29 May ‘07
Tuesday
We arrived here at the Great Soap Lake in eastern Washington state this afternoon. We have 7 days here and plan to enjoy each and every one of them. First, we have heard so much about Soap Lake that we already felt quite at home here moments after arriving. We chose a pitch down by the edge of the water, but we had to sacrifice not having a hook up for our gray and black waters. If we think about how much water we use and use their wonderfully clean toilet and shower area, we will make 7 days without having to dump the tanks without a problem. Another reason we wanted to be down on the front row was, we need a clear shot towards our satellite so that we can use our new (used) internet satellite system. Prior to getting our system, we talked with a lot of RV’rs who have used them for some time, just to get their input on the usability of this kind of system. There are basically two to chose from…the first is one that is set up on a tripod and physically aimed at the quarter sized satellite somewhere out there in the Southeastern sky. The second is one that is installed on the top of the RV and has all it takes to do the sighting automatically. We chose the first type for 3 reasons....it was by far less expensive to purchase at the get go and second, if we get into a campsite that has a lot of trees around it we can move the tripod dish to just about any position in the campground that we need to move to get our signal (“just about…”). We also had been told that it would normally take an “experienced” user, 20 to 30 minutes to get it all set up and on-line…for us, I think it was better than 2 hours for the first time. We WILL get better.
Tuesday
We arrived here at the Great Soap Lake in eastern Washington state this afternoon. We have 7 days here and plan to enjoy each and every one of them. First, we have heard so much about Soap Lake that we already felt quite at home here moments after arriving. We chose a pitch down by the edge of the water, but we had to sacrifice not having a hook up for our gray and black waters. If we think about how much water we use and use their wonderfully clean toilet and shower area, we will make 7 days without having to dump the tanks without a problem. Another reason we wanted to be down on the front row was, we need a clear shot towards our satellite so that we can use our new (used) internet satellite system. Prior to getting our system, we talked with a lot of RV’rs who have used them for some time, just to get their input on the usability of this kind of system. There are basically two to chose from…the first is one that is set up on a tripod and physically aimed at the quarter sized satellite somewhere out there in the Southeastern sky. The second is one that is installed on the top of the RV and has all it takes to do the sighting automatically. We chose the first type for 3 reasons....it was by far less expensive to purchase at the get go and second, if we get into a campsite that has a lot of trees around it we can move the tripod dish to just about any position in the campground that we need to move to get our signal (“just about…”). We also had been told that it would normally take an “experienced” user, 20 to 30 minutes to get it all set up and on-line…for us, I think it was better than 2 hours for the first time. We WILL get better.