Friday March 2nd 2018

It was a little cooler and a lot windier today. The cold front has passed through the area. The temperature will have a downward trend over the next few days. Today still made it into the 80s, but the next few days will only be in the 70s. Either way it’s nothing to complain about. The northeast is getting wind, rain and snow today.

Dam on the drainage canal behind my RV.

Interesting pair of palm trees in the field beside the drainage canal.

I spent a lot of time today trying to figure out what’s going on with my internet access. I have three basic options for getting on the internet. The first is to use any available WiFi signal. Many RV parks provide WiFi as one of the amenities. This one doesn’t really. There is access available at one of the restrooms, but nothing that reaches the individual sites. When WiFi is available I use it as the Wide Area Network (WAN) access point for a small private network in my RV.

My second option is to connect a cellular data modem to my internal router. This creates an internet connection the same way a cell phone does. It shares the same internet data plan from Verizon as my cell phone. This is the method I want to use here. It worked when I first set it up, but started to give me problems late yesterday. After all of the usual power down and reset type tests, I isolated the problem to the cellular data modem. The wireless router is not the problem. Now I need to figure out a solution. The device is over two years old. It is out of warranty and is old technology. Time to do more research.

Anhinga on channel barrier in front of the dam.

Dove on the power wire. These birds are as thick as their pigeon cousins around here. Their cooing can be heard all day.

I’m currently accessing the internet using my third alternative. I can turn my cell phone into an internet hotspot. My computer and tablet can access the cellphone using WiFi. It provides the access to the Internet via its cellular data connection. The down side is that the phone really needs to plugged into power if I’m going to use it for any length of time. It also isn’t much good as a phone when it’s in hotspot mode.

My RV as seen from the side of the lock on the far side of the dam.

Two boats headed for home in Vero Beach waiting for the lock gate to close behind them.

Water starts to pour in through the high side lock gates. The water is very nutrient rich (dirty).

Gates open to allow the two boats to continue east.

While I was thinking about solutions to my internet issues, I continued to enjoy this campground. The gate to the walkway across the dam was open today. I took advantage of the opportunity to cross over to the side of the lock and watch a couple of boats lock through. This lock operates by opening the gates a little to let the water in or out. Other locks I’ve observed use channels under or around the gates to direct the water which doesn’t produce as much turbulence as this approach.

I also took a lot more pictures of boats and birds. I’ve include some of those pictures in this blog entry.

Tonight’s sunset. There were a lot of low clouds to the west.