New owner with lots of questions

[crazylegs]

Hi, I will be taking delivery of a 2017 Greyhawk 29MV soon and have so many questions after doing online research. I will be traveling solo and plan on mostly looking for places to get away from the high temps in AZ during the summer months. From my research so far, it seems harder to find places you can get monthly rates and stay a month at a time during summer time. Seems to be more common to do this in winter months. Anyone have suggestions on where to go during May-Sep that would be possible in the southwest area? I am thinking San Diego area would be good or even some areas of the mountains in Colorado but I'm open to all ideas. I'm retired from high tech world so I can't imagine going anywhere without Wi-Fi or some form of cellular/data hotspot to power my computer and gadgets. I am originally from IL but would like to stay away from "tornado country". I lived in CA for many years ("Silicon Valley") and in Colorado from 1998-2006 so I'm a bit familiar with that state as well. I tried living in Pacific Northwest from 2006-2010 but ultimately decided I needed more sunshine and warmth and thus moved to AZ in 2010. I look forward to learning from those of you willing to share your knowledge with me.

[abarkl]

Welcome to JOF.
We have very similar backgrounds but have lived here most of our lives.

We enjoy the mountains of AZ during the summer. Anywhere from Prescott north. There are many great places to get away from it all and still close enough to somewhere where WiFi can be accessed when needed. Or choose the cell phone data route and get further away from it all.

We have used RV Park Reviews - Trusted Reviews of Campgrounds & RV Parks many times when seeking out new places to stay.

[Tunce the traveler]

The Oregon coast and in general the PNW climate between May to September is almost rainless and full sun. You'll be hard pressed to find a better climate that time of year. The California coast is also beautiful that time also.

[BuddyRay]

Have you considered Work Camping? You can frequently stay all summer if you become a campground host. You typically get free camping, full hookups and help out part time.

Takes some research but many people love it.
https://www.workamper.com/

[Mustang65]

CONGRATULATIONS on the (soon to pick-up) JAYCO!!!

...and WELCOME TO JOF!!! The members here are GREAT!!! There is a lot of GREAT information to be found here. I am sure that you will have information and pictures to share with us... so please do!!

As for cool sites in the summer... the last 3 years have seen record high temperatures in a lot of the normally cooler locations. We (originally from IL/WI border) now live in FL and head up to Hiawassee GA (Blue Ridge Mtns) for the summer. We have encountered record highs there during the last 3 years. Still a lot better than the everyday 90+ temps of the Clearwater FL area where we live now. As for monthly rates, up in GA seems to be about $400 a month (electric not included), with full hookups. Anywhere between $1500 and $2K for a seasonal (April 1.... October 31.

As for cell services in the mtns, we are lucky to get 1 bar as we are in a valley with mountains all around us and the cell tower is about 6 miles away. We do have 25Mb of Wi-Fi available to us and I decided to take our MagicJack with us. We fwd our cell numbers to the MagicJack and take the calls from the internet connection, a new MakgicJack app allows us to take the MagicJack calls on our cell phones when we are either by the TT (internet service) or out on the road with cell service. I am looking at picking up a Cellular siginal enhancer (around $400 - $500)

Wi-Fi, now most CG's have a few AP's and they are never located near where we get a spot. So 4 years ago I purchased a EnGenius (ENS202EXT) Wi-Fi signal extender. They work great in the CG's and while in Colorado, at a county campground (no Wi-Fi, OTA service bad) and a HomeDepot on a ridge 1.5 miles away in line of site, I put up the 202 and was able to connect (free customer Wi-Fi) and was able to connect to my SligBox sitting by my cable DVR in Florida and watch the Ray's games. Wife was able to watch her recorded shows also. You have to love technology!!!!! Do I feel bad about using Home Depot's free customer Wi-Fi, not at all with all the $$$$'s they get from us all year long. Just had to re-logon each morning because the Wi-Fi resets at midnight each night.

SOLAR... That is my favorite addition to the TT, not for everyone though. It is nice to have the TT next to the house and never plug it in to keep the batteries charged.. or head to the sites with no services and have everything (except AC) working. The TT's battery charge controller has been turned off since installing SOLAR

Here are a couple of the forums social groups that will give you something to read regarding Wi-Fi, Batteries,

RVing with SOLAR

Wi-Fi Signal Extenders

Don

[oldmanAZ]

Congratulations on the (soon to be delivered) Greyhawk and welcome to the JOF.

As abarkl said, here in AZ the mountains are a good choice for the summers. In short, you don't have to go far to get cool, you just have to go up.
As BuddyRay offered, you might consider workcamping.
We volunteered as camphosts (a first for us) in the Coconino National Forest this past summer (mid-June through mid-Sept) not far from Happy Jack, AZ at about 7,500'. Very pleasant temps up there! The downside of that location was no WiFi and the cell connections were poor.

As Don (Mustang65) suggested, we have an EnGenius ENS202 that we used summer through fall of 2015. It helped a few times, but, frankly, my tech background was in database administration, not connectivity. I probably did not use it very effectively.

If you do consider boondocking on a regular basis, give solar serious consideration. We have a generator and I was surprised how long it has to run for each day to recharge the batteries from 24 hours of just 'parasitic' draw.

[crazylegs]

Thanks Don. Sounds like a Wi-Fi range extender is next on my list to buy. I've been researching solar (always been interested in it anyway) so that may be a future purchase as well. I'll check out the links you provided.

[herewego]

Welcome from Texas, Come to Texas for a visit ,not much snow here on the coast, we have very nice parks here, not to good for WiFi ,we do most our camping in the State parks,Florida has some nice parks,the one we stayed at had great TV reception,and WiFi, It was close to Destin Fl, Some of the most blue water I have ever seen .

[Desert RVers]

Originally Posted by Tunce the traveler

The Oregon coast and in general the PNW climate between May to September is almost rainless and full sun. You'll be hard pressed to find a better climate that time of year. The California coast is also beautiful that time also.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on getting the new Jayco soon. We agree with Tunce the traveler about the PNW. Since getting our TT, we've spent the last 2 summers in Oregon and Washington. We usually stayed a week at each RV park. During summer 2017, we plan to book a few spots for a month. For the internet connectivity, a lot of RV parks have wifi. The problem we found is that those that are connected, don't have very good speeds. We were able to use our devices for email but not for streaming movies. It wasn't a problem for us because we still could use our smart phones to access the web.

Have fun with your new motorhome!