MikroTik Roadshow

Yes, I Drank the Kool-aid

2011-08-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of arguing with my Windows 2003 server and the interoperability issues it now has with Mac OSX Lion, I bit the bullet or more appropriately drank Steve Job's kool-aid and spend the evening configuring my new Mac Mini server in my hotel room. Four hours from home and teaching a MikroTik class in Dallas, I was bored and angry that my Time Machine backups weren't working any more because Windows 2003 server's Appletalk protocol has not been updated. Blame it on Lion or blame it on me for still using Winblows as my server, whatever, it was time.

Off to the store I went and am now the owner of a Mac Mini (our new file server, contact server, calendar server, etc.) and a Time Capsule for our home backups. This is Mac heaven.

Since I didn't have a monitor, I jacked the hotel television (thank goodness for HDMI inputs)
hooked up the new mac mini and started downloading Lion server while my Time Capsule backed up my 15" Mac Pro and served up the wireless. This is Apple bliss!

Thank goodness I am able to watch a movie on my I Pad while I watch Lion install on my Mac Mini and type my blog on my MacBook Pro. Heaven I tell you!

Returning Home

2011-07-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

Sad day returning home, coming from a place where every direction is beauty and the hot days are 80 degrees to 105 degrees and blick. Sorry Texas, love you but I am a mountain boy at heart. Time to get back to reality, work, duties, etc. but I forget these guys soon.

Eureka, It Happened!

2011-07-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

With much anticipation, concern something would fall through and much anticipation, we closed today on the sale o my WISP. I am now a former WISP owner and glad to join those ranks. Truthfully, I will miss it as I created it, but with my 6 year attention span, it was time to move on.

The photo on the left is my mobile office in the motorhome, and all the closing paperwork spread here to there. It was a memorable experience doing this remotely away from the home and office.

We will hang here in Estes for a few days and then head back to hot old Texas. See you soon!

PS: Here I am celebrating with a cool one! Yes, strange facial expression and all.

Off to Estes Park Colorado

2011-06-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

After a night in Kansas, it was time to move to greener pastures, but only after another thousand miles (gross exaggeration) of brown pastures, and into the foothills of Colorado. Wow, I can smell the mountain air already. Colorado is one of my favorite states, full of full and beauty.

In Colorado I have some business, basically the sale of my ISP, Wickson Wireless to JAB Broadband out of Denver. This was an unexpected blessing; mind you I had no reason to sell the WISP, it was profitable, manageable and a lot of work but the offer was right, the time was right and since i basically have a six year attention span for almost everything I do, it was overdue.

We arrived in Estes Park, Colorado where we will take aa few days R&R before I close the transaction on July 1. Don't expect any posts until after then, I will be enjoying God's beautiful earth, Colorado style!

Kansas - What's with this wind?

2011-06-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Kansas was as i I remembered it, flat. My Dad used to have a saying: "In Kansas you can drive for miles and miles and see nothing but miles and miles" and that was definitely true today. I will say that Kansas has good roads, my spine thanks you!
Spending the night in Kansas was a new experience. About 12 pm, the wind began picking up and within minutes it was gale force. I am not exaggerating. It blew so hard it rocked the motorhome like an earthquake. We got little sleep with the noise of the wind, whistling through the park like a hurricane. I won't be moving to Kansas any time soon.

Seven New MTCNA's

2011-06-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

Three days of MikroTik Training went quickly in Oklahoma City or Oak City as the locals call it. I was surprised by how "spread out" Oak City really is. With a population just over a half million in the city itself, the metro area boasts another half million, making the total population over 1.2 million! This is really surprising when you see the city, as the downtown area is not typical for a city this size. It still looks like the old west town it once was with a few tall building sprinkled in. It really reminds me of Fort Worth, Texas.
Class went well. Everyone was very attentive and ready to learn and Thursday evening, seven new MTCNA's finished their certification exams with an overall class score of 75%, not too bad considering the difficulty of this test lately.
Tomorrow, we launch for Oakley, Kansas. There were will make a brief overnight stop and then push on to Estes Park, Colorado. There, we will take a few days break before going over to Denver for a consulting job and a meeting with a potential client.
Hope your week went well, more soon!

Oklahoma or Bust

2011-06-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Whatever that means... Anyway, we are here. Tomorrow is the first day of my OKC MTCNA Class and I am excited to do my first class here. We had three signups just today, the day before class starts, all from OKC based WISP's, so I am excited about getting to know some new MikroTik users.

Today we saw rain, actually for the first time in a long time. Texas has been so dry for so long, I really don't remember what it is like. I'm not kidding. Although it was only for a brief second, it was still a welcome sight.

I like to dig for obscure features, tricks and tips about RouterOS and include them here, so here's one for you. When you are in the console in RouterOS, you may notice that menu commands are colored to help you keep track of their function. If this annoys you (not me I can care less), you can actually turn the colors off. To turn colors off, add "+c" after the user name when you start Winbox. For that session, colors will be off in the terminal. Note that the actual user in this example is "admin", the +c is not used for authentication, only to turn this feature off.

Class starts tomorrow, see you then!

Summer 2011 Road Show Rolls

2011-06-19T08:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we launched from College Station, Texas on a 2500 mile trip around the south central US. The first stop is Oklahoma City, Oklahome, home of oil wells and tornadoes. Unfortunately, it is also home of more hot weather, hot that compares favorable with Texas heat. I really don't see a break until we cross into Colorado and start our climb up the Rockies. I saw today in Estes Park it was a high of 70. I am very ready for some of that.

Today is Father's Day so I am keeping this post short so I can spend some time with the four people that care most about me, my kids and their mom. I hope you fathers have a great day and spend some time today being Dad. For those of you that still have your Dad's, make sure he knows how special he is to you, and don't waste a minute doing so.

Happy Father's Day!

The Road Show Rolls to Oklahoma

2011-06-09T20:46:00.001-07:00

The Road Show rolls again, this time to Oklahoma City. The big bus departs on Saturday June 18. Watch for updates!

http://tinyurl.com/43w67fr

Regex

2011-06-09T20:45:00.001-07:00

Found a great list of regular expressions.

http://mustnofee.com/download/l7.rsc

Day 7 - Consulting at W3Logic

2011-03-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

I agreed to spend the day working with the guys at 3WLogic today and it was a treat. Most WISP's I have visited especially in rural areas, work on a tight budget and don't have the opportunity to develop their networks much beyond what is absolutely necessary to operate and certainly don't design and develop their own solutions, at least not to this level. Butch and Ike have been in business more than six years and when they didn't like the performance and features of Motorola's famed CMM device that controls the Canopy cluster, they simply built their own. Yes, you heard me right, they built their own Canopy controller complete with redundant GPS, redundant power supplies, and loads of monitoring capabilities.

Their NOC is also as nice as I have

seen and lives nestled in the basement of their office. It was a pleasure working with them today and learning about their capabilities. I showed them a few MikroTik tricks and they showed me a few of their Canopy tricks as well. Overall a very productive day!

Tomorrow, we head home through Gatlinburg and pigeon Forge, Tennessee and plan to take a day off there before returning to College Station.

RouterOS Tip of the day...

Stopping commands run by others:

Imagine a situation where another Administrator user has connected to your router, and has started some monitoring action, bandwidth test, scan or any other feature that runs indefinitely, and then gone home.

You can terminate other running commands from your console within the “/system script job” menu.

Day 6 - Class Day 3

2011-03-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

Whenever I get to the last of anything, the last round in the yard with the lawn mower, the last shovel of dirt off a trailer, the last bag of mulch, I tend to say "that was the one I was looking for!". Maybe it is a Texas thing, but it is always fun to get to the end of anything, but I am still not sure why so many yard work analogies. Classes are the same way, test time is a moment for me to catch my breath, check the email that has piled up or to just veg out fir a bit and today was no different. After three days of plowing through the MTCNA materials a breakneck speed, we were ready for the certification test.

I have enjoyed my time here at MPL, the students were eager learners and caught on quickly but it was time to finish and move on. Everyone passed the certification exam and actually pushed my all time test averages up a bit for my students reflecting that either my materials are evolving or this was an above average group.

On the way home I had to make a Walmart run. One thing is for sure, a Walmart is a Walmart, doesn't really matter where you are. Tomorrow it is off to the other side of Buckhannon to 3WLogic, the local high speed WISP.

The MPL Office, a 100+ year old farm house, very cool!

Day 5 - Class Day 2

2011-03-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

By my second day in West Virginia, I had already fallen into the groove. The morning drive from Stonewall to Buckhannon takes about a half hour, and when the weather is nice it is a great drive. I have learned that West Virginia weather rivals Texas weather for uniqueness. In Texas, we say that if you don't like the weather, wait an hour and I think West Virginia is the same way. So far it has been cold (it snowed heavily last week), rained, been sunny and warm and that was just this morning!

Today in class we started routing, my favorite module in the series, dynamic routing firewalls and began looking at QOS. Everyone in class is a quick study so we are moving rapidly through the materials. Tomorrow we should finish in time to take the certification exam and then Friday it's over to the other side of town for a meeting with MicroLogic.

RouterOS Tip: If you only visit the command line on occasion, possibly you don't know how to edit properties of different facilities that contain more than a word or two. For example, a script can be very long and without Winbox, it might be very difficult to create or edit a script without a command called edit. Edit will prompt you for the value you want to change and then open a very basic word processor type window in which you can work on the test of the particular command. Give edit a try!

Example:

[admin@MTRoadShowRouter] /interface wireless> edit 1
value-name: ssid

Day 4 - Class Day 1

2011-03-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of class for my Buckhannon, WV class. Since this is a private class, we conducted it in the clients office, an old farm home build just prior to the turn of the century.

The customer, MPL Corporation was formed in 1985 with a mission to provide information processing and programming support to small and medium-sized public and private organizations—entities large enough to require computer support, but not large enough to require full-time internal support staff or easily absorb the cost of "buying a computer of their own". The original partners in MPL bought out the assets of an existing business, which included a mini-computer and a roster of public and private clients, and proceeded to add to the customer base.

Obviously all of their clients today have their own computers, but their service model seems to work and they clearly have a loyal customer following. One interesting note, they still operate a VAX for on customer. For you "youngins" a VAX is a 1970's era computer build by Digital Equipment Corporation. It likely has far less computing power than the MacBook I am typing this on.

Today we covered all the basics including addressing, an intro to queues and firewalls and we will dive into PCQ queues tomorrow.

West Virginia is a beautiful state, but currently they are in their rainy season so it is a little bit messy. I suspect in another month it will be beautiful here.

RouterOS Tip - Ever needed to communicate with someone at a remote location without cell service? Obviously a chat client like GoogleChat is an option but there's a geekier way, the admin chat function inside RouterOS. Both admins log into the same router and both open a terminal window. Then to chat, type a # sign on the command line followed by whatever you want to say. That will then be echoed on the other admin's terminal.

Window 1
# Hi, how are you?

Window 2
# Good, thanks for asking...

Window 1
# See ya later...

Window 2
# Bye!

Day 3 - Arriving in Buckhannon, WV

2011-03-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Day three seemed to have time issues. First, I always trust my iPhone. Having traveled through many times zones and internationally, my iPhone ALWAYS know the local time. Except in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Today, I had the alarm set for 5:00 am and went off as planned, but for the fact it was 5:00 am in Texas, not Bowling Green. In Bowling Green is was 6:00 am so now I was already an hour behind. We scrambled to get out on the road and were rolling by 7:00 am. My normal driving day is 400 miles and today we had to do 450+ and now I was starting late. Darn.

The day was gloomy and rainy all the way through Kentucky and finally cleared as we entered West Virginia.

Lexington, was the icon I had in my minds eye when I think of Kentucky. Rolling green hills with white board fences and race horses, it was like a picture.

I need to cut this one short as tomorrow I start my training and need some sleep after a long day's drive.

MikroTIk Tip: Setting up SOCKS server

SOCKS (short for "SOCKetS") server is a proxy server for any TCP connections, not just HTTP. As SOCKS server can be set up on any port, it can be used to relay TCP traffic across a restricted network, which only allows certain TCP ports. This might be even a security policy regulation in your network for clients to use the proxy server (which can be set up with some kind of restriction table, additional access to otherwise inaccessible services as well as user activity logging facility) for some or all connections.

In RouterOS, the configuration of a SOCKS
server is really easy - just set the port, and select “enabled”.

RouterOS supports SOCKS version 4 Internet protocol with access control tables. The protocol can only be used for relaying TCP-based network traffic, e.g. HTTP, FTP, Telnet and others. It is not designed for caching data

To use the SOCKS server, either manually configure your web browser to use the SOCKS server as a proxy or create a firewall NAT rule to direct traffic to the SOCKS server.

Day 2 - Hot Springs to Bowling Green

2011-03-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

We awoke at 5:00 am, luckily the wildfires stayed under control so we didn't have to fight our way out through the flames. Getting a few hundred miles behind you while the sun rises is a great way to start the day. With the kids sleeping we passed through Memphis and after a few hours of driving I was ready for a break.

We stopped off in Nashville for ice cream and to cruise music row, no superstars out today. I guess Miley was at church...there was a tattoo parlor open, maybe she was in there.

Arriving in Bowling Green, Ky, I was surprised to look back over the day and realize there had been no strange sightings, no freaks, nothing really fun to write about. I guess it's the off season.

Sitting in front of a fire now, a pot of chili on the stove, kids at the playground, Carolyn playing with Drew, the dog and I are enjoying the evening while I type out a quick blog entry. Tomorrow, up at 0500 one more time and complete our journey to Buckhannon, Va for training.

Here's a RouterOS tip for you. If you are a seasoned veteran, no doubt you know about safe mode in winbox. However, if that's a new term for you then let me tell you about a feature that will save you life, or at least your evening at home. By opening a terminal window in winbox and typing ctrl-x, you will enter safe mode. If you make a configuration mistake and lock yourself out, or just want to undo everything you just did, simply crash out of winbox by clicking the X in the upper right corner window. Everything done in safe mode will be undone. If you want to save the changes, simply hit ctrl-x one more time and everything is saved.

Littlerock

2011-03-13T05:10:00.001-07:00

402 miles to Bowling Green.

First night - Cloud Nine in Hot Springs

2011-03-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

> 400 miles behind me and getting some rest for the evening. Tomorrow - Bowling Green, Ky.
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Fires in east Texas

2011-03-12T06:20:00.000-08:00

Smoke for five miles, super low visibility. They need rain here, near Ratcliff...

Road Show Ready to Roll

2011-03-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

Packing...T minus twelve hours...

MikroTik Road Show Rolls Again!

2011-03-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Springbreak 2011, the MikroTik Roadshow rolls again, this time departing College Station, Texas for Buckhannon, Virginia. This won't be your typical Spring Break party, as the only wet tee shirts will be on the poor guys sweating the certification exam!

For 10 days, we will be blogging from the road, with the interesting sights we see as we travel through the central US northeast to the beautiful state of West Virginia and then return. Just like our first Road Show, we will have:

The Road Cam - what we see while we see it through the windshield
Daily Blog - Interesting thoughts, places and people we meet
Tips - Tips and tricks on using MikroTik RouterOS
Sights from the road - There's always something interesting out there like the "bush man" in San Francisco or the "menu from hell" in Coachella, California. Tongue or guts anyone?

The trip begins March 12th and runs through March 20th when we return to College Station, Texas. Join us at http://www.mtroadshow.com. See you on the road!

Day 95 - Arriving Home

2010-08-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Ninety five days after leaving on a journey around the western United States and Canada, the MikroTik Road Show returned to College Station, Texas at 3:30 pm, 95 days after we left Thursday August 5th. This has been a once in a lifetime experience, seeing our country from the road, following the historic Route 66, visiting national landmarks, teaching classes, conducting numerous private trainings, consulting, telling everyone I met about MikroTik and RouterOS and experiencing many strange, wonderful and exciting places. There is so much to look back on, too many things to list here but all deserving of recognition. In order to pay this trip the recognition it deserves, I have decided to wrap the trip up at the Phoenix MikroTik User's Meeting. Come to the MUM and hear the highlights or wait and I will publish the video from the MUM here.

Thanks for following my Road Show and I hope to see you at the MUM.

Day 96 - Last night on the road :-(

2010-08-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe but tonight is our last night of the road show. I hate to admit it but I say that with a bit of a lump in my throat. After all, leaving our home for a whole summer, driving 10,000 miles together in a motor home, two countries, visiting the entire Western USA, over 90 nights on the road, so many new customers and new friends, it all was so surreal. Over the next few days I will summarize the journey and present it here. Until then, we have 443 miles to home. Tomorrow we awake at 5:00 am and hope to be home by 2:00 pm. Thanks for following us on our journey, and stay tuned for the wrap up!

Day 95, Albuquerque, New Mexico, downhill from here

2010-08-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Literally, downhill. From 7500 feet of altitude in Durango to barely 5000 feet in Albuquerque we descended 400 miles and two thousand feet. Home is 350 feet above sea level so we still have a lot more down hill to go. Already the temperatures are warmer and the vegitation more desert like. The Road Show is almost over and we are all about getting home now. With nearly 10,000 miles behind us, we are focused on getting home and what will happen when we get there.

Day 91 - 94, Building a Better RV WiFi

2010-08-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Settled into Durango, Colorado I began by reworking the park's Wifi. The Linksys with the "booster" antenna wasn't getting the job done so with MikroTiks and decent antennas in hand I went to work. By days end, we were getting great performance in all areas and it was off for some R&R. We boarded a bus in Durango to travel to Silverton so we could return by steam engine. The trip is pricey and very scenic. Did I mention pricey? At any rate, it was definitely a bucket list item and so I enjoyed every cinder and smoke filled minute. All four days it rained, a lot. This is their monsoon season and a great lead into their snowy winters. With no more work to do in Colorado and no more trains to ride, we departed for Texas via Albuquerque, Fort Stockton and then home.

Day 90 - On to Durango, Co

2010-07-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

With no more trainings scheduled, it is time to begin working our way home. It has been a real adventure, from Texas to California to Canada to Colorado and all points in between, we have met tons of great people with whom we will likely have lifelong relationships and others that well, I'll leave that alone. All in all we saw a good part of an awesome country of ours and enjoyed meeting people and teaching and telling them about RouterOS.

Today we traveled to Durango, Colorado for a few days before we head south. We stayed in a nice little park near Durango andI was happy to have my Verizon Air Card. Monday we are scheduled to ride the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge railroad, then Tuesday we launch for home.

I am preparing for my MTCRE training in Houston as well as beefing up my MTCNA slides for the MUM training in Phoenix. Stay tuned, the trip home should be a blast!

Day 89 - MTCNA Certification Class Denver, Day 3

2010-07-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Done! Today was the final day of MTCNA training in Denver and we concluded with tunnels, web proxy and the Dude. Here are eight new qualified MTCNA's!

Next month's training is the MTCRE Training in Houston, Texas. Hope to see you there!

Day 88 - MTCNA Certification Class Denver, Day 2

2010-07-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Day 2, it was time to dig deeper into RouterOS.

We covered:

Simple Queues
Traffic Priority
Graphs
Standard Wireless AP
Standard Wireless Station (client)
Transparent Bridge (PTP or PTMP)
Wireless Security
Static Routing
OSPF
Static ARP
DHCP-Server
Hotspot

Tomorrow students will take the certification exam, good luck!

Day 87 - MTCNA Certification Class Denver, Day 1

2010-07-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

Eight students, ready to be infused with the knowledge of this awesome routing system! MikroTik training today began with the usual introductions, where are you from, what do you do and so on. As usual, we have a wide variety of experience and students from as far west as California and as far East as Virginia. Today we covered basic TCPIP fundamentals, subnetting, using the subnet calculator to work subnetting problems, basic client router configuration, firewall rules and more. Tomorrow we get into routing, my favorite.

Day 86 - Enroute to Denver

2010-07-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

The trip from Estes Park to Denver was short but beautiful. Dropping down from 7500 feet to the mile high city, I was amazed at how flat it is east of the Rockies where Denver lies. Arriving in Denver, I headed for the necessaries, hair cut, buy snacks for this weeks class, have manuals printed and go check out the hotel. Class begins tomorrow at 0800 so short post today.

Day 82-85 Estes Park, Colorado - I could so live here!

2010-07-24T07:06:00.001-07:00

Dropping 400 or so miles down from Hill City, Wyoming through some grass plains, and high desert we finally entered into a canyon and rode beside the Big Thompson River at the bottom of canyon walls that seemed to go straight up a few hundred feet, winding our way through like we were at the bottom of a giant crack in the earth. This is beautiful country here in Colorado just east of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Entering into Estes Park, it is more than a tourist town and the gateway to RMNP. I had a bit of trouble putting my finger on what makes this place different, but it is almost like a tourist town that hasn't quite yet become spoiled, i.e., it has been able to hang onto its roots and managed to serve the traveler without giving up it's hometown feel. Hard to describe but great to experience. One experience we have had of late has been issues with the availability of places to stay. When we started this journey in May, we would simply drive as far as we could, pull into a park and stay the night, no problem. With the increase in summer travelers, that has now become a thing of he past and we must spend considerable time working reservations along the way. Sometimes we have to move within the park we are staying in due to prior commitments. That part isn't much fun any more. When we arrived at the RV park we picked in Estes, they had botched our reservations and put us in a psace that was too small for our motorhome and only had 30 amp power. After 30 minutes of haggling, they moved some reservations and finally got us in our spot. Whew! We ventured into RMNP and were wowed once again by the beauty of nature. Throughout our stay we hiked from 7500 feet up to 8000 to view beautiful hidden lakes with trout that moved in the water beneath your feet, and saw views straight from photography books. I had a chance to fish both streams and lakes and the trout are aggressive and great fun to catch. Again, a beautiful place to visit and one I could actually live in. Tomorrow it is on to Denver to have manuals printed, make final preparation for next week's class, pick up our care packages from home we had shipped to the training hotel (our mail, things for my class ,etc) .

Day 78 - 82, Mount Rushmore, Shrine to Democracy

2010-07-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

With a little more than a week before my MikroTik Training in Denver, we side stepped over to Mount Rushmore for some time off and an opportunity to check off another item on my proverbial bucket list. Billed as the Shrine to Democracy, Mount Rushmore or at least the creation of it is certainly a shrine to dedication. Although I was a bit disappointed at its physical size (in my school books it looked much larger), when you imagine the amount of rock that had to be removed and the precision and art required to do it, well, that is certainly impressive. Along with Mount Rushmore, it was mostly relaxing time, answering a few MikroTik support calls, taking an afternoon to go throw some flies at the Wyoming trout (none of which cooperated I might add) and taking some time to plan the remaining weeks of the Roadshow. Next we will spend a few days killing time in Estes Park before dipping down to Denver for the next class.

Day 75-77 Consulting in the Grand Tetons

2010-07-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Could be worse, huh? Working on a WiFi project at the base of the glacier capped Grand Teton Mountains. Again, wow is all I can think of to describe this National Park that lies at the south end of Yellowstone. If you have a Big Rig and want to stay near the park, the Grand Teton RV Resort is just about the only game in town for many, many Wyoming miles. This resort has been here a while and has undergone many years of evolution but has now made the decision to modernize and increase their capabilities and capacity. Upgrading the WiFi was a part of that process and Jim Anderson, a consultant hired to lead the modernization, and a long time customer of mine called me in to assist. We chose the new Ubiquity M2 Rocket sector antennas and radios for the RF and MikroTik of course for the routing. The RouterBoard 493 provided a robust and full featured platform. We built a simple splash page which we decided we could enhance later and used HotSpot and User Manager to control access and enable the owners to use a web GUI to change the HotSpot password. In addition, with only a T1 of bandwidth for 200+ sites, we utilized careful per user rate queues to ensure everyone was able to check their email. In the next few days we will add some other limitations to prevent streaming movies, like limiting transfer bytes over time. Might tick some folks off but it will be good for everyone as a whole. We departed Moran early this morning ) Friday July 16 and headed through Cody, Wy into Buffalo, Wy en route to Mount Rushmore, another entry on my bucket list. CHECK!

Day 71-74 - Yellowstone National Park

2010-07-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Large and awesome is the only way to describe Yellowstone. We had a few days to burn before my next consulting appointment so we headed down to West Yellowstone, Montana for a little R&R and FF. What's FF you ask? Fly fishing, of course. Top of my bucket list was to catch a trout, on a fly, on a river in Montana. CHECK! It was much more awesome than that so let me explain.

Father's Day was spent on the road so access to gifts from the family was basically souvenir tee shirts or rubber dog poop from the tourist trap (oh yes, my daughter bought some) SO, my lovely wife decided I would get to check another item on my bucket list and fish the Madison River. If you aren't familiar with the Madison, it is miles and miles of trout infested river flowing through Yellowstone. It is barely 4 feet deep at the deepest part and is filled with ripples from end to end. Combine that river with a seasoned guide from Waco, Texas (yes us Texans are everywhere) and you have the perfect float trip for this Texas boy. Only I would understand when he said to cast on the riiiihhht side of the boat he was referring to what non Texans call the right side. Nuff said, we two Texas boys understood one another. Travis Phillips put me on some great trout holes, I just had trouble catching them! If mother nature had cooperated, and the wind not blown at gale force all day, we would have landed many more. As I told Travis "it ain't about the catchin, it's about the fishin". He understood. I have to give him a gold medal, with the 30 mph winds at our back, he spent the entire time paddling to slow the boat so I could have the best possible chance to land a big one. I landed some Rainbows and one really nice Brownie and I was fine with that. Travis, thank you for hooking me on fly fishing again, it has been too long.

Travis guides for Bud Lilly's Trout Shop in West West Yellowstone. If you haven't heard of Bud, he is world famous in the trout fishing circles and this shop is true to his reputation, top notch. Bud Lilly, pioneer sportsman and director of Montana River Action, is renowned as a river, stream and trout conservationist and widely known as trout’s best friend. Bud started the “catch and release” philosophy in the Northern Rockies in order to preserve one of the region’s most precious resources. Catch and release started over 30 years ago and thus began quiet revolution that changed fishing to a sport and spawned an industry. He has since become a passionate and persuasive spokesman for the wise use of cold water resources.

The remainder of our time in Yellowstone was spent searching for wildlife and taking in the awesome scenery. Yellowstone is unparalleled in the world for it's geysers and landscapes. In fact, it has more geysers than the entire remainder of the world. Time to leave and get back to work!

PS: Nothing in Yellowstone compares to that day on the Madison for me, yet!

Day 69, 70 - BEARS!

2010-07-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

From Banff we headed south ac cross the US border and back into the good ole USA. Good to be back in cell range where calls don't cost extra, and I have three cellular options in my bag for internet access. It is also good to buy gas by the gallon, not have to do math with speed limts and soon I hope it will get dark at night. I have seen it so bright in Canada at 10:00 pm that you can walk outside like daytime. It is very strange to get used to. Crossing into Montana, the scenery changed from rugged mountains to rolling meadows with mountains in the distance. we had a reservation near Glacier National Park and they promised good WiFi and it was, no stinking satellite stuff hanging off a linksys.

Got a call from Dave Kendrick on the BJ Hughes Blue Dolphin working the oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico and spent several hours troubleshooting a wireless problem with him. we narrowed it down to multipath interference, moved some antennas and were good to go.

Also, the latest MikroTik newsletter came out and guess who was in there? Yep, same project from the oil spill featured in the newsletter.

Today I announced two new trainings. First is the MTCRE training in Houston in August, check it out here. Second is MTCNA training at the US MUM in September whee I will train alongside the guys from MikroTik, should be fun.

Now, to the bears. In a small town near Whitefish, Montana is a place called the great bear adventure. Their slogan is "Your car is your cage" and it is true. They allow you to drive into a bear pen where the bears roam free all around you. It was exhilarating to say the least and a great intro to the wild bear we saw later that evening. Wow, lots of cool bears!

Here's some highlights from the day. Tomorrow it is off to Yellowstone National Park, 400 miles away so I better hit the hay.

Wild grizzly next to the road.

Wild dog riding a motorcycle. :-)

Black bears in the rive through bear zoo.

Another black bear.

Day 67-68, Banf, Lake Louise, WOW

2010-07-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Wow is the only word I can use to describe the most beautiful place on earth. In a canoe, on a glacier lake in the center of 10,000 foot mountains is indescribable. Lake Louise is one of those places I will remember forever. Banff, 30 minutes away is a really quaint little alpine town with a cute downtown and such. It is also the home of $6.00 milk, $4.00 gasoline, and so on. Pricey, but I guess you pay for the view there.

There are few RV parks in Banff so we were relegated to a national park. Ok, I like national parks too but they mean no internet and in this case cell service was also sketchy. I nearly went into withdrawal...

In Banff and Lake Louise we walked within a stone's throw of a monstrous glacier, saw big horn sheep, saw the world's most beautiful lake, paid the most I have ever paid or groceries, and most importantly saw our first bear! Yes, it's true, a momma grizzly and her cub grazing in a meadow and we were less than fifty feet away. there was no cage either, these were wild bears. Did I mention we were on a ski lift. Ok, it was obviously safe but seeing them that close took my breath away.

Day 65,66 - Revelstoke, Looking for Bears

2010-07-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Revelstoke, B.C. is one of those small towns that is bursting at the seams to be a big town. That being said, the population of 750 will likely not double any time soon, however when it does the citizens of Revelstoke are ready! The town has invested heavily in publicizing their bear population with an extravagant bear themed entry to the city and a great little information center.

There were not an abundance of places to stay in Revelstoke so we were relegated to a small RV park. Don't get me wrong, small parks are awesome, but they typically (ok, always) mean no or poor internet access and this one was no different, hence the lack of recent blog posts. When you scan for available wireless networks and the park SSID is "linksys", chances are good ou are entering a technology dry spell.

PS: No bears sighted...

Day 64 - On to Revelstoke, BC and announcement of class

2010-07-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today we launched early for Revelstoke, BC. Early driving with kids equals three to four hours of silence. Silence with 5 people in a motorhome is almost nonexistent so it was well deserved and enjoyed. The scenery was incredible. The Roadshow cam was offline due to the cost of cellular internet but I did take a lot of photos with my iPhone and will post them to the cam page hopefully tonight.

I have been asked by MikroTik to conduct an MTCNE class the week prior to theUS MUM which has been announced as September 30 through October 1 in Phoenix, Ax. My MTCNE class will be at the MUM hotel venue Monday through Wednesday and then the MUM will be held Thursday and Friday. My class will be conducted in parallel with MTCINE class which will be taught in the same hotel the same days. Check back here for more details about the MTCNE class.

The last week in August I will be teaching a MTCRE class in Houston, Texas. I am still working on details and will announced shortly. This class will be a prerequisite for the MTCINE class to be held at the mUM so keep that in mind.

Day 62-63 Rosedale rain forest

2010-07-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Rosedale, BC ,approximately 120 miles east of Vancouver is not much more than a gas station, an RV park and a really beautiful water fall. Oh, and a rain forest. True to form, it rained both days and the sun refused to show its face. There were nasty slugs the size of bananas everywhere and that kind of creeped me out. Since it was July 1, Canada Day, the park was full of Canadians celebrating their annual holiday which basically equates to our fourth of July. Everyone had a Canadian flag, a cold Molsons and some type of protein on the barbie. Cloudy and in the fifties, these folks were not to be denied their swimming time. I saw lots of blue lips and shivering kids but they swam anyway. Ok. I spent the day catching up on paperwork, and paying bills so if I owe you money, you can expect a check in the mail soon!

Day 61- Marooned on Pender Island

2010-07-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, marooned is a bit dramatic, but the reality is we made a little bitty mistake and jumped on a ferry to one of the Gulf Islands, and it just so happened to be nearly uninhabited. Here is how it started, we wanted to do a bit of island hopping via ferry so we parked the car and walked onto a ferry headed to Pender Island thinking we would stroll through quaint shops, have some coffee and catch another ferry to another Gulf island and spend the day doing just that. I should have realize something was amiss when there was only one other walk on passenger so I sat next to him and asked about Pender. When I told him I had no car, he got that look, you know, the same look you give a kid that didn't get any candy when the pinata burst. A pity look. He proceeded to explain to me there were no shops, no coffee houses and definitely no cabs on Pender Island. To exacerbate matters, I woke the kids late so we had to hurry out of the motorhome and they were all hungry. On a ferry, no food and headed to a deserted island with three hungry kids and a wife giving me "the look".I did find out that the ferry would land and immediately return to Swartz Bay where we boarded so at least we weren't marooned. Th bad news was the stop would be brief and there was a small vendor with food at the dock so if I hurried I could score some food and make the trip back. I did, the kids ate and we survived.

Back in Swartz Bay, we boarded the correct ferry (with our car this time) and went through Active Pass (Where all the Orca's hang hang, unless I'm there and then they hide) and sailed over to Galianos Island. Wow, what a beautiful place. We went to a beach they call the Bluffs overlooking active pass to watch for Orcas. Again, they were hiding. We did have a great time exploring the tide pools there, what a great place. Laid back, solitude, weather with sunshine in the sixties, just awesome. Here's a few photos.

Trail down to the beach.

Active Pass (hiding Orcas).

Beach belowBluffs.

Starfish wait in a tide pool for the tide to return.

Day 59 - 60 Vancouver Island, BC

2010-07-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

After much planning, reservations and preparation we made the voyage to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. What an experience, loading a 40 foot motorhome onto a ferry and sailing to an island in another country. The ferry runs from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, BC. The ship is called the MV Coho and is operated by Blackball Ferries. Everything was very professional and well run. The ship was built in 1959 but was very well maintained. The crew was super professional and the only real hitch was when we departed the ferry. We had unhitched the Jeep to save money on the ferry ride and Carolyn was separated from the motorhome when we went through customs. At customs I realized I had three children with me and no mom and no letter from mom that it was ok for me to take the kids across. Fortunately, the customs officer used common sense, asked the kids a few questions and then let us pass. Whewww. We met up with Carolyn on the other side, reconnected the Jeep and off we went. The remainder of the two days were relatively uneventful. There were no consulting calls or appointments to handle so we chilled with the Canooks. That term I understand can be used in either a positive or negative manner, but be clear I have had an awesome experience with Canadians, they are laid back, kind and very accommodating people. In fact, I have yet to find a rude Canadian, they are all super friendly. I wish I could say the same for L.A.

Loading the Coho Ferry from the rear of the ship. The exit is actually to the starboard side of the bow, really cool setup.

Inside the ferry.

Landing in Victoria, a seaplane taxis by.

Day 58 - Boredom and Weird Stuff

2010-06-28T21:30:00.001-07:00

Ok, so what can I say, it was a slow day in Port Angeles. There were no classes to teach, support calls to handle or consulting to do so basically it was a slow Sunday. That being said there were plenty of clothes to wash and a motorhome to clean inside and out but once that was done, the gloomy weather made for a boring day. However, nothing is really all that boring when you are in Port Angeles (ok, I'm grasping at straws here), so, we went to dinner and on the way saw a couple of sights I thought worth sharing through photos.

This is a group camping out on the sidewalk waiting for tickets to the next movie in the Twighlight series.. Apparently in the town where that book and movie is about all they have going for them being the first to see this movie in the town is a big deal.

Ok this one speaks for itself.

And this was just plain funny but I am not sure why it is so funny, but you laughed too right?

Day 55-57 Vampires and Warewolves

2010-06-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

We are still in Port Angeles, checking out the diversity of Washington State. We began one day hiking through a rain forest where trees start as saplings growing on the sides of fallen logs and grow into monsters with 18 foot diameter trunks. Everything is big in the rain forest, the trees, the ants, and especially the mosquitos. Later in the afternoon, we hiked through another rain forest and a mile later found ourselves on Third BEach, near Forks, Wa. What a change of scenery, rain forest then sand and waves, quite a diverse area.

If you haven't heard of Forks, then you probably aren't a fan of the Twighlight series. I too have not read the books but from what I am told, this vampire/ware wolf based series is centered around two towns, Forks and Port Angeles where we are staying. We spent one afternoon tagging Gowalla Twightlight sites. If you haven't played Gowalla, try it, but be warned it is addictive.

Our next MikroTik Training is now just 30 days out in Denver, Colorado so if you plan on attending, register soon.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we begin preparing for our ferry trip into Canada. We will be landing at Vancouver Island and visit Victoria, B.C. The ferry boar ride is probably going to be stressful and exciting so stay tuned for some likely blog material from that part of the adventure.

Remember Real Audio? they were one of the first to bring streaming music to the internet. I think there are plenty of competitors now but back in the day they were the bomb. I saw their home office in Seattle the other day and had to grab a photo.

Day 54 - The Cesspool Stench

2010-06-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I began the day working on a consulting project with an RV Park in Montanna over the phone, converting their current hodgepodge system to a MikroTik Hotspot based system. Following, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge for some beautiful vistas, then over to Sol Duc to the hot mineral baths. Big mistake. Imagine this, take ten skunks and immerse them in a hot tub for a few hours and then mix in a few hundred pounds of sulphur. That's about what it smelled like or nearly so. The water was lukewarm, there were too many humans in the tub AND several were way too much inside my "space". Word to the wise, if you are a male and you wear one of those skimpy Speedo swimsuits, please don't walk within 10 feet of me when I am sitting down with my head at that elevation. Nuff said. Nasty. I don't recommend the mineral baths. Tomorrow, I don't have any work booked so we will head down to the Hoh Valley and visit the Rain Forest.

Day 54 Port Angeles, Washington

2010-06-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

Interesting place, beautiful, slow paced, more sunshine than Seattle (even though Seattle is only a hundred or so miles away), five distinct geographic features (I understand its the only state in the US with all five) and more daylight than any place I have ever been. For example, what's wrong with this picture?

Nothing really, except for the fact it was taken at 9:45 pm and the sun is just setting. Wow, lot's of time to get things done here. In addition, I suspect it will get light about 5:00 am tomorrow but we will see.

Here's another one you don't just see every day, old ladies line dancing (oh and a Chihuahua too). Maybe it's not something you want to see again but it was worth a quick iPhone video. This is down on the waterfront at a free country and western concert we attended. Great band, didn't catch their name but not a single two stepper in the place. If I had a daddy beverage, I might have scooted a boot for these yanks!

Day 52 & 53, Seattle, Wa

2010-06-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Seattle, nice place to visit but... Ok, if anyone tells you it always rains in Seattle, they are telling the truth or at least that was my experience. We had some sunshine but the clouds and rain were always hanging close by. The RoadShow visited Seattle to work on a consulting project for a local customer with whom I signed a non disclosure agreement so that's all I can tell you about that.

While here, we did get some down time and visited the Pike Street market. Cool place and most important home of the original Starbucks. MECCA AT LAST! It wasn't much different than any other Starbucks but it was definitely a Kodak moment. Many interesting folks here in Seattle, maybe it's the lack of sunshine or depressing weather but people watching in downtown Seattle was quite an experience. While grabbing a quick Starbucks, I saw a fistfight, two guys get arrested, a man with a voice so high it made the local dogs howl (he was quite the comedian), cross dressers, a vampire and a duck. Actually, the duck was cool, it was a duck vehicle and looked so fun we decided to take a ride. The driver was a hoot, in fact he made the ticket price well worth the investment. I snapped some quick video on my iPhone and spliced together the highlights with iMovie. Check it out!

Day 51 - Father's Day and the Fog

2010-06-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

It started out great, a nice breakfast, church with the family, a nice lunch at a great Indian restaurant and then an afternoon on beautiful Mount Helens. Well, that's the part that didn't happen according to plan as mother nature had her own ideas. Locally, they are calling this month Juneuary as a rebuttal for the sixth straight month of monsoon season in 2010. Apparently, it has been an unusually wet year with little sun and currently there is no end in sight. It started out drippy driving up the mountain and then turned to stark white pea soup. We were somehow optimistic that at some point there wold be a magic opening of the clouds and there it would be in all its volcanic majesty. Bt it didn't. We did make it up to the Johnson Ridge Visitor's center where we viewed a really interesting film on the volcano and at the end of the movie, the big screen magically rolled up and then with musical fanfare the curtains behind the screen rolled up to reveal a huge glass wall which was hidden behind the curtain, the purpose of which was to reveal Mount Saint Helens to the movie audience in all it's beauty. But it didn't. Instead, we had a wonderful view of fog. The good news is it was a great father's day with my family, what more could you ask for. Maybe tomorrow we will get a glimpse as we head north toward Seattle. Here's a great video of the eruption, worth watching.

Day 50, Entering Washngton State

2010-06-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Departing Cascade Locks, Oregon today, we stopped at the Bonneville Dam and power plant en route to the Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier area. The Bonneville Dam is an interesting tour for geeks, with a close up view of the generators inside the power house. at least my seven year old and I found it interesting, the rest of the family looked glazed over. This 70 year old facility, built in the Teddy Roosevelt days produces a million kilowatts of power and is currently being outfitted with new turbines that will be more efficient and kill less fish.
Speaking of fish, since they dammed the river, they had to make provision for the spawning fish to swim upstream so they built a bypass around the dam consisting of stairs that allow the fish to swim up the steps to rise the 60 feet of elevation created by the dam. They call this stairway the fish ladder. Below the ladder is a window where you can see the fish swim by. there is a person there that also counts the fish, number and species. I would rather have a daily root canal. My daughter bought a button there that said "I took the dam tour". I thought it fitting.

We found a RV park with good internet (Qwest is the provider, like 5 hops to my router back in Texas, nice...) and it has a good meg of upload capability so I uploaded all my photos from my MAcBook. Take a look at the trip HERE.

Day 48 & 49 - Off to Oregon

2010-06-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

The Roadshow is currently in Cascades Locks, Oregon. I thought it would be cool to show where the Roadshow has been so far so I used Umapper to plot our course. This takes a moment to load, but once loaded you can use the tools to move it, zoom, etc. If you want to keep up with the Roadshow, throw me a bone and become a follower today! The link to become a follower is on the right side of this page.

Day 46 & 47, SNOWDAYS!

2010-06-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Snow in June? Yes, if you are in Diamond Lake, Oregon. More on that in a minute. Leaving Lakeport, we overnighted in Arcata, Ca and then pressed onward to Diamond Lake, Oregon. First, it was nice to leave California. Now don't get me wrong, Cali is a great state, after all I was born here but the Roadshow has been here a long time and has made the trip from southern California to north back to south and now back north again. That's a lot of miles through the same countryside and I was ready for a change.

The trees here are beautiful which is likely why people live here, after all it isn't for the technology. Not much internet or cell phone access here, just trees. In fact, we drove through one small town and spotted a WISP there with a sign out front that read "DISCOVER THE INTERNET". I wish I had a picture, but that sign says it all. Oregon is still discovering the internet and that makes running a technology based business difficult. Again, the sights make up for that.

Today, we woke up to snow. Yes, snow, little snow flakes falling from the Oregon sky thereby reminding us we aren't in Texas any more. After breakfast we headed up to Crater Lake National Park, the site of a six mile wide lake formed in the crater of a collapsed volcano. The water is ultra pure and absolutely gorgeous. Remember the snow we had in Diamond Lake this morning? Well, there was plenty up at Crater Lake. In fact, thy still had 8-10 feet in many places (their annual is about 48 feet of snow, WOW). Tomorrow we press onward to Washington, so until then, enjoy the sites from Crater Lake.

PS: I love this sign, so informative...

Day 42-44 Rattlesnakes, rockslides, volcanoes and other WISP dangers

2010-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Day 42 took the Roadshow to Kelseyville, California. Kelseyville is a small town nestled at the feet of Mount Konocti. Mount Konocti is a volcano in Lake County, California and at 4,305 feet it is the second tallest peak in the Clear Lake Volcanic Field. Mount Konocti is also the home of AirLink Wireless' main tower, located at the peak of this inactive volcano. Now, to be clear, I must use the term inactive loosely. Why? Well, it is had to call the volcano inactive when lava tubes located at the top of the mountain expel steam but that's another story.

AirLink is owned by a very nice lady named Denise and operated by her and one technician, Kyle.

With a few hundred customers, operating a WISP on the top of a volcano, in an area filled with rattlesnakes, where bandwidth is sold by the carriers for a kings ransom, let's just say their days are challengingng. My mission sounded simple: Help them clan up a few towers that had been expanded organically over time, roved some redundancy at the head end of the network and provide an overall assessment of improvements that could be made to ensue their continued growth and success/ Sounds simple right? Did I mention the rattlesnakes yet? Oh yea, continuing. Working there for three days, I learned many things about operating a WISP in a "hostile" environment like this, after all, my WISP is in central/east Texas where the tallest natural feature is a fifty foot pine tree.

With so many new lessons learned and so many interesting experiences, I have been thinking for several days how to best present here in my blog.

So, I have decided to simply make a list of experiences and here it is.

1. Their main POP (point of presence) is atop Mount Konocti. From atop the mountain you can see as far away as the Sierras near Lake Tahoe and all the way north to Mount Shasta. WOW! That in itself is unbelievable, a 250 mile view.

2. Operating atop a mountain has many challenges, number one being access. To get to the top of the mountain requires a four wheel drive truck (I affectionately call "the goat") and lots of gate unlocking to keep out the locals who all believe there something magical up there on the forbidden mountain (and there is, it's called a magical view). Half way up is a family that lives in a solar powered home with a water tank outside. Once a week they have to go to town for water. That's extreme. Going up the mountain is nearly a half day affair so you have to take everything you can think of up there which requires a trailer. Remember gravity, that thing that tries to keep the truck from going up the mountain? Well, it has about the same pull on that trailer so the ride up is, well, exciting to say the least. Did I mention the road is barely wide enough for the goat, there's no guardrails and the drop on the side of the road is about 2000 feet in most places? This is an extreme WISP.

2. Power. On the top of the mountain there is none, unless you generate it yourself. With tons of sunshine solar is the way to go, but with indy nights and cloudy snow days, wind is also an option but Denise and Kyle have yet to found a wind generator that will survive these winds at 4000 feet. I was skeptical when they told me that until they showed me their lat wind turbine with stubs for blades. I should have taken a picture.

3. Snakes. Rattlesnakes in fact, the worst of the snake family in my opinion. With their creepy little heads and the scary rattle, these things are prehistoric and mean. The sound they make is nothing like you hear in the movies. Obviously, in movies the rattlers are some guy shaking a baby rattle but when you hear the real thing it is a buzz, like those little windup toys kids get from McDonalds that you wind up and they run about three feet across the floor, a buzzzzz nor a rattle rattle. Just a short burst to say "I am going to inject you with a deadly venom that will cause extreme pain and paralysis before you can drive the goat down that treacherous mountain and open all those locked gates if you don't stop throwing rocks at me" kind of buzz. Driving up the mountain the last day here, we ran over one of these buggers and he donated his 9 button rattle as a souvenir for me (sorry PITA members). His loss my gain. At the peak next to the equipment shack is a nest of rattlers so when we get up there the first thing we do is toss rocks into the nest and watch them all buzz away. Actually I think only the little ones leave and the momma is still hiding in there waiting for us to turn our backs. Very disturbing…

4. Mountains. They are everywhere and having your main POP atop a 4,000 footer doesn't ensure service to everyone so you have to make lots of mini-pops, or repeater sites to fill in the holes. Sometimes, these aren't so bad like this one next to a pool at a beautiful home atop another nearby mountain. I spent about two hours sitting under a palm tree and doing some "configuration", a.k.a., resting and enjoying the view when Denise wasn't looking. :-) This was definitely the easiest wireless tower I have ever worked on.

5. Everything here is volcanic or the result of a volcano. The mountains are there because of the volcanos, the rocks are volcanic, there's volcanic glass everywhere called obsidian, there's lava, lava tubes, piles of lava rock thrust up from the center of the earth out in the middle of grass fields that totally don't belong. In fact, there's a power generating station on a nearly volcano where they pump water into the ground and it comes back as steam to drive a generator. Wow, that's real power. Kyle tells that on Mount Konocti, when it rains the water runs into the mountain not down the mountain. Where does inexactly go? No one knows but indian lore says theres a hidden lake inside the mountain with fish that don't have eyes. I believe it. Bottom line: AirLink is an extreme WISP and they do a great job of what they do and face each day's challenges so they can enjoy views like these. Not too shabby.

Day 41 - Blessed is the pessimist...

2010-06-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

I know you have heard that old saying, "blessed is the pessimist for he hath made backups". Well, I would like to amend that to read "Blessed is the pessimist for he hath made recent backups." It happened to me again. Last night right after blogging, I decided to clean up my Macbook Pro using Onyx. In the process, Onyx informed me I had some errors on my disk that needed repairing. No problem, I'll start up the Disk Tool and do a verify and repair and let it work while I go to bed. This morning, expecting to see a smiley face telling me my data was safe now and all was well in sector land, I was surprised to see ERROR! How could that be, it's a Mac. Mac's don't have errors. This cant be happening. My mind started racing, what wasn't backed up? My pictures from the Roadshow, OH NO. After a quick restart and some more fumbling with the disk tool it was clear that baby would not be booting again.

So, after one more quick trip to the Apple Company Store to get that jacket I wanted so badly, we left Pacifica (San Francisco suburb) headed to Lakeport for some private training. On the way there I was poised and ready to turn into the first Best Buy for a new drive for my baby. My logic is this, save the old drive and try putting it in an external enclosure and see if I can get my photos back. Until then, its time for a new drive. I found a 640 gig WD drive for $114 and walked out the door. We arrived at our camp site around 7:30 pm and I had the old drive out and the new one installed in about 15 minutes, connected my time machine drive and booted the DVD. Two hours later, my data was restored and I had a working operating system.

Now, the bad news is the last time I did a backup was 4/28 so I am still missing some trip photos. Email and calendar is all through MobileMe so nothing lost there. Bottom line, Mac's Time Machine is awesome, however, you have to use it properly and often. With my baby working again, time for some rest.

Day 40 - Biking the Golden Gate and Escape from Alcatraz

2010-06-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day in San Francisco and tomorrow it's back to work, doing private training in Lakeport, California. We began the day by biking across the Golden Gate, however there was a bit of preparation in order to do that. The day began with bicycle repair. I set up shop on the picnic table outside the RV and began removing broken pieces for the bikes that survived the ordeal on the LA freeway. If you didn't read that, little episode read it here. Two of the bikes were not repairable so last night we were at Wally World buying two more kid bikes. So, with freshly repaired bikes and two new ones, we hit the Golden Gate parking lot at about 10:00 am. The ride was gorgeous but a little frightening with three kids. There was an incident with another biker on the bridge but we will leave out the details here.

Following our ride over the bridge, we caught a ferry to Alcatraz and spent the afternoon touring the former Federal Prison. What a cool place steeped in history. Everyone recognizes it as the place where "Machine Gun" Keely and AL Capone did hard time but I also learned it was the scene of a 19 month occupation by American Indians in the seventies that ended with the US Government forceably removing them from the island, but more importantly changes US policy toward native Americans.

The graffitti in this photo was done during that occupation. Alcatraz also served as a military establishment in its early days.

Tomorrow its off to Lakeport after a quick stop at the Apple Company Store one more time, seems I really needed that jacket I didn't buy last time.

Day 39 - Exploring San Francisco and the "Bush Man"

2010-06-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a city. So many sights and so many different people (emphasis on "different"). Only in San Francisco can you see the Golden Gate Bridge, and a man playing a drum set made of plastic buckets and a skillet (he was quite good!). Instead of boring you with details, I would like to let some of these images speak for themselves.

A note, all of these are stills except for the first one and it requires some explanation. As you watch the video, look closely at the bush next to the trash can. Behind the "bush" is actually a man and the bush is two branches he apparently harvested from the nearby landscape. Holding the branches completely still he waits for an unsuspecting passerby and then, well, you need to watch. There is sound too so turn it up. It was was too funny....

The Bush Man

Golden Gate Bridge

China Town

Poor soul seeking medical marijuana...

Lombard Street, 27 degree hill, wow!

Day 38 - My pilgrimage to Cupertino

2010-06-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

We all dream of it but seldom are fortunate enough to actually make their pilgrim journey. I'm not speaking of a religious experience (although it bordered on that), I'm talking about Cupertino, California, home of Apple Computers. Now before you get your hopes up about yesterday's announcement of the iPhone 4g, or visions of touring Steve Jobs' office or the Macbook production floor, let me warn you those are not actually options at One Infinity Loop. The Apple workers there explained to me that the Company Store takes a back seat to their retailers and allows the retailers to hype the new products until production levels meet demand and only then do they sell the latest gadgets in the company store. The only place on the campus visitors can visit is the Apple Company Store where they can spend more money on this product we all seem to be addicted to. Inside the company store you can buy exclusive items not available online like the coveted "I Visited the Mother Ship" tee shirts or that fitted Apple ball cap or really cool Apple shirts. I could list all the products they sell in the company store here or you could just look inside the large plastic bag bearing the Apply logo I carried out of the store. Oops, did i say that? By the way, even the bag they give you to carry your loot in is well made, embellished with the Apple logo and has straps to allow you to wear it as a backpack. All about the details baby! Ok, well I didn't buy one of everything they sold there, in fact I missed buying the Apple jacket and when we arrived in San Francisco today, where it was freezing cold, I wished I HAD bought the Apple jacket. How far is Cupertino from San Francisco, like 30 minutes?
Be right back...

Day 37 - Stink, stank, stunk

2010-06-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

What stinks? The beach stinks. I am not speaking metaphorically, it stinks, like old rotten tuna fish cans, or canned cat food or worse. Today was no different, we went to what was supposed to be a pristine beach in Monterrey and yes, it stunk. Chrystal blue water, bleached white sands, no overweight people in Speedos, the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, Bob Marley on the radio and then it hit me, the stench. I tried to ignore it but I could not, it was too powerful. Only after enduring the stench for a few hours did I realize why, because stinky fish and marine mammals live in there and use the restroom in there and worse. Fortunately for me, the decision to leave early was cinched when a dead baby harbor seal floated up on the beach while my beach combing wife was looking for shells. "Whoa, time to go kids" and not a moment too soon for me.

Here's a breathtaking view for you on US 1 near Carmel, I hope you enjoy. The good news is you can't smell it.

Day 36 - Chula Vista's Revenge

2010-06-06T21:31:00.001-07:00

It started out like any other day, pack the chairs, pack the outside stuff, wash the dishes, bring the slides in, put the bikes on the rack behind the Jeep and head out. Traveling north, we had finally escaped Chula Vista, or had we? Traveling with five people requires carrying five bicycles. Towing a Jeep behind the motor home means the only place for those bikes is a hitch mounted carrier on the Jeep. I have worried about this thing from day one. Five bicycles is a lot of weight especially since three are mountain bikes. I bought a five bike carrier and one would expect it could safely carry five bikes. I think you know where this is going.

To fully understand this story you need a little history. The last time we traveled the LA freeway system we when we were en route to Palm Springs. The flow of traffic had pushed us to the left lane and before I could get out of what is typically held sacred as "the fast lane" and back to the right lane or la la land where the motor homes are supposed to dwell, an angry motorist in a red dually pickup blasted past with his arm out the window making....well...some type of hand signals to us or at us. Our first reaction was maybe something was wrong with the rear of the RV but a quick look in the rear view camera didn't show anything obvious. Then, Carolyn, trying to put the best construction on his actions suggested maybe he saw our Texas license plates and was supporting those two rival Texas Schools by making the sign for both "Hookem Horns" and "Gigem Aggies", you know, the whole house divided thing? (I hate hose bumper stickers by the way...) Hmm, I think that is a stretch. Anyway, we stayed in our slow lane and he sped away to cast his road rage at some other wandering motorist and that was the end of that.

So, back to this story. Once again, taking our lives in our hands we traveled north through LA's freeway system when suddenly another Texas higher education fan pulled up alongside us. This time Carolyn was ready and as he made his hand gestures we stared straight ahead and ignored him, for now we were seasoned freeway professionals and his taunts meant nothing to us. That is until his persistence caused me to shoot him a quick cut of the eyes and I made out the word "bicycles" on his lips. Oh crud, THE BIKES! I opened my window and he slowed alongside me and shouted "THE BIKES ARE FALLING OFF!" With my window open, the soundtrack for his words was a high pitched scraping sound back behind us, no doubt, probably accompanied by sparks which I could of course not see. I thanked the good Samaritan and pulled to the right. There was a large area on the shoulder and I stopped there and ran back to see the personification of my worst nightmare, a twisted mass of broken spokes, twisted rubber, and inner tubes shredded into streamers that trailed behind us. Not pretty. Now what. They don't fit anywhere except the stupid five bike carrier thing (I told you it didn't look strong enough to carry five bikes). What to do now. Do I just detangle the mess and leave them on the side of the freeway? I had a quick flash through my mind of the poor guy that picks up all the broken stuff that flies out of people's pickups on the freeway. By the time his trash truck got to my bikes it would probably be full of broken plastic patio chairs, lidless coolers and couches and then the poor guy would have to make a second trip and...ok, back to the problem at hand. Quickly I opened the compartment where I keep my tools to grab a wrench and disassemble the tangled mess and BOOM, all my tools come falling out on the ground. Sockets spinning and rolling across the freeway, screw drivers lodging under the tires, strategically positioning themselves to puncture my new Michelins. Now I have two messes to clean up while LA drivers speed by sneering and cursing me. I swear I saw the guy in the red dually, Gigem Aggies, Hookem Horns! I quickly untangled, pulled the front wheel off each bike (strange, only the front wheels were damaged) oh, and by the way, my bike didn't even have a scratch due to strategic positioning.... Anyway, by this time Carolyn was out to help me and we wheeled each bike (less the front wheels) into the motor home and sped away, leaving the broken wheels on the side of the freeway for the poor trash guy. I hope he has room in his truck.

So, I guess Chula Vista got revenge on us for leaving, or at least revenge on our bikes. So, now we are looking for a new five bike carrier. And four front wheels....and tires...and tubes. I hope the new one will carry five bikes.

Day 34 - San Diego, Little Italy

2010-06-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Nestled in the heart of San Diego is an area known as Little Italy. Now, understand I am not a super San Diego authority, but I can read the sign...There, we walked the streets and looked for a place to eat, there were many, and I ecided to get a hair cut. The barber that cut my hair was a sweet little lady who had been cutting hair in that same location for more than twenty five years. She had a lot of really cool things to tell me, unfortunately, her Italian accent was so thick I barely understood any of it. Bottom line, she gave a great haircut for only $10 bucks. What a deal. Three old wrinkly gentlemen sat at a card table outside her shop and smoked cigarettes and swapped stories in Italian while I sat inside getting my hair cut. It was a scene straight out of the God Father. I expected a drive by any minute. It never happened. Tomorrow it is time to head north, and I'm ready.

Day 33 - Chula Vista the real translation

2010-06-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out the translation for Chula Vista, in English it means velcro. It must be a sticky place because we cant seem to get away from it, but tomorrow is different, we will escape the surly bonds of Chula Vista and once again head north. Why? Well first the Roadshow seems to be stuck. We have training to do in northern California and I am afraid they will give up on me if I don't start rolling again. Second, I need to earn a living and it isn't happening in Chula Vista, Little Italy or La Jolla Cove. We spent the last two days doing well...not much except gorging on some awesome Italian food in San Diego's Little Italy and exploring the clear, icy waters of La Jolla Cove. This little swimming hole is a far cry from the dirty (oh and now oily) beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast, with beautiful cliffs, crystal clear water and some of the best snorkeling in the state. This tide pool is bursting with marine life and I suspect humans when the weather is a bit warmer.

The goal tomorrow is to pack, try and avoid the temptation to sit down in my new outdoor anti-gravity chairs, and try and make it to the LA area. After we spend the night the next day we will likely try and stay in the Sequoia National Forest area and partake in the beautiful trees before the next stop in the Bay Area for a meeting and some consulting on the Roadshow.

Before anyone points it out, yes I know today's post was weak on content but before I have any more material I gotta get out of Chula Vista!

Day 32 - Sights from the roadtrip

2010-06-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Having spent nearly a month in California, we have had many interesting experiences, including some unpublishable ones. Just kidding, but it makes for a nice story anyway.

Here's a few:

1. Wireless site surveys: Always bring binoculars. If you don't have them, your hands make a good substitute.

2. A Eucalyptus branch is not sufficient to hide a gorilla.

See? He sticks out like a sore thumb.

3. My favorite, a typical LA (Los Angeles) resident, or is that a real Orange County housewife? Just kidding friends.

Day 30 & 31, Chula Vista aka mañanaville

2010-06-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

Lees than 5 miles from the Mexican border, Chula Vista is a lazy little town on the San Diego bay. Only 10 minutes south of San Diego, it enjoys all the amenities of a modern city while still holding onto the popular mantra of mañana. If you don't speak at least a little Spanish, mañana means tomorrow and it is more than a word, it is an attitude. It's like, "wow, I really need to mow the grass but I think I can wait until mañana" or "hmm, I wonder if that growth on my head might be malignant, oh well I can go to the doctor mañana". You get the idea.

Traveling to Chula Vista had absolutely nothing to do with the Roadshow cause, it was purely to say we went as far south in California as you can go without leaving the US and to enjoy a little memorial day rest.

One of the interesting things about this mañana attitude is just that, just about everything can wait until tomorrow. Like leaving Chula Vista for instance, maybe mañana.

PS: This lion, a resident of the San Diego Wild Animal park takes a snooze on the roof of a parked Land Rover. LOOK! There's a gazelle...ahh, mañana.

Day 29, The Roadshow leaves Palm Springs

2010-05-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

Next stop, Escondido, California. Leaving Palm Springs was more difficult than I had anticipated, after all, we had been there for two weeks, longer than any other destination on the Roadshow and it is a beautiful place. In addition, we had made several friends but it was time to go so go we did. It was close to 3:00 pm before we had everything packed and cleaned up so we were ready for the 2 hour drive to Escondido. I have an uncle and some cousins in Escondido so we thought it a good place for a stopover. Before I stop writing about Palm Springs, I want to tell you some of the cool facts I learned from the guys at Desert Water.

First, one of their primary water collection points is on the Pacific Crest Trail, a hiking trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico and obviously goes through California. High atop the San Jacinto Mountains, snow from the desert winter (yes, snow in the desert) melts in spring and produces huge water flows in Snow Creek. The Desert Water Agency collects the water and uses it for the City of Palm Springs. Therein lies the issue, hikers on the PCT also find Snow Creek an oasis in the desert and bathe and wash their clothes in the water thereby polluting it for the citizens of Palm Springs. If you haven't smelled a hiker after three months on the trail, you might find it hard to believe this is more pollution than a raccoon doing his business in the creek but believe me, it is. The guys at DWA confirmed that this is a real problem, so bad they have installed guards and cameras to protect the water supply, one of the reasons I was consulting with them and doing training on MikroTIk for their new wireless backbone.

Another part of their water comes from White Water creek, another snow fed creek and then they have the massive percolation fields, ponds their fill with water and allow to soak into the earth an refill their water table. This is all very hard to imaging but very interesting to see.

Tomorrow, we head south to Chula Vista. This will be the southern most point on the Roadshow so after that it's all north. We are ready for some Memorial Day R&R today while not forgetting those that died for our freedom. Have a good one!

Day 28, Class complete

2010-05-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

After four days of training with the Desert Water Agency, we ended the training with a practical exam as well as the certification exam. The practical exam involved labbing up the network they would be building on the bench. Both Mohammed and Kory came through with flying colors and then went on to score exactly the same score on the certification exam. This of course had me a bit worried until I checked and saw they had missed different questions. Whew!

After a long week of training , I need a little R&R tomorrow so time to hit the hay. I did add an archive to my web cam, should make for some nice memories after the trip as well. Check it out HERE.

Day 26-27, another time lapse

2010-05-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

In the immortal words of our nation's best mom, Britney Spears, "Oops I did it again...". Ok, bad humor I understand but I let two days lapse without blogging. It wasn't like I had nothing to say but the truth is I got lazy. Maybe it was the relaxed environment of my current training session (all nice people in the office) evidenced by this photo. Yes, those are my shoes on the floor, and yes that's our messy "lab" environment for our MikroTik Training session this week in Palm Springs.

I have really enjoyed the week with Kory and Mohammed who will be taking their new found knowledge to the field in the next few weeks, building a robust wireless backbone to support their well sites here in the desert.

Snow Creek Tower Site (hidden on the rocks) and Elvis' Place...

We have spent time both training and planning this new wireless network which includes sites with beautiful views like Snow Creek and one site I renamed Elvis Tower since it is on the road that goes past one of Elvis Presley's Palm Springs homes. On Friday we will take the certification exam and then spend some time planning out this new network. We will also completely lab up the entire network here on the table which should be a lot of fun and a great training experience.

Tomorrow morning we "pull up stakes" in Palm Springs and head south. It will be hard to leave considering the fun we have had here working and during time off as a family. It will be hard to leave the beautiful palms, the nicest RV resort have ever stayed in, new friends and the wonderful weather but the good news is there are many more adventures waiting down the road on the MiroTik Training Roadtrip.

Day 25, Private Training in Palm Springs

2010-05-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

First, if you see the jump from day 20 to day 25 and think, what the heck? You're right. I missed some days. A family emergency took me to Texas for a few days and in the process my blogging....well....it didn't happen. Sorry, perdon', entschuldigen sie, or atvainojiet for my Latvian friends, it just didn't happen. Add to that the fact that AT&T limits you on how much data you can use on a monthly basis with the air card (remember I'm using the MikroTIk 3G HotSpot for internet access on the road...) and it stopped working and so I was kind of "unconnected". Back to the internet access issue...Yes, those of us who operate ISP's really did ourselves a disservice a long time ago when we decided to offer "unlimited" access. Think about this for a second, does the water company give you unlimited water? What about the electricity guys, do they let you use all you can burn? No, they meter it and you pay for what you use. But not us ISP's, use as much as you want, use it all, it doesn't matter, that is, unless you are AT&T and most other cellular providers. They have remembered this stuff is finite, has a fixed cost and they let you have 5 gigs of transfer and then WHAM! No more roadshow cam, no more blogging ,and to add insult to injury, you cant "refill your tank". They wont let you buy more at an exorbitant rate without calling them and basically hocking your kids.

So, not to be outdone I decided to let AT&T not have my internet traffic until the next billing cycle begins and I have purchased a Verizon MiFi Hotspot. This thing is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and about 1/4 inch think and battery powered. It combines a WiFi hotspot with a cellular modem in a plug and play package...that is plug and play if your name is Steve Discher. Anyway, with a wireless printer in the motor home, and other wireless toys that rely on the network I decided to keep my existing MikroTik AP in place and add the new toy, thereby requiring a second MikroTik router and some cables and stuff, anyway, I managed to integrate it into my existing network without any visible changes to the way things currently work. Net cost, well a lot but who's counting right? The only real change I see is the fact that I now have so much wireless radiation in the motor home, popcorn pops on the counter all by itself. And what's that strange pain in my brain?

This week I am doing some private training with the Desert Water Agency. Since they read my blog I am obligated to say they are extremely intelligent and super nice guys...Actually, they are just that. Everyone at the agency was very accommodating to me today and made me feel at home. In training we scratched the surface of the RouterOS and tomorrow it will be heads down, and dig in deep. The MikroTik Training Roadshow will be here in Palm Springs all week and then on south Saturday. Please bring over some popcorn, we are out again!

Day 19 & 20, Back to Texas

2010-05-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day in Palm Springs, preparing for next week's private training with the Desert Water Authority here and doing some consulting for a north California ISP needing a disaster recovery solution. Also, I noticed a great plug in the monthly MikroTik email touting the Roadtrip, thanks guys! In addition, I have announced July MikroTik Training for the MTCNA, this time in Denver Colorado. I already have signups for the class so hurry if you are interested.

The Roadshow cam will be taking a break for a few days as I have made a quick trip to Texas to take care of some family matters. We flew out of Longbeach, Ca this morning at 9:45 am and arrived in Houston at 5:00 pm, long day.

Our smallest traveler is our Roadshow mascot, "Sugar" who took her first two plane trips connecting through Phoenix today. Here's a shot of her sad face sitting under the seat in front of me in her "regulation" dog carrier.

Sunday we return to Palm Springs and resume the adventure!

Day 18, Palm Springs or Bust!

2010-05-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Refreshed and ready to slide in behind the wheel again, we pointed the rig south for Palm Springs. If you don't know this city, it is rich in history. A desert oasis, it has hosted tons of celebrities and really is a beautiful oasis in the desert. Nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges, stiff winds from the coast blow down between the mountains (that's why it is a great place for windmill farms) and seeing hurricane force winds on a daily basis is not uncommon. With the sand and wind comes sandstorms with nothing in their path to stop them, that is except Palm Springs. The thousands or possibly millions of palms offer a break from the wind and the water and natural springs grow lush grasses and flowering plants so when you drive into the city it is almost like entering a shelter from the elements. You can still hear the wind in the palms high above you but you really get the feel of a desert oasis and the shelter it provides. We found a super nice place to park, basically a country club for motor homes. We really don't fit that mold for a number of reasons but nevertheless, lush grass, a private waterway (yes, in the desert) and the perimeter wall afford luxuries you won't find in the typical desert RV park so we are staying here. The Roadshow will be stopped for a while due to several consulting and private trainings in this area so don't expect any new images on the Roadshow cam until a week from this Saturday. Yes, a long time but after that we head south to SanDiego then a quick trip up the California cost into Lakeport, Ca for some consulting and training then expect us to travel through at least one state per day for a while.
Folks in Palm Springs have a bit of an attitude (not a bad thing, just a bit opinionated) and it was displayed by this billboard.

Day 17, time for some weekend R&R

2010-05-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

Three days of MikroTik classes is a lot of fun to teach, but is also a lot of work. If you have never taught a class, you may not agree with that but standing (ok, sometimes I sit too) all day, preparation the night before and talking for 8-10 hours in a stretch can wear you down, not to mention preparing for the "tough questions". While the class was testing I was thinking about how similar people are. Yes, that's a general statement, but if you look at a cross section of people you will see patterns of behavior and personality that repeat themselves from group to group. In my classes for instance, there is always one person who has been using MikroTik longer thank anyone else in the room and already knows a lot about the product. I am not ashamed to say I often learn something from them, after all who knows it all. This person is also the one that will ask the really tough questions and makes my brain hurt. Then there is the talker, the guy that has a lot to say and is typically the one I spend the most time in class interacting with. Then there's the sleeper. Am I really that boring or is he narcoleptic? All in all, our differences are what make us interesting and meeting new and interesting people is the best part of this job.

Ok, I promised strange sights from the road and I think the menu yesterday definitely made the list. Today I saw something a little funnier that reminded me of the eighteenth hole in a putt putt course, except in this case our motor home WAS the ball. Yes, we made it through without the windmill blades slashing us to pieces...

Day 16, Restaurant from hell

2010-05-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

So, after 16 days of easy meals we cook ourselves in the motorhome, and after a long day we decided to grab something to go in Cowchilla, California. Hungry for TexMex, we drove through what appeared to be a Mexican restaurant, but on the menu were items we typically don't see in Texas UNLESS IT IS A HORROR MOVIE!

Are you willing to try a gut taco? Maybe a head burrito? Pass...

Day 15, Heading to Palm Springs

2010-05-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we arose early and started the process of packing for our next destination, Palm Springs. Palm Springs is about 500 miles south of Sacramento. Nestled at the base of the majestic San Jacinto Mountains, the City of Palm Springs is the ancestral home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. The village atmosphere has been preserved and embellished over the years. The streets, lined with palm trees, invite you to explore boutique shops, art galleries and museums while soaking up the sunshine or dining outdoors among stunning desert scenery.

Tonight we are staying in Cowchilla, Ca. , named after the Cowchilla indians. The resort is very plush and gated. Wonder why they would let us stay here? Anyway, we are going to stay two nights and then push on to Palm Springs on Monday in preparation for a Tuesday through Friday private training session.

Hope you are enjoying the Roadshow cam. It still needs a little tweaking but it caught some great shots today.

Day 14, Sacramento Class Day 3, WE DID IT

2010-05-14T16:35:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it is finally over? "I think my brain is fried" was one of the responses after the certification exam for the MikroTik Training in Sacramento. The good news was everyone passed the exam and now we have new MTCNA's out there, ready and able to use this awesome product. I was cleaning up the class room following class today and decided to write a quick post before getting ready to head back to the RV for the evening of a little R&R. Tomorrow we head down to Palm Springs where I will conduct a week of training for the Desert Water Authority there in preparation of a big roll out they are planning.

Congratulations to this fine group of MTCNA's, I enjoyed having all of you in class and getting to meet you all. I hope to see you in a future advanced class!

Day 13, Sacramento Class Day 2

2010-05-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much information. That was the look on all the faces in the room as we dove deep into MikroTik RouterOS Training. With all this power, it takes years of experience to truly understand everything this product can do yet we have only three days to touch on every point so most students leave feeling worn out at the end of the day. By 5 pm, everyone (including me) was ready to head back to the room and get a little rest and prepare for day 3, certification test day.

Tomorrow we have a few more topics to complete and then the class elected to get some bonus material on UserManager and a more in depth look at OSPF. Time to hit the hay!

June Training Announced - Denver, Co.

2010-05-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

The next MikroTik Roadshow MTCNA Class will be held July 26-28 in Denver, Co. Details and venue will follow soon. Check back for details on all MikroTik Training at www.LearnMikroTik.com.

Day 12, Sacramento Class Day 1

2010-05-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

MTCNA Class started today with a bang. I arrived an hour early to find the room not cleaned, the supplies I had requested not there and nothing set up, so I rolled up my sleeves and by 7:30 I was ready for students.

We have 7 students in attendance which is a small class but I am not complaining because last month I had 23 and that was a LOT of work. Today we covered the basics, like subnetting, the OSI model and then touched on firewalls, IP addressing, rate queues and wireless interfaces. Everyone was nodding their heads up and down so hopefully it was all sinking in.

The highlight of the day was eating at In and Out Burgers. Apparently this is a popular place here in Cali and the food was very good, with the exception of the Thousand Island dressing on the burger. That too must be a Cali thing.

Tomorrow we get deeper into wireless security and routing and Friday we will finish up and take the certification test. I am going to print certificates for everyone tomorrow night in anticipation of a 100% success rate. Don't let me down guys!

Day 11, Napa Valley and the Roadshow Cam

2010-05-11T22:12:00.001-07:00

Being from Texas, mountains are always a big attraction for me, but combine mountains, huge lush trees, quaint buildings and wine and I am hooked! Wow, this place is beautiful. We took a moment and drove up into Napa Valley and visited Castello Di Amoroso Winery and the "Old Faithful" geyser. This authentic castle required 15 years to build by hand using native, hand cut stone the old fashioned way. It is both authentic and over the top. The wine tasting was awesome and the geyser squirted about every five minutes on schedule.

We also found a BBQ place that sold pit barbecued sirloin. A huge piece of meat was $21 but fed all five of us with leftovers. Again, it was awesome.

Finally today, I brought up the Roadshow Web Cam! Mounted in the windshield of the motor home, the cam will operate during daylight hours capturing everything we see when we are mobile. You can view the Roadshow cam HERE. There's not a lot to see this week until we hit the road again on Saturday but check back often to see what we see as we travel the entire Western U.S. on the MikroTik Roadshow. As you can expect the Roadshow Cam is powered by a MikroTik RB433 and FTP's a photo to the web sever every few minutes.

MTCNA Class begins tomorrow in Sacramento. Hope to see you there.

Day 10 & 11, checking out the hotel and my 3G HotSpot

2010-05-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

MikroTik Training class (MTCNA) begins this Wednesday so I took some time to travel from Vacaville to Sacramento to the La Quinta to check the meeting rooms and make sure everything was ready for class. One thing I noticed is that the hotel is a bit hard to see from the road. When you exit, immediately look to the right as you can easily miss the turn.

Several people have asked what I use for internet access on the Roadshow and the answer is MikroTik of course! Using a RouterBoard 433UAH with a R52N wireless card and an AT&T 3G modem, I have mobile internet access almost everywhere. California has great 3G service on the AT&T network so everything has been pretty decent since we crossed into Cali. The setup I use for the 3G modem can be found HERE.

Here's a shot of the router mounted in the motorhome above the driver's seat, nice and neat and very functional.

Wide shot inside cabinet.

Close up.

Day 8 & 9, I need a day off...or two

2010-05-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

A day off? Yes, driving 400-500 miles a day can wear you down so we decided to take a day off, or two. We parked in Bakersfield, California at a really nice park, Bakersfield RV Park, formerly a drive in movie theater. There we took some time relaxing and preparing for next week's MTCNA Class in Sacramento, Ca.

The drive to Bakersfield was awesome, in and out of desert, through rolling green mountains, a really diverse area with Joshua Trees and green rolling mountains that look like Scotland.

Wind power is really big in Cali, we saw several huge windmill farms and for good reason (because it is so stinking windy).

Sunday morning we leave for Sacramento and begin preparing for the MTCNA Class, May 12-14.

Day 7, back to my roots

2010-05-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Departing Williams (I hated leaving, it was a friendly town) we pointed the RV West to Apple Valley. Apple Valley is my home town, I was born thee and wanted to go find my old house and my Dad's first church (he is a Lutheran preacher). We crossed miles of very dry desert while I reminisced about my youth and all the trips we took to California to visit my grandmother and uncles as a kid growing up in Texas. We arrived in Apple Valley at Ascension Lutheran Church at about 2:00 pm and I spent time taking pictures of my son and two daughters sitting in exactly the same place my dad photographed me and my two sisters 45 years ago. Wow, time flies. We then went looking for my old house. It was gone. Where? Who knows but apparently the ground it sat on was more valuable than the bricks so they pushed it down and built a parking lot. Sounds like the lyrics of a song huh?

After lots of stories about being a kid on the Mojave desert, we pointed northwest for Bakersville. Along Highway 359 we saw some of the most beautiful green rolling hills and mountains I have ever seen. I was in awe. I started thinking about putting a web cam in the RV pointed out the windshield so you can see what w see when we see it. If I find a Fry's, it will happen.

We finally arrived in Bakersville at 7:30 pm and it was once again a 5 start RV park. I am sitting by the pool now while the kids swim with a full belly and 8 minutes of battery left. Tomorrow we are going to stay here for one more day and regroup. Ok, heading back to post those photos.

Day 5&6, the "great big hole"

2010-05-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

We departed Tucson right on schedule and took on some cheap diesel before hitting Interstate 40 once again. By 2:00 pm we rolled into Williams, Arizona, gateway to the Grand Canyon "the great big hole....". Williams is a quaint little town located on historic Route 66. In fact, this was the last segment of Route 66 to officially close, apparently surrounded by some political controversy. It is evident that this little stretch of the historic 66 is clinging to it's past which is really a good thing. Along with the nostalgia comes a welcome dose of hospitality and service that we are so lacking in our modern culture. For example, I pulled into a service station and filled up. When I came back out to put the nozzle away, an attendant was cleaning my windows. I felt the suden urge to pull a few bucks out of my pocket and tip. When I offered it, he graciously refused. Not the typical"oh you shouldn't have" but a genuine refusal because he felt in his heart service was what the customer deserved. I put my three dollars back into my pocket with a renewed sense of trust in the future of humanity. Wow, it felt good to have someone serve with a happy heart fo the right reason.

Once settled at the RV Park I worked on some paperwork while the family biked on Route 66. Thursday (day 6), we drove up the the canyon and took in one of the seven wonders of the world. I was speechless. I will be posting some photos Friday night when we arrive in Bakersfield (where there is hopefully good internet).

Today I scheduled some private MikroTik Training for the week following Sacramento, down in Palm Springs. Should be another great segment of the trip.

Day 4, another winner

2010-05-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

We picked another great five star RV Resort (yes they have those) and it was super nice. We are now in Williams, Az, the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow we are taking a day off from travel and visiting the canyon. It should be another geat adventure. I will post lots of pictures.

Today I spent the day driving of course and finished it with some consulting work and a dip in the indoor pool with the fam.

Williams, Az puts us within 700 miles of Sacramento. I am ready for a week of training, it will be a blast!

Day 3, putting more miles in the rear view

2010-05-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

We departed Van Horn, Texas at 6:00 am, not soon enough for me. The place was tired, worn and dusty and I was ready to get out of Dodge. The driving days are getting easier averaging about 400 miles per day. Today was MikroTik Training and consulting day, working remotely with a hospital wanting to deploy MikroTik for wireless internet access. We also worked with an ISP in Mexico. All in all a good day for the Roadshow and putting groceries on the table.

Today we stopped for the night in Tucson, Ax. Wow, Beaudry RV Resort was a far cry from Van Horn, golf, beautiful sites, palms, cactus, great desert oasis. I spent the evening working on putting certificates in envelopes, not my favorite of jobs.

Tomorrow we head to Williams, Az, getting closer to Sacramento for our MTCNA training next week.

Here's a cool photo from the road, I10 near Sierra Blanca, Texas, we ate breakfast here when I was 6 ears old so I decided to give my family the same experience. Eggs and bacon never taste as good as they do outside with the beautiful mountains in the background.

Day 2, Bad Internet

2010-05-03T20:22:00.001-07:00

We got an early start today out of San Antonio at 6:15 am. It is always easier to travel when the kids are sleeping. No one asked "Are we there yet" even one time...till they woke up that is. San Antonio morning traffic was wretched but we managed to get through it and onto the open highway. We managed to get 438 miles behind us and pulled into Van Horn, Texas at about 2:15 pm. The "four star" RV resort we decided to stay at was likely a four star, THIRTY YEARS AGO! It was tattered and torn, but we made the best of the dust bowl. That was the good part. The real disaster as the poor internet access, dialup speed. Ever tried to do remote desktop over dialup? How about running QuickBooks? Wow, I was so frustrated I Was ready to toss the lappy out the window. I did manage to get payroll done and decided enough was enough. FYI, my AT&T aircard was no better, apparently the AT&T network is fed by the same 56k modem as the RV Park wireless.

Tomorrow, we will leave early again, this time with a destination of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's late, internet is terrible, going to sleep....

Day One, the Road Show Rolls!

2010-05-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

With neighbors cheering us on, we departed College Station, May 1 at 7:00 pm. Our goal was to simply "get out of town" which we did and drove as far as Waller, Tx. Our neighbors all came out to bid us bon voyage, it was really cool. We arrived in Waller around 8:30 pm and spent the night at Jellystone Park (if you are old enough to remember Yogi Bear, you will appreciate that). Sunday morning when we woke up, we realized that all of the water attractions were up and running an decided to stay a while, swim and relax before hitting the road. By noon, we were water logged and ready to go so off we headed for Interstate 10 west.
Lunch was BBQ to go from a roadside stand and then we were once again headed west. A few miles outside Flatonia, Texas we had our first "uh oh". I noticed what appeared to be smoke behind the coach in the rear view camera. within seconds a passing car made the universal sign for "uh oh" and fortunately there was a roadside park to pull into. When I stepped around the back, there was definitely smoke coming out and a hissing sound so I assumed a blown radiator hose. Climbing below I saw oil instead of water which made me think hydraulic hose. We weren't parked in a great place so I decided to move to the parking lot which required unhooking the Jeep and backing the wrong way own the road into the parking area. Carolyn and the kids hit the nature trails while I climbed, poked and prodded my way under the coach looking for the source. After nearly an hour I was unable to make it leak again. Strange. So, we decided to load up and try her again, maybe it was a fluke (ok, I didn't believe that but it had definably stopped). A few miles down the road another quick check and sure enough no more leaks We decided to stay in San Antonio just in case since there are plenty of Freightliner service centers there so we pulled into our old faithful, Blazing Start RV Resort. Along the way I noticed the A/C wasn't blowing cool on the dash and then it hit me, that must have been a freon hose, hence the hissing, the burst of oil and then no more leaks. Oh, and no more A/C.

After a quick supper of Mexican food and a trip to HEB to buy groceries and a fan, we decided to hit the road early in the morning and have the A/C fixed in Cali when we land there for a few days.

So day 1 and2 are over. Tomorrow we try to get out of Texas. By the way, here's a shot out the window of our neighbors as we left home. We will miss you guys!

MikroTik Roadshow to Launch March 1, 2010

2010-04-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

As a certified instructor doing MikroTik training and teaching people to use this powerful routing system, I thought it might be fun to take it on the road and teach others to use it. I have scheduled training sessions all over the USA to teach others how to use RouterOS and to see the USA while I am at it on what I call The MikroTik Roadshow.

First of all what is MikroTik and why would you take it on the road? MikroTik has been developing, installing and selling wireless routers since 1995. MikroTik's newest software product, MikroTik RouterOS v4, is a software router system which makes it easy for any VAR, ISP, or network admin to make a PC router for wireless, wide area, or local area networks.

So, check back here often and watch our road trip progress over the next three months. I will be blogging from the road and posting photos of the people and places we see along the way.

Join my blog now and watch the fun, we hope to see you soon!