Interesting clouds in the sky west of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 1st.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Seymour, Indiana

We made it to North Vernon, Indiana and pulled over a couple of different times in town trying to get internet. Should have headed right for the library. Oh well.

We have two laptops, so part of our internet problem relates to both of us wanting to be on our computers at the same time. But because we aren’t paying for internet, that’s a bit of a problem. The internal wi-fi antenna is only good for about 100 yards, at best. Using that, Ruth’s laptop is better than mine. Anyhow, for about three years we have used a Hawking antenna to extend our wi-fi range, and it works really well. I have connected to unsecured networks from 1000 yards away, and further if there is clear line of sight. The manufacturer claims 3x better connecting distance, so I’d say it’s working better than their claim.

Hawking came out with a new antenna last fall that claimed to have 6x better connecting distance. Not available in Canada, so I ordered one from the U.S….I think we paid about $89. This way, we should both be able to connect up to a source that is reasonably close.

I tried this new antenna at the KOA over the summer, and the bars of strength seemed worse that the older antenna, but it still connected okay. But now that we have some real experience using it, it is actually MUCH worse than the older antenna, so I am not impressed. It’s actually only slightly better than the built in one in Ruth’s laptop. So maybe I’ll try emailing Hawking and see what they say. The only problem when you’re on the road is that it’s pretty difficult to try send it in for repair or replacement! Maybe their office is along our route..I’ll have to check that.

There is a way to have a second laptop “share” an internet connection, and I have tried to set this up but haven’t had any luck making it work yet. When we’re parked up somewhere for a day or two with a good connection, I’ll do some more research into this plan.

So we gave up on the internet yesterday afternoon and headed straight to the Mustatatuck County Park. We paid $10 for an unserviced site, and had our choice of any of them…the place was empty. We have found that most county parks are very reasonably priced. A full hookup site here, with water, electric, and sewer is $23. We have no problem paying $10 for an unserviced site, although wouldn’t pay much more than that.


The park has lots of walking trails so we took Whiskey for a litte hike. She really enjoyed it, and because there’s nobody around, she could be off leash. She apparently has lots of running left in her yet! Just as we’re thinking she may be getting tired, she comes racing past us at full speed. Sure is nice to see that.


I took our firewood bag, and scrounged enough wood from the other sites to be able to have a nice campfire last night. Ruth made some yummy broccoli and chicken pizza and we ate by the campfire. Nobody else showed up, and we had the place to ourselves.


Had a great nights sleep, although we noticed how windy it had become by the time we got up around 7am. It was a bit overcast, but warm. In fact it was 68F (20C) inside Sherman at 7am! Had some breakfast and then took Whiskey for another good hike. Half way through, it started raining fairly hard and we had to run to a nearby shelter, but it stopped shortly after that.


We decided to do a short drive in the wind to Seymour, Indiana. And it is too windy for Sherman, so the 18 miles (30 kms) or so is as far as we will go for now. As we entered Seymour, the sky got very dark and a big storm started we headed for the Seymour library and are now parked outside using the internet as the rain pours down. We'll check and see if there's anywhere worthwhile to park for the night here, and if not we will go the Walmart for tonight.

Today's drive may not be very long...

About 18 miles (30 kms)

8 comments:

  1. That pizza looks so good, the crust looks homemade!

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  2. Yes, it sort of is. I have a bulk bag of gluten free pizza crust mix that I bought before leaving Canada. You just add, salt, pepper, flax seed, eggs and milk to it, then spread it out on a greased or parchment paper lined pan and cook it. First time I tried it and it turned out quite good, I was impressed.

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  3. If you have Windows 7 on one of your laptops, you might try connectify.com. It has been working well for us in turning Windows 7 into a hot spot. At one point they upgraded it to version 2.0 and it didn't work for us anymore. Their site said lots of people had the same problem so they put version 1.2 back on the site, and that's been working well for us. We use an aircard to access the internet on the Windows 7 laptop, and then open connectify and then the other laptop can connect to it. All this techno stuff can make your brain swim. Good luck to you! Let us know what you end up using.

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  4. We really had a bad storm here in Indy. They clocked the wind at the airport at 70 miles an hour. The rain came down in sheets and we had some small hail. Hope you missed all of this. Luckily we were parked into the wind, so it wasn't as bad.

    The pizza looks wonderful. Stay safe.

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  5. Hi Evelyn, thanks for the idea about connectify. Unfortunately, we don't have Windows 7...one laptop is Vista, and the other is XP.

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  6. Take care out there, I hear there is some crazy weather patterns happening through the states and southern Ontario!

    Nice pizza, looks awesome!!!!

    I would not pay over $10 either for a county park, but it sure looked peaceful with no neighbors to deal with!
    I would love it if my morning was 20c in the motorhome!

    It's really cold here right now!!
    Yikes!

    Drive and stay safe!!!!

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  7. That pizza looked delicious! I'm glad Whiskey is feeling better.

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  8. Pidge...The storm yesterday was pretty bad, but I don't think we got the worst of it. It rained on and off, with it coming down pretty hard just as we were coming into Seymour. The winds were bad as well, so we just stayed put in Seymour for the day. Glad to hear you made out alright with it.

    We will be in your neck of the woods tonight, in the Coryon area. Right across the National Forest from you.

    BTY the pizza was good.

    WBY...Didn't mind paying the $10, the park had lots of trails, and other facilities. Sure miss the Kingston KOA washrooms though, these weren't the nicest!

    Sorry you are having to spend another winter in Canada.

    Karen and Al...Whiskey is doing better but she is starting to leak again, might have to look into doggy diapers.

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