SUNDAY 14 August

(There are no photos for this post.)

It rained gently overnight and we awoke this morning to overcast skies and light drizzle.  But that was OK; we knew the rain was coming and this part of Newfoundland needs the moisture.  Since we have been on the island, the fire danger signs have been “very high” or “extreme.”  I got up just before 7 AM.  Overnight lows made it into the mid-50s (F), but it was still 65 (F) in the trailer (according to our electronic thermometer that never agrees with the temperature sensors for the two heat-pumps).  A bit chilly, but warm enough to be comfortable in my usual morning attire of sweatpants and sweatshirt.  I fed the cat and turned on my computer to continue working on the blog.  Linda got up a little later, and made our morning coffee.  We like our morning routine, which is essentially the same as when we are at home (minus Youtube videos).

Last night, I was able to upload the blog posts for this past Thursday and Friday.  This morning I was able to process the photos from yesterday, finish writing the blog post, and upload it to WordPress, all before breakfast.  The Wi-Fi/Internet connection was very good all day yesterday and continued to be very good this morning.  This is not normally an issue for us in the USA, as we have a Verizon Jetpack with an unlimited data plan, but here in Canada we are limited to 500 MB per day for each phone ( 1 GB total), if Verizon has a roaming agreement with the local carrier, and we have had to depend on some level of usable campground Wi-Fi.

Until yesterday morning, we had two large RVs in the spots immediately to our left/driver side.  They were blocking our line of sight to what I think is the Wi-Fi antenna, perhaps the only one for the entire park.  (I have not seen any evidence of any other outside antennas, and Linda had NO Wi-Fi signal at the laundry building, which is just across the entrance driveway from the office at the end of the motel building.)  I think that signal blockage was, in part, responsible for our weak signal, which would not stay connected and wasn’t very fast when it did.  It’s possible/probable that not as many people were trying to use it, as rigs have left recently, and I have generally had good connectivity early in the morning and late at night, even with the RVs blocking our line of sight to the antenna.  (It’s also possible that the router could be configured to only accept a limited number of simultaneous connections.)  Whatever the technical explanation, it was working well at the moment.  Indeed, two B+ motorhomes pulled into the two vacant sites next to us during the morning.  They pulled far enough forward (for their own purposes) so as to not block our view of the antenna, and the Wi-Fi continued to be solid and fast.  We like it when that happens.

As a note for the future, we need to add a Wi-Fi Ranger to the trailer, especially for any future travels in/through Canada (to Alaska, the western Provinces, or a return to the eastern Provinces) or perhaps Mexico (unlikely).  We have one on the bus, but it’s installed and I have no interest in un-installing it.  Besides, it’s an older unit, and they have newer/better technology now, including dual band 2.4/5.0 GHz units.  These units cannot create a usable signal where none exists, and they cannot change the speed at which the main Internet gateway/router is interacting with the hosting provider, but they CAN make a big difference in situations with marginal signal strength.  The same is true for cellular boosters, which we should also install.  By capturing and amplifying the weaker signal, and sending back a much stronger one, they are able to maintain a solid connection and reduce or eliminate the need to resend packets which were unusable due to errors.

The other option, of course, is Starlink.  Starlink has finally been made available for mobile/RV use, and for use in Canada, but is not without its technical and other issues.  I’m not a big Elon Musk fan, and there are some serious downsides to the low earth orbit satellite clusters.  But these satellites are not in a geosynchronous orbit (high-altitude equatorial-plane) and are visible when traveling farther north, which is key.  It’s not something we would need for domestic travel, and there is a cost attached to it, not to mention carrying around the additional equipment, but it’s a potential solution that cannot be dismissed out-of-hand.

Since we weren’t going anywhere today, we didn’t have breakfast until after 10 AM.  It was a full spread consisting of:  scrambled eggs (Just Egg), sausage links, bacon, toast with butter (all vegan, of course) and strawberry jam, grapefruit, orange juice (organic), and what was left of our morning cups of coffee.  Why?  Well, because Linda is feeling better and felt like cooking, but also because we had the ingredients and needed to use them.  We will be taking the ferry back to Nova Scotia in less than two weeks, and that means we have to start using refrigerated and frozen items with the aim of having very little of either left prior to boarding the ship.  Even with the short (7 hour) passage, we will be without refrigeration for at least 10 hours.

But that’s not for a little while yet, and we still have places to go and things to see before we leave the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.  For not ever having been here, I think we did pretty well in planning our travel, lodging, and sight-seeing.  But there is so much we haven’t seen or done, or only glimpsed in passing.  If we ever got back here, I could see arriving in May and leaving in September.  It’s that big, that beautiful, and there is that much to do.  And the people are just so darn nice.

In the early afternoon, we both took Rapid Response COVID-19 Antigen self-tests.  Mine was negative, but Linda’s showed a faint line at the “T” mark.  She developed symptoms a day later than I did, which was 12 days ago.  My lingering symptoms continue to be slightly worse than hers, but that was not a surprise as I tend to have perpetual sinus issues (pre-existing condition).

We skipped lunch in favor of light snacks throughout the afternoon.  The intermittent drizzle eventually stopped, but the overcast skies and cool temperatures continued, so we enjoyed some hot tea.  By 5 PM the temperature was only 64 (F) with a light breeze, but we like these weather conditions as we do not have to run the furnace or the heat-pumps (heating or cooling).  True campers adjust to their surroundings with clothing, which they regard as equipment.

Linda ventured outside long enough to take a bag of kitchen garbage to the dumpster and I went out long enough to hook up the drain hose for the waste water tanks.  Those were our big outside chores for the day.  I took a break from working on my computer and took a nap while Linda read.  Once I was up and about, she took a nap.  It’s the way we roll.

I worked a couple of easier picture puzzles (Nonograms) before trying one that wasn’t quite as easy.  After restarting it for the 4^th time, I put it aside.  While logical and deterministic (single-solution) in their construction, some of them have enough empty spaces that I have to guess at squares to fill in early in the solution.  When I guess wrong (which is most of the time), the puzzle typically “falls apart” a few steps later, and does so in a way that I cannot recover.  The only recourse at that point is to reset the puzzle and start over, which I am not always in the humor to do.

Dinner was chicken tenders with macaroni and cheese, the vegan versions of which are quite acceptable.  (We were supposed to have fish fillets with tartar sauce, but picked up the chicken tenders by mistake.  We use both, and like both, so it was fine.)  After dinner I went outside with our clippers and trimmed my beard (it was overdue).

Our next RV park is Bellevue Beach Campground in Bellevue Beach.  Linda called earlier in the day to confirm check-in time.  It’s 1 PM.  It is 140 miles, and should take about 2.5 hours from when we pull out until we check in, so we will target a 10:15 AM departure.  We will only be there for two nights, a stop-over on our way to St. John’s, but the website shows an attractive setting on an isthmus between the ocean and a freshwater pond, not unlike Goodyear’s Cove, but larger and nicer.  We will have a water/electric site, but will leave the Country Inn Motel and RV Park with empty waste tanks, so we won’t need the dump station as we will transport the waste water with us to the RV park in St. John’s, where we will have a full-hookup site.

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