The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[4077]

Disney, but not worth it’s own thread. Having our one park visit at EPCOT today during our FL college tour. Busy but not intolerable. Hit Test Track twice at early admission. Boys got Mission Space: Orange, then we got Soarin’, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth and Mexico in. Otherwise walking around and eating. Weren’t going to do an Genie or LL stuff here for sure. We are in process of using up our previously purchase non expiration passes… wife and boys have hoppers remaining, mine are not. So, they have hopped to MK for evening while I am left to wander, eat and drink to my fill/desire…

As dear departed (from Disney TV) Stacey would say….



PRETZEL UND BIER!

 

[jbrostek]

@4077 What a treat! We are 58 days and counting down. Per the kids, 44 days till school ends, per mom 37 teaching days left. I am going to say that they are all in their own way ready for the summer break.

Did some more work on the RV internet setup. Got the sim all setup in the GL.iNet router (gl-x750v2) and speed tests are looking good. Seeing around 30-40M down and about the same up around home. I know I see 20-40 at the track so this will be a good test to see how it goes. Next up is to move it to being powered by the battery. I plan to install extra USB ports and use a USB C PD port that can supply the 12v 1.5A of stabilized power. The USB module I am using has addition USB-A ports (old style) which can then power the future plan of the RV whisper. Together that leaves both on battery power and able to still provide connectivity and notification in the case of a power failure.

Also loaded in the trailer is Melissa's 30" monitor she used last year when teaching out of the home library. It will serve as my larger second screen for the laptop and allow me to do all the work I wanted remotely. This weekend will be a good test of the setup and I can adjust as needed. I am sort of excited about this as it opens the possibility of some summer getaways without burning up all my vacation.

 

[4077]

Just leaving EPCOT after watching the new Harmonious show for the first time in person. Only watched it one other time (online during the premier showing). Overall, my original opinion still stands. While it is visually much more grand and stunning in person (the only good thing about it in my opinion), all the stunning visuals are made pointless by a lack of anything I could call an emotional connection. Just a bunch of movie songs set to some cool water/light/movie effects with a few fireworks thrown in. As there really is no story to connect to in my mind. I suppose it’s ok for what it is, and I am sure some others love it, but for me it’s meh. I don’t feel anything in the back of my throat or any emotion or chills surging through me like I did with the story and music of Illuminations. Just my feelings, but guess that means I don’t have to stay for the closing anymore at least.

 

[garneska]

We are not camping but a few months ago planned a long weekend in Asheville. I really was not sure if we would be able to go because of dad but after his dr appointment on Wednesday left. First the dr ordered home healthcare so hopefully we can get a nurse to check on him once a week or so. i am hoping nurse can keep an eye on fluid buildup.

in Asheville we are staying at a boutique hotel in downtown. We wanted to walk to all the good restaurants and breweries. Hotel is nice but it is really like a one bedroom apartment.









dinner was at Bouchon. It is French and was excellent and loved the atmosphere.


next up Thursday.

 

[garneska]

Thursday we were up early. We were hiking Mt Mitchell. This was a 12 mile out and back hike. It had 3700 ft of gain and was up and down. Mt Mitchell is the tallest point East of the .Mississippi. It took 7 hours. I was faster going down. The hike kicked our butts. At 4.5 going up I think we were both ready to call it and turn back, but we pressed on. It reminded me of Clingman’s dome. Not my favorite hike but bragging rights for doing it. It was very technical with lots of rocks and roots.











dinner was Italian at Cucina24. It was good but preferred Bouchon.

its Friday morning and have not gotten up yet. I am scared. Plan is to take in Asheville.

 

[4077]

Some guy in a green pointed hat convinced me I should get a new home away from home… hand made in their shop… sounds good I thought…. Should have looked at the specs more closely… may be a wee bit small (I know there must be others here who got the same pitch)

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Like so many of the new models are, it will seem much bigger once you get inside

 

[garneska]

Let’s catch up. Friday we got up and everything was good except our calves. They were killing us. Walked to breakfast and then walked around the city slowly. All the hills hurt but we did it. Then it was an afternoon of walking and breweries.



dinner was at Limone’s. This was excellent had a sampler ceviche and then Bert had salmon and I had mushroom enchiladas.

Saturday I did not want to run so we went hiking. This was only 6.6 miles and more importantly 2100 feet of gain, almost all of it the first 2 miles up. This was an out and back. I was faster on the backend. The hike was fantastic except for how bad our calves still hurt. It was called the pinnacle and you had 360 views.



after this hike another brewery and then dinner at Rhubarb. This was southern fare. would also recommend it.

definitely think we will be back. It will be daily hikes of 6 to 10 miles with stops at breweries after and dinner.











Sorry could not get the pics where I wanted from phone but that was dinner from limone’s.

Got home on Sunday with just enough time to get groceries and then went to moms.

 

[Sjm9911]

Looks like a good time. Lol, exercise and beer. One of my 2 favorite things! ( hiking is fun, not really exercise, but it can be tough! ) no way im doing 6 miles though!

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok, train update, since I am proud of having little to bo time to do this. Got the track plan down, as I posted before, glued down a ton of foam board, so I can have some elevation and a tunnel. Starting on the rock backrounds, and ramps that the train will go up and down on. So some progress, i am not going for perfect realistic scenery, but it has to look sort of good. I carved out the foam, added some base coats of paint, then sprayed them with a bunch of diffrent spray paints untill I was happyish. They will get bushes and trees later. But after this is done ( and there is a lot more) I can lay down the track and bridges. If anyone wonders, the stuff I have is old, like really old. So , trains and operating buildings will be built in the 1950s , most of it repainted and wired by me. Some of the track and bridges are from like 1929 to 1938. So, I find it amusing that this stuff can work and be brought back to life. The globs of stuff at the sides will eventually be like hills.

 

[jbrostek]

Mobile internet update: It worked well but I had to roll back to the original hotspot device. While everything tested great here at home, for some reason it was having issues out at the track. I was getting horrible throughput and I could not figure out why.

So that part is back to the drawing board for the higher powered router. But I was able to work and stream without issue.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Mobile internet update: It worked well but I had to roll back to the original hotspot device. While everything tested great here at home, for some reason it was having issues out at the track. I was getting horrible throughput and I could not figure out why.

So that part is back to the drawing board for the higher powered router. But I was able to work and stream without issue.

Over-subscription issues perhaps? Once Sprint dropped sponsorship of the series, I've noticed less COWs and worse cell performance at Kansas Speedway over the years.

 

[Teamubr]

I think James was at his local track, but we have definitely seen a deterioration in cell service at work with the Sprint to T- Mobile conversion. I'm hanging on to my Sprint SIM for my work phone. Most of my team switched to T-Mobile SIMs and their service is terrible. Once you switch, they won't let you go back.

Good luck sorting out the wireless setup. There are so many factors that will impact your performance. It is hard to sort out what is causing what.

j

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

I think James was at his local track

Ah, whoops. Thought I remember him saying he was going to Dega, but maybe that was a different member.

Speaking of local tracks, Jim I've been eyeing that new Ozarks Raceway for an event during our meet up. You have any scoop with your local guys? That track looks crazy.

 

[Teamubr]

Ah, whoops. Thought I remember him saying he was going to Dega, but maybe that was a different member.

Speaking of local tracks, Jim I've been eyeing that new Ozarks Raceway for an event during our meet up. You have any scoop with your local guys? That track looks crazy.

NASA Central (the sanctioning body and region I raced) was there the first weekend of April. Most loved it. Lots of elevation change and a great track surface. Nice garages and paddock. They are going to be back the weekend after we are all down camping. The track website doesn't show anything on the calendar, but the Pesek's are running GT World Challenge/TransAM/IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series right now.

j

 

[tigger92662]

boutique hotel in downtown

Place looks nice, picture #3 were the Pringles an extra with the room?

 

[jbrostek]

Over-subscription issues perhaps? Once Sprint dropped sponsorship of the series, I've noticed less COWs and worse cell performance at Kansas Speedway over the years.

Nah, my t-mobile SIM phone and going back to the original linkzone2 hotspot both resulted in faster internet speeds. Something was up with how I configured the modem I am guessing. Some more testing is to be done later this week back here at home.

I think James was at his local track, but we have definitely seen a deterioration in cell service at work with the Sprint to T- Mobile conversion. I'm hanging on to my Sprint SIM for my work phone. Most of my team switched to T-Mobile SIMs and their service is terrible. Once you switch, they won't let you go back.

Good luck sorting out the wireless setup. There are so many factors that will impact your performance. It is hard to sort out what is causing what.

j

My experience has been the opposite here, most of the east of the Blueridge sprint towers where much much slower then t-mobile. Here tmobile has already been deploying a lot of 5G radios on the bands. And tmo has already started to decommission sprint towers this past week. You have till about June to change over or no guarantee on Sprint service. Most of the towers being taken out are redundant and then the remaining to be upgraded/updated is my understanding. Though that is just a bunch of industry folks guessing what they are deciding.

What I saw at the track was I was connecting to band12, but I forgot to write down the cell identifier. What sucks is at the track is a tower and Sprint was on it. The nearest tmobile towers are miles away, so I really hope that upgrade the one at summit point and make it usable there. If not a visible sim might be the way to go since VZW is now on the tower.

 

[garneska]

Place looks nice, picture #3 were the Pringles an extra with the room?

Ha no i brought those with. Pringles are a staple to eat in the car after a hike.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

My experience has been the opposite here, most of the east of the Blueridge sprint towers where much much slower then t-mobile. Here tmobile has already been deploying a lot of 5G radios on the bands. And tmo has already started to decommission sprint towers this past week. You have till about June to change over or no guarantee on Sprint service. Most of the towers being taken out are redundant and then the remaining to be upgraded/updated is my understanding. Though that is just a bunch of industry folks guessing what they are deciding.

What I saw at the track was I was connecting to band12, but I forgot to write down the cell identifier. What sucks is at the track is a tower and Sprint was on it. The nearest tmobile towers are miles away, so I really hope that upgrade the one at summit point and make it usable there. If not a visible sim might be the way to go since VZW is now on the tower.

Hope you can figure it out. I know enough to be dangerous on stuff and it's frustrating to plug it all in and tweak and such and then not have that Tom Hanks "I have made fire" moment immediately.

I'm getting to have my share of modem fun. I use a pepwave router for my home internet (we take it with on the road too). I got an email from my data provider (3d party ATT seller) and they're going toes up so I had to scramble to find another plan. I was struggling with routine oversubscription/throttling issues on weekends at home as well as a 500GB cap.

Found a T-Mobile 3d party for same price, 5G, and 800GB cap. I've had friends at the house with T-Mobile before the Sprint merge and they didn't have any issues.

Hopefully all works well and my new SIM arrives before the old one dies. I don't want to hear the wailing of tweens that YouTube isn't working.

 

[jbrostek]

@Part-Time Paradise I have seen some of those. I wonder if you could have gone with T-Mobile internet directly for 50/m. No data caps I know of unlike ATT. I am a network engineer and I studied Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and RF Engineering in college. I know more then enough to be dangerous, its reverse engineering the rails each provider looks for is the tricky part.

I went with Calyx/t-mobile as a primary since it supports internet privacy, I get a no data cap sim, and tax deductible portion. It sounded great as part of my donation. I think if I where seriously on the road longer term I would get a dual SIM router and run this and a visible sim from VZW. Many full timers have figured out how to use it too without much for data cap. I don't mind paying for services, I just want the most for each dollar.

I did learn something about my sim on the better modem. I think the issue might have been I was not setting my TTL to a higher number. It seems that tmobile might do this even on data only SIMs, so that will be my next test to see if that can make it work. Just some more digging to sort out for sure before I put all this to use in a more permanent setup.