a tiny bit better, plus the added torque should mean we'll get far better gas mileage while towing the trailer, especially uphill or into a headwind.  With the CX-5, our actual mileage on a 9,000+ mile trip in 2013 was a bit better than 23 mpg overall.  We're hoping to get 2-3mpg better than that with the Transit Connect.

But that is IF our new van shows up in time.  It turns out that demand for fuel efficient commercial vehicles was very high at the end of last year, as business owners had attempted to minimize their capital gains by adding to their fleets before year's end.  So, at least locally, Transit Connects are sold about as fast as they appear on dealer lots (I suspect that is also because the dealers don't carry much inventory, opting to save space for vehicles with higher margins, such as SUVs and the fancy full size trucks).  "No worries!," we had thought when we ordered, as back then we had anticipated that we wouldn't embark upon our adventure until after Labor Day.

The delay has caused a small degree of havoc for us, as we need precise dimensions to determine how best to fit all of our gear inside, or even to determine if we'll be able to take along everything we'd like to have with us (some of which is not essential).  It was only last week that we were finally able to get our hands on a Transit Connect at a dealer to take some measurements.  While that was helpful, it made it clear that things will be tight enough in some areas that we'll need the van to clearly know what will work and what ideas will need to be abandoned.

So more and more items that we need to check off our todo list are piling up: 

• Preparing our house for listing,
• Having our house appraised,  
• Getting the van fitted out with our custom storage solutions,  
• Breaking the van's engine in before towing (1,000 miles recommended),
• Installing 7-pin wiring and a brake controller on the van, 
• Selling the CX-5, 
• Finding a storage unit and determining how big it should be for the few possessions that we won't part with, 
• and so on.

We aren't near to being in a panic yet, but we're hopeful we'll have the van within the next month.  Beyond that, and each day's delay will be compounding our anxiety of whether there will be enough time for all of the pieces of this puzzle to come together on time. 

Fortunately for us, the sale of our house is not a critical component of our plans.  With prices rising we'd be likely to more than make up for the cost of keeping the property maintained while we are gone, but we'd prefer not to have to come back to Idaho in the spring to do that.

Communications

Since Alea and I are planning to be out of sight of one another, for anywhere from a few hours to several hours per day (and in a different place every day), it was clear that we needed a means of staying in touch, in order to lessen our anxiety about each other's safety while we are apart.  Unfortunately, the first leg of our trip - across Washington, Northern Idaho, Montana and most of North Dakota - offers few options for cellular phone coverage.  Verizon would seem to be the only option, and their coverage is mostly along freeway corridors, meaning that even with their service we'll frequently be out of cell coverage.

With such sparse cell phone reception being likely for the first month of our travels, we researched our options.  We eventually narrowed our focused down to two viable solutions, both satellite based.  One was the Delorme InReach and the other was the Spot Gen3.

The Delorme had the advantage of two way communication (via text message) and a choice of annual or monthly payment plans.  But the device seemed complicated enough that we foresaw the likelihood that we'd be prone to making mistakes with it, plus the hardware was more than twice the cost of the Spot.

The Spot is limited to one way communication, and there are only three different messages that it will transmit: A call to 911, a "Help, come get me" message and a short user-customizable message.  It also will continuously transmit a tracking message at intervals as small as every three minutes.  We felt that the latter was pretty much ideal for our situation - a means for the van driver to know where the cyclist was and to see that he/she was continuing to make progress toward arriving at the campground.  In places where cell coverage is bad (which is mainly only during the first month of our inaugural trip) and the cyclist is late, the van driver has the option of driving to find cell coverage in order to determine the cyclist's location.  It's fairly unlikely that the 911 and Help Me messages will ever be utilized, but they are there if we need them.

The Spot works best when it is out in the open with the antenna pointed toward the sky, but we've heard anecdotally that it has worked for others when stored inside a Camp-Inn trailer.  But to hedge our bets that it won't fail us when we need it most, we devised a very simple means of attaching the device to our helmets, using a piece of StrapAll velcro (velcro that can attach to itself) looped through the air vents, allowing the antenna (located under the logo) to always be pointing at the sky:

Our Spot Gen3, mounted atop my bicycle helmet with some StrapAll velcro.

We could also strap in on our handlebar bar, or buy a mount for our handlebars, but there will be enough going on there with bike computers and maps, etc.  And a former co-worker (Glen Smallwood) pointed out that in the event of a crash where you are thrown clear, the bike you may not be able to reach the device to send the emergency message.  With it attached to the helmet you just need to be able to remove it in order to access the emergency messaging functions (provided you didn't also fall down a well and/or break both collarbones).  ;-)

Most of the time we'll be in cell coverage and can call one another to work out what to do when a campground is closed or overbooked, or there is some other wrinkle in our plans for that day.  I wasn't relishing the idea of paying for two cell phone lines, since I rarely use a phone.  But then we learned about the no contract plans offered by Republic Wireless (see the LINKS at right).  Their new WiFi/Cell service is AWESOME and we can each get unlimited cell calling for $10 per month ($20 total)!  And, even better, it is possible to change our calling plan up to two times per month.  So once we've stopped traveling for the winter I can switch back to their $5 per month WiFi-only calling plan, where I can only make calls as long as I can find a WiFi signal (such as at home, a public library, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc).  The potential downside of Republic's service is that it only works with a few phones that are designed to work over both WiFi and cellular networks - not great if you have a particular phone that you don't want to part with.

The $10 Republic Wireless plan doesn't include any cellular data, but it does have unlimited WiFi data (they do offer cell plans with unlimited cell data - currently $25/mo for 3G, $40/mo for 4G).  So by finding a means of providing WiFi on the road, we'll have all the functionality of full featured smartphones without the typically exorbitant cost (though admittedly with a bit less convenience, as the MiFi will need to be turned on).  We'd have liked to have gotten a WalMart pay as you go MiFi, where we could have purchased a certain amount of data that we could use over a two month period, but for some reason the service was unavailable in our zip code (or any other zip code we tried).  So we've opted for a no contract AT&T plan that gives us 5GB for $50 per month.

So with our Mi-Fi running we'll have internet access via our cell phones and our Google Chromebooks.  All for about $30/month less than our current CenturyLink landline and internet and Tracfone cell phone.

ADDENDUM (15 Aug 2015)
We found that putting the SPOT Gen 3 on our helmets to be problematic.  We both added Novara handlebar bags to our bikes, which include a bracket that makes it extremely easy to take the bag on or off the bike.  We added small soft velcro self adhesive tabs to the sides of the bracket, then use the same StrapAll strap that we used with our helmets.  The added velcro on the mounts makes it a very secure installation - pretty much immune to the constant road vibration that we experience.

Our New Neighbors (off topic)

Since I have some birding friends following this blog, I thought I'd share this, even though it is off topic.

When we designed our landscaping after moving to Boise, attracting birds was a prime consideration.  A shrub border surrounding an open lawn, some plants that birds use for food, nesting, cover, etc, and a water source were the main ingredients.  As a result, we have mourning doves that routinely roost in our backyard, and our juniper trees are full of finch and sparrow nests, and at certain times of the year they make an incredible racket early every evening.  We have no shortage of birds that visit our yard, including goldfinches and the occasional hummingbird (we don't put up a feeder).  There are many other nests in our taller trees, though we have yet to figure out who lives in most of those.

A portion of our backyard.  Note the nest in the crotch of the tree at left.

But it turns out that our first Robin's nest was created at eye level (see above), and the first chicks have hatched, so we decided to take some pictures while Mom was out looking for worms.  We thought some folks might find this interesting...

Three baby robins and one unhatched egg.

My Co-Pilot

My co-pilot for this adventure is my wife, Alea.  Our adventure is a means for us to pick up from when we first met, which was in late 1986.  I had spent nearly six months cycling over 10,000 miles across the United States, up into Canada and down the East Coast, hoping to perhaps spend the winter with my grandmother in St Petersburg before continuing on to Europe the following year.

Alea and Brown Dog, St. Petersburg, FL in 1986.

My grandmother lived in a tiny house that my Uncle Charlie Wiggins had built after retiring from his career, where he assisted in the building and maintenance of the Panama Canal (she had lived in Panama with Charlie during the Canal's construction, and had stood at the bottom of Gatun Lock before it was first filled with water).  I was there for a week when she politely mentioned "You do know that your Aunt Pat comes to stay with me every winter, and there's not enough room for the three of us?"  Not being known for my ability to pick up on subtle nuances, it was clear even to me that I needed to find a new place to park myself for the winter.

As luck would have it, the cheapest place that I could find to rent was a lean-to attached to a house next door to the house that Alea was renting.  We didn't meet right away, but I had a lot of time on my hands while waiting for a holiday job working for United Parcel Service.  Alea had two dogs: Brown Dog (shown above) and a Golden Retriever named Courtney.  The latter had a rather outgoing personality, and so she quickly convinced me how badly I needed a new friend.  She'd come over to the fence to say hello and get petted, sometimes bringing her ball along with her, which I would gladly throw for her.  Brown Dog, easily the more cautious of the two, decided that someone to throw the ball when Alea was at work was very desirable, but his cautious nature precluded him from coming to the fence.  But of the two, Brown Dog was clearly the smarter:  he solved his dilemma by flicking his head to send the ball rolling up to the fence.  In no time at all we formed a great friendship and mutual admiration for one another.

Needless to say, since I was now great friends with Courtney and Brown Dog, Alea and I were destined to meet.  So within the space of just a few weeks I was able to make three lifelong friends, including the most important person in my life, Alea.  (Thank you, Aunt Pat!)

Lana, the Wonder Dog

In my first post you were introduced to #531, our Camp Inn Trailer.  The next equally indispensable member of our team is Lana, the Wonder Dog.  Some people mistake her to be some sort of mutt, but let me put that falsehood to rest right here.  I've been assured by people far more knowledgeable than myself that she is, in fact, a very rare Bostralian Sherrier (she must be rare, as she's the only one that I've ever heard of).  Why some people think that she is some sort of mix between a Boston Terrier and an Australian Shepherd is a bit of a mystery to me, but I politely humor them by agreeing.  After all, if it's not an insult to Lana, then it surely can't be an insult to me.

Lana, at about age two (yes, that left eye is one half blue).

She's an awesome little dog, and quite suited to life on the road.  She travels very well, provided we don't do lots of very long days back-to-back (which can cause her to sulk, but she gets over that pretty quickly).  And she's absolutely no trouble to us, aside from the occasional sibling rivalry that she instills in #531 (who can often be overheard saying "Mom always did like you best!").  Despite being born with no hearing in her left ear (which means she can hear, but can't tell what direction the sound is coming from), she is amazingly well adjusted and she's always quite willing to show you how easy it is to be happy.  Within our group, her main responsibility is entertainment, though she also takes security very seriously and never fails to make certain that I stay warm on chilly nights in our camper.

She has three main passions in life: small rodents (mainly squirrels and chipmunks), food and her ball.  Feeding her or playing ball with her can be an almost certain way for you to acquire a new friend for life.  And by the way, Lana was born in September 2009.

(For more about Lana, check out the video clip of her chasing her ball underwater!)

Our Home on the Road

Since our Camp Inn trailer, whom we call #531, is in many ways the central focus of our planned adventure, let this be our opportunity to introduce her to you.  She was born in early August 2012 and made the first fledgling flight from her nest in Necedah, WI on Monday, August 13th of that year.

#531 as we left the Camp Inn factory in 2012.

She's pretty remarkable, and most folks agree that she has an almost heirloom quality.  Hand crafted of marine grade hardwood plywood, birch, aluminum and stainless steel, she's designed to outlast us and several tow vehicles, provided we are attentive to her modest needs.

The Cabin (without screen doors).

She has two main areas:

1. THE CABIN, with a beautifully finished hardwood interior, complete with plush queen size mattress, air conditioning, TV/DVD, screen doors, lots of windows (for a bedroom), a surprising amount of storage and no end of thoughtful details designed to optimize both comfort and utility.
2. THE GALLEY.  A pop-up hatch in the back reveals an ingenious galley created from stainless steel and hardwood, with a sink, a two burner stove on rails, an AC/DC refrigerator, two tables that attach to the exterior to form about ten lineal feet of counter space, and lots of storage options.

The Galley, stowed.

The Galley, deployed.

What she lacks, as compared to the typical RV, is a toilet, a shower and the need to carry either a vacuum cleaner or a mop.  She has everything else that is needed, and it is all designed to be within an arm's reach.

And she possesses one other skill that we've never seen in another travel trailer (though we confess we haven't met very many trailers thus far, or at least they won't talk to us like she will): each year she writes our annual holiday letter to friends and family (personally, that talent alone is certain to pay back our investment in her many times over).