Re: [a/s] Good to hear from you

[Leroymillard@xxxxxxx]

Well, since you asked . . .

We sold our home in July and moved to a small campground in Richmond, KS 
until my husband finished up at his work.  His last day on the job was July 
28.  We have not had phone access and I really missed the list.  

After a short trip to St. Louise to the dealer to get a few things worked on, 
we made a leisurely trip to the Escapees park in Livingston.  We *love* it 
here.  Got our Texas driver's licenses and plates.  We will wait here until 
we get titles, etc. in the mail.  Then, who know?  We really enjoy 
full-timing - much more than we ever anticipated.  I have found that some 
things that I thought would really be a hassle are the least trouble of all - 
like laundry.  All the campgrounds we have been in have really nice 
facilities.

The biggest drawback is not having a phone.  I miss Internet access.  We 
signed up for Alltel's new one-rate service which requires a Motorola StarTak 
7797.  After a great deal of trouble and spending $600 on cables and modems, 
we found out from Alltel that this phone could not be forced into analog and 
therefore cannot be used to download mail.  The people at Motorola did not 
know that.  I would like some feedback from list members about the 
alternatives - like PocketMail, etc.  We did do something with our phone that 
I think is rather neat.  We have a rear bedroom with a large window - we 
installed an outside antenna (the kind you use on a car windshield) and cut a 
small hole to bring the cable into the bedroom.  There is a 12-volt outlet 
there and we plug in the phone using an adapter with a splitter that allows 
us to plug in both the adapter and the antenna.  We leave the battery off and 
just leave it plugged in 24 hours a day.  This was service we had in Kansas 
and we use a friend's address.  We have also signed up for Houston Cellular 
here in Livingston for our Analog Bag Phone.  They actually have a nationwide 
one-rate plan for analog phones without some of the bells and whistles 
offered with digital  (for example, no call waiting, voice mail, etc.) and 
some limitations.  No roaming anywhere in Texas, and no long distance 
anywhere in the country if calling from Texas.  We like having a bag phone 
for the extra power in case we break down someplace where the digital phone 
won't work.  It is only $25 a month for 200 minutes.  We keep this phone in 
the truck all the time.  However, I may use it to download e-mail in a pinch 
- like Hunter does.  By the way, Hunter, please tell me again which 3COM 
modem you have.

We bought a lifetime membership in Escapees - we plan on doing this for a 
very long time and use them for mail forwarding, group medical insurance and 
have joined the credit union they are affiliated with to do our banking. 

Loving the life,
Verna