After we were at the Oregon Coast, we went back to Boise for a bit. We got some warranty work done on the fifth wheel, and then headed back toward Seattle.
On the way there, we spent two weeks in November in Fall City which is near Issaquah. We stayed at Tall Chief RV. It was a Thousand Trails resort.
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Again, like a lot of TT resorts, it was overgrown and older. We had some issues with power at one site on the night we arrived which caused us to move and settle in at another site. It worked out in the end as this one had the drainage area next to it, which gave us more privacy.
If you noticed a common theme here, it’s that we keep mentioning Thousand Trails.
While we were at the Mt. Hood Village resort, we were approached by a representative of TT and given membership plan paperwork. One of the plans they offer is to buy into a one year membership that allows you to stay at any Thousand Trails in a certain area, the Pacific Northwest for example, for two weeks at a time, with a one week break in between, as much as you want all year, for ~700 bucks. They would also put our stay over Labor Day toward the cost… making it reasonable for us to check them out. We basically would only have to stay at one other TT resort for two weeks for this deal to break even, so… we bought in and started using their resorts to make the most of our membership.
What we’ve learned is that with our trailer size, and how TT functions, it’s probably not something we’ll renew once our year is up. I don’t feel like taking any more time talking about this in the blog, but if you have questions, I can answer you in the comments.
What brought us to stop in Fall City this trip was interest in a product called a Cradlepoint router. We were turned onto this idea from a friend in Newport. Supposedly, these routers are used in remote areas, and they also install them in Redbox machines. We are always looking for better connectivity because of Nate’s work, so, it sounded great.
The product we were interested is a Cradlepoint AER 3100.
https://cradlepoint.com/products/aer-3100
Basically, it’s a router that has the ability to accept up to 4 different sim cards from different cell phone providers, and create a wifi hotspot with them. It can also connect to external wifi hotspots, and is able to choose the best connectivity between all of it. It’s fully configurable.
We met a couple at the resort who were retailers for this product, and had some experience with them in RV’s. It was a great way to learn more about it, and see it in action. We ended up purchasing the router, and configuring it for our use. It’s been great to have.
After our stay in Fall City, we landed again at my folk’s place, in Seatac. We have been able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas here, something we haven’t been able to do with my family for almost 20 years.
And it snowed on us, for Christmas. In Seattle!
