Communicating is important

Writing a blog on RV’ing when you aren’t moving isn’t easy.  I end up with a writer’s block of sorts looking for material to write.  Finally came up with a couple subjects.  This one is a short ditty on communication both on the road and parked.

The hubby and I travel with 2 vehicles.  The first is the 1 ton dually which pulls our 5th wheel down the road.  The second is a mini van we inherited from his parents when they passed.  I tend to drive the mini van, not saying I can’t drive the 1 ton as I can but someone else prefers the big truck.  That said when we pull out of here to go on our next adventure I’ll be in the mini van usually a mile ahead of hubby pulling our rig.  

With a bit of distance between us communication becomes important.  Mostly it is me warning him of what is ahead traffic wise or letting him know when I pull over for a break.  Using our phones doesn’t work, he needs to keep both hands on the wheel else he drifts.  Our little 2-ways have been sporadic in coverage.  If I am not in line of sight and within 1 mile we can’t hear each other.  One time I had to pull off for a break unfortunately the exit was on a hill.  He didn’t hear me saying to pull over until he passed the exit. I continued with my short break and I caught up to him about 20 minutes later.

To fix that communication problem we will get a small CB for the mini van before we hit the road again, the truck already has one.  That will solve the communications while on the road.  Once we are at a destination we will either continue to use the 2-ways or hand signals.

On my page titled “Trying to Be Frugal” I mentioned  our internet connection had changed from being unlimited to 20 gig a month with Millenicom.  In October 2014 Verizon bought out Millenicom and we had to make a change.  We are now with Verizon on an all data plan of 30 gig a month for $130.  That plan includes 2 Mifi units, ours and my mother’s which adds $20 each to the monthly bill.  Once taxes and fees are also added on it comes to $185 a month which is double what we were paying.   Or at least that is what it looks like until you start subtracting, surprisingly our monthly data bill only increased about $30.  It is cheaper for my mother if we include her in the plan, so she pays less and we share the data for a little more than we were paying.  We use the lion's share of the data and so far it is working well.