From Cottonwood to Quartzsite

We travelled today from Cottonwood to Quartzsite.

Along the way, we stopped at the T-Mobile store at Carefree and I-17 in Phoenix to "add data option" to our arsenal.

We attended a training session earlier this week with the Mobile Internet Aficionados (MIA - https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/) which is a group we belong to that keeps an eye on what is going on in the internet industry that may impact us as RVers. Specifically, the call this week was on the current activities by Verizon to take away service from customers with very high data usage, and a data plan available from T-Mobile that would soon be no longer available. Because of that call, we decided to add a T-Mobile data service to our current Verizon service so we would have another option for data onboard the bus.

I went into the store with a very specific list of what I wanted - the sales folks were quite impressed that I had done all the research for them!

We got a HotSpot with a T-Mobile SIM installed.

T-Mobile doesn't have the best network coverage, but they do have service in some places where Verizon is weak, and they have really nice "un-contracts" - where they say that you can stay on your plan as long as you like your plan, they will never make you move (that's their contract with you) and they don't require you to sign up for a multi-year contract with them. They also allow some specific video streaming (like of YouTube videos, Netflix, Amazon movies, etc) via their "Binge On" service that does not go against your data allotment. We decided it was worth making an investment and trying it out.

Then we headed on to Quartzsite!

A panoramic shot of the group here so far for the Christian Fellowship BOF.

The first of what will probably be many sunset pictures!

The eastern sky at sunset.

Quartzsite is a small town on I-10 just before getting into California. There is an RV "Big Tent" show in January that draws about 500,000 RVs to this area of the desert. It is a crazy but neat time to visit!