RE: using a canadian credit card at the pumps
I just called CIBC about adding a secondary US address to my US dollar Visa card. They did that, but it was a shipping address only. They could also change the address my statements would be mailed too if I wished, BUT in both cases the address changes would be made only in their computer and not on the mag strip on my card (ie no new card issued). The replies to this and other threads have indicated that to pay at the pump the zip code entered at the pump must match the zip code on the card. Does any one know if the check at the pump involves matching the address in the actual magnetic strip on the card or is the check made against the mailing and/or shipping address in the card issuer's computers when an authorization against our account is approved at the pump (obviously there is some communication going on)? If the former, the secondary address idea probably won't work. If the latter, maybe it will.
RE: Digital TV converter, 12 volts?
Costco has a very compact 175 watt inverter for $20 that plugs into a cigarette lighter. I would just get the Insignia box, use the inverter and be done with it.........
That's basically what I did for my Insignia and the set-up worked great on our 2 1/2 month 10,000 mile trip this summer. On our unit, I tapped into the 12 volt feed for our DVD payer to install an extra 12 volt power port (with switch) for the small inverter.
RE: CB use has been disapointing on this long trip
For some reason (including on our 2 1/2 month trip this summer), we never seem to hear a lot of activity on the CB in the far western states. Over-the-air traffic seems to steadily increase as we head east. We stay on Channel 19 most of the time (occasionally going to 17 in the far west) so that might explain part of it where truckers use alternate channels. Over the years, the CB has saved us from much delay and has helped us avoid hazardous situations numerous times. Cell phone coverage is getting better and better in the more remote areas but we still like to have the ability to communicate at all times. We just turn it down during those relatively brief periods when bored idiots and nuisance base station operators decide to strut their stuff. We've come to consider the CB to be an essential part of our RVing equipment.
RE: What is up with US Customs?
The maritime entry points of all North America and International airports is where the real screening should be concentrated rather than hassling citizens at Border crossings. Europe has got it right!
Right On! North America is going the way the Europeans used to be and vise versa. Kind of sad. And incredibly costly to both countries.
RE: Garmin GPS
CANADIANS BEWARE
I'll never Buy another GARMIN product. There suport out side of the US. is a joke We can't down load up dates. If they want to sell there products here they should give us equal access to up dates
They say " The download is not available due to import/export
regulations and brokerage fees and duties when a product crosses the
boarder.
I have bought and down loaded many things from the US. with out any problem and never heard of such a thing on down loads.
We can buy the updates here months later at an infalted price $99 here $69 in the US. even with the dollar almost at par. I guess it's just a way they can give us Canadians the SHAFT.
I'll NEVER BUY GARMIN
I bought the 2009 map update for $59.95 (+ GST, no pst) for my Nuvi 750 in May from GPScity.ca. Arrived quickly. Garmin sent me the MapSource DVD in January at no charge. No problem with the DVD crossing the border. Have used the 750 on a trip to Florida and most recently all across Canada with destinations in many cities and towns large and small. Will be heading down the west coast to San Diego before heading for home in Ontario. It's amazing to have all that information packed into such a small package. Have hardly looked at a paper map since getting the Nuvi. Wouldn't hesitate to purchase another Garmin. Even my wife loves the 750.
RE: GPS with car, truck, bus mode?
I have the 760, how do you find the truck settings?
The Nuvi 7xx series does not have this option. You can set the vehicle icon to truck, but that is a different thing that does not change the routing.
RE: Canadians: which cell phone for both countries?
Our cell need on the road is relatively low (Skype helps a lot) so we use this with Bell Mobility:
Connect Florida or Connect USA
No roaming, no long distance, no maintenance charges to keep a phone number active, no multiple phones to play around with and no multiple phone numbers. We've never been hit with any extra charges while traveling coast to coast. The equivalent per minute cost of the Connect USA plan is a bit higher than some but, overall annual trip costs can be lower all costs in considered. We put the plans on before we leave and take off when we get home. In between times we simply revert back to our low home based monthly rate.
RE: 12 volt TV - Not AC/DC & TV converter box
My Insignia digital/analog converter from Best Buy runs great powered by a cheap 75 watt MSW cigarette lighter inverter. Already had it kicking around and just plugged it into the 12 volt power port on the antenna booster switch located behind my 12 V LCD TV.
RE: GPS trip routing -- how to do it?
Yes, some folks get by with "work-arounds" and others feel they don't really need a GPS with multi-point routing and planning ability, but keep in mind that the units having that ability will accommodate each preference, but it doesn't work the other way around.
RE: GPS trip routing -- how to do it?
I bought a Garmin Nuvi 650. But a few days later I returned it when I learned about the routing capabilities of Garmin's 7xx series. I really really like the ability to create and store multi-point custom routes on the unit (or on the PC for transfer to the unit). I already have most of the routes for our 8,500 mile trip this summer all planned, created and stored. When planning, if, for whatever reason, I wish to deviate from the route that the Nuvi automatically provides, with the 750, I can easily modify the route and save it for when needed. We used our 750 almost every day for 2 1/2 months while we were in Florida last winter and it usually achieved satellite reception within 5 seconds of turn on (and often less)! In any event, subsequent firmware upgrades have apparently rectified issues with slow reception that some have reported. There is free software available that will allow one to convert Microsoft Streets and Trips Routes (not just waypoints) to a format that can be transferred to the GPS. I haven't used it much, but it does work. I do use S&T a lot to assist with trip planning but prefer to set up my actual routes in Garmin's MapSource on the PC for later transfer to the Nuvi.
RE: Digital TV converters for a B
My installation:
Converter
Not many easy options vis a vis location. The Pleasure-Way has enough clearance over the bed/seat to preclude hitting one's head when sitting. The swing out LCD TV is in the outward locked position in the photos, but I arranged the cables etc so that it will lock unimpeded into the "travel" position. The box is powered by a 75 watt cigarette lighter inverter. Cable input to the box is via the existing auxiliary cable port on the antenna booster switch and the output cable from the box goes to the TV near the existing cable from the antenna, which still carries the analog signal. I joined these two cables together with an A/B switch so I can easily switch back and forth between analog and digital (I've heard the analog signal may become a bit degraded on some of the pass through boxes. Regardless, the A/B switch is cheap and easy and I already had one in my spare parts bin). Being able to easily switch back and forth is even more important for us because Canada isn't shutting down the analog signals until 2011. We have only two digital channels in my city right now, but we travel in the US for 4 or 5 months each year. Plus we want to take advantage of the much much better picture quality provided by digital.
On edit: Made link clickable.
RE: Digital to Analog TV Converter in RV --- Wow!
I power my Insignia converter with a cheap 75 watt cigarette lighter inverter plugged into the auxiliary 12 volt port at the antenna booster switch behind my LCD TV. Works great. Fantastic picture quality. Only two digital channels in my City right now (Canada isn't turning off the analog signals till 2011), so I installed an A/B switch (the cable input line to the converter connects to the auxiliary cable port of the booster switch so no need for another splitter) so I can easily move back and forth.
RE: gps maps with campgrounds
I haven't examined maps loaded onto GPS units, but the online mapping/campground services I've looked at leave a great deal to be desired in my area: Misplaced campgrounds, missing campgrounds, ghost campgrounds. If asked to rate their accuracy, I'd probably put it at about 60% (i.e., 40% errors). It'll be a while before this kind of service is up to par, IMHO.
:)
Lynn
That's been pretty much my experience with POIs in general, whether in the GPS or published on-line or elsewhere. Many points can be several miles off (in a random direction often) if indeed the entity of concern still exists at all, or indeed, ever existed. When I am preplanning (at home, or on the road when I have WIFI Internet), I use Streets and Trips, Woodalls, Trailer Life and various web sources to find campgrounds (and other points) I am interested in and then I locate the facility etc (campgrounds are usually easy to spot, some other points are not so easy) in Google Earth to get co-ordinates that will take me right to the entranceway. This bumps up my accuracy to near 100% for these points (but no guarantee the entity is still in business). You're back down to the 60% level if you do it on the fly and rely on the POIs stored in the GPS. If one is willing to live with a 1/2 mile degree of accuracy (but hopefully it will show a facility of concern located on the proper street/highway), maybe the POI accuracy goes up to 70% or so (????). But this will improve in time I'm sure.
RE: Power requirements of digital to analog converter box
I have an Insignia converter box from Best Buy. Haven't permanently installed yet but, in testing for a few hours, the box worked fine using the cheap 75 watt cigarette lighter inverter I got last year to run my weather alert radio when we don't have an electric hook-up.
RE: Price on Tropical Palms
Call and ask about their promotions. We stayed there a year ago, for a week, and in the past two months they have called me 3-4 times, offering all types of promotions to return.
Guess they're feeling the pinch if they have to resort to this to drum up business. The Kissimmee KOA staff told us that they're hearing a lot of complaints about what has happened at Tropical Palms.
RE: Price on Tropical Palms
Yup, we too stayed there for 4 or 5 years running but noticed the deplorable maintenance in Jan and Mar 07 and the huge price increases for 2008. Plus they now want the total camping fee paid at the time of reservation. So stayed down the road at the KOA in Jan and Mar 08 and will be doing the same thing in 2009.
RE: How did population clusters occur in Canada?
......With 10 provinces, 3 territories, why have 2/3 of the population chosen to live in 2 of the provinces?......
The two Provinces in question (Ontario and Quebec) got a big head start historically (French settlement in Quebec and the later American Loyalists in Ontario) and started to industrialized along with the US northeast before the move to populate the west occurred. Easy market access to the large US northeast and Midwest populations, relatively good transportation, available energy resources, raw materials and a source of labor fostered the industrialization (even today Ontario is the largest producer of light motor vehicles in North America) in these two provinces. All this economic opportunity attracted (and still attracts) the vast majority of the immigrants to Canada.
Southern Ontario is also gifted with what very well may be the best farmland in Canada as well as a comparatively favorable climate (it's well south of the 49th parallel). The first settlers in Ontario were the American Loyalists (many of whose families had lived in the American colonies for generations and the main reason today why native-born Canadians don't speak with a British accent. And notwithstanding their loyalty to Britain, they precipitated a much more representative form of government in Canada) who settled on land just across the new border, which happened to be along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River (my ancestors came directly north overland from the Albany area of New York State). Of course, the rivers and lakes also furnished transportation and water power which further fostered the industrialization mentioned above.
These historic events continue to account for the nature of Canada's population today. Quebec, and particularly Ontario, remain the economic giants although the waxing and waning energy industry has caused some shifts in recent years. Job opportunities in Ontario and other points west have encouraged people in the eastern Atlantic Provinces to move away from there. The prairie provinces remain mainly agrarian with concurrent low population densities (in fact, I believe there was some loss of population in at least one of them in recent times, although that may have changed now). British Columbia (and parts of Alberta i.e. the mountains, but I love the wheat fields of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba too) is a spectacularly beautiful Province, but due to its topography, its population is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas around Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
RE: How did population clusters occur in Canada?
What is now Quebec and the eastern provinces (The Maritimes and Newfoundland) were settled first which gave them a start. The first major mass immigration occurred with the movement of American Loyalists north after the Revolution. Some moved to the Maritimes and Quebec and many to what is now Ontario (it's significant that, although Ontario is not a coastal province, it is directly north of the large US northeastern population centers. North of Boston the continent starts to jut out significantly to the east. Interestingly, many Ontarians, including myself, will often describe ourselves as coming from Eastern Canada, when in fact we are central Canadians. Perhaps a throw back to our origins). The American loyalists brought their concepts of industrialization and capitalism with them (scale wise and culturally this was a change point from the status quo). Over time, especially with the transition from a rural agrarian society to an urbanized industrialized one, the cities of Montreal and Toronto, in particular, and the immediate surrounding areas in general became significant financial, corporate and manufacturing centers. The resulting many economic opportunities attracted much immigration, including from rural areas and the more easterly coastal provinces (which to a large extent held populations in check there). As in the US, settlement of the western part of Canada to the Rocky mountains did not occur until much after the east/central Provinces were well established and, except for a few centralized urban areas in each province, remains mainly rural agricultural with low population densities. Each individual city, town, and hamlet, has it's own specific story, of course, (whether on water, a rail or old stage coach line, old fur trade post, access to markets, power, natural resources, labor force, recreational amenities, climate, political beneficiary or victim etc etc).
RE: Garmin, Tom Tom or Magellan which would you prefer
But what I like best about Garmin, is the Mapsource program that runs on your computer,.......
Is Mapsource now free from Garmin? I paid about one hundred dollars for mine.
Upon request, Garmin sent me a DVD with MapSource (and a copy of the map that was already on my GPS) at no charge, but you would have to pay for updated or other maps. Preparing custom routes on my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS is relatively easy but using MapSource on the computer and uploading to the GPS is easier still and it's great for preplanning and saving many routes for long trips. I find having concurrent access to Streets and Trips, Google Earth and various other web sites (Woodall’s directory etc etc etc) really helps with pre-planning and saving routes (and, of course, waypoints) in MapSource. Many GPS units have limited ability to create and save customized routes (ie to modify the routes provided by the GPS) and among my Nuvi's many features, I like and use that one the most. Garmin's literature implies that their 700 series GPS units can accommodate up to 10 saved routes (which can have multiple waypoints). Although, this is often very adequate, in fact, one can have many more than 10 routes stored in the GPS's memory. The 10 route limitation only applies to the number of routes one can have “active” at any one time on the GPS unit and one can easily remove one or more routes from the active area (these will still be saved on the GPS for later reactivation if one wishes) and activate other stored routes (or create new routes) on the GPS at any time without requiring access to a computer.
RE: 14 days max at Florida SP
.........can a person spend two weeks at one SP then move to a different SP?
Yes, after two weeks, you can then move to a different SP and the clock starts over again at day one for that second park.
