First trip west

[buzzman]

Internet access

Jack...I'm actually sending this trip report from home, however, I'm using Verizon wireless internet access which I did use while on this trip. I have a USB modem that I plug into my laptop and I can get internet wherever I can get a cell phone signal. For example, when we're are driving down the highway. We would also sometimes stop in a rest area and check the weather, for example. It's not quite as fast as DSL or TV cable internet, but it's very portable and I can also plug the modem into my desk top computer when at home if I want to use it for internet. I live in an area of rural west TN where I have no DSL or TV cable for high speed internet. The sluggishness of my dial-up connection was getting too much to take, and the satellite internet service was too expensive and not as portable. It costs me $60/month for the Verizon internet, sort of expensive, but it's the best choice I have available and I can use it almost anywhere I go. I've had it for about 9 months and so far I really like it.

Internet in my FWC with coffee at my side.

 

[buzzman]

Tahoe is amazing

silverstriketim...thanks for refreshing my memory...Fannette Island and Cave Rock. We spent three days in Gardnerville, stones throw from Minden. Sherri's son lives in Gardnerville. I suspect we'll be back.

 

[John D]

Buzzman, My sister uses broad band cellular service for internet in rural Alabama. She tried the other approaches you listed without success and came to the same conclusion as you. We do not have it yet.

It looks like you could use a sliding rear window in your truck and camper. I found a beautiful aluminum framed model for my truck in a salvage yard for 20 bucks and it was easy to install.

Many say the California Zephyr provides the most scenic train ride in the United States. My kids are too impatient for it but I think it is much better than flying, especially with a sleeping compartment. Nothing quite compares with something like your truck and camper. John D

 

[buzzman]

John D.

My truck originally had a sliding rear window. I didn't use it much over the years and it made wind noise. When I was refurbishing the truck and replacing windows, I took the sliding window out and replaced it with a one piece window. I still have the original sliding rear window. Since I didn't have a sliding rear window in the truck anymore when I ordered my FWC, I ordered the FWC without sliding window. So far, I don't miss the sliders.

The train looks pretty cool.

 

[John D]

Buzzman, Thanks for addressing my sliding rear window comment. I am glad you kept the sliding window. The stock unit is very nicely made. I will be trying to talk you into putting the slider back in to test my theory that a slide in camper with a sliding window is a good as having an extended cab. At least, that is the argument I make to GF, but she is not buying it.

I wanted to buy a new truck. The only 8 foot bed half tons I could find had standard cabs. GF will not accept anything other than an extended cab and our camper requires an 8 foot bed.

I have a nice 1973 Chevy Super 10 survivor. After seeing the success of you truck, I’m cleaning it up to try our camper on it rather they buying a new truck. This will test the idea that a camper can replace the extended cab for long trips.

Amtrak Auto Train that runs between Lorton, VA and Sanford, FL. It is an overnight trip. Our campers are oversized vehicles. I don’t know about the fares. I would imagine Amtrak will eventually do this east – west. John D

 

[buzzman]

Tahoe Rim trail

The next day, after our circumnavigation of the Lake, Sherri's son took us on a hike on part of the Tahoe Rim trail. We went on a section of the trail near the Heavenly Valley North ski area. The weather was great and the scenery was awesome. We started the hike in the afternoon and walked only about 3 1/2 to 4 miles one way because we were limited by the daylight.

Looking to the northeast into Nevada between Minden and Carson City. The road cut on the side of the mountain is Hwy 207 between Gardnerville and South Lake Tahoe.

My hiking buddies

Lake Tahoe view

One of the Heavenly ski lifts

Sherri on the trail.

Looking south. I think that's Monument Peak out there in the distance on the right??

Looking southeast. The afternoon shadows are getting long.

We are heading back in the late afternoon.

Looking northeast again, with setting sun.

This was probably my favorite day of the Lake Tahoe visit. I truly enjoyed it and hope to hike here again. I found out later that another one of our WTW members, pvstoy, was also on the Tahoe Rim Trail the same day we were.

The saga continues...

 

[buzzman]

CA Hwy 395 Gardnerville to Mammoth Mt

Ever since I started reading some of the WTW members' trip reports on CA Hwy 395, I wanted to go there. So when we left Gardnerville NV, we headed south on 395. We didn't know how far we would get the first day. As I mentioned before, I'm always amazed at the wide open spaces and the beauty in the west and this portion of the trip did not disappoint. So here are a few photos along 395 from Gardnerville NV to Mammoth Mt CA.

Mono Lake

Minaret Vista near Mammoth Mt

My rig at Minaret vista

Mammoth Mt

Hwy 395 is a very very scenic. The traffic was light on 395 and most places we stopped had very few people visiting. Mammoth Mountain was quiet.

 

[buzzman]

Grandview CG and Bristlecone Pine Forest

We stopped in Bishop at the Public Lands Info Center to find out where we might camp for the night. Very helpful place. We found out about some free camping at a place called Grandview, located near the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It sounded nice. It was! At Big Pine we turned onto the fairly curvy Hwy 168 toward the White Mountains and into the Inyo NF. This road was one of those second gear climbs for my old truck.

Part of Hwy 168

It was sort of late in the afternoon when we got to Grandview but we found a nice secluded site. There was one other couple that were tent camping on the other side of the campground.

Here's our camp site

One of our views in the evening

The same view the next morning

Drive up to the Bristlecone Pine Forest

Sierra View Overlook

In the Bristlecone Pine Forest

A view on the drive back down from the Bristlecone Pine Forest

 

[Ted]

Great report, great photos.

Buzzman,

Really enjoying your trip report. Recognizing some areas we have enjoyed visiting also. I'm amused by your calling Highway 168 up to the White Mountains "fairly curvy". That is like calling Death Valley in the summertime "fairly warm".

Keep up the great work.

 

[craig333]

Oh man, I want to do the white mountains so bad. And I live so close and haven't been there. /sigh

 

[terrisjoy]

I have a new mac laptop and use an at&t wireless card, I love it. I'm wondering do you charge your laptop in the 12v plug using an inverter, and if so would it be better to use the trucks plug in the cab, or the plug in the camper. I have the optional battery pac so if it's too much of a drain on my campers battery I could run the truck to charge it, I don't know. Thanks, Terri

 

[buzzman]

Terri,

I have used the inverter in both the camper and in the truck cab to run the computer. If the camper battery isn't fully charged, it won't run the inverter very long if at all, and I can't have any other big electrical load going in the camper either, like using the electric water pump or the outside flood lites. It all works best when the truck is running so the alternator is charging the batteries. I don't have a solar panel yet so don't know how that would work for keeping the camper battery charged and computer battery charged.

Speaking of solar panels, when my camper was ordered I mentioned to Sean Dempsey that I might want to add a solar panel. Well, during the build process, Chicali, what a guy, added extra aluminum roof rack bars to give me better clearance for a solar panel. But those darn solar panels are so expensive I have held off getting one. So far I haven't camped in the back country long enough to have to worry about the lack of battery power.
Buzz

 

[terrisjoy]

Buzz, thanks for the info. How do you know the status of the camper battery. Do you have a gauge on yours? I never know, except when the interior lights are dim or the outside flood lights. Thanks again, Terri

 

[Jack]

Terri,

I have used the inverter in both the camper and in the truck cab to run the computer. If the camper battery isn't fully charged, it won't run the inverter very long if at all, and I can't have any other big electrical load going in the camper either, like using the electric water pump or the outside flood lites. It all works best when the truck is running so the alternator is charging the batteries. I don't have a solar panel yet so don't know how that would work for keeping the camper battery charged and computer battery charged.
Buzz

The 12v power cable option for your laptop is more efficient than using an inverter to go from 12V to 115V and then using the laptops 115V to 20V power cable. However, about an hour or two is about all you want to pull from your camper battery. A laptop is typically 60W, so that's 5 amps/hour. The FWC Optima and Interstate batteries are rated at about 55amp-hours. If you run the fan or the heater, the extra load draws the batteries down even faster, which reduces their efficiency.

We have a 120W solar panel (FWC's is 85W, I believe), and on a bright day we are able to run two laptops with minimal drain on the camper battery. We really love the solar panel. We stopped carrying a 1Kw generator. It's late November, now, so the solar boost is not so reliable. Twice this trip we have run the truck engine to run our laptops.

 

[Jack]

I have a new mac laptop and use an at&t wireless card, I love it. i

We ended up with Verizon - and, yes, it has worked out great. Thank you Buzzman for your input, as we are now posting from Homolovi SP, AZ, outside Winslow, AZ.

We ruled out Sprint and T-Mobile, because of poor coverage outside of metropolitan areas. ATT had coverage comparable to Verizon, but their customer service $ucks. Also, we bought the CDMA modem outright so we could pay Verizon on a monthly basis. Verizon also allows us to suspend service for 3 months without paying a sign-up fee.

We have T-Mobile for cell; their customer service is Soooooooooooo much better than ATT (which we formerly had). Also, we could not do the month to month with ATT. They do sell SIM cards for use in such situations, but ATT clearly assumes that such users are deadbeats. ATT has all sorts of rules and restrictions. We have a now useless ATT SIM card which we got for service when we were in Yosemite with a student group. On the other hand, we have SIM cards from four other countries which we can easily reactivate anytime we are there. Enough about ATT! If only Verizon were GSM instead of CDMA. (GSM is the international cell phone standard, CDMA is local to the US, parts of Canada, parts of Mexico, and possibly a few other countries.)

 

[Jack]

Addendum to Broadband Internet Access

If you go with Verizon, be sure to get an EV-DO modem or PCMCIA card. EV-DO is much faster than CDMA. Sprint is actually much faster, but as I pointed out, their coverage is much poorer in rural areas. ATT also has a faster broadband network, and if you already have ATT cell service, is probably your best bet.

It got my UM 175 USB modem for $125 + $10 shipping from legacywireless.com - and when I said I needed it fast, they shipped it to me via express mail at no extra cost. They are a one person ebay company but the guy has a Blackberyy so your email questions are answered immediately and unlike a lot of ebey hosted companies, shipping is clearly reasonable.

 

[terrisjoy]

Jack, thank you so much for all the info.. It really helps me. I look forward to my next trip with my laptop. Enjoy, Terri

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

In spite of the fact that wireless internet options are interesting to me, this thread has still been hijacked.

DDog, would you consider splitting the discussion about cell phone service and wireless internet cards into a separate post?

 

[buzzman]

Grandview CG to Las Vegas

Well, back to the trip report. I haven't posted much this week because I've been busy with Thanksgiving visitors and eating until I can't move.

After I finish with this trip report, I plan to start a new thread about my lessons learned, and what worked and didn't work, possible mods to the FWC, etc. I don't want to get off track too much in this thread.

After visiting the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest we continued east on Hwy 168 to Hwy 266 and into NV then south on NV 95. This was very desolate territory but still very pretty scenery.

A view of Deep Springs Valley on CA Hwy 168 looking east. We could actually see some of this valley from the Grandview CG.

We stopped at the Palmetto ghost town, an old mining town along Hwy 266.

This is what's left of the buildings. Not too much here.

Sherri exploring the ruins

It was time for some lunch, so we drove a little way up a dirt road on BLM land near Palmetto...at least I think it was BLM land.

Coming back to Palmetto after our lunch break.

We continued south on NV Hwy 95. Here's some views along Hwy 95. You are probably getting tired of seeing all these pictures of the desert and rocks and open land, but to someone who has spent most of my life living east of the Mississippi R., I think this is very pretty land.

We drove past this roadside junkyard in Beatty and I just had to turn around and go back for a closer look. I like this old car stuff.

Some real treasures here. I think there might have been some parts for my truck in there?

The sand dunes. We didn't take the time to get closer. We'll save that for another trip.

We continued on 95 to Las Vegas and decided to stay at the Hitching Post RV Park. Very nice facilities here. Since we were planning to travel on I-15 into southern Utah the next day, this RV park was convenient to our route. We did some laundry here and badly needed house keeping in the FWC. We even saw another truck with an FWC at this place. But I didn't get a chance to talk to them.

Our "camp site".

A view of some of the very nice facilities.

 

[DLN]

buzz,
Great pictures and report as usual, I'll be following along as you go.