And The Rains Came

Before we left Austin on Monday, my wife wanted to see the state capitol building. I guess after spending so much of her career in the one in Colorado (no she is not a politician), she likes to compare them. So I walked the dogs around the grounds while she went and took a peek inside.

We also met another friend of mine for lunch before heading on. I met Jean when the company I was working for at the time hired her company for an online billing system solution. In a similar fashion to some of the people I've met through my blog, we became friends using electronic communications long before we ever actually met. Since I didn't know what route we were taking for sure until Saturday morning and since I only had her work skype contact, I wasn't able to get in touch with her until Monday morning when we were in Austin, but we still managed to meet for lunch...how cool is that. We had a nice chat before heading on down the road.

The drive through Texas was quite green and pretty...sorry I keep saying that...but it is very different from all my memories of Texas road trips. Maybe it was due to the fact all the family trips were either middle of the summer or during the Christmas school break, but most of my memories are of a much more bleak landscape.

We made it to Iowa, Louisiana (no, that's not two states but a town in Louisiana just east of Lake Charles), where we spent the night.  Not much to be said about the place except it had a LA Quinta (important since it is a hotel chain that has WiFi, allows dogs, and seems to have a reasonable standard of cleanliness). We spent most of the evening pouring over the flood of 14 offers we received on the house in the 4 days it has been on the market. That is a lot of legal mumbo jumbo to read through...but I'm not complaining...I know we are very fortunate the market is so hot in Colorado right now.

The next morning we awoke to the rain the weather men have been threatening would happen all week.  In fact, they had some poor slob out reporting about flooding in New Orleans when we flipped over to The Weather Channel (why do they always send someone out to a place to tell us not to go there?). Guess where we had hoped to visit today. Oh well, guess we can check it out by boat sometime...probably a better option anyway.

The rains sound like they will be sticking around all week, so we are debating if we should just drive on to the boat. That is what we are doing as I type this...heading down I-10 in the rain, making our way to our next hotel stop near Mobile, Alabama.  There we will be digitally signing paperwork so the house will be under contract and rejecting the 13 other offers.

Wife just made the comment that she bets California would like to have some of this rain. I know Texas is glad to have it and I agree there will probably be a lot of thirsty Californians that wish they had it too.

So, past rains made for a pretty drive through Texas. Then it rained legal paperwork on us. And now we have some actual rain to deal with. Guess the weather men were right after all...depending on your perspective.

Cell Service: Some Interesting Options

In my first installment on this subject, I went through some of the things I am looking for in a replacement cell phone service.  I also noted a few technology issues and limitations that may be particularly interesting to cruisers (or anyone that wants to use their handset world-wide).  This time I want to take a brief look at some of the different low-cost carriers out there.

As you saw from the list of virtual operators that I linked to in the last post, there are a lot of them out there. Some of the more interesting ones have come up with some potentially fascinating concepts meant to reduce your monthly cost of of having a cell phone. Many of them start off by not subsidizing phone purchases. That means, if you need a new device, you will have to pay for the entire thing up front instead of getting "a really good price" in exchange for signing up for a long contract. Fortunately, some of them also allow you to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) if you have one that will work on their network, buy a used device that will work, and have some more economical new handsets.  Here are a few of the more interesting carriers I found that you may have never heard of.

Red Pocket

This seemed to be one of the more traditional sounding carriers.  They have a number of unlimited talk and text plans and the price seemed to vary based on how much high-speed internet you wanted to include.  The interesting thing about this provider is that they offer service on all 4 of the major carriers.  If you have an existing phone you would like to continue using, there is a fair chance they will be able to support it (please check with them before signing up if you are interested).  I didn't find their pricing to be overly compelling compared to my existing T-Mobile bill, but if you are on Verizon or AT&T you might find a plan with them that could save you a fair chunk of change each month.  They appear to be able to offer a bit better pricing because they act similar to a pre-paid service where you have to fill up and top off your account periodically instead of the tranditional monthly billing process.

Republic Wireless

An interesting low cost carrier with plans ranging from only $5 to $40 per month, the price points are definitely nice.  The theory behind Republic wireless is that WiFi is so ubiquitous in our lives these days, that there isn't likely to be much time where you are not connected to one.  Their service attempts to use WiFi whenever possible (even for voice calls) and only uses cell-based services when the WiFi is not available. Actually, their $5 plan is WiFi only, so the phone will only work when it is connected to WiFi.  The $10 plan offers voice only, with data support still coming from WiFi.  Their other two plans do offer mobile internet connectivity, with the price differentiator being how fast of data access you want.  All of their plans appear to be "unlimited everything" except for the restrictions on connectivity/speed noted above.

Since Republic tries to route your calls over WiFi when available, their phones have special software to switch between WiFi and cellular networks.  This means you cannot bring your own handset and they only offer a limited number of handsets on their service.  Their service is through Sprint (CDMA), but they can roam to Verizon so coverage is good within the U.S.  One user I know did note that the unlimited plans are not so unlimited if you are roaming onto Verizon's network a lot.

Ting

This company has decided to turn the usual cell phone plan on it's ear.  They have no "Unlimited" plans at all.  In fact, they really don't have any "plans" at all.  Instead, they divide service into various levels, or buckets if you will, and then charge you based on what bucket you land in at the end of each month.  Each service type is divided into these buckets: phone minutes, text/SMS messages, and data.  So, if you use very few minutes but a lot of data, then you get charged just a couple bucks for your minutes and a bit more for your data usage.  Their claim is that by doing it this way, most people save money versus those unlimited plans.

Traditionally, Ting has used the Sprint CDMA network for their service, but recently started rolling out a T-Mobile based GSM offering that is currently in a public beta program. The biggest downside to their approach seems to be that your bill may vary month-to-month so it may be hard to budget accurately for their service.  The other catch with this service is they require you to have a credit card on file.  Since, unlike most carriers, they bill you at the end of the service period (otherwise how could they know how much to bill you) this made sense to me.  Still not sure I like companies automatically billing my credit card, but at least there reason is a bit more valid than most.

I did choose one of these as our provider and have just completed my first month with them.  I will tell you about my experience in an upcoming post.  And if you are interested in giving the one I'm using a try, I may be able to save you a few dollars your first month with them too.

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.