RV Blog--Life in a Box. This just ain't 'camping' any more....

Thursday, July 31, 2003:

Eureka!!! At long last, I have a wireless internet connection! All it took was one very nice young man from Verizon, who STOPPED BY the RV and spent 15 minutes visiting while he got me online.
Nights and weekends, and it's only 14.4bps--but it's ONLINE! :) :) :) Downloads take forever, tho, so please don't send me big files!
So now, "Life in a Box" has ALL the comforts of home. :)

And the rumble that is RALLY is in full swing. The Rally officially starts Saturday and runs through the following Sunday. The campground is filling up with side cars, trikes, Harleys in trailers, on trailers, in pickup trucks....
Over the weekend, we bought some lattice stuff at Menards and put it along the side of the RV. Then we attached the doggy kennel fencing and now the puppies can go out and play without tangling. One tiny little drawback to this has been that there is a gate built into the fence, and you have to step over a 2" piece that runs under the gate.... I was wearing my sandals last nite and forgot that detail. Now I have one less toenail--the biggest one, of course. Hurts like blazes!

Dinah // Thursday, July 31, 2003
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Monday, July 28, 2003:

Ah, life in a box.
So, I finally bit the bullet and signed a contract with Verizon, so I can supposedly log onto the internet with my cell phone, right? I've got the laptop, loaded with the proper software, the connection cord hooked up to my new cell phone and I dial the Earthlink number--only, the phone doesn't dial it! sigh. So I call up Verizon, get a tech--whose English is a 'little' accented--and I spend nearly an hour with him telling me to click this, and click that, and type in this and that. No connection. FINALLY, he calls his supervisor, then calls me back and tells me I need to find a hard line and go download the Windows updates on the MS website AND go to the Verizon store and get a software upgrade--at no cost to me, of course.... Wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't gone thru the same sort of thing LAST summer, only to be told that my whole problem was that I only had a FreeUP phone and I would have to sign up for a regular account before it'd work.
It should NOT be so difficult to get online on the road, in this day and age!!!
MEANWHILE, the circus is comin' to town! The Harleys are pouring in. The rumble is beginning to build! The campground we're in is beginning to fill--with everything from loners with tents to semi-tractors pulling RV/trailer rigs, loaded with shiny bikes. By this time next weekend, we will have peaked and we won't be able to step off our site without bumping into a bike, or a biker! Makes me homesick for the Good Old Days when we did our camping and traveling on a motorcycle....
Keith has promised that today he's going to get some lattice and install it around the bottom of the trailer so we can finish up making a dog run for the puppies. Untangling their leads has nearly become a full-time gig for me. Let them out, go untangle them, they wrestle a while, and I go untangle them, they fuss to come in, and I have to untangle them....and on and on! MAY I RECOMMEND to anyone contemplating life on the road with dog(s)--get one! And pick very carefully! ONE. With a 'laid back' personality, preferably!
Well, Keith's up. Time to head out for Wallyworld before the tourists get up and out on the streets! Later....

Dinah // Monday, July 28, 2003
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Tuesday, July 22, 2003:

Okay, I've got this figured out, now. I log on, bring up the pages I want to work on, log off, and come back home to do the writing part. Duh.
So, our other vehicle is an older pickup with a slide-in popup camper on it. Keith's been driving it to work--until the other day when the wind got in under the front lip of the popup and and ripped open the top. :( Keith got it closed back down and a tarp strap fastened around it until he can find a place to work on it and replace the wood in the front and re-install the latches. So, he's driving the bigass truck to work, and I'm on foot for a while. Not that big of a sacrifice for me, tho. I'm a bit of intimidated by the Rapid City traffic, so going into town wasn't anything I'll miss.
It sure is nice to be in a Park, at last. In the mobile home park, we were 'those summer people', so we didn't have much interaction. And the permanent folk aren't allowed to have dogs--but we were allowed to stay there with ours. And there was NO internet connection! Here we have a pool, and laundry and people coming and going, or not. At least the folks we see here will stop and talk a while!
Looks like I'm going to have to sort through my stash again. We picked up the summer clothes from the storage unit--and I've got no place to PUT THEM! Or, get rid of some of the clothes..... LOL!

Dinah // Tuesday, July 22, 2003
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Sunday, July 20, 2003:

Whew! Finally found my way back in here! We're in SD, roasting away in the unbelievable heat. And amazing humidity--something we don't normally have out here. Not that it's RAINING! It only rains in 'chunks' out here, mostly! Hail. So, Keith is working for a rancher, at the moment. Kinda like farming! He sprayed 100 acres of weeds last week, and dug a septic tank hole, and did some landscaping.... RALLY Week is still 2 weeks away, but the Harleys are rumbling in already. A lot of them are riding in the back of trucks, and trailers, too. Our campground is beginning to fill up! We moved from Black Hawk to Rapid when Keith got this job. But mail still goes to Black Hawk--if I get my box rent paid before the end of the month! LOL! I'm still cranking out quilt-lettes and working on a stack of machine-made place mats to put in the gift shop in the campground. Cross your fingers--I'm hoping those bikers want souvenirs! Well, this is a borrowed connection, so I can't get too carried away. But we're here, alive and well, and I'll be back.....

Dinah // Sunday, July 20, 2003
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