Sprint, it's been a month (4 actually), where are the enhancements?

It's been a month since I got this on January 21.  I still have nothing to show for the poorer performance while they've been working on the network, although other areas 15-30 miles away already show that LTE is available.  I was in Connersville, Indiana earlier this week and, LTE was showing up there.  They were practically denied coverage at all previously, even though Sprint sold phones there.  What kind of company does that, and then, has the nerve to charge for roaming?

When I was in Eaton, Ohio earlier, I noticed that their LTE services have degraded dramatically to what should have been good 3G/EVDO speeds.  I was in Indianapolis, Indiana the other day and they've had their LTE upgrades for about 1 year and I was getting many timeouts.

The coverage map has changed, though the LTE indicator did not indicate LTE in some of the places.  In fact, actual coverage seems spotty, even in small towns, as though the equipment they're using isn't as powerful as the 3G/EVDO equipment they were previously using.

Closing from the west a while back

LTE stops close to the state line

The cows and horses really don't seem to have LTE available, as it wasn't indicated on the phone as I drove through that area.  As soon as I crossed the state line, though, the 5 bars turned to 1, then zero.  Obviously, LTE is closing in on the area but it's got some distance to go, and probably, a lot of time until it's really stable.

Of course, part of the problem is that Sprint is claiming that LTE is 10x faster than 3G.  Since their 3G speed is in the basement (0.10 Mbps?) many days, I guess 10x (1.0 Mbps) isn't out of reach.  If it's to be believed, the new AT&T/SBC said during their latest financial call that something like 97% of new phone purchases in the latest quarter were smart phones.  Maybe obviously, that would be a lot of potential data usage.

As I checked the coverage in rural Ohio near me (5 miles east?) in more detail, I discovered that they have Good and Fair ratings to LTE service--these were in the fair rating.  Is pathetic LTE coverage with little hope of better coverage better than no LTE coverage?

The PING response is slow but I can't complain otherwise

Update 2014.02.25: The downtrodden Trotwood, OH area (outside Dayton, OH) had substantial LTE today.  It's too bad nothing else is looking up in the area.

Update 2014.03.01: I was in the Sprint store today, trying to cancel the contract for my problematic Tri-Fi mobile hotspot.  They suggested that I call customer service, as they were not authorized.  When I was talking to the customer service representative about canceling, she said that it usually takes 30 days from the finish of the upgrades for things to show up.  Of course, I mentioned about the text message and how it's been 30 days.  Things may look better soon, but the mobile hotspot couldn't even connect partway through the day.

Verizon's LTE seems to be fine here

The odd thing is that I had the iPhone 5c reconfigured to allow the personal hotspot feature to work, and it was as smooth as silk.  However, I got a cheapo hotspot at the Verizon reseller and my first Speedtest results were 12.7 and 4.25 Mbps, from an LTE network that's been active for most of a year here.  When I went back to tell the people at Sprint about my experience with the iPhone vs. the dedicated hotspot device, they were surprised.  Then, we were talking about the LTE enhancements just across the state line, and I mentioned that the cows were enjoying them, and they had to laugh.  I'm sure they're unhappy with slow and poor developments because they have to face the angry customers.  I'm keeping the phone with Sprint, but for the moment, I think I'll keep the Verizon hotspot.

Downtown Hamilton, OH

West Main St, Hamilton, OH

Update 2014.03.05: I noticed LTE in Hamilton, Ohio, which seemed to have been ignored, even though it was in-between cities that already showed LTE was in the testing phase.  It looks as though it will be a big summer for Sprint.

Update 2014.03.09: More of the Dayton, Ohio area is covered now, and it seems that even more cows and horses in the country have LTE, even if some parts of towns are not yet covered.  I guess they're making better milk because they're happy, well-connected cows.

Update 2014.03.12: I went to Winchester, Indiana and while I was eating enchiladas, I thought that they might have LTE available, since the "data speed upgrades" have been done, but the coverage map shows LTE just outside of town, but not reaching the town itself.  In many parts of my travels of Indiana and Ohio, I still find service practically non-existent or on roaming because Sprint just doesn't have coverage.

I've only ever been two places in the past five years where the phone said "NO SERVICE" and they were both in the tri-state area.  I could almost understand about a state or national forest but near a U.S. highway?  I suppose it's like the cable companies not wanting to pay for wiring to low density areas because it doesn't pay, but I could swear that there were provisions in spectrum agreements that wireless carriers would provide service.   I may be confused but are there loopholes that say if 1 of the big 4 have service in the area that none of the others need bother?

Update 2014.03.25: Two months have passed and still nothing.  Performance is generally acceptable overnight, but just that--acceptable.  The best I see now is about 30% of what it was at its best, which was close to the limits, and it's about half of the typical during that same time frame.  Am I to believe that there are hundreds of people using their data-sucking devices in the middle of the night?

The whole "up to 10 times the speed of 3G" is something that they did with WiMAX.  They're saying that only the Spark areas (three LTE bands, 800 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2500 MHz) will see the maximum speed, which makes sense if they can use all three frequency bands at once.  With the Tri-Fi mobile hotspot, I was only getting WiMAX over the 2500 MHz band and I regularly saw between 5 Mbps and 10 Mbps, depending on the area, and that was inside a building (motel, restaurant, etc.) where the signal had a lower ability to penetrate.

What I'm seeing from Verizon LTE at home (about 2 miles from the same tower Sprint is using) is anywhere from 12 Mbps to 15 Mbps.  This is likely from two bands, including 700 MHz, which has an easier time of getting into a building than 1900 MHz or whatever they're using on the higher end.  Maybe, next month.

Update 2014.03.27: An hour ago, I got a text message from Sprint saying that I should expect more service interruptions and the wait will be over in the next few days.  What that really means, I don't know.  What I hope is that dual-band LTE will be here, active, and as fast as it should be.  Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of bad service from Sprint.  I was still getting 1xRTT service in some locations in the past two weeks.  They ought to have enough old equipment now that they can push it out to the towers that don't have equipment from, say, 2006 or 2007.

Oh geez.  I went to Eaton, Ohio to get a haircut and eat pizza.  The LTE didn't reach nearly as far and was only really available on the main north-south road through town.  A month ago, it reached well into the countryside.

It's there on Main Street

The speed does look like 10 times 3G

Except that the 3G speed is really good right now

When I returned to Richmond, Indiana, I got a bit of a surprise sitting at the stop light: LTE.  I went to my Speedtest app and before I went far past the next light, about 200 feet from the main road, LTE was gone.  I guess they'll have it at full power in a few days, as they mentioned.  I guess they wanted the store staff to try it.

Update 2014.03.30: I'm seeing LTE show up for an instant several places, including home but as soon as I try to use it, it disappears.  I've checked the updates on the map and where there were none two weeks ago, there are seven eight now.  It's a bit surprising about the distribution of data speed upgrades.  They apparently added a couple of towers out by I-70, but the south of town still has zero towers, and another tower in the poorer section of town received two upgrades.  The tower closest to the Sprint (and Verizon) store and the shopping centers still receives minimal help with 1 data speed upgrade.  Service during the holiday shopping season was unusable.   While they changed the coverage map to show new deployments across the state line, LTE no longer shows up there on my iPhone 5c, at least.  You'd think that it would be better if it's on the coverage map.

Update 2014.03.31: As I was sitting at the stop light where I first discovered LTE in town, I used Speedtest.net to measure it.  The PING was 51ms, downlink was 4.78 Mbps, and the uplink was 0.74 Mbps.  Once again, LTE disappeared about 200 feet from there.  I hope this isn't full strength because it certainly doesn't match anywhere else I've tried and Verizon's signal certainly goes further--i.e., to my house about 2 miles away.  The towers with 2 data speed upgrades each are in the least congested areas, so that might be helpful to people who don't have a device to take advantage of it for a year or two.  I mentioned to the @sprintcare people that I figured LTE would be enabled about the time I was moving away, and that it wouldn't be active where I was moving.  It may be better than that, but if the current situation is all they'll do, it's a sad, sad state of affairs.  I hope they'll yell "April Fools!" and turn up the power on April 2nd.

Update 2014.04.30: Yesterday, this town was moved to the active LTE list, even though not much is covered and the tower near the Sprint store is barely working with LTE.  It is better lately for 3G service but putting it back to not quite the best performance is a bit underwhelming.

Sprint LTE: +40 = 340 locations

Sprint continues to make progress on LTE implementation, adding 40 more locations.

The locations seem odd but it looks as though they're just on the way to converging with other implementation paths.  The University of Oregon and Walmart central country (Northwest Arkansas) have Sprint LTE now.

I'm amused that the person who wrote the press release missed the mistake with Mobile, Alabama.  Besides that, where are they finding these new state abbreviations?

At least, a few of the smaller metro areas have gone live.  Hopefully, they're able to learn from the implementations and make the upgrades go more smoothly.  It would be good if they could make them go more quickly but accuracy is more important.  What good is a quick implementation if it's down after they go live with it?

I'm still expecting this area to go live in 3-4 months with Dayton and Eaton, Ohio already showing some LTE (even where the cows and horses roam), along with parts of the Cincinnati area but with the bitter cold (-14 to -18 degrees F tonight), I doubt much is being done.  Hopefully, they installed the new antennas/antennae during the summer, since it's much easier to work in the climate-controlled electronics room.

Even after they go live, they need to finish what they started, as it's hardly complete.  If they can go live and issue a press release on only 30% coverage, they certainly need to do a lot to finish.  Still, with the data upgrades on network.sprint.com it's easy to see that they're making quick progress before they are ready to go live with anything.  As I've seen in certain locations, they seem to be re-distributing old equipment in order to increase 3G/EVDO coverage instead of remaining with 1xRTT in certain backwoods locations.

Update 2014.03.15: I've seen more of Indiana and Ohio lit up with LTE, at least in test mode.  Coverage is mixed, meaning a few feet can mean a huge difference.  I was trying to use Yelp in a parking lot and couldn't get anything and it was showing 3G on the phone.  As I was leaving, at the stop light on the main road, I had LTE and while it was slow, it was responding.  I was surprised that I had a call dropped yesterday, but of course, it was at a critical time and the indicator showed 1 bar and 1xRTT.  I can count the number of dropped calls in 13+ years on one hand, and most of those were on the other end.  This time, the other end was a land line.  I wonder if most of Ohio will have LTE by summer.  It looks as though southwestern Ohio and the adjoining areas in Indiana will, although coverage will be variable, as always.  There aren't enough towers.

I checked coverage for two areas I have frequented in Indianapolis since LTE went live there.  One is in a strong area with several tall buildings.  Performance is bad.  The other area, including the Sprint store, is in a weak part of the coverage for some reason and it's only a few miles apparently, but it's bad enough if you happen to shop in the area.

Sprint is more worried about their executives than their customers

I keep hearing about the wonderful improvements to Sprint's network.  They're happening everywhere, but apparently, where I go.

Sprint made a big deal about having LTE available for the Super Bowl last year.  This summer, I was on Georgia Street in downtown Indianapolis with the Tri-Fi mobile hotspot and my computer trying to do some work before an event.  0.75 Mbps (or 1.0 Mbps on 2013.11.09) on LTE didn't seem quite right, even by pathetic standards.  I was told by the @sprintcare team that two towers were having problems and that the third tower in the area was being stressed more than usual.  It's possible.

As I've said in the past, putting one tower in a town and saying that you have coverage is not the same as having useful coverage, but I know that Verizon does that.  Seeing someone with a phone showing "4G LTE" taking two minutes to switch to 3G (EVDO) to actually do the work is sadly amusing.

No one has really good coverage right now, so it's all about who doesn't have the worst coverage.

I was thinking to myself "Why can't Sprint handle their current customers' needs now?"  I decided to take a look at the network.sprint.com site and check on 3 metropolitan areas.

• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Overland Park, Kansas
• San Jose, California

I'm near Cincinnati and WiMAX (4G) is just as overloaded as EVDO (3G) is.  I've yet to see any LTE (4G LTE)  coverage (that changed with my 2013.11.13 visit), but I don't always take my mobile hotspot with me.

Overland Park is where Sprint's headquarters are.  It's in the Kansas City metro area.  The KC metro area is about the same size (~2.3 million people) as the Cincinnati metro area, so I thought that it would be a good comparison.

San Jose is the third largest city in California with just under 1 million people.  It's in the San Francisco Bay Area, but at the furthest south point.  WiMAX is present and worked reasonably well for the first 6 hours of my 3 day stay there.  It was supposedly repaired before I left, but wasn't working correctly, so perhaps, the problem is that the technicians can't be bothered to test.

I must be confused.  If the KC metro area is no bigger than the Cincinnati metro area (and Overland Park isn't that much of the metro area), why are they receiving roughly 4 times the enhancements?  They're even receiving more than San Jose, California, which has about 4 times the population.

The only thing I can reason is that the executives complain about their inconvenience and plan around themselves.  I can't imagine any other logical explanation because I would think that they would want to convince people who aren't Sprint employees to go with their service, especially when Sprint employees get a discount (100%?) for service, unlike typical customers.  It also seems that with the recent addition of 70 new LTE locations that many were planned as vacation destinations for Sprint executives.

I had learned in the past that they had no way to gauge data performance.  I suspect that they're just not collecting any information, so that they can't be blamed for what they don't know.  Having worked with internal networks at various companies, there are tools for Quality of Service (QoS), so I find it difficult to believe that the major carriers aren't using similar tools on their data networks, except to escape blame.

Oh, and by the way, marketing has created a new boasting area to talk about their plans for tri-band LTE: http://faster.sprint.com/category/spark/?INTCID=TSC:UHP:103013:spark&adSelectData=1:Module_spark_103013

I'm with a lot of the comments that say "I'll believe it when I see it." but they talk about 2014 and 2015.  2014 isn't that far off, but I have a feeling that I won't be seeing LTE at home until 2016 at the rate they're going.  Whether it will be reliable or not is another matter.  I don't consider any data communications technology sufficient if it struggles to get my e-mail, although I've been told several times by Sprint support (not customer service) that if sometime during a 24 hour period the data rates are within their advertised numbers, they are acceptable rates.

Update 2013.11.11: I had recent conversations with local Sprint employees and ended up extending my relationship with the company by buying a new iPhone 5c.  They said, according to the local network technician, this area will have LTE about 6 months from now.   Whether it will be working (well) or not is another matter.  Returning from Indianapolis the other day, I noticed that the phone was showing LTE for all but about the last 38 miles of my drive, so it seems they're working their way across the state.

Update 2013.11.13: I was in the Springdale area, just outside Cincinnati and was surprised to find LTE.  Speedtest.net told me that it reached a little over 10 Mbps at the peak, and settled on 7 Mbps.  That's good, but as with my experience with WiMAX being overloaded in the area, they're going to need a lot of capacity.

Springdale, Ohio

Update 2013.11.26: I was in Eaton, Ohio today.  It's a town just big enough by state law to be designated a city.  LTE was working there but has not been officially announced yet.  My previous experience is that the town had 3G data service prior to where I am now, since Sprint had bought the area's wireline business, apparently.  Verizon had bought the service in this town.  In any case, it seems that LTE is closing from all sides and it's going to be pleasant until everyone moves over to LTE.

Eaton, Ohio

 I really love the Sprint Zone app.  It's so precise with the Free Memory figure.  Additionally, the Data Connection is hard-coded to show 3G no matter whether 1xRTT is there (even roaming), or LTE is the current connection.  It doesn't matter how many times I've mentioned it to them.  It's like the Sprint Speedtest.net vanity page saying that connections are in Megabytes per second, rather than Megabits per second.

3G connection while LTE or 1xRTT is active...hmm

Update 2013.12.27: I was able to use Sprint's LTE in the Dayton, Ohio area today.  It was less than spectacular, but the availability hasn't been announced yet.  Since they don't actually provide much coverage when they announce an area, I don't think it will be good for a while anyway.  Indianapolis, Indiana was announced quite a while ago, and it's consistent with what a good EVDO connection should be.

Update 2014.01.21: I got a text message from Sprint today:

I'm actually somewhat hopeful that things are changing, even though bandwidth seems severely constrained at the moment.  On Monday, I was in the small city of Eaton, OH using their LTE, which has yet to be announced.  Instead of the 7 Mbps I was receiving previously, I only got 2.48 Mbps, and there was a hole where 3G/EVDO showed up that wasn't there previously.  It almost looked as if they'd re-deployed equipment already.

LTE is finding its way into every area

Of course, the text message I received says to me that out of 4 towers in town--there should be at least 5 but they've ignored a large area south of town--should be equipped but I'm not exactly convinced.  I was expecting everything from the noted area on the coverage map east to the Ohio state line to be covered, but that may be more hope than reality.

Update 2014.12.02: It's been a bit over a year and the company has made some progress toward their LTE buildout.  That's a good thing, but they're still failing.  They're still far too interested in helping themselves than helping their paying customers.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, my phone usually works on LTE and generally works well.  There are still some really ugly problems but they are fewer than I'd seen in other parts of the country.  Being that I live about 75 miles from San Jose, there are more ugly problems the further away from California's third largest city.  Surprisingly, I had very good service in San Francisco itself, which is a tough city to cover.  Since WiMAX has been decommissioned, along with Nextel's iDEN network, Sprint has two more frequency bands to use.

However, the numbers of the changes to towers--their "upgrades"--still show too much activity around their headquarters, compared to taking care of their paying customers.  I would assume that Sprint employees don't pay a lot for service, so why are the rest of us paying to help them when many of us are still dealing with poor service?

I've noticed that they're not interested in showing us where LTE is being deployed any longer.  The only press releases I've seen lately as concerned with telling the story that they have good service in individual cities.

Why am I on 1xRTT so often if LTE is everywhere?

Where is the roaming zone now?

In my own town, I noticed that they hid a large roaming zone from customers' view, even though service is often unusable.  Apparently, the @sprintcare people were not informed, so they kept telling me about the roaming zone, only stopping when I showed them the coverage map I could see.

"micro Four-Thirds is just a generic term."

I was a bit surprised to hear this the other day.

I went into a chain store that has locations all over Ohio, Dodd Camera.  This location was near the Dayton Mall near Miamisburg, OH.

They advertise this location as having all the goodies in the Dayton metropolitan area.  Back in 2006, Dodd Camera bought Click Camera and this is one of those Click locations.  I went to Click once way back in the 1980s and wasn't impressed.  I had been selling cameras and their people seemed to know less than I did and I certainly didn't consider myself an expert of any sort.

So, when I went to the store the other day, I figured I'd see what they had in micro Four-Thirds equipment since they actually advertise that on local TV.  There were two women and one man working in the store.  It was small but no smaller than the Cincinnati store, and bigger than the other two stores I'd visited in the Dayton area.

A woman to the right welcomed me, and asked me if there was something specific I wanted to see.  I responded with "micro Four-Thirds equipment", so she took me to the Sony case, and started talking, and i tried to interrupt, but she ignored me.

She then, took me to the Nikon case, to show me the Nikon 1 system and said that they had the J1 in stock there.  As she paused, I explained again that I wanted to see micro Four-Thirds equipment.  I tried to remind her that Panasonic and Olympus are responsible for the format and she replied "No, micro Four-Thirds is just a generic term." and I said "No, it isn't.  You're talking about micro Four-Thirds as if it's all of mirror-less."  So, she went over to the computer and started looking for Olympus equipment, to which I said "Don't bother." and proceeded to walk towards the door.  She ignored me.  The man working there said "Thanks for stopping." as if everything was just fine.

I'm sure she blames me for being stupid, as in "why doesn't he know that it's all micro Four-Thirds?" sort of question.  It's sad.  Would you trust your money to someone who can't even make a simple distinction?  Update 2014.12.02: the store had been closed some time in 2014.

Update: Apparently someone at the new Polaroid thought the same way.  Here is the micro Four-Thirds (or Four-Thirds depending where you look) mirror-less camera from Polaroid:

Oh, and Nikon just filed suit against Sakar over this model: http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/10/15/nikon-sues-sakar-inc-for-infringement-with-polaroid-im1836-android-camera?utm_campaign=internal-link&utm_source=news-list&utm_medium=text&ref=title_0_2

Update 2016.04.05: It's interesting to me that many people confuse ratios (4:3) and fractions (4/3) when talking about micro Four-Thirds.  The sad thing is that the sensor's ratio happens to be 4:3, like 6x4.5 film and it's roughly twice the size of the 2/3" type sensor that Olympus was using in the E-10 and E-20 Zoom Lens Reflex cameras.

Madonna of the Trail: Statue of The Pioneer Woman

There are twelve of these statues that were commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  I've been near several of them and did not know that they were there, save one which I saw once a week.  I've taken it upon myself to photograph several of these and I have been to seven locations in seven states
.

Springfield, Ohio

Beallsville, Pennsylvania

Wheeling, West Virginia

Richmond, Indiana

Vandalia, Illinois

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Springerville, Arizona

Upland, California

They depict the struggles of the pioneer women as they crossed the fledgling country with no highways.

Update 2016.04.23: I photographed the statue in Upland, California on February 1, 2015, but I forgot to update this blog entry until now.  I also tried to find the one in Maryland, but the location I had was the preliminary location and it was changed to be closer to Washington, DC.  However, this gave me the opportunity to see the starting point of the National Trail instead.

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig

That's something my parents used to say, though I don't know why.

I hope you're all having a great weekend.  It's almost finished and I've spent a lot of it driving, some of it eating, some of it sleeping, and too much of it complaining.  :-D

I really miss Philly, but I'm not missing the drivers along the way.  It's no wonder there is a law in Florida about camping in the passing lane.  So many people are oblivious on the road.  The worst was a business van for Automation Logistics--from Florida.  Of course, I remember the traffic reports in Philly where they said "check your rear view mirror.", which I thought was silly since everyone should be doing that already.  What did I know about driving?  :-D  (It's about the same as I know now--you need to pay attention to the driving.)

Pennsylvania has the most gorgeous scenery, no matter what people say about Vermont, Colorado, or Oregon.  Pennsylvania, especially eastern PA, has great food.  I would say that food from Philly, New Jersey, and New York is the best in the country overall, but you can find specific dishes is various parts of the country that have no equal.

When I was leaving on Saturday morning, I found another filling station and they had a good number of diesel pumps, which is important since the car takes diesel fuel.  After that, I headed to Wawa, the convenience store (they don't sell diesel apparently), and filled up on iced tea, and got a double pretzel.  I feel like such a glutton.

More later...unpacking to do.

The midwest is so full of wonder, such as, I wonder what I'm doing here or I wonder why the family wanted to move here or I wonder why this area is so backward.  Oops, did I say all that?  There are a lot of great people here, but they're not where I am.

I was so happy to have spent time and money to return some eastern Pennsylvania goodies to a couple of people I know here because they ripped open the bags without "thank you" or "these are good" or anything to signal that my effort was appreciated.  I'm glad I didn't spend bunches of money.  It's been almost 4 days since then, and still nothing.  It makes me wonder about humanity's future.

In any case, I've returned to being my unsettled self, unfortunately.  I'm just not good here.  Maybe, I can use that discomfort to finish my house and get it sold.

The heat is good but the migraines (again) are not.  At least, we're having enough rain to keep away the brown grass and drought conditions of last year about this time.

Taking a little trip to Philly/Jersey

I'm totally amused by the idea of being able to drive from here to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is about 600 miles/1000 km on one tank of diesel fuel.

Now, I'll panic early and want to fill the tank before I get that close, and I'll probably want to stop at Wawa as soon as possible to get an iced tea.  Still, it's amazing thinking that, if I had to do it, I could do it.

Thinking about previous trips with 3 different Volkswagen gasoline-driven models, I usually made 3 stops for fuel.  I didn't have set places but I would almost have to stop at a PA Turnpike service area since there wasn't any other place, especially when you're driving directly from A to B.

I would enter the PA Turnpike at the New Stanton (exit 11, I believe, but that's the old designation) and I would leave the Turnpike anywhere from Downington (PA route 10) to Philadelphia (U.S. 1), depending on where I lived at the time.  If I had time, I'd often stop in Lancaster County to enjoy the ride a bit more and stop at restaurants along the way.  If you haven't travelled U.S. 30, you're missing out on some great local stuff, along with some awkward traffic around the outlet malls.

I can't wait to see the Atlantic Ocean again.  It's been too long since it last waved goodbye to me.  I'm also looking forward to Mitsuwa Marketplace, a Japanese mall plus the usual hoagie, cheesesteak, and Italian restaurants that you can find all around Philadelphia and New Jersey.  No, I'm not looking to become obese but I am looking for some flavour.

I wouldn't mind looking at the museums again, since it's been too long since I've been there.  I don't care to run up the Art Museum's steps like Rocky again, mostly because I would like to have my car close and you can't drive up the steps.

I was thinking about going to Adorama's street fair in Manhattan on Sunday, 23 June.  I've done quite a bit of mail order but I've never seen the store.  I wasn't that close to it my last time in NYC, starting and ending at Penn Station.

I think the fuel will definitely be the least cost of the trip.  It should be interesting to see the range of prices on the way.  While the local Indiana/Ohio prices have held steady around $3.989, I saw that they're handling diesel at one Sam's Club and it was $3.699.  This is especially significant when gasoline is over $4.00 per gallon in this area--the old Memorial Day to Labor Day gouging, probably.

I look forward to the trip and to see how the engine responds on a long, uninterrupted cruise.  It used to take me around 5 hours, 50 minutes through Pennsylvania.  I wonder if that will change because I won't need to stop for fuel, although I'll need to stop for human necessities.

On the way back, I'm planning to photograph two Madonna of the Trail statues, to add to the other three I've already taken.  It's probably weird, but I'd like to go up to the little town where they filmed Super 8.  I've been wondering how it is to live near a bigger river, and I've been to a few points along the Ohio River in the past year.  It's a trip.  I might as well indulge myself.

I arrived in the motel in Bensalem, PA just minutes outside Northeast Philly.  Sprint's WiMAX is working at 9.9 Mbps accord to the test I just did, which is better than what Red Roof Inn is providing.  I'm glad to see that a technology that people call "useless" and "old" and "pathetic" is doing so much better than the up-to-date technology I don't have.

The car topped out at 48.8 mpg.  I filled up at London, OH, about 80 miles from home, and the car showed 500.2 miles with nearly 1/4 tank remaining, which suggests 664 mile range, instead of the 592 mile range based on the EPA rating of 42 mpg.

Performance, thy name is...diesel?

On Friday, I was missing some local high school basketball to photograph, so I decided to look at games further away that were interesting.  I picked one near the southern point of Ohio, near the Ohio River.  It was three to four hours' drive from home.

Being that I no longer use gasoline, diesel fuel drives a lot more thinking.  Where is the nearest fuel?  Do they have the correct fuel?  Will I arrive before I run out?  Considering that the estimated distance for a tank is nearly 600 miles and I've made it a bit over 400 miles on my gasoline-powered car, I don't really have to worry.  The smaller towns will have diesel fuel but the pumps are sometimes hidden.  I remember when the Mercedes 300D and the VW Rabbit Diesel were available and a few filling stations added a diesel fuel pump to the side, so it wouldn't be in the way.

The other day, I was looking for fuel and every pump I wanted to use only had gasoline.  I finally gave up on the town and returned home on the half tank I had, even though I was really wanting to gauge the fuel economy.  On the way home, I found that the Golf TDI was much more capable than most any car I had driven on that hilly, curvy road I had been using for years.  What was 55 mph in one car had become 65 mph in another and 80 mph seemed very possible in this one because 70 felt like nothing.

So, when Friday came, I filled the tank and went for a long drive across the state of Ohio, seeing the U.S. 35 expansion that had been done a while back to provide truckers a more direct route from coal country in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia to Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, Ohio, and to cities in Indiana.  It was much as you would expect an interstate highway to provide without the fancy name and new road.

As I moved closer to my destination, I took various state roads which were not quite so straight or wide but serviced the situation well enough.  I was nervous about the weather--when you live in an area prone to ice, the freezing point becomes a huge issue in driving.  The high school was on the edge of a national and a state forest.  I was somewhat amused to find that my phone lost reception as soon as I turned off the road.  Of course, do students need mobile phone reception at school?  No.

In any case, I was early, wasted some time, and returned to the school, still a bit early.  I photographed two games, talked to a couple of people, and hopefully, left people with a good impression.  Since I was leaving at 9 p.m., my best hope for an arrival time was midnight and the worst would probably be 1 in the morning.

Since the temperature had dropped a bit, I went south to U.S. 52, which more-or-less follows the Ohio River.  There are a lot of small towns.  I travelled it about 1.5 times, since I had turned to use U.S. 68 or some other on my previous return north.  This time, I found myself on this two lane road driving 75 mph easily--it felt like 50 mph.  I panicked a few times after seeing the number, even though the car didn't.  Of course, it was a long drive home.  What's worse, it wasn't so easy to go north of Cincinnati because it said I-275 east and west.  I-275 west went into Kentucky after the Cincinnati Corp. Limit sign.  Weird!  It was a few miles to I-71/I-75 so that wasn't a problem and I got to see the Cincinnati skyline (no chili, just skyline!) from the Kentucky hills.  If you ever saw the tv show "WKRP in Cincinnati", they showed a similar view with the Central Trust sign and all.

I arrived home about 1 a.m., not so tired, and with about 100 miles' worth of fuel remaining.  According to my Road Trip app, I only got 40.85 mpg but that's almost the estimated 42 mpg that VW and the government state.  That figure probably does not account for fun.

Also, this evening, I was driving from my friends' Chinese restaurant to Target and there is a small expressway in-between the two.  I happened upon one of those NOISY Honda Civics with the performance muffler that generates an extra 1 HP and loads of noise.  I ended up right next to him at a stop light just before the expressway began.  He decided to show me how wonderful his car was.  So, with not much in front of me, I put my foot halfway down and he disappeared.  I let off the pedal and he came back after a while and they looked over at me, as I was laughing about it.  "Dude, you just got smoked by a diesel."  :-D  Apparently, there were four of them travelling together.  I had already noticed an older VW Jetta with the VR6 engine ahead of me at some point.  I suspect that they have a bit more respect for diesel-powered cars now.  I do.

Returning home: thought I was doing 65 mph, but I was doing 90 mph!  This car feels so stable and assured, similar but different to my 1990 VW Corrado.

Update 2014.05.15: The car has over 32,000 miles now.  I took it for the 30,000 mile service about two weeks ago.  It still does quite well, and much better than I would have expected, but may I just drive more than most.   People told me how the engine would practically not run, if I didn't drive it long distances as though it was a semi-truck/tractor without the trailer.  I'm not sure it's as happy as it was, but then, I've become accustomed to it.

I drove it back to photograph basketball January 31 and February 1 in that same area.  The weather was warmer on Saturday--around 60 degrees F, but by the time I arrived home, it was only 34.  The car performed well, but I was antsy and slowed down this time.

Since I've had the car, I've been surprised over and over how well it accelerates and handles the real world overall.  I was surprised to see over 50 mpg but that only happened briefly, with 47-48 mpg a regular occurrence.  I could see many more people buying these and maybe, I'd have to wait behind diesel users for the diesel pump, instead of the gasoline users.

Volkswagen service

I'm on my fourth VW, a 1999 Golf GLS with just over 140,000 miles.  It's been through the wringer, so to speak.  I spent over 30 visits because the power window regulator clips failed and the window would not close.  I have a new hatch in the back because of someone's carelessness when she ran into my car at a stop light.  Inside, things just fell apart.  Recently, the sunroof drains clogged and water was exiting through the door trim.  The center armrest door fell apart.  It continues.

On the 12th of November, I had the car serviced.  I was late for a major service, which was at 120,000 miles.  Many things needed to be handled.  When I made the appointment, I had requested that the forward side marker light be repaired, as it had been hanging.  King's VW of Loveland, Ohio missed the hanging light in their several walk-around inspections, but they noticed the missing radio antenna--a huge safety risk.

When the survey arrived and I completed it, the manager replied at how that side marker light had been repaired--as if they'd done exactly as they should have.  If they had, it would have been repaired on my initial visit, instead of focusing on the missing radio antenna.  I actually travel past another VW dealer to go there because the closer one is not as highly rated.  If haphazard care is what you get, why not go to the closer one, unless they really don't care about anything?

On the 17th of November, I was with friends in the Orlando, Florida area.  As I was leaving their house, the low beam headlight on the driver's side was out.  One of those had died about the same time four years earlier.  Unfortunately, there is one that is easy to replace and the other requires removing things to get to it.  (Volkswagen must think like GM or Ford.)

I really didn't want to mess too much, and I went to an Advance Auto Parts, thinking that their people might know immediately or be able to help me.  "We don't do that!" I was told in a most rude tone.  They replace wiper blades and batteries but not headlight bulbs.  Okay, fine, but rudeness, really?

I went down the road to David Maus VW.  They were new in 2008 when I was leaving the area.  I had been dealing with Aristocrat VW from buying the car through service for it.  At one point, they replaced their entire service department and they were no longer trustworthy.  However, David Maus dealerships were an unknown.  He was on tv telling people "whatever it takes" and I thought that he was just another one who couldn't be trusted.

So, I walked into the service department a few minutes early on Sunday morning.  The service advisor was quite pleasant, and patient as I explained things.  He quoted $59.95 for the bulb and labor.  If it was on the easy side, that was overpriced.  I also mentioned that my radio antenna was falling apart and I needed a replacement.  He would ask parts about that.

Quite a while later, he told me that they were close to finishing and the radio antenna would be $79.95 (I expected $39.99 - $49.99)  and they didn't have it in stock.  He suggested eBay.  That sounded better.  I had bought a universal kit for $9.99 and I couldn't fit the pieces together.  I am able to do IKEA or other do-it-yourself furniture but I'm not mechanically-inclined.

On checkout, he said that he went "to the back" and found "old antennas" and replaced mine for free.  I'm sure I thanked him, but my cynicism kicked in and I thought that it was some sort of gimmick to get my trust.  It was certainly better than Jimmy Bryan Mazda breaking something on my car so I'd have to return.

In the end, it worked out quite nicely because the radio antenna balanced the bulb being on the easy side.  If it wasn't, then, I really do owe the dealership some loyalty but they'd have that already for not being rude, and doing a good job.

Strangely, I got a call the next morning from a salesperson.  I say strangely because I was about 1000 miles from home.  Do people keep their car titles with them?  If I was buying a car locally, it would make sense.  I would go home, retrieve it and make progress in the sale.  I suppose I could just abandon my car 1000 miles from home, or give it to strangers.  In any case, I thought that it was amusing that they would attempt a sale from someone visiting the state.

Thinking back to my first two VWs, I used to get a lot of smart ass remarks from the dealerships.  Al Holbert, who raced Audi cars, had a Porsche/Audi/VW dealership in Warrington, PA.  I took my 1986 VW GTI there at around 30,000 miles for brake work.  It needed the two front brake rotors replaced.  I asked politely "What makes that happen?" and the service advisor answered "your foot".  He had a long day?  I had a long day!  If VW was doing surveys at that point, he'd get the opposite of a "Truly Exceptional".  I'd never had a car that needed rotors replaced at 30,000 miles.  That was exceptional.

You'd think if you were paying exceptionally high prices for service--the rates were often the same no matter the manufacturer--that you'd be getting people working between you and the mechanics who knew how to not infuritate customers.  Sure, Porsche hourly rates were nothing compared to Rolls-Royce but my car was about 25 % the price of the nearest Porsche model.

I'm guessing I'll be at a Subaru or Mazda dealer once I decide where I'm going to live next.  I can't just buy a car any longer.  There are no 50 state cars now, unless diesel cars fit that.

Update 2013.01.27: So, I just had the strangest experience this week.  The car was overheating in 17 degrees Fahrenheit weather.  I drove the car too far trying to get it home.  I was going to put water in it, but the water bottles I kept in the car were frozen solid.  The next morning, I had the car towed to Expert Tire, since 60 miles to a VW dealership was inconvenient.  They pulled things apart and found a distribution point that had cracked.  Why it was plastic is beyond me.  Given the state of extremes in weather and coolant temperatures, I thought the parts would be made of metal. They received a replacement part, which wasn't correct, and later that day received the correct part since they could send it back and match it.  The pressure test revealed no other issues.  I had the oil changed due to the extraordinary heat--all those adverts about engine heat breaking down oil got to me.

I ended up with a rental car from Hertz--not recommended too much--and have definitely decided against a Toyota Corolla.  My arms aren't long but the door was designed for someone with excessively short arms, as the controls and door handle were several inches back of what seemed natural.  What's more, I'm half-Japanese, so the car should fit me fairly well.

I've been considering a new car more and more, especially since my mum's house sold and I have the cash.  A reasonably local, highly-rated Subaru dealer has some Impreza Sport models at a reasonable price.  I also found a couple of 2012 VW Golf TDI leftovers at the dealership that does my service.  The discounts put them at almost acceptable prices.  They're all over $20,000--a line I'd never crossed in the past.  I also wanted to look at Mazda 3, but given the dealerships wanting to charge extra or play games, I'm not likely to bother.  Plus, I want a car I can keep in California and the diesels are ULEV II-compliant, and that's huge.  Will they last 14 years as my current Golf is approaching that age?  Will they be as shabby?  I'm concerned.  The Subaru Impreza is a more reliable choice, but will it have an emotional resonance?

Update 2013.07.17: I bought the VW Golf TDI and I've even been through the 10,000 mile service.  Since there wasn't anything really wrong with the car, it went smoothly and it was inexpensive for them and at no cost to me.  There is another service at 20,000 miles and I'm only about 4000 miles from that now.  I might have to have that done while I'm on a trip somewhere else.

Update 2014.11.14: I'm over 40,000 miles now, and it's been relatively fine, except for a botched 20,000 mile service (pinched the fuel filter--didn't reimburse me for the fuel) when I was on the road back in August 2013.

Now that I'm living in Northern California, I'm happy to have found a great service department within 15 miles or so.  There are three VW dealers within that distance, but only one is great.  They mentioned that they have customers from the San Francisco Bay Area.  That seems impressive.  You would think that they'd have great dealerships in a large metropolitan area but this one is in a small city of 200,000 people.

Waze is cutesy mapping and navigation

Crowdsourcing is something fairly new.  It requires everyday people to help supply information.  Waze, the maps and navigation utility app, uses crowdsourcing to get the job done.

Since I've been on a trip from Eastern Indiana to the Orlando, Florida area, I thought I'd try the app on iOS.  A lot of people raved about it before Apple brought their new maps to iOS, and since then, the suggestions have become a call to arms, virtually.

So, here I was on a trip I estimated at about 1000 miles one way.  I've driven it probably 12 times and lived in the Orlando area for 11 years, so there was hardly a chance of being truly lost, and that's a good time to try something new.

I was somewhat amused by the marshmallow like character with the teething device to show a newbie.  There are many different levels of users.

As I drove from my town to Hamilton, OH a couple of times, and then, to Cincinnati, it was somewhat helpful.  Of course, the maps will allow you to see the roads ahead, so you can make wiser decisions about lane changes before you try to cross 3 lanes full of traffic to make your turn on time.

I noticed a couple of problems:

• At an intersection, it will sometime ask you if you're in traffic, when you're stopped at a red light "We detected a slowdown.  Are you in traffic?"  They need a red light button to tap.
• It often changes the orientation 90 degrees and then, to 180 degrees from your actual orientation, showing you headed from whence you came.  Of course, it flips you back when you start to move.  It's rather dis-orienting.

Driving from Cincinnati, OH on the trip to Chattanooga, TN, I didn't notice much of a problem.  You can warn of objects on the road, on the side of the road, and also warn of police.  Considering shredded tires and cars slightly off to the side, this can be advantageous, especially in pouring rain and darkness.  I've noticed that the police are sometime not where it says that they are, so maybe the police are using the app too?

Most of my experience from Chattanooga to Orlando, FL was similar until I left I-75.  I had not lived in the area for four years, and I wasn't sure that the tolls hadn't increased a great deal.  Remembering that they didn't take bills over $20, I decided to go toll free, even at a longer ride.

When I tried the navigation, just outside Orlando near Ocoee, it gave me two options: use Florida's Turnpike or use Florida's Turnpike.  I didn't investigate further for the same reason.  It never gave me an option to take a local road, and I couldn't just tap "No tolls" or "Local roads only" because there was no such option.  You can go into settings and choose to not use toll roads.  That will work fine in Florida but getting across Pennsylvania is tough without the PA Turnpike.

I asked a question in the forums, especially after I ended up taking the toll road partway and it was directing me toward an exit that was marked electronic tolls only.  The first answer I got was rude, like "It's not an auto pilot.  You need to use your brain."  That's a great first impression.  (My second impression of him was worse.)  I've been using navigation apps for 6 years and someone (who was an area Waze manager), tells me I'm an idiot for expecting an app not to give me ridiculous information.  I guess because it's free, I should give it more latitude?  Telenav gave me bad advice and I had to ignore it also, since I was going in the correct direction.  (Why does Telenav always start by telling me to "turn around"?)  In any case, had I no clue about Florida's Turnpike, I might have trusted the app.  Instead, I took an exit I knew to be safe.

If this is all about the people, and there are so many smartasses using the app, I think there isn't much reason to expect real help.

I was interested but now, seeing that it's cute and amateur-ish, I'm inclined to just use Telenav again, regardless of their issues.  There are other alternatives also like Garmin, TomTom (suppliers of maps/map components to Telenav and Apple), and since yesterday, Nokia's Navteq mapping solution Here.  Eventually, Apple's data-conscious maps will work just fine.  Google's maps are still available through a browser, if I want to be at the wrong block on the wrong side of the road, wondering why the road name doesn't match.

I've tried Nokia's Here and it's not here yet.  I can't access my contacts and that makes it more difficult.  Obviously, nothing is great.

Update 2014.12.05: I've used Waze from coast to coast and it is good enough, especially after it was acquired by Google.  It has become better in searching for businesses, for navigation.  Reporting problems has become more useful.  I'm amused that it asks me if there is a slowdown when I'm at a stop light that is red.