Question for Snowbirds

[Nesta]

Hi everyone. Snowbirds, When you leave Canada for an extended stay down south, what do you do about your Canadian Internet service provider. Do you pay ahead for the duration or do you cancel your deal.
Also, How long do you give yourselves to get to say, Florida or Texas from Ontario. and how many stops overnight do you make on the way.
Nesta.

[CountryGuy]

As far as the ISP situation, we have satellite and we just bite the bullet and pay. We are in Michigan, not Canada.

When we leave here mid January to head south, we try to run as far as we can the first day, we hate driving more than 250 a day, but in that cold weather, since there are few campgrounds open all year round, we drive as far as it takes, usually closer to 400 miles. UGH, hate it. We head south in the most direct line we can, due south. We do not run with water in the tanks, nor with the heat on in the unit. We hope to get far south enough by day 2 to put water onboard.

We don't travel that hard coming home in the spring, I think it took us about 10 driving days from Donna Texas to Tipton Michigan. Much more pleasant!

There have been several discussions about just this topic here at MOC, try using the Search facility at the top of the page.

Welcome to the forum and Have fun in the south!

[OntMont]

quote:Originally posted by Nesta

Hi everyone. Snowbirds, When you leave Canada for an extended stay down south, what do you do about your Canadian Internet service provider. Do you pay ahead for the duration or do you cancel your deal.
Also, How long do you give yourselves to get to say, Florida or Texas from Ontario. and how many stops overnight do you make on the way.
Nesta.

We keep our ISP (Bell Sympatico) and continue to use it via cell phone while in the south. We also keep our satellite TV service and use it as well. Both are charged to our credit card, which I pay by calling them and asking the balance, then paying over the internet.

Travelling south, we leave Ontario as early as poosible in the morning, (usually around 5:30), and try to get as far south as possible on day one. This usually works out to the Flying J in Walton KY, we stay there overnight, it is usually warm enough there that we can use the water with heat on in the trailer. Next day we try to leave early again, and head down I-71 to pick up I-65 in Louisville, then try to make Birmingham, AL for the next night at another Flying J, then we have an easy drive next day into Gulf Shores, AL to get set up at our campsite. So it is two nights "roughing it" at Flying Js, and then we are there. We stay at Flying Js because they are so convenient for quick stops and get aways. The camping is "free", but we always buy fuel, a meal, and maybe some odd thing in the store. Florida is a bit further and have you have to cross some mountains to get there, Texas is further still.

John and Donna,
(presently at Gulf Breeze RV Resort in Gulf Shores, AL where it was in the 70s today).

[contau lake]

Nesta, like Ontmont we usually leave London about 7 a.m., cross at Detroit and try and make the same stop as John and Donna at the Flying J. in Kentucky. It usually takes us 4 nights and 5 days to pull into our campsite in Mission, Texas and arrive just after lunch time. We usually have internet access at the park we stay at and I continue to access my emails etc., through our home server in Ontario.

[Montana_657]

We leave Ottawa at the crack of dawn... this year stopped at a truck stop north of Harrisburg Pa for the night. Back on the road at 0600 and ended up in Wilson NC the second night. After a few days there we coasted.

We are in Winter Garden Fla now.... only 28C this after noon but not bad, perhaps it will warm up.

We have dial up ... but it's slow. This campground has wireless high speed for $29 a month. We have enough bandwidth to run radio over the net. CBC has over 25 Canadian stations up and running so we get news from home. Y101 from Ottawa is also there, so it's much easier to keep in touch and worth the $$$$

[Nesta]

Thank you all for the replies. thanks CountryGuy for your info on the water tanks and for the tip about doing searches on here. I will certainly do that in future.
OntMont, we have sympatico also. we had no idea we could use them down south. (we really are clueless about all this). We are not going anywhere till next year. but are eager to learn what we can before we start. I was so glad to get the info on "Flying J" stops. That has given me another thing to research. didnt know about them.
Contau lake. Thanks for your input. safe journey on 26th.
Gruffy, Thanks for the weather update. you really are too kind
Thanks for your help. It's always a comfort to listen to your fav radio station when your away isnt it.
Nesta

[CountryGuy]

Nesta

You are in the right place to learn!

That search engine is invaluable, we have discussed a lot of stuff here at MOC

[Bill and Ann]

Nesta: Where in Ontario are you leaving from? We live in the Napanee, Ontario area and cross at the 1000 islands where there is less traffic.

[Bill and Ann]

Reference your inquiry about the internet at home. We kept ours going so we could still check any messages we got up there. We are hooked up to a server in McAllen for $9.95 per mo. for unlimited use. GOOD DEAL! My email address down here is wweaver@sc2000.net. Drop me a line and I will give you the info.

[Bill and Ann]

Just for info. We bought another dish (Star Choice) and get our programming from home using our extra receivers. You can pick them up a your dealers for under $100.

[Chester]

Hi Ontmont. John when you use your sympatico from down south what do you use for a dial in number?? Does sympatico have an 800 number or are you paying the long distance?