TV on your Phone???

After we arrived back in Canada last week, one of the first order of business to complete, was changing the phone plan with Bell Canada on our LG Smart Phone.  During the winter, while in the U.S.A. we use what is called the North American Plan.  This allows us 250 minutes a month of making or receiving phone calls anywhere in North America.  This is a good plan that has worked for us the past couple years… this year, with the smart phone, Bell included 500 mb. of data a month so you could use the internet on the phone while in the U.S.  This also worked good for us, and we never came close to going over the 500 mb. limit.

Upon our return to Canada last week, we switched to what is called the “Fab 10” plan by Bell.  This allows unlimited calling to your 10 most favourite people, (if you have that many…) and also included 200 other minutes.  It also gives you 1 Gig of data for the smart phone internet which is good!  A new feature this year, is the subject of today’s blog.  They now included 10 hours of “Free” Smart Phone TV!  I thought right away… “what the heck”    Who would ever watch TV on their phone? 

Yesterday, with a bit of time to kill, I figured out I had to go to the App Store, download the “TV” app, and check it out.  As soon as I started the program, I no sooner had the current NHL Playoff Game with Nashville and Phoenix on the phone!  Wait a minute I said to myself… this may be alright!  The quality of the picture was excellent, and you could also hear the sound real good!  I was a bit impressed! 

I took a picture below, off the phone tonight.  It is Kevin O’Leary’s new show, on the CBC that is playing, and it give you an idea of what this new feature is all about….

So what do you think people????   Is there a market for this product?   The TV time does NOT count against your 1 Gig data limit… it is separate.  I asked the guy at the Bell Store who would use this product, and he said he has sold it to people who use it at work!!!!  Yikes!  That will effect productivity!

Next problem for me is when would I use this feature?  When I am away from home, stuck for a period of time with nothing to do I guess…

Let me know what you all think about this… would you use it at work???

Lousy day here in southern Ontario… lots of rain… did get into Town and helped Judy babysit Gwenny for an hour… that was about it!

Till tomorrow…

Sunday Clean Up!

Nice to have the sun just a blazing today here in Southern Ontario, as it got up to about 15 deg. C.

Just took life real easy, doing some clean up of the yard around the RV… lots of twigs and stuff all over our site from winter, but not anymore!

One spring time ritual that I really enjoy is getting my motorcycle out of storage for another summer of riding… today was the day.  I had the Honda all cleaned up and serviced when I put it to bed last fall, but cleaned it all up to get the dust off today.  Put the battery and seat back on, and before it know it… purring like a kitten for another year!  This is a 2007 Honda 750, that I bought new, and checking the odometer today, showed 41,217 klms. on the dial!  Still looks like new!   Going to have to go find some new tires for it though this spring, as the current ones are worn out!

Little Gwenny, along with Mom and Dad came out to the RV to check out our set up for the summer, and enjoyed dinner with us tonight!  Gwenny gets to sit at the table this year with the big kids!

Before dinner, we sat for an hour and a half outside, as it was lovely to say the least.   I liked Gwenny’s outfit for today!

Judy tells me we travelled about 7,200 miles this year with the Motorhome!  Did a lot of touring, and enjoyed every minute of it!  Last year the highlight of the trip for me was Death Valley.   This year, the highlight was the trip from L.A. up to San Francisco up the #1 Highway!  What a trip!

Till tomorrow…

My first “Welcome to Canada Party” ever…

What the heck… it got down to –5 last night here…  brrrrrrrrrrrr, we are not used to that!

Turned out to be not a bad day… overcast but it did warm up a bit.

Got a bunch of work done this morning… 1st job was to clean up one real dirty Jeep.  If you got dragged for 2,500 miles, you might be a bit dirty as well…

There are not a lot of campers in our Park right now, so I just washed it out on the road…. nice an clean now!  Just looking for a good California Jeep Trail!

While I was outside this morning doing the Jeep, and the Motorcycle Trailer, I heard all this noise from the other end of the Park, so the little boy in me made me walk up to see what was going on!   Ron, the owner was hard at work installing new services… I love watching these big machines do their work… no effort required at all!

Ron is increasing the size of these RV lots, by moving the road on the far left hand side, and improving the sites with new water, electricity, and sewer pipes!  Able now to accommodate up to 40 feet RV’s.

These two big trees were in the way of progress, so had to go… they are now all cut and split into a big wall of firewood!  They used a backhoe to get them out of the ground.

This afternoon, we were invited to a Welcome to Canada Party!  David and Dianne, Chris’ Parents, put the party on for their  Daughter In Law, Ramona, who lived in Germany.  She married their son, Kevin, and they now live in London, Ont.  A big pile of friends and family came out to welcome Ramona, with a bunch of Canada related food, and gifts.  She is now a landed Immigrant, and is able to work.  Congratulations Ramona!

David and Dianne have a large rural property, and Judy found a pile of Trilliums… including a couple red ones if you look close… very rare in these parts!

A lot more cleaning to do yet!

Till tomorrow…

Back to “Home Sweet Home”…

Yes, we are back in Canada!  It is nice to visit the U.S., however it is also nice to return home to Canada…The weather was clear, but cool for our grand return today, and this is one of the first things we came across as we entered back into the Country…

We crossed at Port Huron, Michigan, into Sarnia, Ontario across the Blue Water Bridge.  There is a lot of construction on the Port Huron side, and it was very confusing as you approached the cut off for the Bridge… we totally missed the Duty Free Shop, (oh well…) and got right on the bridge to Canada!  We had a Lady Customs Officer that asked where we live???, how much did you spend, any smokes or booze???… WELCOME BACK TO CANADA!  That was it, name, rank, and serial number, and that was it!  Easiest crossing we have had yet! 

We made the 2 hour trip to Woodstock, and were welcomes by all the spring flowers around Town Square as we did our victory lap around the downtown core!  Had to get filled up with propane, as it is going to –6 here tonight!  Welcome home!

We made it out to our home park, Willow Lake, by 11:30 this morning, and Ron and Jane were both there to greet us and welcomed us back home.  Ron was great, and helped me move the motorcycle trailer off the pad to it’s summer parking spot.  Only had one BIG glitch, and that was when I went to plug in our modem for our Hughes Net Internet Satellite Dish.  The modem did not fire up… dead in the water… not good!!!  It appears we have blown the power supply box… will have to look into it.  After a quick discussion with Judy, it became evident neither one of us could continue on in Life without the internet, so what to do???  The answer!!!!  Good old Ma Bell.  I jumped into the Jeep with Smart Phone and iPad in hand, and headed to the Bell Store in Woodstock.  We bought our Smart LG Phone there last year.  In 15 minutes, this young computer wiz guy, had my iPad hooked up to the Bell Network, with the internet working just fine!  It needed a new Sim Card, and a bit of work on his computer, and all was running…  We now have a flex plan for internet, on which you pay as you play, with 5 Gig costing $35.00 over a month.  Our new iPad 3 supports the 4G network, however in Woodstock they are not quite up to that speed yet, but will be soon.  Currently working on the 3G network, which works just fine!  Can’t wait for 4G!  Will have to decide what to do with Hughes Net, our 3 year contract comes due this June!  Perfect!

Oh ya, forgot to tell you… best part!  Bring the iPad back to the RV, hit the “Personal Hot Spot Button”, and presto!  Our internet hungry laptops have been fed, and work GREAT! 

Of course, we headed into Town to visit little Miss Gwenny!  All the Family is doing well, and Chris was home from work when we got there…  Right away, Gwenny took charge, and was showing me how to operate the iPad!  Imagine that!  She was a pro at it!

A couple pics from our trip home.. here is St. Louis… I want to go back and visit here more… check out the arch.. it is really big!

We stayed a night at a Park in Indiana, and we were put right beside the Good Sam RVer of the Year, for 2011!  I lost their names, but we met them and they were very nice people, who do a lot of travelling!  They have signs all over their truck and on their lot.  They were voted in by the total Membership of Good Sam.

We had a nice site below in Port Huron.  KOA.

Granny sure enjoyed her time this afternoon with Gwenny…

Judy brought her a baby doll, and she played with it this afternoon… she is growing up on us, almost a year old now…

Good to be home…

Welcome to Thelma and Skip tonight, our most recent blog followers… welcome aboard!

Till tomorrow…

All set to cross…

Another good day of travelling today, and we have ended up just south of Port Huron, Michigan.   We are at a KOA Kampground on full service, and it is a good thing, as it is going to go just below the freezing point tonight, so we will need a bit of heat.   Not a nice night here as it is raining…  what is with that???

We have park internet again, but it is not very good, kind of like dial up if you ask me, so I am not even going to attempt to post any pictures….  too many trees around again, to put any dishes, so no game 7 in N.Y. for me tonight…

We are only about 2 1/2 hour drive from Woodstock, and will leave in the morning.  We have been in touch with the Owners of our Park at Willow Lake, and we are all set to drive in and get set up tomorrow afternoon. 

Look out Canada, here we come!

Till tomorrow…

Indiana wants me…

Yes, we are up in Indianapolis, Indiana tonight… in the rain!  Could not put a post up last night, as we were south of St. Louis, Mo. and no internet, and no cell phone service, and way too many trees in the park for my dish… oh well… I was kind of tired anyways…

We are doing well, and tomorrow night we plan on staging in Port Huron, and crossing the Border early Friday Morning… 

We have had a great drive, no real problems at all so far, other than every time I look at the gas gage on the motorhome, it is near empty!  Why is that…

We are on park internet tonight, that is up and down like the you know what seat, so this will be  a very short post.  Hopefully we have good internet tomorrow night, or I will put up the dish.

Till tomorrow…

Oklahoma still remembers…

We decided to extend out stay here, due to the fact the weather is very nice, and we wanted to see more of Oklahoma!

We were on our way Downtown by 9:30 this morning in bright sunshine…

Oklahoma City has a real nice trolley ride, that is FREE!  Gotta love it.  We parked at the Bass Pro Shop, and jumped onboard the trolley.  It takes you around the Downtown area.

One of the items Judy and I wanted to do was to go to the Oklahoma City National Memorial to pay our respects.  Also we wanted to visit the Museum.  If you recall, that dreadful day of April 19, 1995, the Murrah  Federal Building was bombed, and 168 innocent people lost their lives.

Below are the Memorial Gates that lead to the site, there is one set at each end… one is numbered 9:01, and the other is 9:03… this represents the period of time during the bombing, and how it has changed this City forever!

They have left the chain link fence up, and people still come!

This child below is creating a chalk drawing, that all the kids are encouraged to do in front of the Museum daily.

In this picture below, I am taking it looking west… I have the one Memorial Wall directly behind me, and am looking at the other… the street used to be where the reflecting pool now is, and the Murrah Building stood facing the road on the left.  There were two other building to the right of the pool, and both had to come down as they were so badly damaged.

This picture below is looking directly where the Building used to be, and now you can see the Memorial Chairs on the grounds… there is one chair for every person who lost their life at the site…

There was 9 stories to the building, and the chairs are arranged by floor number, and the number of people who were on each floor.  There was one Registered Nurse who was a first responder to the building, and ended up with and head injury while rescuing people, and lost her life.

Below is the old Journal Record Building that was badly damaged, but since rebuilt and is now the Museum.  This is one of the nicest Museums I have come across, as far as presenting the story, and the facts in an excellent manner, meant to educate people visiting.  Judy and I have a total different awareness of this disaster after our visit… you have to experience it…

We left the Memorial, and walked around downtown and enjoyed lunch… it was in the 80’s today, and was beautiful.

Oklahoma City may not be the biggest City, but it is very nice, clean, modern, and is easy to get around in.

Once back to the Jeep, we toured what is know as Bricktown.  This area was very industrial, but is now full of restaurants, nightly entertainment, sport centers, and a water taxi to take you around… very well done!

You can see the water taxi below on the river…

We could not figure out what this sculpture below represented, if that is what it is… It is out on Highway 40, right at the downtown cut off…

We enjoyed our time in Oklahoma City, however tomorrow is time to hit the road again, and start heading north! 

This morning we had a skype call with little Gwenny, and her Mom, and Gwenny was actually waving at us on the screen! 

We had a nice skype call tonight with Shawn, Jenn, Emmie and Paige, who tell us they were building a snowman on the front lawn today!!!!!  I don’t want to go home yet!  Hope that snow goes away soon…   On the bright side, Shawn had to fly to London, Ontario today for part of his medical training, and reported a nice day in London before flying home to Ottawa.  We stay just 30 minutes east of London.

Till tomorrow…

Well… listen here now Pilgrim!

It was nice to be able and take a morning off today… no travel, just coffee and time to catch up on a bunch of blogs I have missed!  Beautiful day here, as the sun was out, but only got up to about 68 deg. F.

Time to play tourist again, and if you picked up on the Header of the blog… we were off to John Wayne Country!

We decided to take in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  Now if there is ever a place our friend John Morrison should come and visit, this would be it!  He would stay here for a week!

Here is the Duke done in Bronze below… in celebration of his 100th birthday, they had this statue commissioned.  John Wayne was a very strong supporter of this Museum, and in 1972, he donated all of his Cowboy type stuff to them! 

This is the front entrance below, but it does not even show 15% of the entire complex… it is BIG!

This cast statue below welcomes you to the complex… it is called “The End of the Trail”, and it is also big!

Below is a complete corral, and you can see how realistic the displays were… this place if very well done!

Now, inside the museum, and gallery, you cannot us a flash, however I got this blurry picture of “The Sons of Pioneers” along with Roy Roger for Al, from the Bayfield Bunch!  His favourite Cowboy singing group of all time!

There is a lot of incredible art work in this place, that I could not take pictures of, but a lot of good displays, like the one below…

They also built a complete western Town inside the Museum… you have to come and see this one!

President Regan also has a statue of himself in riding gear… there was a large segment of the museum set aside to the Big Screen Cowboys.

Here comes the Calvary… always the good guys!

There of course was a large collection of rifles and hand guns… incredible!  These are only a few…

They have beautiful gardens with more displays set up outside… remember the opening display, of The End of the Trail… it is housed below…

Lookout… below is Wild Bill!

President Lincoln made it into the Complex… in the 1860 he signed into Law, the Homestead Act, which allowed about 1 Millions Families, to move out west and claim some farm land and settle.  He also signed the Railway Act, which provided the right of ways for the Rail Road Companies to build the lines, that would open up the west!

 

Just another item to put on your bucket list, when visiting Oklahoma City!  A great spot.

Got a good laugh today reading all the comments about the 72 oz. Steak offer on the highway signs… I could not imagine trying to eat it, but I am sure there are people that can and do it!  Rick was wondering if the meal came with Desert! 

Till tomorrow…