Travels With Miranda

I  visit Craigslist almost every day, looking for good deals on items on my wish list. This week, something caught my eye and I followed up on it.

I don’t like contracts because life is unpredictable, but I decided to bend my own rule and take over someone else’s Telus mobile internet contract for a seven month duration in exchange for a free Sierra Wireless 306 Mobile Internet Key.

My initial contact with Telus makes me believe this contract takeover will be a good deal for me since, for a small fee, I can stop it over the summer and restart it in the fall (which would extend the contract into 2011). Telus is the main wireless provider in BC, meaning that so long as I stick to the main roads, ie. the Alaska Highway, I could have internet access most of the way to Whitehorse and back south.

The key alone is worth over $200 and was my biggest obstacle to signing up for such a service since I didn’t want to lock myself into a contract in order to finance the purchase of the key. The plans aren’t cheap, starting at $30 (plus taxes and network fees, of course) for a mere 500mb, up to $65 (plus taxes and network fees) for 5GB. Telus says that I can sign up for a cheap plan and move up to another plan once per billing period if I think I will be going overboard. For May, I will sign on for the $40 1GB plan and see how far that takes me.

I won’t be excited about this purchase until I am parked in a Walmart parking lot or a highway turnout and able to post to the blog, but I can feel the potential of this breakthrough bubbling deep inside me.

Now, I just need to decide on how I’m going to get online in Dawson. One step at a time!

I was whining to Croft about the internet yesterday so he sent an email on my behalf and next thing I know a friend of his who works for the internet company has me hard wired. No more wi-fi for two months! I just hope I don’t get used to this!

Virgin Mobile got back to me in regards to Dawson service and it’s no dice, so it looks like I’ll be going with my plan A, getting myself hard wired up there.

Thanks, Croft!!!!

I’m exhausted today. I can’t remember the last day that I didn’t push myself physically, either at the convenience store or working on the renos. I’m behind in the required hours for my contract, so I decided that today was going to be a multiple cups of coffee, sitting in front of the computer in my jammies, cat(s) on my lap, heavy production day.

Of course, the internet had other plans. It always does. Internet is sentient, I am now 100% sure of that. There is no other reason why it works fine when I have better things to do and doesn’t work when I need it. I’m sure inquiring minds want to know how I’m posting this; I’m in the living room of the house; at least wi-fi is working there again today (earlier it wasn’t).

The only work I did on the rig today was finish pulling up the wood flooring in the kitchen and start to chip away at the edges. I need to finish working on the edges and then figure out what I’m going to do in the entrance stairwell. The sides and bottom are metal covered by wood, so I can just pull up the wood and install the Allure over top the metal, but the back is an access panel. I might simply install the vinyl over the boards. Then, I need to take that dinette bench apart. I keep procrastinating on doing so because it’s my way up into the loft. Soon as I do away with it I’ll have to start focusing on making a new way to climb up. I might as well put this off as long as I can and just focus on getting the wood flooring out of the way.

My heart just wasn’t into it today, so I quit early and went to get pizza and beer for dinner. There’s a liquor store located two doors down from the pizza place in the Willowpoint stripmall, which is highly convenient. I was asked for ID for the first time in my life! According to the cashier and the manager I don’t look a day over 18. I am going to be thirty-one next month. I don’t know if I should be flattered or horrified! I also seem to be aging backwards; when I was backpacking around Scotland at nineteen and going to pubs with people ten to twenty years older than me, they always got pinned as being younger than me. Very, very, very odd!

Part of the agreement for this upcoming season in Dawson is that my wages will be adjusted for the fact that I am going to be responsible for providing my own internet connection. My idea was to have the local ISP hard wire me. Thing is, I’m only going to be there for four months this year, and I don’t know if that will be cost effective. If I knew for sure I’d be coming back for a third summer, I wouldn’t hesitate to run the lines to my spot, but for four months it doesn’t seem to be the best option. I’d be better off investing in a mobile solution that could serve me in other locations.

Mobile internet options are slowly increasing in this country as cell phone service expands. Rates are, of course, usurious and coverage spotty soon as you head away from the US border. I don’t begrudge this last part; most of our country is wilderness! That said, I’ve been watching coverage maps increase along major highways and I’m pretty sure that this year I could get cell coverage for at least 60 to 75% of my trip to Dawson, provided I stick to the Alaska highway rather than the Cassiar, and that I’d be able to map out my trip to have internet service nine nights out of ten.

My cell phone is with Virgin Mobile. When we last spoke about coverage, they said they had no coverage in Yukon and were surprised that I had some in Whitehorse. I’m really happy with Virgin, feeling that it provides me with the cheapest and most flexible pre-paid options, so having to change carrier for my time in Dawson when I barely use a phone to begin with would be really disappointing.

Looking at their silly and almost illegible coverage map this week, it seems that they now do officially cover Whitehorse and maybe even Dawson City.

This is apparently due to a buy out by the biggest devil of ‘em all, my nemesis, the evil Bell Canada. Crap. So long as Virgin can remain the company it has been the last year and a half while taking advantage of the far reaching Bell network, I will be okay with this merger, but if there is even an iota of Bellishness to Virgin, then I will have no choice but to take my business elsewhere. I meant it when I said that I will never again do business directly with Bell Canada. I still haven’t forgiven them for making me climb up the telephone pole in the dark in minus twenty weather because their technician was (apparently) colour blind (and that wasn’t their most major crime against me).

But I digress.

If Virgin’s coverage map has increased, and I’m hoping they will reply with a definite answer for me, then I will be able to get something called a ‘Mifi‘ that would let me create my own internet hot spot. Of course, the device is incredibly pricey and the monthly plans are expensive for the amount of bandwidth you get, but it would be enough for work purposes and focused surfing. There are cheaper devices that seem to offer comparable service, but they are for PCs only. The device doesn’t work in Manitoba or Saskatchewan, either, but at this point it seems like the best and most affordable solution to me.

I’m at a crossroads right now, business-wise. I can’t afford to seriously invest in the internet solution I need (ie. satellite), but I require reliable internet service to grow my business. A loan is most definitely not an option. I’m also not certain of just where the next year is going to take me. If I do manage to get to the US next winter and do that every winter from now on, then satellite wouldn’t be as necessary. I could do like my friend Donna and use a cell phone as a modem, an inexpensive option that is just taking off in Canada (at much higher rates, of course), while in the US, and then plan my time in Canada around locations where a device like the mi-fi works. This uncertainty is one of the main reasons why I would never lock myself into any sort of multi-year agreement for cell or internet coverage!

Even if I don’t have an internet solution by the time I head north, I do have a plan in place that will enable me to update the blog, to a certain extent, when I’m in cell phone range. I hope that I won’t have to put that plan into motion, but it’s there. I am nothing if not resourceful!

Very quick update!

I am posting from Prince George. (Les, if you’re reading this, I won’t be stopping in on this trip, thanks!) I can’t do justice to the last four days with a free Starbucks wi-fi connection, so details will have to wait.

I am now at my third day of boondocking and will be boondocking again tonight, with no hardship whatsoever. I have plenty of battery juice, heat, running water, a fully charged laptop, and plenty of reading material. And I’m not even running the genset! I just solved my battery charging issues from the spring; more on that in my next post.

As for the genset, it probably needs a new fuel filter seeing as no fuel whatsoever is getting into it but it runs fine when I inject gasoline directly into the carburetor. I’m going to go price one at Canadian Tire this morning, but if it’s expensive, I won’t bother for this trip seeing as I’m not in dire need of the extra power.

My decision to take the Cassiar Highway was one of the best I have made in my thirteen months on the road. More about that will follow.

Unfortunately, the weather being what it was in Nugget City, I didn’t make nearly as much money as I would have liked, so I’m in a real rush to get to Campbell River and a new job. I’m therefore doing long days of driving and provided Croft says it’s okay ( ), I might be there at the end of this week!

Long days and cold nights not withstanding, these have been my absolute best days on the road so far, bar none, just because I’m finally living my dream of a self-contained life. If only I could have my own internet, but I’m now back in ‘civilization’ and my Starbucks account gives me two hours free DAILY at their hotspots so I can at least check in periodically.