Pretrip Maintenance

This weekend we finished up the last of the maintainence we needed to do to have the camper ready for our trip. Now it's inspected and ready to hit the road! Initially we thought we might have to do some roof repair, but it turned out to be unnecessary so we got a head start on cleaning instead.

Without the roof repair, it was a series of small upgrades and tasks. On the interior, we replaced the vent face in the bedroom with one that includes a fan so we can force more hot/cold air in as desired, and replaced all the lights with LEDs. Some of the previous ones had already burned out, plus the LEDs will be cooler and take less energy to run.

Since the camper had been sitting in the same spot for 5 years it has a lot of built up grime. After it had dried from the cleaning, we put some sealant along the roof seams (we haven't discovered any leaks, but just in case). Here's a shot showing the difference in the front between the washed on the left and the unwashed on the right:

Washing the exterior

Similarly, the basement storage area was pretty dirty from years of use without a cleaning. In addition to cleaning this we also stapled some of the peeling flooring/wall. We also discovered that there was a built in cooler in here that had been hidden by stuff. Afterwards we took the opportunity to load this up with one of the totes we have and our ski equipment, making sure our packing measurements work (they do!).

Basement before

Basement after

The biggest outcome of the weekend was getting the state inspected and having it fully road legal. Before we could do that, we had a couple of maintenance issues related to driving that needed to be addressed. First off was putting 4 new tires on it; the ones already on it were old enough to automatically fail inspection. After that hitching the camper to the Bundra allowed us to discover a couple of minor problems. The power jack wasn't working, but luckily it just needed a new fuse. One of the brake lights was out and another was missing the cover. These were also quick replacements. Finally, testing the breakaway switch (this is a device that automatically puts the camper brakes on if it separates from the truck) showed that the key had gotten stuck over the years; eventually the hook broke off before the key pulled out. We had to replace the entire breakaway switch as well, which took the longest of these fixes.

With those done, we brought it to an inspection station and it passed. We have no remaining paperwork for our trip. With it road legal, we also got in some practice hitching, unhitching, driving, and backing up the camper.

Trailer Inspection Complete!

With all the productive work complete, it was time to play a little. We plan to bring a drone with a camera for the trip to occasionally get some aerial shots. After some struggle, we got the hang of it and managed to get several shots and even a video. Once it was finally calibrated, the drone did a great job maintaining its position, and even automatically returned to within 2 feet of the launch point from 300 meters away.

The Bundra from above

Starlink: The Internet of the Future

Since we are going to be working remotely during this whole trip, one of the most important things we had to figure out was our internet connection. We both have to VPN in to our companies' networks to access the majority of our work, so we need to have fast internet for the majority of the time. We are okay with occasionally using internet cafes or shared workspaces, but that has to be the backup plan not our default.

Starlink Dish

Starlink is a low latency satellite internet service. Compared to traditional satellite internet, it has much faster response time and is much more robust about receiver dish positioning. While traditional satellite uses a geosynchronous satellite (i.e. the satellite does not move relative to the ground), Starlink uses a bunch of satellites that are constantly passing overhead. This means that the dish needs to be able to track the moving satellites, but due to the different orbits used the Starlink satellites are much closer to earth. Geosynchous orbit is over 22,000 miles above the surface, but Starlink satellites are just 340 miles away. This drastically shorter difference means a much shorter delay time. It's roughly the same difference between running the full length of a football and running 5 miles.

We have been on the wait-list for a Starlink residential package since January 2021. The hope was to receive this in time for the trip, and then use the portability option to manually update the address each time we were moving to a new location. Fortunately, we ended up with an even better solution. In late May, Starlink offered a new service specifically for RVs. We cancelled our residential order and got an RV one. It arrived within a week.

The differences between Starlink for RVs and the residential version are:

• RV service costs an extra $25 a month
• RV service can be setup at any location in the country, while residential is locked to the service address (RV service cannot be used while in motion)
• RV service gets less priority than residential service if the location is at capacity
• Residential service cannot be purchased in an area already at capacity
• The RV service can be paused or started on a monthly basis, while residential service can only be cancelled (and reopened if the area still has capacity)

Starlink Speed Test in rural Vermont

For us, the RV service was an obvious choice. During our trial week we set up the receiver. It only took about 2 minutes for it to track the satellites and begin providing service. The internet at Shawn's parents house is often under 1 Mbps, but Starlink was getting us 50-150 Mbps, with latency between 20-100 ms. This can nominally work anywhere in the US with a view of the sky. We are planning to use this as our main source of internet and supplement with WiFi or shared working spaces in the cases where we cannot get Starlink signal for some reason (e.g. a very tree covered campground).

Initial setup to track to the satellites

After our trip we plan to give the dish to Shawn's parents and they can use it for improved internet connection at their home.

Starlink in use for a work call

So... where are we going?

T-minus 3 weeks until the camper is our long-term home! We've talked some prep, but the big question friends and family keep asking is, understandably, "Where are you going to be?"

We've mapped out a tentative course pretty much following I-90 to Seattle for the first two months. We'll try to push through this part of our trip quickly, hopefully reaching Seattle by early November, due to the snowfall we're anticipating in northern Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington. While we're traveling, we'll be keeping a watchful eye on the snowfall in southern Idaho and Utah, as this will impact our course after we reach Seattle. The current plan is to travel from Portland, OR, through Idaho into Salt Lake City via I-84, then driving I-15 to Las Vegas. Our only set-in-stone location/time so far is Las Vegas no later than December 16. The Patriots play the Raiders that Sunday and Shawn already has tickets. If I-15 isn't safe for us to drive with the camper, we'll have to re-route through California. 

We'll be updating as we go along! You can see from our route we'll be hitting all sorts of climates, which is why we're taking care to prep. Our targets include both cities and nature. We'll have to have our skiing/snowboarding gear, heavy winter clothes, bathing suits, warm weather clothes, etc. all at once! Our plan is to return east in April, but if we're really enjoying ourselves, who knows!

We're also going to be fairly flexible with the specific dates we visit places, so let us know if you have somewhere you would like to meet up and we'll try to coordinate!

Our tentative route:

The tagged locations (with tentative timeline in bold):

North Troy, VT

Lake Placid, NY

Buffalo, NY

Cleveland, OH

Detroit, MI

Chicago, IL

Milwaukee, WI

Minneapolis, MN EARLY OCT.

Rapid City, SD (Black Hills National Forest and the Badlands)

Yellowstone National Park, WY (Teton and Shoshone National Forests)

Whitefish, MT (Glacier National Park, possible trip to Banff)

Seattle, WA (N. Cascades National Park, Vancouver, Whistler and Mount Cain) EARLY NOV.

Portland, OR (Mt. Hood)

Ketchum, ID (Sun Valley, Boise National Forest)

Salt Lake City, UT (plus skiing, possibly Zion on the way to Vegas)

Las Vegas, NV (Grand Canyon) 12/16

Reno, NV (Lake Tahoe and more skiing) XMAS-EARLY JAN.

San Francisco, CA (day trips to Mendocino, Yosemite National Parks)

Los Angeles, CA (via Sequoia and Death Valley National Parks, Joshua Tree)

San Diego, CA (possibly we'll pop into Mexico)

Phoenix, AR (Sedona and Tonto National Forest)

Big Bend National Park, TX (via El Paso)

Santa Fe, NM (via Albuquerque, Apache and Gila National Forests)

Denver, CO (time and weather permitting! TBD Telluride, Rio Grande National Forest) 

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