Day 28, 29 - Brooken Cove - CoE

Monday (28) - It’s a really nice, 75°F day here at Brooken Cove Corps of Engineer campground in eastern Oklahoma. I set up the induction cooktop outside to make lunch with less mess around the stove. We have water and 50amp power but no sewer connection so in some ways, we still function as if we were dry camping. But don’t skimp on the electricity. I.e. Instant Pot, toaster, sous vide, induction cooktop, Keurig, water heater, heat pump, and A/C.

This has been our first month with the AT&T hotspot. With three days remaining in this billing period, we still have 15GB out of the original 100GB. I think… 

Tuesday (29) - Visited with multiple neighbors this morning over coffee. They live in the area and spend a month each Spring and Fall at this campground. It is a very nice 75°F this afternoon with a light breeze off of the lake. 

We had dinner with relatives in Stigler this evening and returned the borrowed truck. Tomorrow morning, we head towards St. Louis, MO, planning a stop midway at a Harvest Host farm. 

Day 26, 27 - Brooken Cove - CoE

Saturday (26) - Bridget’s niece picked us up at the campground this morning and brought us into town to her brother’s home. He is generously letting us use his truck for a couple of days as there are very few businesses within walking distance. It’s a nice, bright red, late 90s half-ton Dodge. 

I picked up the battery kit for my iPhone X that I ordered from Amazon. Installation requires a heat gun, suction cups, and prying up on the glass screen. We’ll see how this goes…

It took quite a while to get the battery replaced. No pictures since the phone is my primary camera. But the  most challenging part was removing the adhesive used to hold the battery in place. The screen came off easier than I thought after the phone was heated with the heat gun. The directions say 155°F is a good target temperature. Now that it’s done, the phone appears to be working and is hooked up to the charger as the instructions suggest. The FaceID function is still not working. The battery was only 19% charged when initially installed. It is supposed to be a 3580 mAh compared to the original 2716mAh. We’ll see if there is any improvement.

Sunday (27) - We went on a walk along the beach. Not a sandy beach but pretty sticky, damp clay. The previous windy days had pushed the water quite a ways up the shallow shoreline. Today was clear and calm. 

I made plans for a Harvest Host stay in Missouri for Wednesday then on to Sullivan, MO, for several days. That’s about as far north as we are planning to venture at this time. After that, I believe we are headed for a Thousand Trails campground. 

Day 24, 25 - Yukon, OK and Stigler, OK

Thursday (24) - This morning, I finished installing the second SoftStart on the front air conditioner. A bit more complicated since this one has an integrated heat pump. But, now I knew which wires to look for and the green LED means that it’s working just fine. 

I repaired a bent cabinet hinge that made the door not latch as it was no longer lined up. I started up the basement fridge and put in a bunch of drinks plus a handful of items in the freezer half. I really didn’t feel like making dinner so I went down to IHOP, which is right next door to the grocery store. 

This is the office and club house for this campground. It really has been a nice place. Nice, concrete parking slots with grass between the sites. Mediocre WiFi.

Friday (25) - Today was a short driving day to Brooken Cove campground near Stigler, OK. It is a Corps of Engineers park and is located on a lake and is quite windy. The site is not very level but was the only site available that we fit. 

The wind is from the northwest and is supposed to end this evening. But it’s making for whitecaps on the lake. 

Day 22, 23 - Yukon, OK

Tuesday (22) - After the warm and sunny day yesterday, today is mostly overcast with some rain. One of the other campers mentioned that there are some tornado warnings for the area west of here towards Amarillo. I didn’t think it was “tornado season” anymore. 

This morning, I was up on the roof looking at the rear air conditioner. I purchased SoftStarts for the A/C units to allow them to run without the current spikes when the compressor starts up. The wiring was slightly different from the instructions so I sent an email off to tech support. I also asked it it was alright to install the SoftStart unit next to the blower motor. They responded within 30 minutes with what I needed. Unfortunately, there is rain with lightning in the forecast for the rest of the day. But it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow. Lots of thunder to the south and west and the NWS says 50amp winds.

I tried to participate in testing yesterday afternoon but there was insufficient bandwidth on the campground WiFi and AT&T stopped working for about 5 minutes. Not reliable enough for the test. Fortunately, there as an extra VE logged into the session or else the test would have needed to be restarted.

The weather app says that there is a severe weather warning for most of the night though we are in the “less severe” area of the state. And they suggest having a weather radio turned on.

Wednesday (23) - This morning started at 4:40am with tornado sirens going off. I grabbed the dog (as the cat had seemed to vanish), a flashlight, phone w/external battery, and my raincoat. It was pouring buckets with lightning all around every couple of seconds. We went to the underground shelter and I passed the dog down the short ladder and followed. There were about 15 people and about 5 dogs. Normally our dog barks at other people and other dogs but he stood quietly watching everything. By about 5:15am, the manager came by and said that the warning was over and the sirens had stopped. 

This morning, after things dried out, I installed a SoftStart on the rear A/C unit. It was pretty straightforward and is running right now. The green LED shows that the compressor is running. Maybe I’ll install the front one tomorrow morning as it’s already getting warm.

Day 20, 21 - Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City

Sunday (20) - Yesterday, I participated in the afternoon test session with our WiFi running through Verizon on Bridget’s iPad. Much faster than AT&T at this location. The throughput was sufficient to participate but I wouldn’t want to be a lead VE since the audio needs to be really clear through Zoom. After yesterday's 95°F temperature, today’s high is forecast for only 64°F. Quite the change,. I have been enjoying the indoor pool while we are here. That has been a nice treat. 

I used a heat gun on low to heat up the iPhone with the SIM card removed so there would be an opening in the phone. I used an infrared thermometer to make sure I didn’t heat the phone case up too much. But the heat gun was recommended to soften the glue inside of the iPhone by the iFixit website. Then, I had it sit in the bag of rice overnight. This morning, there was less condensation visible on the camera lenses and the phone started right up. It is sitting on the charger right now running. I'll try the heat gun again later.

Right now, I’m waiting for the special, Sunday afternoon test session to start. It is for a class and, I believe, there are eleven people signed up to take the exam. Almost all are for the technician class. I’m using an iPad-Mac feature to treat the iPad screen as a second monitor for the Mac. 

Monday (21) - A relatively short drive today to almost Oklahoma City. We are at an RV park in Yukon, OK, which is about 20 miles west. Kind of on the same side of town as the airport since Bridget is flying out tomorrow morning. Since we don't have a toad, we need to rely on Uber. This is a nice RV park. Full hookups, concrete pads, etc. Though the pool is closed for the winter as it's unheated. Unfortunate, since it's 75°F right now.

A unique feature of that I hadn't seen before are tornado shelters inside of the RV park. I guess we are in that part of the country. Right now, I'm trying out the campground WiFi for the test later this afternoon. 

I think we are staying here for four nights before moving on to another RV park on the other side of the state.

Day 17, 18, 19 - Amarillo, TX

Thursday (17) - We left the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta grounds around 10am after seeing hundreds of balloons flying near the campground including this one which actually landed in the park to switch passengers. I heard it arrive around 6:30am and it was maybe 100 yards from us. They stayed on the ground until after the national anthem at 7:00. At that time, the selected balloon took off with the American flag waving from the basket. Every day, they had a different singer. It was a beautiful morning with barely a breeze so the balloons traveled slowly. They landed all around us with the field in front of our windshield being a popular choice. An enjoyable experience.

Our next stop was Amarillo, TX, at the Big Texan RV Ranch. We are here for four nights. It is affiliated with the Big Texan Steakhouse and we plan on visiting that tourist attraction for dinner one of these days. Maybe tomorrow. They have a pool, sauna, and jacuzzi here which I have been looking forward to. I went into the pool with my phone still in my pocket. After drying it off, it rebooted continuously. Bridget suggested a bag of rice, which I did. The iPhone X is supposed to be IP 67 rated which means surviving 1m depth for 30min. It submerged for less than 1m for maybe 5 min. So it should’ve survived the dunking.

Friday (18) - This morning, the phone was still behaving the same way. We used Uber to go to the super Walmart to stock up on some groceries and I wanted to look at their phone selection. They don’t sell unlocked iPhones so I moved on to grocery shopping. I happen to pull out my phone out of habit and it was sitting on the lock screen. I unlocked the phone and was informed that there was a problem with Face ID but otherwise it seemed to work fine. The battery was at only 2% and I was able to send a text message and receive an email so I am assuming that it works. There is moisture visible on the camera lenses so it’s back in the rice bag except the charging cable is attached. Obviously, the phone isn’t very waterproof. I’ll leave it overnight in a bag of warmed rice and check in the morning.

The Uber experience was fine and it cost under $20 for the round trip. This seems like a reasonable option as we still don’t have the Jeep that we ordered back in June. The status is still the same. Collecting parts.

Saturday (19) - iPhone dead again. Our next stop is in Oklahoma City and there is an AT&T store about 3 miles from the RV park. I will look into picking up a replacement iPhone at that time. That's only a couple of days away.

We did go to The Big Texas Steakhouse last night for dinner. I had the 16oz ribeye and it was perfectly cooked. There is still over half leftover for tomorrow night's dinner. It really does have the look and feel of a tourist trap but that's fine. We're tourists. We were picked up in a limo at our campsite and driven to the restaurant. Convenient.

I actually did get something done today. The Raspberry Pi running the Victron open-source software no longer dimmed and the screen saver no longer worked. This happens every time that I do a firmware upgrade which I did a few weeks ago. I finally got around to downloading the scripts from GitHub. I added the URLs here so I don't have to search for them again.

https://github.com/kwindrem/RpiDisplaySetup

https://github.com/kwindrem/SetupHelper

Day 15, 16 - Albuquerque, NM

Tuesday (15) - This is but a fraction of the balloons in the sky as seen from our parking space aka “Box View, South RV park”. Our front windshield faces a large field where some choose to land. No utilities at all but it’s a great location. The sections of the park with utilities are really cramped. Slide to slide. 

This morning after the balloons were done, I moved our frozen items back to the RV refrigerator as it has been running fine. I powered off the basement freezer to see if we could get more out of our batteries and solar setup. I also cleaned the panels as they were pretty dirty from sitting for four months. 

Later - Due to the low sun angle of 45° and some scattered clouds, the peak wattage that I saw was around 320 watts. This is about half the rated output. So the generator will come on around sunset. Plus I want to make some chocolate chip cookies and our only oven is the power hungry convection-microwave. 

Full-time friends, Ken and Lynne, who we’ve met in AZ and AK, stopped by to visit. They had a 5th wheel before and now have an older diesel pusher. Their tow vehicle is a RAM 1500 and it has a lot of storage capacity. And the 6.7 Cummins has no problem pulling it all. 

Wednesday (16) - We caught the 6:15AM shuttle this morning in a light drizzle. They had the yellow flag out which meant that the mass ascent wasn’t cancelled but they were watching the weather. I picked up a green chili breakfast burrito at one of the many food stands and we waited to see what was going to happen. Around 7:30, they changed to a green flag and the first group of balloons started to blow up.

The first group seemed to be mostly commercial tours with paying passengers though there were a few international balloons. After that, balloons started to inflate all around us. This went on for a couple of hours. I almost had enough coffee but  my phone needed to be charged. Too many short video clips.

I’m not sure why but this seemed to be my favorite balloon. The patchwork pattern was definitely unique from the mostly geometric patterns. I’m not sure watching the mass ascent was any better than our view from the RV park but it was different. I wish I had brought a folding chair. The grass was still kind of damp from the early morning drizzle.

Another favorite was this African savannah themed balloon. Nice colors and it also stood our from the commercial tour groups. There were a lot of commercial tour balloons. And a number of balloons sponsored by businesses. Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly the special shaped balloons. 

Late morning, I went to a YouTube meetup with Phil, Stacy, and Matt. Two different channels. It was entertaining as they were very personable. 

Afterwards, we went to the balloon museum. Admission was only $10 for both of us and there was a lot of history that I was not aware of. Such the use of balloons during WWII. They had the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic gondolas and the all important smashed penny machine. 

Day 14 - Albuquerque, NM

Monday (13) - This morning, while waiting for the shuttle bus, we saw a lot of balloons heading our way. We are parked next to an open field that some choose to land on. It was kind of breezy at lower altitudes so some were moving pretty fast. Those higher up were almost stationary. This is just a sample of the hundred or so of the hot air balloons that went over our RV parking space. 

Around 9:30, we went to the launch field and RV Life and Lippert sponsored a corporate tent with free donuts and coffee. There were a number of presentations on a variety of RV related topics. At 11am, there was a meet and greet with several YouTube couples. Marc and Julie of RV Love, Nate and Marisa of Less Junk, More Journey, Phil and Stacy of You Me and the RV plus one more that I didn’t recognize. It was fun to meet them. 

Around 2pm, I started the generator so I could cook up a batch of rice in our fuzzy-logic rice cooker and hard boil some eggs in the Instant Pot. I also wanted to top up our batteries. While I was at it, I ran both A/C units to cool down the interior during the warmest time of day. After an hour the cooking was mostly done and the batteries were at only 91%. But it was still 81°F so I left the generator and A/C running.

The video below is a landing right in front of our rig.

Day 13 - Albuquerque, NM

Sunday (13) - A very short driving day today from the rest area south of Santa Fe to the Balloon Fiesta north of Albuquerque. I spent some time this morning messing around with the igniter on the refrigerator as it stopped working a little after midnight. After cleaning it and repositioning it, the burner would light again. I did move most of the freezer contents to the portable unit just in case. But, at least for now, it’s working again.

We walked over to the launch field after lunch. It’s further than I thought. We are returning around 6 for some events but we will take the shuttle bus. 

Day 12 - Santa Fe, NM

Saturday (12) - After meeting Dom and Martha for a wonderful dinner last night (Thank you!), we packed up and headed south. The longish day turned even longer when our planned stop at a casino didn’t work out. The casino was closed. After a lot of searching, we ended up at a northbound rest area. No lot-docking at Sam’s Club due to abuse by past RVers. Our check-in time at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is noon tomorrow. Even though we are right next to I-25, there isn’t a lot of traffic noise.

I needed to reattach the air intake hose as it had fallen off again. I picked up a new hose clamp at Ace yesterday morning.

The good news is that the refrigerator stayed running on propane for the entire trip as did the portable unit. The batteries are at 100% at 6pm. I’m curious to see where they are at in the morning. 

Day 8, 9, 10, 11 - Colorado

Tuesday (8) - Another fairly long driving day from Ogden, UT, to Fort Collins, CO. Galen and Cindy, friends we've made while on the road, offered their RV parking next to their home. Their class A is currently back at the factory getting a lot of warranty work done. Full hookups including 50amp power! Pretty nice. We had a wonderful visit.

Wednesday (9) - Today was a relatively short drive to Chatfield Lake State Park. The pull-through campsite had full hookups which we really needed as the next week will be dry camping. We are able to run multiple loads through the washer and start out with a full fresh water tank and empty grey and black tanks.

The real treat was being able to meet up with Dom, aka https://redlegsrides.blogspot.com and he is letting us use the Suzuki Samarai to run some errands. Including, getting ready for the week of dry camping.

Thursday (10) - Picked up some engine oil and a quart of Lucas Oil Stabilizer which is what the mechanic at the Cat shop in Albany recommended. The oil level was only a bit over a quart low (out of 22 quarts) so I was able to add the oil additive. I checked the water in our flooded golf cart batteries and all of the cells were still full. Not bad after sitting all summer.

Friday (11) - This morning's task was rearranging some of our basement storage to fit a compressor refrigerator/freezer. It has a capacity of 50liters and runs on either 12VDC or AC. There is an AC outlet installed in this compartment as there used to be an old flat-screen TV on a swinging arm. The outlet is not powered off of the inverter so I need to wire a 12VDC connection into the compartment to run the portable refrigerator. There is a 12VDC light in the compartment that I installed some Anderson Powerpole connectors into. I cut the 12 volt cord that came with the refrigerator and added Anderson connectors. We'll see how it works with our batteries and solar over the next couple of days.

Day 6, 7 - Ogden, UT

Sunday - A shorter travel day at a bit over 300 miles. No ridiculous grades though we did spend much of the day between 3500 and 5500 ft elevation. You could see smoke during much of the drive though it doesn’t smell smoky here at the Cottonwood Campground - Willard Lake State Park. 

I think this is the first time we’ve stayed at a state park. They are usually full and the sites tend to be smaller. But this is pretty nice. Full hookups with 30amp power. It was really warm in the RV this afternoon. One A/C struggles to keep up. This state park is just off of I-15 so there’s a fair amount of traffic noise. 

After the last two travel days, we are stopped here for two nights to relax. Then we have a bit over 500 miles to a Colorado state park. 

Monday - I participated in a test session this morning using the new hotspot. It seemed to work fine though there was some occasional stuttering. I have the hotspot located right next to the cell booster antenna in the cabinet behind the front TV. So far, we have used 12GB of our 100GB limit but that includes all of the throughput tests in Fairbanks. There is an afternoon session as well that I had signed up for but as of this morning, there weren't any candidates. But by the afternoon, someone signed up.

Our travel plans changed a bit. We were originally thinking of stopping at a Walmart in Rock Springs, WY, but the weather doesn't look very good. Some friends offered us an RV space in Fort Collins, CO. So tomorrow will be another long driving day through the entire state of Wyoming. I believe the Garmin says 7½ hours.

Day 5 - Nampa, ID

Saturday - A long travel day. Right around 500 miles. We were originally thinking of staying at the Walmart in Meridian, ID, but I kind of remembered there being a Cracker Barrel here as well. Given a choice, Cracker Barrel wins every time. 

We drove along the Columbia River instead of the more direct route through Bend as the time was almost identical. Nice scenery though I didn’t look forward to the steep uphills. Tomorrow is a shorter travel day to a state park near Ogden, UT. I like the first day to be a long one. 

BTW, the refrigerator ran all night and most of the day on propane. It switched to AC when I started the generator to run the rooftop A/C units. It was mid-80s once we left the Columbia River. The picture is actually in the Sportsman Warehouse parking lot. I moved the RV this morning when the CB parking lot was empty. The TSD fuel program is still saving us $$$. The discount at Baker City was over $50! (20%)

Day 3, 4 - Corvallis, OR

Thursday - We are on the road again. A short 190 mile day down to the Benton Oaks RV Park in Corvallis, OR. I did notice that full throttle wasn’t always needed as we are not towing the Prius. It’ll be interesting to see what the fuel mileage is without the car. 

Once we arrived, I opened up the back of the refrigerator and saw a big flake of rust sitting on the burner. I vacuumed the compartment and banged on the chimney to loosen any other flakes of rust. The refrigerator is running on propane now. Hopefully it’s fixed. 

When I was plugging the cables into the front TV, I accidentally dropped the TV. It was on older LCD TV and only 720p resolution and drew 180watts so not too upset by it. I moved the smaller TV from the bedroom to the front and it works fine. I may even recess it into the cabinet. Or, we may look for another TV. 

The weather is pretty nice here in Corvallis. Much better than it was back in Fairbanks. Tomorrow, it’s forecasted to be 87°F!

Friday - Fortunately, it’s not 87°F. Only 82°F. My sister and brother in-law generously lent us their Prius for the afternoon so we were able to pick up my mom and run some errands. We stopped at the Team Oregon office and visited with Brad and Brandy for a bit. The first picture is my mom and Brad in case the masks are confusing things.

The second picture is Brandy and Bridget. It was nice to visit with them for at least a bit. They were getting ready to head to the coast with their RV. 

The refrigerator died again on propane last night around midnight. This morning, I removed the igniter wire and the ceramic insulator. I cleaned everything with alcohol and reinstalled it taking care to have the tip around ⅛” from burner. It fired up right away when I switched to propane. We’ll try it again tonight. 

Day 2 - Centralia, WA

Wednesday (2) - We had lunch with Diary of a Family (Garrett and Carolyn) near Olympia. Afterwards, we all drove out to visit with the Edwards, formerly from Fairbanks, at their farm. They finished restoring a old barn they plan to turn into a cidery. 

We stayed for a bit and then headed back to the RV. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting things packed up. Tomorrow, we head south to Corvallis for a couple of days. 

On the Road Again (Almost!)

Monday - Okay, now things are getting serious. Ugh, wet snow… 

We fly out this afternoon with one dog, the cat and lots of heavy suitcases. In addition to the normal stuff, I’m bringing a torque wrench, metric deep sockets, and other tools to install the base plate on the Jeep. Whenever FCA chooses to assemble it. It is still in “D” status i.e. collecting parts. 

Later - Long check-in process with a yapping dog. The cat gets to ride in the cabin and has settled down. TSA was a bit more hassle even with the Pre-Check system in place. I had three laptops and an iPad in my luggage. But their biggest concern was a bag of cat food. All in all, it took us about an hour to get to the gate. And, the Starbucks is closed so no coffee. 

Tuesday (1) - We are in Washington where the RV was being stored for the summer. Thank you Dave and Ginny for letting us keep the RV on your property. First thing after plugging into a 15amp circuit was turning on the propane and the refrigerator. It took a bit to get the lines purged and the refrigerator to stay running. But the freezer is down to 3°F so it works. This morning, I started the engine just to make sure there weren’t going to be any surprises. This afternoon, I’ll drain the water tank as it has a weak bleach solution to sanitize the tank and water lines. I’ll flush it out with fresh water including draining the hot water heater again. 

The Victron devices and HomeAssistant server had software updates pending. Those were done last night. Another item that I was concerned about was finding key to the hitch pin lock. I locked it over two years ago. I was surprised to find the key exactly where I thought I would’ve put it. 

After flushing the fresh water tank, the water lines, and the water heater, I put 50 gallons of water into the tank. Tomorrow morning, I’ll check the tire pressure and move the tow dolly to a storage location along with the associated straps.

Later - The fridge is still flaky on propane…

Getting Ready to Leave

Saturday - After an especially long morning test session, I got to spend the afternoon at the finish line for the Equinox Marathon. I saw a blurb earlier in the week where they were looking for volunteers. So I figured it’ll be a good way to spend my afternoon. It was an enjoyable time congratulating the finishers and talking to the other volunteers. It was freezing cold when I left at around 5pm. 

After the cold afternoon, we went to a friend’s home to spend the evening talking and sharing some food. There was a fire in addition to a grill. I had made some potato salad using sour cream in place of the usual mayonnaise and added a good helping of dill. I also brought some bratwurst and buns to share. 

Sunday - It's finally time to tuck the Ural in the back of the garage. I have a trickle charger hooked up to the AGM battery. I rode it to church today and it was a bit above freezing. There were some wet roads but they were simply wet not frozen. I heard that some of the higher elevations saw a dusting of snow. We didn’t. 

Since we are planning to use the Prius whenever we are back in town, I went ahead and swapped the winter tires back on. I also installed a trickle charger to keep the 12v battery topped up. Hopefully it’ll be enough to keep the battery from going dead. 

The washing machine decided to throw an error code. The pump wasn’t able to drain within four minutes. I removed the lower front panel and removed the filter. It was clogged with junk. After cleaning and reinstalling the filter it ran okay. Crisis averted. 

One of Bridget’s tasks for me was to check the dryer exhaust hose for lint buildup. There was none but in the process of reinstalling the hose, it tore so off to Lowe’s for a replacement. So now there is definitely no lint as it’s a new hose. One more thing to check off the list. 

 

It’s Getting Cooler

Tuesday - A kinda cold ride into coffee this morning at 33°F but at least it was nice and sunny with the fog burning off. And the coffee tasted especially good. The group ended up sitting outside on the rooftop deck though it did start to feel cold when a light breeze came up. I thought about digging out the heated jacket liner but decided that it wasn't worth the trouble since it is only about 6 miles to the coffee place.

After coffee, I made a quick stop at Costco and actually left without anything extra. Since we are leaving in less than a week, I really need to try and use up food and not pick up anything new. I followed this with a stop at Verizon to change Bridget's phone and iPad plans. But, the billing period ends tonight, and changing things will cancel the changes I made a few weeks ago. So back on Thursday. 

An afternoon test session rounded out the day.

Wednesday - Below freezing last night again. Definitely, time to leave Fairbanks. It has warmed up to 54°F at mid-afternoon so not too bad.

I had two more test sessions today and I decided to use the iPad as a second monitor on my laptop. I had tried this earlier and it worked but now that the feature has been around for a while, it works even better. I do have it cabled using a USB-C to Lightning cable and not trying to do it over WiFi.

Thursday - Another cool morning (38°F). This is the thermometer the previous owner installed on the Ural windscreen. O.A.T. stands for outside air temperature. This is commonly used on small airplanes as the previous owner was an aircraft mechanic. It works great and I like how well it works. 

After coffee, I went back to Verizon and changed Bridget’s iPhone and iPad cellular plans. She now has double the iPad tethering data (30 GB) and 15GB of useable iPhone tethering. The previous plan had a 400kbps limit when tethering making it almost useless. All for a net change of $0. Between the switch of my iPhone to AT&T, dropping cellular data on my iPad, adding an AT&T hotspot, and these Verizon changes, the net cost delta is $0. But we have much more data tethering and carrier diversity. We’ll see how this works over the next snowbird season.