ditsjets7 said:
We have 2 boys 8-10. We?ve been mulling the Canyon or Yellowstone. Friends of ours went to Yellowstone last year. They loved it and said there was so much to see and do. I guess we are trying to decide which one. I figure md 65 mph ?set the cruise? and every 5-6 hours my wife can give me a breather for an hour or two. I figured between the two of us we could keepnthe Wheels turning 12 hours.
12 hours may be 600 miles, if you don't take too many rest stops. And everyone is worn out when you get there.
If I can?t get WiFi I?m the vehicle while driving then the most we can go is two weeks. ..... A hot spot won?t do it, she needs a WiFi signal.
I think you have a misconception: Wifi, in and of itself, does nothing for you. Period. But if it's tied in to something else, then it can wirelessly connect you to something that can then access the internet. A hotspot will use a cell phone data connection to connect to the internet, then broadcast a Wifi signal that you can connect to in order to use the internet. The car Wifi's you reference are just built-in hotspots, and you must subscribe to cell phone data service for them to do you any good -- they just take up space if you don't have that service.
Without a hotspot, you can get occasional internet via Wifi at a few interstate rest areas, at a number of restaurants or other businesses, and away from town you'll usually be out of range. Of those I just mentioned, few will be secure, and many will have performance problems from too many folks using them to get good throughput for yourself.
When you park at an RV park for the night, whatever they may have in Wifi will likely be overloaded from too many users, though in the wee hours you may find some time that works OK. But don't expect ANY of these to do videos -- they're primarily set up to do web surfing and email checking.
Ardra sez: The drawback, as with all satellite dishes, is that you need to have a clear sky to see the correct satellite (e.g. no trees or mountains in the way).
I'd add that latency is another drawback, that is, it takes time for the signals to travel the 22,000 mile (each way) trip to the satellite, and with handshaking (that's electronic computer communication) there are quite a few round trips every time you click or issue a command, so you'll have several seconds (at best) response time, though once it starts the data may well be fairly fast, depending on your service.
The folks I've known who work from their coach(es) tend to have service from both AT&T and Verizon, to minimize the chances of being out of range of some cell signal.
BTW, large chunks of Yellowstone and the Tetons have no cell service whatsoever, so you may have a 5 to 30 minute drive to where you can get a signal (occasionally further). Both of these parks are larger than most people who've not been there can imagine. A 45 mph speed limit (lower in places) through an area that's bigger than some eastern states, with few buildings of any kind between campgrounds (except around Old Faithful) will take time to traverse.
I expect the Grand Canyon is somewhat that way, though I've never tried for cell service there (cells didn't exist when I was last there).
And listen to the rest of what Ardra says, about being tired, kids boredom (and worse), etc. She nailed it.