weblog

January 27, 2005 6:57 PM
Where is the Casa del Rolltec tonight? 38.116 Latitude and 121.39 Longitude. Because of all the gear I carry back
and forth from the truck when I stop, computer, cell phone, GPS, charger for the computer, charger for the cell phone, and digital camera, I realized my trip, the Safari Airstream is a shrine to technology so I've been call it Casa del Rolltec (get it?) just to myself. What do you think? In case you don't want to look up the lat/lon on www.mapquest.com, I'm in Lodi, CA, just north of Stockton in a Flying J's very much the same as the one last night.
January 27, 2005 7:08 AM
As I promised you last night here are the photos from yesterday.

I wanted to start out with a pretty picture since some of the other pics from yesterday aren't as cool. This is last night at the flying J's truck stop in Barstow, and it is where I am laying on the bed writing you this morning. I like Flying J's for the coffee in the morning, and of course it's FREE parking- which us free chickens really like!

Datastorm get together in Quartzite of all the users and people who really make the Direcway satellite work and support all us newbies. This was at Darlene's resturant and the tables were over loaded. Scott Whitney of Dustyfoot, standing in white shirt, and the only person under 40 yrs old in the room is in his element. The man in the red coat standing is Royal who is a VP at Motosat (the people who make my dish and pointing system). He was in town working the RV show and came to the breakfast too.

Of course this free chicken has opinions and I monopolized him with my first few days of experience and how I felt about the firmware problems and programing problems and lever of expertise required to get everything stable. Surprisng to me, Royal is extreme receptive and pained by the experience of new users who have trouble, and repeated often that they are working on how to communicate these issues to the end users as they arise. Satellite systems are the only current choice for free chickens who actually need to be on the net reliably and have decent bandwidth, but if you're considering it, be sure that you get an installer who won't quit until you are working perfectly. My experience with Dustyfoot has been unbelievable - Scott has done more than any techinical person in my life to help me get everything perfect (and many of you know how anal I am - so you understand the impact). Royal made a great comment. He says that once you get your dish and service, regardless of the installer, they simply won't quit no matter what your problem. Great customer attitude.

Finally on the road! I always stop at the first rest area and check for things that will soon fall off and check the inside of the trailer to find out what I forgot to secure, that has now fallen down. Nothing this time, but I didn't know that my little power screw driver was forgotten up by the vent on the trailer. Alas, it is gone. This shot also shows the dish in the stowed position for travel. It is smart enough to stow itself if I forget.

Above, I was headed notrh on 95, and trying to give you a feeling of the rough desert to the west. The Colorado river is jus to the right of me by about 300 yards, but hidden by the terrain.	Here is how my computer sits and navigates for me. It is cabled to both power and my GPS that is hanging from the mirror. In Delorme Road Atlas (thanks TJ) I have it set so that it is tracking me as I drive. This is actually sometimes more fun that actually looking forward out the windshield, which gets in the way of me talking on my cell phone.

January 26, 2005 11:37 PM
Tired chicken tonight. I'll have pictures up tomorrow morning when I get up. I'm parked outside the Flying J's in Barstow, CA. While noisy I like Flying J's because when traveling alone I miss the noise and bustle of people coming and going. There is always activity at these giant truckstops. The other reason I like it is that is free to stay here for RVs, and if the satellite had trouble finding the satellite, I would have been able to use their wireless connection ($5.00 for 24 hours). But it is perfect, with the truck facing south and the datastorm had no trouble finding the signal and I've been able to get much of my web business work done before starting this note.

This morning was great, I met many of the datastorm users at a Quartzsite eatery called Darlene's. Best was that I got to spend about 15 minutes with Royal who is a VP at Motosat, the manufacturer of the Datastorm dish. I was surprised at how open he was to criticism and critique. They are committed to their product, but it is certainly NOT for the digitally impaired. I plan an article on the dish for this site soon..

I was late getting going because living for a place for close to a month scatters the equipment around a bit. I finally hit the road at 3:30pm and arrived in Barstow about 8:15pm. Route 95 on the California side of the Colorado river was flooded in many places, but none so deep that I couldn't get through with the truck and trailer. More in the morning. Called TJ tonight before sleeping for help with WEP encryption on my wireless. - now a very sleepy chicken. Current position of the airstream is 117.0822 W and 34.85404 N

January 25, 2005 7:17 PM
Productive day that started with bus buddy Tom making a great breakfast for me!.

Tom does a spectacular job all from a gleaming stainless steel kitchen in a bus.	While eating in the netcafe - my breakfast prepared by Tom in the bus cafe, Scott (Dustyfoot.com)came over to show off his new injected molding on his align-a-site to Joanne who works (runs) the netcafe computer part of his business. This is a device that lets you point a tripod mounted internet satellite dish correctly.
I went grocery shopping. Can you believe it, 2 eggs for $1.49. Well it started off a dozen, but by the time I reached the trailer it was 2 left. One has a crack in it.	I picked up some aluminum extensions to tilt this panel to get more solar power. I didn't design the four big panesl to the left to lift, but I did allow for that in the small panel that covers the old skylight.
Check out the speed limit sign. Another reason to love Arizona. The 9.1 sales tax is not a reason however.	At a suggestion from one of the list recipients, known as BP 75x, I decided to not get the trailer ready but to go out and enjoy the desert. Click the photo below to see the whole sorry story, and some great pictures of the blooming desert around Quartzsite!

January 25, 2005 7:10AM

Good morning Quartzsite! Another sunny day in the desert, or it will be in 1/2 an hour or so. The dawn sky is backlighting the mountains to the east in sharp relief and only a few puff clouds are high in the sky. Another day in paradise! Snakes are asleep, Alan is awake, Satellite is working and there is much to do today, and all of it boy fun. Yesterday I got some grit and attacked a complete unpacking and real packing of the truck. This is something I haven't done in 3 years. The algorithm is heavy front light back, often used back, rarely used front, with weight winning just slightly over the use. I was able to reduce weight by about 35 lbs, and I'm giving away a few duplicate tools today when I'm in town.

Even getting everything out of the truck was painful. The new satellite dish (which is in the stowed down position right now - which is why you can just barely see it) weighs 109 lbs plus about 3 lbs of cabling. AND you all know my rule, pound in is a pound of something else out. So the logical place to start was with the items I carry all the time. Here it is, and you can't see my solar oven on the other side of the trailer.

While unloading the truck I pulled out my oldest panel. This solar panel is so old that it was used and considered almost worthless in 1980. I have been carrying it around with me except for the four years that it set in TJ's garage. So I gave it something to do for the day - I just drilled a couple of holes and fed it directly into my 12V system without a controller. Did put a fuse in so I could shut it off last night. Amazingly this thing still puts out almost it's exact rated amperage more thatn 30 years after it's manufacture. However it is only 1/2 the power and no diodes, so it doesn't earn a place on the roof. It will now be fully retired.

Back to work. Here is what I call packing backwash. Everytime I go through tool boxes and bins there are always a number that really belong somewhere else so that they can actually be used. This is the trailer pile.

Tomorrow I'll start back towards Eugene and winter weather. I hope to get out of town by early afternoon and stop in Barstow. Tomorrow morning there is a breakfast get together of many Datastorm users who happen to be in Quartszite right now at a local breakfast spot. I'm going to attend that at 10am and then come back herre to hook up, dish down and go.
How odd to be going back to this job. Well, in 6 months I'll have paid for my dish and had a head job done on the truck. Then I can be a free chicken again!

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