November 3, 2003
When you chat with folks about wi-fi at an RV park, one of the
things you notice right away is how few of them ever surf outside
at their picnic tables. The RV crowd tends to be escapees from
the North who are searching for sunshine--which, incidentally,
plays havoc with visibility on computer screens. Surfing the Web,
even wirelessly, is mostly an indoor sport (photo ops aside).
Dave Aurard, for instance, has a Dell desktop set up inside his
massive Gulf Stream, right behind the front passenger seat,
which does a 180 to serve as the computer throne too. The little
blue antenna for wireless access is stuck inconspicuously to the
window to catch the wi-fi signal from an antenna next door--above
the park's family shower facility.
Aurard, a balding Buddha of a guy who was a heating and
air-conditioning contractor in Michigan before he kissed cold
winters goodbye, usually goes online around midday, after he's
served a hearty breakfast of pancakes and eggs to the hordes at
the RV park. The 67-year-old cook is a "work camper," who pays
his way by doing jobs around the park. Though he rarely uses his
wireless connection to surf for recipes (he's got the $9.99
rib-eye-and-baked-potato dinner down pat, thanks), he needs it to
order medicine for his diabetes and catch up with his
camping-club buddies--the Michiana Hoodlums--back home. "Land
lines are too slow," he says.
Going wireless in an RV park is not without problems, of course.
"It's not yet plug and play," admits Stumberg, 36, who co-founded
his company two years ago, after a lonely trip to Mexico when he
came to appreciate two words in Spanish: Tengo Internet
(translation: We've got Internet). At the RV park, Mac users
report having the easiest time going wireless, and Microsoft XP
works dandy too, while Millennium is nearly useless. Tight living
quarters can play havoc with reception. Microwaving lunch while
surfing wirelessly is a sure way to get disconnected. To keep out
snoops and unwanted software, many RVers have installed a
firewall and virus protection. Amazingly, nearly half arrive
equipped with a wireless card, the park's managers say.
In fact, wi-fi in an RV park tends to attract more users than the
pool. When Kara and Jesse Cox moved from wireless Waxahachie,
Texas, to Austin so Jesse could finish his last semester at the
University of Texas, the first thing they did after pulling up in
their 28-ft. mobile home was hook up the electricity and charge
the computer (which Jesse, a physics major, built himself).
EverQuest came even before the water connection. "Our lives are
on that computer," admits Jesse. "Being young, we have to have
our Internet." Although he kids Kara about her gaming addiction,
he spends a fair amount of time on the sofabed in front of the
computer. "He just has more homework to do," she says. Yes, he
does that wirelessly too.
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