Jailbreak

Vermont coated our rented RV in ice to prevent our departure. No way. We’ve been quarantined. We’re double vaxxed and timed out. We were outta there as soon as the RV extension thawed enough for it to retract. Did feel very bad about Ben, our faithful Covid dog; but he’s with our dog-person house sitter and has playdates lined up.

Crossing the NY State line was a big deal; haven’t left Vermont for 14 months. Driving an underpowered vehicle with small tires and rudimentary suspension takes getting used to.

First night was too cold to put water in the RV so we stayed in a hotel; another 14-month first. Whoops; couldn’t sign on to Marriott wifi on my computer even though Mary could sign on with hers. Why? Because I took my own advice. Specified that my computer MUST always use the Cloudflare DNS specifically to protect myself against rogue DNS servers while travelling (this isn’t a nerd post so don’t worry if this sounds like gobbledygook). Turns out at least Marriott and probably other venues use their own DNS server to get you signed in. Had to undo my protection to go back on the road.

Second night Niagara, NY. Hooking up the water and electric only took five minutes to my delight. Furnace worked. The Falls themselves, which we’d only seen before from the air, were spectacular. We only wore our masks indoors and in crowds; most people did the same.

Travel for me has always been about communication ever since I used to take a wallplate off to connect my 1200 baud modem to the phone line. The WiFi at KOA (Campgrounds of America) was good enough for Zoom but email started bouncing back because various spam filters didn’t like the IP address of the RV park. Who knows what evil hackers parked here before us. Had to use my Verizon MiFi device to create a hotspot.

Cooking toast in the stove top set off the smoke detector even with fans on and the windows open; so I redeployed it to the sock drawer. Emptying the black water and grey water tanks into a foul pipe in the ground not as bad as I thought it might be. But still a few drips. Yuck (picture deleted).

It’s good to be back on the road.