We were only home for two months before we headed out again. We used that time to add some personal touches and upgrades to the van; namely, internet connectivity. We learned early on that our cell provider does not in fact have coverage in all places. I had noticed on my camping apps that show cell bars by provider that sometimes other carriers have a signal where ours doesn’t. So during that RV Super Show and Travato meetup, we purchased a Travlfi hotspot, which uses AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to pick the strongest signal. This worked for the most part aside from two problems:
- The subscription to increase bandwidth was very pricey, so we chose the 20G plan. With all our TV streaming, it would run out pretty quickly and the hotspot just wouldn’t work (it took me awhile to figure out to log in and see our usage to explain why it wasn’t working). This would bite me if I had to use it to join a work meeting and had no bandwidth.
- There are still many places in the country (particularly the types of places I like to stay) where there is no signal on any carrier.
I’ve never been an Elon Musk fan (and this was long before his overall popularity cratered), but determined I had a choice of 1 to solve the internet issue – Starlink. So I ordered a dishy2 kit and got on the waiting list for our address. It arrived before we left.
In order to run the Starlink router and TV without draining the house AGM batteries (200ah), I also bought a power station and charger for the lighter plug, as well as a folding solar panel. We added a travel map to the back wall, and my metal print of Caleb arrived and was affixed to the other back wall, replacing some campy “art” I had initially stuck there. We were turning the van more into a tiny house than a camping tent.
Our daughter had been living in Toronto, Canada (after leaving Philly) for six months and her visa was about to expire, which meant she had to leave. We were driving to Toronto to meet her and help her transport her belongings back. Our route would take us out across on I-80, so as usual, our first stop was at KT’s step-dad’s in South Lake Tahoe.
