Friends and Family

After getting to the big town of Snyder Texas at midnight, we got a bit of a late start.  We opted for the "free" hotel breakfast and spent most of the morning visiting with my aunt.  We went to the local park and took the dogs for a nice walk, and I think they appreciated getting out and stretching their legs more than just the rest stop breaks we had the previous day.

The trip Sunday was much shorter, only about 6 hours, to Austin, Texas.  A good friend and former coworker lives there and I wanted to say hi.  My wife also has a fascination with state capitols so I thought she would like to check it out.

The drive was nice.  For a state that has historically been big into oil for as long as I can remember (my dad used to tell stories about working for oil companies), they sure seem to have embraced alternative energy...at least wind generation.

Field of...windmills

I guess central Texas has been getting some much needed rain, and it was actually green and quite pretty.  Very different from the trips I remember as a child...or the one through the panhandle yesterday.

Roadside wildflowers south of Abilene...I think it was.

We got to Austin and checked into the hotel around 6pm...after making a bit of a detour.  The highway system around the hotel is undergoing some construction and is quite confusing.  The turn by turn guidance program we are using (Navmii...which allows you to download maps for offline use so you aren't using so much cellular data...more on this in upcoming posts) didn't have the correct exit number and we ended up getting a scenic tour of the hotel area.

Traveling with the dogs has made finding hotels a bit more tricky.  I had heard that more and more are allowing people to bring their pets, but it isn't universal yet.  So, finding reasonably priced and clean hotels that have free internet and accept dogs has been a bit tricky but we are doing OK so far.  Some hotels, such as the Baymont in Snyder charge an extra $20 per dog while the LaQuinta we are in today lets them stay for free.

Traveling can be tiring

It was nice to see my friend John again and finally meet his family.  They treated us to some Texas BBQ (having family from the area, I love good Texas BBQ) and good conversation.  I know we were a bit tired from all the travel, but hope we were good enough company. Thanks for your hospitality John and Michelle, we will definitely need to return the favor on our boat sometime.

On tap for today we will go visit the capitol, make our way east...somewhere, and meet with our real estate agents who reportedly have some good news for us.

On Our Way

Once we managed to get the house cleaned up and on the market, it was finally time to pack up the car and head out to our new life.  Of course that sounds easy until you try to condense all of your possessions and necessities into a Prius...the very same Prius that is supposed to carry two people and two medium-sized dogs. Well, thanks to the skills gained when I worked at UPS, we got most of the stuff into the Prius.

Practice for stowing things on the boat.

After a farewell dinner with family and one last load of laundry, we departed Denver Saturday morning. The original goal of the first leg was to head south to see my aunt in Texas. Of course, weather in Texas and the I-10 corridor had us second guessing that decision...but after realizing that similar weather was also predicted for the middle of the country, we decided to press on.  We left Denver around 11 AM, a bit behind where we probably should have as that will put us at our destination quite late. We made the very familiar trip south along the front range past Colorado Springs and on through Trinidad (at one time we considered buying property in southern Colorado and made several trips there).

The Air Force Academy grounds near Co. Springs.

We crossed the border into New Mexico and turned east out of Raton and headed toward Amarillo, Texas. Just outside of Clayton, New Mexico, we ran into the only bit of bad weather on the trip...if you can call it that. There were a couple rain showers that came with a lot of wind. The wind caused a bizarre migration of tumbleweeds like I had never seen before. It was like they were being herded across the highway in lined up groupings as if they were part of some tumbleweed ranch herd.

We passed through Amarillo just about dusk and didn't arrive in Snyder, Texas, until just around midnight. I had always told my wife that making this exact trip a number of times as a child was one of my justifications for getting my pilots license...and now she understands.  Most of the dry, flat, beige New Mexico and Texas panhandle are better when viewed from 9000 ft and 150 mph.

Sunset with no Mountains...not in CO anymore.

Cell Service: Time for a Change

A few times I've mentioned on the blog that I've been considering a new cell phone service.  You might have read when I was up in the Chesapeake I found that T-Mobile didn't have the best coverage (Ok, I only had coverage if I was standing literally on the north shoreline of the peninsula). Then, when my phone started acting up just as I returned to Denver, I decided that it was time to pull the trigger and make the switch.  But this decision isn't an easy one due to the different and competing technologies out there. So, the next several posts on the subject may get a little technical, but will hopefully give you an interesting insight into the world of cell phones and providers (as best I understand them anyway).

Most people reading this are probably at least somewhat familiar with the four big cell phone providers in the U.S.  There's Verizon, which seems to have the best overall coverage (in the U.S.)...and a price tag that says they know it.  Then AT&T is the other Goliath name in the market.  Behind those two stand Sprint and T-Mobile to round out the group.  These are the ones that own (or at least contract with a maintenance company that owns) all the cell phone towers in the U.S., and if you are making a cell phone call in America, you are likely using one of these towers to do it.

But, those aren't the only cell phone companies.  You might have heard of (or even use) Boost, Consumer Cellular, Cricket, Straight Talk, or Virgin Mobile. Then there are a bunch of other even lesser known brands as well.  All of these companies are what are called Mobile Virtual Network Operators (or MVNO's) and they basically "rent time" on the major cell providers networks and towers. For example the MVNO Boost uses Sprint, Cricket uses AT&T, and Straight Talk is talking straight through T-Mobile.  If you want to see all the different MVNO's out there and what networks they use, this link should take you to a pretty good list on Wikipedia.

So, there are a ton of cell phone companies out there, how do you narrow them down?  Well, in my case I had some very specific criteria as a cruiser:

• They have to be reasonably priced.  My T-Mobile bill was $114/month for two phones ($100 + taxes, fees, pain and suffering) and it had to be at or below that.
• They have to have decent coverage in the U.S.  T-Mobile wasn't that bad (except in Deltaville) but I did want better if I could get it.
• They have to support GSM phones (since CDMA is only used in the US and, I think, Japan and I would like the option to use any phone I buy elsewhere...like, you know, the Bahamas, BVI, etc.).
• They need to have the ability to suspend service without disconnecting the number, for times I am out of the country and don't want to use that service. 

I guess there is one more "feature" I need to talk about.  The GSM phone needs to be unlocked.  Many cell phone companies lock the phone you get to their service.  This is done since they subsidize the cost of the phone and lock you into a contract to help offset the cost.  By doing this, you can't get that top of the line phone for $25 and then switch to another service the next week.  Recent laws and rules in the US now require the carriers to unlock the phones once you have fulfilled your obligation with them (typically a year or less).  The trick here is that you have to request it...so if you are planning to go outside the U.S. with your GSM cell phone, make sure you request the unlock before you leave.  

The reason you want to unlock the phone is simple.  In many places you go you can buy a pre-paid SIM card on the local wireless network and use it to make calls. This is often much cheaper than if you use your U.S. plan's international roaming rates.  With an unlocked phone, you can swap these SIM cards with your existing one and effectively swap your service without having to buy another handset.

There is one more problem with using one phone in multiple locales, though.  While unlocking a phone will allow you to use the phone on multiple "foreign" networks, some of the more advanced features may still not be available.  You see, even in the GSM and CDMA worlds, the carriers apparently have differences. Often the higher speed data access (those things labeled 3G, 4G, and LTE in all the marketing material) are done on different radio frequencies for different carriers in different countries.  Many of the phones don't have all the possible radios inside them to use all the different frequencies.  So, even with an unlocked phone, you may find your data connection is limited depending on the capabilities of your handset.  Best you can seem to do is to find a handset that uses at least some of the frequencies in the locations you intend to travel...and in the rest you may be limited to lower data speeds.

Well, that covers some of the things I'm looking for and some of the pitfalls that can be encountered.  Next time I'll take a look at some of the more interesting discount providers of cell phone service that I have found.

Take the Long Way Home

Inspired by my blogging friends at The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick and their scenic boat-shopping tour of the U.S., we decided we should take a bit more leisurely route back to the boat.  Ok, I also didn't want to do the 3+ day marathon driving trip again.  Of course, this time of year doesn't seem to be lending itself to a nice trip for anything north of the 36' 30° parallel, so I think we will be going south.

I've got some friends and family I would like to see in Texas, then I think we are going to meander somewhere roughly along the path of I-10.  Of course, at the moment I have no idea what we should check out along the way.  So, if you happen to know of any place along the way that we should check out, please let us know.  And where is that world's largest ball of yarn anyway? ;-)

So, we'll be taking the long way home...to the boat...

Definitely Not Home Anymore

My wife and I, with my parent's help, have been putting in long hours the last several days trying to meet a deadline with our house.  The realtor was scheduled to come on Wednesday to take pictures for the MLS listing for our house so we could put it on the market today.

Proof it is for sale...the realty sign

If you have ever seen our house you know that, while we aren't dirty people, we don't keep the house spotless. There are just too many things to do in life to spend hours every day cleaning a home.  And since we owned a home that...in true American fashion...was way bigger than we needed, over 18 years we accumulated a lot of stuff to fill that space.  Not necessarily useful stuff and, if I had it all to do over again, I doubt I would have bought much of it...but we were busy being good American consumers. It has been quite an undertaking to move completely out, clean it all up, and get it ready to sell.  And we almost made it by the time the realtor arrived with his camera (the images here are mine, not the realtor).

Living room and hall

Family room

There are still a couple small piles of stuff in the garage...mostly extra packing boxes and cleaners...but we should be done with it all today.  Then we need to re-pack and re-evaluate what has been earmarked for transport to the boat while we spend a day or so at my mother-in-law's place.  I think we may have just a bit more than will fit in the Prius, at least if we intend to fit ourselves in it as well.

Master bath

Master Bedroom

If you happen to know of someone who wants to move to the Denver metro area, we know of a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house they can buy and move in immediately.  It has a number of upgrades to make it more energy efficient, including being one of the few in our neighborhood to be built to the Ideal Energy Home standards of the day.  I know our utility bills are about half of some of our neighbors. If we had stayed, we probably would have added solar and tried to see how close to net zero we could get.  Unlike many of the houses of the period, the lower level of this house is all brick for lower maintenance. The neighborhood is desirable and is supposed to have good schools (our dogs didn't use them).  Since it is early spring, you can't tell from the pictures but the back yard is actually a nice retreat to hang out in during the summer.

Update:  It appeared in the MLS mid-morning yesterday.  You can see it here as long as the listing lasts.

The backyard retreat

So, wish us luck as we make the move to the boat...if the wheels don't fall off the Prius trying to get us and the stuff across the country.

Getting There

I think we are finally getting a handle on the house. It still amazes me how much stuff there is once all the big items are gone.  Thanks to Freecycle, the mattress, dinette chairs, and a number of other things (all were offered and taken by the nice couple that responded to the mattress ad) are gone. The pathfinder is also gone now, so we have more limited means of hauling than we did before.

Most of the rest of the stuff that is left has been boxed and moved to the garage.  There is a small pile of stuff to keep (either boat or storage), a larger pile of stuff to donate, another large pile to recycle, and a small pile of trash.  Oh, did I mention that today was trash day?  Our trash service comes with the cans and this was our last pick up. We had hoped they would not show up until the afternoon...so of course they were here by 9am.

After getting the house cleared, in came the steam cleaner.  Our real estate agent said our carpets were fine and replacement would likely be a waste of time as the new owners would probably want to replace them with their own choice anyway.  So, we rented a Rug Doctor and, after vacuuming, steam cleaned the carpets.  For as old as they are, the carpets still look fairly decent...a surprise for builders grade carpeting.

Speaking of surprises, one of the vacuums we borrowed (not the one pictured above) was sure one.  With all the advertising and the price tag of Dyson, I found that the one we tried using was terrible.  It was less effective than a refurbished Hoover WindTunnel vacuum we picked up at Big Lots for about 1/10 the price.  And all those claims about design innovations...well...I think my wife summed it up best: "This thing was obviously designed by someone that has never actually used a vacuum".  I could say that the Dyson sucked...but normally a vacuum should and it didn't seem to do that either.

As of this morning all of the rooms are empty except the kitchen.  And we need to get that cleared out and cleaned up quickly as the real estate agent is coming over to take pictures to create the listing. Everyone says it is a good time to be selling in the Denver market, so hopefully we will get it sold soon.  In any case, we should be heading for the boat in the next few days.  Yay!

Aaaaaagh.....

Sorry for going radio silent for a little while.  It has been quite hectic around here.  We had the nice going away party last Sunday and it was nice to see my old friends and make some new ones.  Of course, as dizzy as I've been recently, I totally forgot to take any pictures while I was there (doh!).  I do want to thank everyone who stopped by to wish us well.

Some "provisions" we were given during the party.

Since the party we've been running around like the proverbial headless chickens trying to get rid of stuff.  It still amazes me how much cruft we have to deal with.  The only furniture we have left is our mattress lying on the floor in our bedroom, one table, and a couple dilapidated dinette chairs.  It kind of reminds me how we first started living out of college...not a lot of furniture.  The difference is all the small stuff though...man you can accumulate a lot in 18 years.

Many trips to every imaginable donation place (Goodwill, ARC, Habitat for Humanity, etc.). A trip down to the metal recycling center with old computer carcasses (steel cases, motherboards, hard drives...all separated of course), fence stakes, buckets of hardware, and other metallic things we couldn't find a home for or reason to keep (it is amazing what they will recycle..and depending on what you have there is some money in it..between our two trips we made $125).

Boxing up the things we want to store like picture albums, heirlooms, paperwork.  Decided to buy a small fire safe to store some paperwork in lieu of paying for a safe deposit box for some necessary (but not exactly valuable) paperwork.  Then stashing these boxes with nearby relatives.

Spending some quality time on eBay and Craigslist trying to get a few more dollars for some of our better "stuff".  Our mountain bikes are now sold, so we will be looking for some possibly folding ones once we get to Florida.  Running to CarMax and EchoPark to get appraisals on our old Pathfinder (which should disappear later today...after we cart the table my computer is currently sitting on to Goodwill).

The almost gone Pathfinder...and house...I hope.

And yesterday we met with the real estate agent.  The sign is hiding in the garage, and we are prepared to list the house.  That should happen early next week.

The sign waiting in the garage.

The goal was to be cleared out by last Tuesday...but this isn't any different than any other plan made by a cruiser...a wave comes along and wipes away any trace of that plan scribbled in the sand.  Now I guess we will see if we are on the road by Easter.  Keeping my fingers crossed.