Currently heading south through PA
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Nap time
Category: Trips
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We made it to Pennsylvania
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Breakfast in Irving, NY
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Breakfast
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Time of departure 6am
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Phone charging kit
Everything we need to charge our phones at night.
A. Dual port USB-C and USB-A wall chargers
B. Portable USB battery for charging
C. Permanent marker for labeling things
D. Philips screw driver for taking portable monitor off VESA mount
E. Apple Watch chargers (USB-C)
F. 10ft Lightning to USB-A cables for charging iPhones
G. USB-C extension cables (because Apple Watch cables are short)
Note: this case also contains 2 x USB-C male to USB-A female and 2 x USB-C female to USB-A male adapters
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Getting in the ocean spirit
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HDMI to Lightning Adapter
We currently have limited video sources for our HDMI monitor in the van.
We will have the Nintendo Switch, laptop and my iPad but they are not the most practical for dedicated video use.
I want my iPad and laptop reserved for my use (work and navigation) and since the Switch doesn’t play movies we needed something else.
Since I need to bring the kids’ iPad’s along anyway I thought they would be a good source for video. Unfortunately they, unlike my iPad mini 6th generation, have lightning ports and no USB-C.
Not wanting to pay Apple’s premium for an official Lightning to HDMI adapter, I bought a cheap HDMI to Lightning adapter from Amazon to solve this problem. It did not work.
After some more research I realized that finding a non-Apple adapter that actually works would be anything but trivial.
I gave up and went with a different approach. I am going to use a USB media player. I found a fairly inexpensive player that would do 1080p. The device was a few years old and did not support H.265 so I went with a slightly newer version that supports 4K (which I do not care about) and does support the H.265 codec. My reasoning for purchasing the more expensive newer unit is that if they claim it will handle 4k it should be VERY able to handle 1080p.
This dedicated media player has a few other advantages over using an iPad.
- It has a remote so the kids can use the device themselves – we only let them use the iPad’s in guided access mode
- It can play any content, we don’t have to worry about HDCP or other copyright protections.
- The unit is cheap enough that it can just live in the van
Hopefully it works as described.
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Revised Minivan Wiring Diagram
I’ve made some changes to the initial wiring diagram. By changes I actually mean I drew a new one.
The most notable changes are the inclusion of a USB media player inside the front console.
Also this diagram describes the device mounts and better indicates device placement.
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Hitch Mount Cargo Carrier
While I can’t say I love the food, I do love the conveinience of ordering McDonald’s ahead of time.
During a road tripAbout 30 minutes before our arrival, I will get the order all ready, asking everyone in the vehicle what they would like and then the moment we arrive. The order starts getting prepared and we are able to pick up our food or have it delivered to our vehicle in no time.
I never want to be the family trying to figure out what everyone wants in front of the cashier.
I want to use this same procedure during our travels as we will need some fast food during our outgoing and incoming journey . I decided it would be a good idea to test this out.
I tried to figure out a way to change my Canadian McDonald’s app to access US locations.
I tried searching for a US location in the app but could not. I searched Google, I tried to find a location change setting. I logged out and back in. I even tried reinstalling the app. I tried connecting through a VPN in the US and even turned of Location Services temporarily for the app.
It would not work.
I figured that the only solution was to install the US version of the app. This was not easy to accomplish.
I needed to created a new Apple ID with a US location which required a US phone number.
Luckily my VoIP provider could accomodate my needs cheaply so I bought a SC phone number for $0.85 USD/month and forwarded calls and texts to my cell phone.
During our trip I will re-purpose the voice handling of this number to make calls to Canada.
I finally was able to successfully get my US Apple ID setup with no payment method and logged in to the App store on my phone.
I then proceeded to download as many US based fast food apps that I could find.
I tested out the US McDonald’s app and was indeed able to find US McDonald’s.
I was able to add a Canadian credit card to the US app which was also a potential problem.
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Minivan Wiring Diagram
I have a few electronic devices I would like to use in our minivan on our trip.
The kids have a few as well.
Here is a diagram of all our devices and how will they be connected in our Minivan.
Cables
- 3 x USB-C Male to USB-C Male (Power Only)
- 1 x USB-C Male to USB-C Male (Video Support)
- 3 x USB-A Male to Lightning
Devices
- iPhone (John)
- iPhone mini (Leanne)
- iPad mini (For alternate GPS and/or movies)
- iPad (Movies for the girls in the back)
- Portable Monitor (for switch or iPad mini)
- Nintendo Switch
- MacBook Pro (for working)
Power
- 2 x 2 port (USB-C, USB-A) 12V adapter
- 1 x 4 port (2 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A) 12V adapter
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Weather Update
I know it is a little early but I don’t see any hurricanes that would affect our adventure yet.
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Data Roaming in the USA
Because of COVID-19, I haven’t been down to the United States for a few years now.
Before every trip to the US I would research various ways of getting low cost cell phone coverage down there. I have fond memories of surfing the web in the car on my HTC Touch, a privilege that would have cost me hundreds of dollars per month to have in Canada.
I’ve used prepaid AT&T SIM cards from eBay, SIM cards from the now defunct Roam Mobility and in later years Rogers’ Roam-Like Home. It has been getting easier and easier for Canadians to get decent roaming coverage in the USA. Rogers Roam-Like Home feature was by far the simplest option as it didn’t even require a SIM card swap; the catch though, it is/was pricey.
I am with Telus now and was prepared to just use their Easy Roam feature which gives me access to all my current cellular plan features, including unlimited calling and access to my shared data for only $12/day. This doesn’t sound too bad unless you actually do some math.
We will be in the US for 12 days and both my wife and myself will want to use our cell phones while travelling.
$12/day x 2 lines x 12 days = $288 CAD + HST.
I have a tablet plan as well and I am not sure if the above figure includes roaming for my tablet or not.
With the bar set so high I was pretty sure I could find a not too difficult way to get cheaper cell phone coverage while travelling.
I found several reasonable travel data eSIM offers, however I could not find one that actually included voice or text, just data.
Then I discovered T-Mobile and their wonderfully simple T-Mobile Prepaid app.
Their pricing is decent (at least compared to anything available in Canada). I estimate it will cost us approx. $130 CAD and will included unlimited data. I tested out the T-Mobile Prepaid app and It seems pretty simple to use. I don’t have to swap out my SIM card as T-Mobile uses eSIM. I can sign up in the app and it appears I can use a Canadian credit card to pay.
I am pretty excited to give them a go.
I spent a good portion of 2018 planning a trip to Myrtle Beach. I had every little detail planned out: where we would eat, where we would stay, where we would stop. I spent hours tracing our entire route, mapping out every single McDonald’s (for bathroom breaks) over the 1,500 km plus route to Myrtle Beach.
My planning was almost perfect, with one tiny exception who goes by the name of Florence.
I like travelling in September because places are less crowded and prices are cheaper due to most kids being back in school. Unfortunately, September is also prime hurricane season.
Our resort cancelled our reservation and we were forced to exchange my meticulous plan for a new destination.
We haven’t had a chance to revisit my plan due to some minor health issues and of course, COVID-19. It looks like Myrtle Beach will finally happen in 2022.
Next month in October (which is not prime hurricane season) we will execute my plan.
I am so enthusiastic about this trip I even splurged on a new domain name just for this trip.
Since things do change in 4 years (especially during a pandemic) I have had to make a few minor changes to my plan. A few restaurants had to be removed as they don’t exist anymore and I was forced to book a different resort. Apparently 1,500 sq. ft is not enough for 3 adults and 4 children.
Here is my updated Furkot trip:
View my Myrtle Beach 2022 plan on FurkotLast year hurricane Florence prevented us from visiting Myrtle Beach and this year Dorian might impact our Disney World trip. Perhaps we should consider another month for travelling south.
Assuming MCO opens up again before our flight, here is our 2019 Disney World plan:
Day 1 – Saturday: Animal Kingdom
Day 2 – Sunday: Epcot
Day 3 – Monday: Magic Kingdom
We only have a single dining reservation booked and that is for the California Grill on Monday night. Leanne really likes that restaurant. I like it too as long as I don’t think about the cost.
We plan to just do Quick Service at Animal Kingdom for Lunch and Dinner and then eat around the world at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.
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Disney World 2019
It’s been almost 5 years since we have had the privilege of giving Disney World our hard-earned money. We have been slightly busy birthing children and after our 2014 experience, we are pretty adamant about not bringing babies to Disney World. That’s still our policy so we are going back childless. The girls are still not old enough to get enough out of Disney World to justify the extra effort and expense. The boy is definitely ready but we decided it would be a little unfair to bring him along for his second trip when the girls have never been. Besides, this trip is actually counting as our 10th wedding anniversary trip. We are only going for 4 nights, so our park touring pace would not be suitable for children anyway.
We will be staying at Disney’s Pop Century Resort again. We thought about trying a deluxe resort since it is a special occasion but I just cannot bring myself to pay the exorbitant rates Disney wants for their deluxe or moderate accommodations. The cheapest deluxe I could find was over 350.00 USD and quite frankly I think the transportation options at Pop Century are far superior. Considering the amount of time we will actually spend in our room, paying for a deluxe or moderate seems insane to me.
We actually first booked a standard room at Disney’s Art of Animation for a bit of a change from our previous trips, but then switched to Pop Century when we realized that all the rooms at Pop had been renovated and Pop was $25 USD cheaper per night. What really swayed us though was the queen beds and the coffeemaker. On our 2013 trip, Leanne and I actually slept in separate beds as they were only doubles and I guess we like our space. We were too exhausted to use the beds for anything other than sleeping anyway. The coffeemaker in the room was a nice surprise and will save us from having to buy a coffee for $3.25 USD each every morning at Everything Pop.
We really have no complaints with Pop Century but we were looking forward to the Little Mermaid theming and food court at Art of Animation. We still may visit Art of Animation’s food court, Landscape of Flavors, especially considering that “some preferred Pop Century rooms are closer to Animation Hall (at Art of Animation) than The Little Mermaid rooms.”
Another big change for this trip is that we will not have free dining. Actually, when we booked a few days ago there were no discounts available at all for our dates. I’m sure this is due to Disney having no trouble filling the resorts in light of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening at Disney’s Hollywood studios a week before we arrive in September.
As I mentioned above, we are only staying for 4 nights which means we will only have 3 days at the parks. We will be skipping Hollywood Studios completely for this trip. I consider myself a Star Wars fan but I have absolutely no desire to battle level 10 crowds to see any attraction regardless of how spectacular it may be. Hopefully, Galaxy’s Edge’s popularity will result in extra low attendance levels at the other 3 parks which we will be visiting.
The absence of free dining means we will be eating at table service restaurants much less often (possibly only once) and eating a bigger breakfast instead of trying to save our dining credits for a more expensive quick service lunch. Epcot’s Food and Wine festival will be taking place while we are there so that will leave us with plenty of dining options at Epcot (not that Epcot has ever been lacking in dining options).
We have the California Grill booked for our last night as our “Anniversary Dinner.” We both really enjoyed that place on our last trip, especially the view. It will be nice to enjoy a meal there without an infant, although to be fair he slept through almost the entire meal.
Because math is fun, I decided to figure out how many times we will need to stop for gas on our trip down to Myrtle Beach.
According to the Fuel Consumption Ratings dataset provided by Natural Resources Canada our 2017 Kia Sedona LX+ has the following fuel consumption ratings:
City: 13.2 L / 100 km
Highway: 9.7 L / 100 km
Combined: 11.6 L / 100 km
Probably at least 95% of our driving will be highway driving so we should be able to do better than the combined value of 11.6 L / 100km. To be safe we’ll assume 80% highway driving and 20% city.
We’re also assuming a fully loaded minivan with 3 adults and 3 children won’t consume extra fuel.
\begin{align}
\text{ L / 100 km}_{combined} &= {13.2\text{ L / 100 km}\times20\%\\+9.7\text{ L / 100 km}\times80\%}\\
&= 10.4 \text{ L / 100 km}
\end{align}
The Kia has a 80 L fuel tank.
\[\text{km}_{total}=\frac{80 \text{ L}}{10.4\text{ L / 100 km}}=769\text{ km}\]
We can travel 769 km between fill-ups which is a 117 km more than the greatest distance we plan on driving in a single day. The estimated distance we will travel on our longest travel day is 652 km.
Therefore we can safely just fill up once per day.
[mathjax]
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Myrtle Beach 2018
Leanne and I have decided to take our three little monsters to Myrtle Beach this September. This will be our first real vacation since we went to Disney World back in 2014. We will be bringing my mother along to boost our adult to child ratio to 1:1 which should make the trip more manageable. The kids have never been to Myrtle Beach before. The girls haven’t even been out of the country.
The drive down to Myrtle Beach will take us 3 days due to the foreseen difficulty in transporting three small children. My very relaxed plan only has us being on the road approx. 5 hours per day. Driving non-stop would take about 15 hours but we will need a lot of stops to let the children burn off some energy. With this schedule we can essentially drive an hour and then stop for an hour if needed.
We could also fly down to Myrtle Beach as Spirit Airlines offers direct flights out of Niagara Falls, NY but flying with small children is something I would like to avoid as much as possible. Leanne and I somehow managed to survive flying down to Florida with an almost 2-year-old and we had a 2:1 adult to child ratio on that trip. Harry, who is now five, would be easy to fly with however, the girls will be one-year-old and three-years-old when we travel to Myrtle Beach and I know how difficult it will be flying anywhere with them. The amount of luggage and other baby and child accessories required for a week at the beach will be quite extensive. Besides the hassle of flying with little children I personally prefer the drive down as “getting there” is half the fun, especially the planning process.
I’ve planned the trip using a really awesome web app called Furkot, it’s similar in functionality to Google My Maps but it includes many more planning features my favourite being the ability to specify the duration of stops which allows for a very accurate schedule that can even be exported to a Calendar.
Disclosure: We may receive a small commission if you click on the Furkot links below.
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Mickey Ears
Finally got him to wear his ears