Amana Colonies, Iowa

OK, those of you that have been paying attention are correct. I am late. Normally I get this blog going as soon as we leave, but alas, this is the third night on the road. I have even been sneaky enough to not set off the SPOT locator in hopes of avoiding detection.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to get the Dish Network service up and running. We went with Dish over DirecTV because they offered a pay-as-you-go plan allowing us to not pay for the several months each year that we do not use the service. Sounded good in theory, but in practice it has been a pain in the gluteus maximus. It has been a royal pain to get the service restarted each time, and in this case it was made worse by the failure of the two year old receiver. The customer service representative on the phone (in the DR as it turns out) said all I had to do was UPS the defective unit to them and they would send a replacement. Hello! I am leaving in the morning for six weeks! OH, well maybe we can get a technician out to you. “Just sit in the motor home from noon to five and he should show up”. An hour later the dispatcher for the local techs called me to confirm the appointment and get a feel for the problem. He said, “no way that he could help with that, they do not do motor homes”. I should “try one of the equipment retailers”. Shortening the story a bit, I went to the local Camping World and bought a new receiver and after two more hours on the phone with the Dish people I had the system working. Now to get local channels on the road I must call them and have them change my service location each time I stop at a new location. This requires at least thirty minutes of hold time and conversation trying to explain what I am doing to the customer service people that are not familiar with the plan. They do home stuff after all, not RVs.

Why do I go through all of this? Simple: DWTS.

Monday we loaded up the last minute stuff like food, and the dog, and were on the road by 1100. 

We timed our departure to be sure not to miss the love-bug season. 

This time I prepared a bit and RainX’d the windshield, so when we arrived at dusk in Jackson, GA (just in time for the peak mosquito period) the hundreds of bug bodies came off with minimal effort with a bucket of suds and a long handled brush.

With cleaning out of the way I cranked up the sat dish. After all the trouble the day before, we now did not have local channels because trees blocked our view of the satellites. Luckily, I was able to get over-the-air reception just as the show started. Ahhh, she-who-must-be-obeyed was happy.

Not much to report for Tuesday. We stopped in Marion, IL and despite calling in our new address the Dish people messed it up and we did not have local channels available. Luckily, the campground had cable, so I got us hooked up. Reception was not great, but as it turned out the new season of the show we were after does not start until next week.

Nice day to cross the big muddy

Tonight everything is working fine, but we are not interested in TV. Besides, Barbara has Golden Retriever Rescue tasks to perform and I have this blog to keep me entertained. Thank you for putting up with my rant. If you are an RV’r contemplating the pay-as-you-go Dish plan I would offer this advice. If you are a seasonal user spending a season at one location, and then going home, it is probably a good system. If you are going to do multiple trips to differing locales during the year you might be better served with just paying for the fulltime service. You will still need to call in for address changes to get local channels, but I do not think that is any different than DircTV. Just put up with it until they reinstate Distant Network Services, which allows either west or east coast network reception, so you get the network shows.

This was our third long driving day. We got settled in at Amana Colonies RV Park in Amana, IA. It is a nice big facility and it is a good time of year to be here. There are about thirty RVs with space for over four hundred. There is plenty of elbowroom. The park is in a farming valley and is surrounded by cornfields.

While I was grilling burgers I was being serenaded by Canadian Geese flying overhead, and cows somewhere in the distance. The large field that makes up the park is also home to hundreds of cute ground squirrels. Their burrows make for a serious trip hazard, so I have to be careful. But, it is better than Prairie Dogs.

Speaking of dogs, Nia is still a bit unsure of things while moving, but perks up when we set up camp.

Nia and her buddy Flea

We are going to spend two nights here and use tomorrow to check out this historical area despite the 90% rain forecast. Then it is off to Clear Lake, IA.