A trip down RV Forum memory lane

Wanda the Witch, camp host

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Daisy, stop it! I laughed so hard when I read that, I had tears running down my face  ;D

Wanda the Witch, camp host

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ROFL!  Didn't you and Fred replace Wanda the next year?

I had completely forgotten that we nicknamed her Wanda the Witch!  ha ha  She sure lived up to the name!

Margi

yes, we did Lou.  Had to camp host in order to keep the wolves at bay.  Margi, in a way, I really felt sorry for her.  She made her own misery, and I try to give people like her some compassion.  But, she could really try my patience sometimes.... ;D

Lou, I thought about it some more, and I think we became camp hosts that same year, because they wanted us to move away from that area, as it was "reserved for camp hosts...."  At least that was the excuse to get rid of their problem.  So Fred and I came up with the brilliant idea to save our spot we'd become hosts.  They could then not evict us.  But as our visitors and the rallies grew they did finally ask us to find a bigger spot to hold them.  But I think by then, Hughes net or cell phones were becoming available, and getting on-line did not require a land-line.  Technology was really changing very quickly back then.

Daisy

I'm starting to wonder what I'm nicknamed  ???

Tom Terrific

Wonderful Welshman!  (who sings beautifully, by the way)

Margi

To all of the above, Amen!!!

LOL, I'm blushing. Others have quite different nicknames for me  ;D

I first started on the forum using a 120b modem and acoustic coupler. I thought I died and went to heaven when I managed to get a 300b modem. The first forum members we personally met were Fred & Daisy, who ask us to stop at their place in ME in 1995 as we were on our way to the Maritimes.

Tom said:

I'm starting to wonder what I'm nicknamed  ???

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Why, Tom of course!  What else?  ;D

Chet18013 said:

The first forum members we personally met were Fred & Daisy, who ask us to stop at their place in ME in 1995 as we were on our way to the Maritimes.

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Oh, Lordy, Lord....  I so remember that visit when I told you where to park per Fred's instructions. (Fred wasn't home) and you almost sank your gigantic King of the Road out of sight..... How embarrassing was that?  But I do remember your good humor about it, and meeting you and Laurie was such a pleasure.  Neither of us remembered that area had been filled in many years previous, nor did we have any conception of the weight of your then RV.  We were so new to the RV world, that we didn't know very much about anything then.....  At that time we'd only been at it a year. So happy to know we have remained friends all these years after that episode. 

Daisy

Daisy

I still have one of those yellow Compuserve RV Forum pennants from a few years ago.  I wonder if they are worth anything today as an antique? 

This post remined me of what I had almost forgotten.

In 1981 I purchased my first computers for use with my ranching and trucking business.

I purchased an Epson QX-10 and two Epson QX-16's, plus 11 Epson HX-20's.

The QX Computers were for my office work and the HX-20's were one each for my truck drivers.

1981 was before Algore invented the internet. With the HX-20's each driver received a phone connector that consisted of a fixture that permitted him to place a hand held phone receiver on the fixture plugged into the HX-20. Each day, the driver would dial my office computer phone number from a truckstop phone booth, when the connection was heard, the driver would then place the truck stop phone hand set on the HX-20 connection and the HX-20 would transfer data and recive data from my QX office computer.

This system worked well until I converted over to the Internet. In the 1980's Epson was the only company that provided computers suitable for the trucking industry and our ranches, and we were about the first to use them. This was before MicroSoft, etc. We used the ValDocs, TPA, operating system then. I still have a couple of the Epsons and I still use the Computers, but not the phone conections system.

For our ranch use, the Epson QX-16's still do things with our herd records, etc, that more modern computers cannot do. But they do not have Internet capability. And my drivers no longer use the HX-20's although I do use two of them personally for my own use.

Once we got past the 100ft phone cord /accoustical modem stage we advanced to the first cell phone connections using a laptop with a pcmica modem card, a Nokia phone, and two Noke cords (I don't remember there actual names) to connect the phone to the modem. As I remember I took me a while to get the connection script to work correctly and actually make a connection to compuserve.

We took a winter vacation from in early 97 and I was working on the sale of the company I worked for at the time. One day we were at a Florida Allison dealer for service when I got a call that I had to modify one of my large spreadsheets and sent to to the buyers. I stayed in coach while it was 8 feet up on a rack to complete the work and send the file using  ftp and my Nokia call phone.

Without the knowledge learn on the forum for using a cell phone to make connections I never could have completed this project. This turned out to be the start of a new job working as a consultant while traveling full-time in our motorhome. We did this for 3 years. Actually we are doing it again now but the current technology makes it much easier.

ken


ken

I may still have one of those PCMCIA modems and cable.  We too had a Nokia phone and I did some beta testing for the cables at one time.  Sending multi-megabyte files from QZ using the cell phone at 4800bps was challenging, often requiring several restarts to send it all.  We don't miss those days one bit (pun intended)

I remember that old PCMCIA modem.  Pam Van Luchene found one for me online.  I remember feeling very "high tech" and "way ahead of my time" while using it and OZWIN to connect to the forum from the motorhome. 

Oh, we ARE old, aren't we?!

Margi

The years from 94-98 on the forum were helpful years for me with my day job at Security Capitol in Santa Fe. When the PCM card for the network came out and we ended up with about 60 laptops. 45 for road warriors and 15 for the top mgrs, I immediately got the modem card and with all y'all's help became the go to guy for the road warriors. They would try to spot Bev & I going through Sante Fe in our Class A on weekends.

I've still have a PCMCIA modem and an old laptop with a PCMCIA slot. I'm not sure but my old Nokia phone may be laying around here somewhere.

Back in those early CIS days I was the Sysop for the Compuserve Cycling Forum, this is how I first 'met' Jim & Pat Dick.  We had one night a week of online conference and the deal was to login at 300 baud to save money.  Using Tapcis to gather all messages quickly, then logoff and read and reply offline. 

Getting the first 9600 baud modem was such a rush!

I found the RV forum in about 95 I think.  RVforum made the transition, but cycling got dropped.  We were offered a place on a spinoff, but it wan't the same.  RvForum blossomed here thanks to the 'sysops'.

Aye Bill, too bad the Cycling Forum didn't survive.