Last day here at Thousand Trails. I've kept busy these past few days playing pickleball in the mornings with Rich and Dee Pagliaro, Pat and John Lively, couples we met here last year, and a few new players I have only just met. Managed to get out yesterday afternoon for a few groceries and a haircut too. Even washed the Vue.....no water restrictions here.
Given that we are heading off to Alaska in mid June, I've also been busy researching our options for mobile internet while on the road in Canada. While our Verizon modem works well in the USA, roaming charges would apply if we used it in Canada and that becomes quite costly. My Verizon connection costs me just over $US60 for unlimited data every month and I generally use about 5-6 GB of data each month. Uploading photographs, watching photoshop instructional tutorials and voice/video calls on MSN Messenger account for much of my monthly usage. None of the Canadian cell phone companies offer good cellular data programs. Rogers, Bell and Telus charge outrageous amounts for data plans. For example, Rogers presently offers a 3 GB monthly data plan for the exorbitant amount of $CDN 125 per month! Further, I suspect that plan only works in larger cities that have the 3G infrastructure. Much of Canada is rural with limited cell phone connectivity in some areas, so it follows that if there is no cell phone coverage in a given area, there will be no internet coverage either. Need another option. 
That leaves mobile satellite internet. I've been dealing with Armand Lalonde at http://techmcw.com/ in Lindsay, Ontario. They offer both the roof mounted motorized satellite and also a tripod mounted dish version of Anywhere Internet. The roof mounted system features fully automatic setup and storage at the flick of a switch but is quite costly. Also, one needs a clear view of the southern sky in order to get a good signal. Some RV parks make finding an open site difficult, so if parked under a tree or even near trees or a building that block out the southern sky....no signal. For that reason, the tripod system looks much more promising. The basic system comes with a 74 cm dish but the coverage maps show limited or no coverage in northeastern British Columbia, Yukon or Alaska. However , the 98 cm (around 3 feet) dish should give us coverage in all the areas we will be visiting. We can also add an LNB for ExpressVu to the internet dish which could be a handy feature if we can't get a TV signal with our roof dome. Won't be as quick to set up as our plug in Verizon USB modem, but lots of RVers use satellite internet and setup time should decrease once I familiarize myself with the system. Chris and I are planning a family visit to Hanover, Ontario in late May, so we'll stop in Lindsay, Ontario to check out Armand's product line while enroute.
I've decided to head back over to Tampa this afternoon. I managed to get a good deal on a week stay at RallyPark thanks to Demond McKinley. Might even get to see Jim and Jane if they are still at Lazydays. They have a service scheduled for today before they hit the road for Alberta.
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