Gray Nomad,  gray with an a for active seniors lifestyle.
 
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Reg and I have had a lovely day, here at Half Way Creek, free campsite no 43 in the Camps Australia Wide book, NSW section. It is a rest area 27 km SE of Grafton or 29 km North of Woolgoolga. Even in a free bush camp I have access to my website to update it with my travel news and photos.
 
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Half Way Creek, is near a service centre with full facilities, see photo and it is in the Telstra mobile internet range so we have set up the generator and I have been able to work on line on and off through the day. 

Such is the amazing nature of wireless internet connection. 

Wonderful to have an office in the bush, complete with wildlife.
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It is quite amazing that with internet connection and website hosting I can work on my blogs wherever I am as long as I have a wireless or satelight signal. Web hosting, is one of the most important functions in the website process, allows website owners to put up their creative masterpieces

Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another because looking for and buying a reliable web hosting solution is an imperative decision.
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I used to pay hundreds of dollars a year for business web hosting but now, having gone on line and searched Independent reviews of the best web-hosting providers, I found cheap professional web hosting services under $10 a month. All these webhosting plans include at least one, free domain name registration and 30-day money back guarantee.
I am delighted with the highly affordable domain web hosting  I now use and suggest that even a gray nomad just wanting to do a travel blog to share with family and friends could afford one of these websites and domains.

If you would love to blog your gray nomad, travels, check out the website hosting independent reviews of the best web-hosting providers for a good cheap professional web hosting services.

Photo below shows our car and caravan with the Honda 20i generator that powers my computer, chained to the draw bar.

 
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I will be taking the Eco-Tourer slipstream caravan back to Caravan Court, in Springvale Victoria, for its third service in preparation for its third year of touring. We are getting close to leaving for the big trip, nowJ. We are in the final planning and preparing stages. I hope to leave in March.

I am still thrilled with our van and I love the after sales care we have had from Caravan Court. Happy to give them, a free, ‘ plug’. You hear a lot of stories about poor caravan manufacture and after sales care so when you have been sold a well made caravan and treated well, it's great to share the information with others who might be looking for a reliable well designed, caravan. I have not, been paid for any endorsement of the Eco-Tourer slipstream van, Reg and I heartily recommend it.

 

While we are in the metropolitan area, I love to do my exercise in the big stores and shopping malls for a change from the bush.

As I use the wireless internet a lot while I travel, I will be looking at the latest technology that would suit a touring caravan based office. I like the netbooks. We see people walking down the street in country towns with these and I wonder how long before it will be as common to carry the netbook computer around with you, as it is to carry the mobile phone. 

I had thought I might have bought an iPhone, in April, when my current phone plan expires so I am looking at any and every option that combines mobile telephone, an easy to use, full keyboard or touch screen of letters and mobile internet service.

I am very interested in feedback from people as to what they find convenient to use to access the internet as they travel.

I know I need a mobile phone that allows easier texting.

I know I need to keep my internet connection costs to not a lot more than I already spend so I am not certain I would need or use many of the applications and I would not want my phone to play video streaming, TV or music. I find my own creative endeavours enough entertainment, lol, I never need to be entertainedJ.

I know I am ‘stuck’ with the Telstra service as it is the only one that gives the coverage in remote regions, so advice to go with the cheaper companies and plans will not help me.

If I can have fun browsing around all the large technology stores, in Fountain Gate and call it my day’s exercise, then maybe meet a friend for coffee, it will be a great day out in town.

I will make a few phone calls today; try to find out when I will next be in the Fountain Gate area, then I hope to make plans, to connect with my friends for coffee, while I am in the area.

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The art print works I have illustrated my post with today are from my postcard collection, available from my postcard-art.com website, see side bar link or ‘direct from the artist’, while we are on tour, from our caravan awning studio.
 
 
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The photo above, is of Indigo, far left, Reg and me, on the left and our wonderful WA friends, Jo and Wayne, on the right. We always visit, Jo and Wayne, when we tour to the other side of Oz. :-). That's one of the great joys, of caravaning, visiting friends, accross the country. Photos like this, that show happy times are worth backing up, so they are never lost.

Reg and I are preparing the Eco-Tourer Caravan for our 2010 tour of Australia. 

It is time to begin thinking of everything, well in advance. My computer is currently running well, but because I am very dependent on it, I will be carrying a spare.  I also need to use online backup for all my pictures and documents. I never only store my word documents and photos on my own computer and hard drives in the same location, as I would not want to risk losing copies of my work.  Last year we had some stupid thefts from our van, a $50. Pair of shoes  and a TV remote control but it was a reminder to us how easily we could have lost our computer and while this would be costly, any unpublished photos and writing are not replaceable, so I recommend getting a password protected area, on line photo and document, host. 

These photo host programs are great. You can have free storage for small home accounts and paid storage for larger space requirements.  You can set up photo albums that you can share with friends and family or keep albums of photos and documents private, only for your own use.

I am also checking out my camera equipment and deciding if I am ready to upgrade to a more professional system before this trip. I will be searching in the post Christmas sales for a superior one, which will help me provide a better quality image to illustrate my blogs, where I use photographs.

I am also considering illustrating more of my blogs with a quick sketch or caricature, where I do not have a quality artwork available to serve as an image.

Photo, fine art image, sketch or caricature, what would you prefer to see illustrate blogs?

I would love your feedback on this questionJ.  
 
 
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I am hooked on travelling with my notebook computer. Like most travelers I find it is the perfect way to stay in touch with my family through emails and friends via both email and my facebook account. Internet research time is a lot less costly that using the telephone. Few travelers have easy access to a land line phone and our mobile telephones can be charged at a high rate. 

Few Australian travelers can even shop around for competitive prices on phone plans; most gray nomads need to go with Telstra so they have a reasonable coverage around the country.  Those who head outback with some of the lower cost mobile phone plans soon find they are out of range a lot more of the time that they expected.

Best advice I can give from my experience, is make sure you buy the best memory you can afford. Ensure the lap top has a good cooling system if you plan to be on line for a while and use it indoors in the caravan, an unexpected gust of dirty wind can make a mess of the keyboard and internals of the computer. Computers like clean air. If you use the lap top computer in bed, place it on a tray so it can breath, don’t swaddle it in the donna cover, and let it overheat. Many of my tips are from learning ‘what not to do’J. .

I now invest my money in all small portable equipment I have a compact printer that fits with my computer in its bag and I work off the Telstra wireless internet system at the moment and I carry two one meter long antennas with me, one for the mobile phone and one for the wireless internet.We carry a Honda 20i generator the generator that has made carrying a generator on your travels a quieter, cleaner and more portable alternative if you need electric power in the bush to run a computer. I use silent solar power for all our other power needs.

If you don’t own your own computer, don’t attempt to do internet banking on anyone else’s computer and if you must use internet libraries be sure to change your password after EVERY use for any financial transaction and then SIGN OUT.

If you also travel with and use your notebook computer to access friends on facebook, I would love to have you add me as your friend so I can share your travels too. Gray Nomads learn all the best places to visit, from each other.  
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