Lake Red Rock, Iowa: Eleven Days in a Little Trailer

"Where have you been, and what have you been doing?" you might ask, since it's been about nine months since I've last posted. The short answer is childcare for grandchildren and other family business. However (and my wife and I are so happy that the however has finally arrived), the kids are now back in school and the other family issues are settling down, allowing Sandy and me to finally use our Airstream Bambi 16 this beautiful fall. I honestly have to add that my emotional predilection is tending more nowadays towards doing and living rather than spending considerable time writing about what I've been doing. 

Photo from Observation Tower, Cordova Park

We are now camping for eleven days at Lake Red Rock, Iowa's largest lake, riding our bikes on the Volksweg Trail and just settling in for a nice quiet time of getting away from our usual routine. It's great to finally be able to use all the cool camping stuff we've accumulated to live a lifestyle that includes time outside, exercise, and private time with Sandy and me, while still allowing Sandy to work her online business and me to write when I feel like it (like now when it's in the 90s outside and it's so cozy inside with our air conditioner). After this trip, we'll take about a week at home, and then it will be another eleven days out in the Bambi, this time at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, one of our old favorite camping spots. And then after another week or so, we'll be off by jet to Carlsbad, California, for a week to enjoy the ocean and to attend a wedding. Luckily, Sandy's son will be house-sitting for us during this time, keeping everything shipshape. 

As of last night it is now official--we are no longer the smallest camper in the campground. We had a Hiker Trailer roll in across the way, a tiny trailer with, as they said, a small air conditioner because they are, after all, camping in the humid Midwest. I chatted with the husband for a while last night about ease of towing, spending more time outside, and those little potty tents, one of which is pitched next to their tiny trailer. Ah, the Green Goddess memories! 

One table, two work stations

Not, of course, that we are complaining about the set-up of our Airstream. What we really like about our little trailer is that it has a rear bed and a front table (which also converts to a bed). This is the classic design of the small trailers of the 60s and 70s--bed in back, table in front, and everything else in between. This floorplan allows Sandy to work online at the table and for me to relax in the rear bed, with a significant space between the activities. That way, Sandy can work without having to endure my snoring if I take a nap! We can also both work at the table as we are doing today as I write this blog while she works at her mobile office. Starlink has really provided us with a lot of flexibility for her mobile office. We also still hardly use our water, which enables us to camp for eleven days without having to break camp one or two times to empty the black tank and fill our water tank. In a sense, we still enjoy tiny camping, just with a little trailer rather than a tiny trailer. 

We've been riding our new Velotric Fold 1 Plus, heavy but enjoyable e-bikes that we pack in the back of our pick-up topper. Sandy helps me load and unload the 67-pound weight; however, I could remove the ten-pound battery before loading, which would help. We've been riding every day, pedaling to Pella, buying groceries, and riding the Volksweg Trail, yesterday 23 miles from our campground to the end of the trail at Cordova Park. Our Ford Ranger tow vehicle hasn't been moved since we arrived and set up camp. We are happy with the bikes, even though the smaller twenty-inch wheels and the weight makes a different ride than a conventional bike frame, even a conventional ebike frame. The bikes provide us with greater freedom, and we've been getting our regular exercise while still traveling long enough distances to feel we are really exploring. 

This is all for now. I wish everyone happy travels and good times. When the weather is too hot or cold, I'll probably get out of my garden, off the hiking trail, or off my bike and write another post. It's great to share and to be part of the camping community. 

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Airstream Basecamp and Starlink--First Time Out and Impressed

Starlink for RV

I'm sitting and writing in the shade of a large oak tree, early afternoon, lakeside, and about twenty-five feet from my Airstream Basecamp. My new lounge chair is comfortable, the south wind is keeping the gnats away, and  I can't think of a more comfortable or satisfying spot to be writing about my first camping experience with the Starlink RV satellite internet system. Lake Darling State Park in Iowa is a darling lake, with campsites right on the lake. It's a challenge for me as a writer, though, and for my wife with her consulting business which is almost completely managed by phone and via the internet because Lake Darling's signal strength is almost completely nil--and is sometimes non-existent--and, therefore, the perfect spot to test our new satellite internet service. I'll deliver our first impression right now--my wife and I are newly pledged Elon Muskateers!

At the office

The view certainly is perfect for composing this article about Starlink RV; as I finished the first half of this sentence, a gray heron flapped up the lake in front of me. I don't have to compose this post, just write down my observations! Because I'm about twenty-five feet outside my RV, the wifi signal strength is "medium," according to my Samsung Chomebook; taking the Chromebook inside the camper, it reads "strong." This Starlink RV unit is a real game changer. Prior to using it, I'd have to walk to a high point in the campground in order to send the text "Arrived" to my wife. Now I'm composing this blog post, including downloading photos to Google Drive and then uploading them to this post. Even with the medium-strength wifi signal, the speed is entirely acceptable--almost as fast as the fiber optics at home. Maybe a shade below normal. After listening to a couple of YouTube music videos, I could discern no lagging.

The router inside

Outside the window

I found the unit easy to set up, although there was a bit of learning involved but nothing difficult. It took me a while to realize I had to turn the unit on and then give it time to do its think setting up. What I've done the last couple of times plugging it in was to plug it in and then do something else for a few minutes--and by few I mean no more than three minutes. I've run the outside wire to the dish (which is a Gen2 flat one) through the side window latch port. The window closes easily on the wire. (I used this same system with our WeBoost signal booster.) The unit comes with seventy-five feel of cable. I've set the extra cable on top of the Basecamp's tire. The router I've set on the inside counter top that locks. The flat satellite dish I secured to the ground with a couple of smaller metal tent stakes.

Stats while writing

The unit does run on 120v power, so if I want to boondock, I'll have to figure that out. The power outtage is 74-250 watts, depending on if the unit is rotating and zeroing in on the closest satellite or just capturing the signal. Perhaps a battery power station with solar panels would do the job of keep me online while off the power grid. I've uploaded a screenshot of my network time while writing this article. However, I'm not going to interpret it for you since I'm so new at this sort of thing. All I can say is that the unit at Lake Darling is doing a fine job for me. The final test won't be this trip but will be how Starlink here works for my wife, who up- and downloads much larger files for her work. So far, though, Starlink allows me to be connected even while camping. My wife and I want to be able to get out together more, and Starlink might be that last "link" that allows up to camp more together.

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