Ultimate Campground Log and Cell phone help

[jddave]

My DW and myself have just retired and are planning an extended travel trip with our 25RKS across the USA and western Canada in the spring. On the suggestion of a fellow forum member we have been using the Ultimate Campground Log to plan our adventures. The program is well designed and has many campground and general camping web-sites already bookmarked. It will be more helpful when we are actually on the road and can enter our personal info into our database of campgrounds.You can insert maps,photos and fellow campers info you have met into each campground, it even automatically enters GPS co-ordinates and elevation data.

We will be heading out sometime in April this year for about 12 weeks. Our planned route will take us through St. Louis and Albuquerque NM to southern Utah spending time in the Bryce Canyon & Zion areas. After heading north we will then head over to the Oregon coast and go north on Highway 101 and take the ferry to Vancouver Island. After spending time in Vancouver we will head over the Canadian Rockies to Calgary. The next part will be back south to the Yellowstone,Grand Tetons area then back through Chicago and home.

My question is re cell phone choices and also a mobile service for our lap-top. We only need a minimum cell phone service for making reservations etc. but would like a decent mobile service for our lap-top so we don't have to rely on Wi-fi. I know with all the different states we will be going through that there will be dead spots on any service. I can get a sim card for my un-locked cell phone or is an Inexpensive Trac Phone the best option.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Pam & Dave
Oshawa,ON , Canada

[Mustang65]

After our trip out west to Colorado last year, the Verizon cell and mifi service wins hands down. If you look at the maps for coverage across the USA nothing even comes close to Verizon service areas, not even my old company of employment AT&T. There were only a few locations were we did not have any cell service. AT&T would be a second choice, but none of the rest can compete. My daughter has AT&T and they have a lot of dead spots, requiring her to call us back constantly. Not that Verizon is perfect or even near perfect, it surely takes 1st place. I can not speak for reception in Canada, so someone else can add their 2 cents. I did not care about 4G service, as I was looking for most coverage area. There are a lot of areas out west that do not have 4G coverage.
But those are only our thoughts based on our trip.
Don

[Heady]

Have you checked with your current Canadian carrier to see if there is a plan that offers you reduced rates when roaming in the US?

Disposable / reloadable phones are a good option, just get one that can be reloaded by either a card purchased at a National retailer (BestBuy, Target, Walmart, etc) or is reloadable via a credit card. The worse thing you could do is purchase one with a limited number of minutes, then something unexpected happens requiring you to be on the phone more than your originally planned running out of minutes at a critical time.

[WIBadger]

Here's a thread that may be of some value.

http://www.jaycoowners.com/showthrea...507#post160507

[Seann45]

When your in the USA it is far cheaper to buy a phone at Walmart for internet than to take your Canadian one over....

[dalenoel]

The Ultimate Campground Log is also what we do all of the planning and tracking of the campgrounds along with MS S&T. It really has worked well for us. We're also going to Zion from MI but in 2015 so the planning has just begun. Enjoy the trip.