About

My name is Dave Meehan.  I am 46 years old and live with my partner [Melanie][1] in the UK.

2015 sees me viewing life somewhat unconventionally, travelling in our motorhome rather than living in our home, which has now been rented out. In the winter you’ll find us somewhere in continental Europe, trying to keep on the good side of the weather, or at least having some fun in the snow. We both love mountains and hills, both on foot and on the two wheels of a bicycle.

[1]: http://www.melaniedeegan.com “Melanie Deegan Sculptures”

21 thoughts on “About

  1. Hello Dave,
    I’ve enjoyed reading your adventures on the Ojos Negro vv and have a question. The husband and I are planning to cycle Jerica to Soneja and next day Barracas to Jerica. We’re in our 70’s and have cycled several vvs using Decathlon folding Hoptown bikes, only ever going downhill or on the flat! Is the Ojos surface in reasonable condition on these sections can you remember?

    I’d value your advice.

    Greetings, Jill

    1. Jill, thanks for the message. If my memory serves, most of the western part of the route was compacted earth/gravel rather than sealed tarmac, but it was in good condition and perfectly ridable on anything with road tires. Wouldn’t ride it on a racer. The eastern part was more sealed I think. There are some long incline/decline sections, whichever direction you are heading, but the impression is always flat. You just start to wonder why you are making slow progress after 10 miles of apparently ‘flat’ rail bed, but that’s the nature of railway lines!

      Its a great route, the western half has some stunning scenery, so much so that it made me go back again at the later end of 2013, although only driving through this time. Aragon is a region I will definitely spend more time in given the opportunity.

  2. Many thanks for reply Dave, we’ve now ‘done’ the via verde and had a wonderful time. We toured by car as well and Iike you discovered how beautiful Aragon is.

    Happy cycling,

    Jill

  3. Hi my name is Jordan I am from Kingsmead school and I am currently doing an ICT project. In my project I would like to use an image on this website. Would you be able to give me permission to use your image in my ICT course work? I would really benefit from using your images.

    Thank you very much,

  4. Hi Dave, am just wondering about Internet usage while driving around. Are you using your phone as a hot spot to access a mobile account for an iPad/laptop and how reliable and expensive is this compared to a landline? Am thinking of doing some extended travel in a van but not sure what contract or set up to have for ease of use and cheapness. Is this a hassle when going to Europe?
    Also do you charge up with solar panels or just plug everything into the lighter socket when you’re driving? Sorry if this sounds like a complete ignoramus!
    Thanks,
    Sam.

    Great sky and landscape photos by the way!

    1. Sam, sorry for the delay in replying. Get a ‘mifi’ box, this takes a SIM card so you can easily switch carriers depending on coverage. It provides a local wifi network for your gadgets. Also, take a look for long-range wifi extenders, there are now some especially for motorhomers, and allow you to reach campsite wifi or guest access on other networks from a greater distance whilst in the comfort of the van.

  5. Dave,
    Thank you for all your “techie” comments that you leave for other people to get support on Apple products!

    I have a four year old Apple wireless keyboard that I use with my iPad, and it has recently stopped pairing with devices! I have tried changing the batteries, and un-pairing it with my iPhone and iPad, and NOTHING WORKS!

    Now that it his stopped pairing, it is also not able to be found by other Bluetooth devices; when the power is turned on, the light blinks every two seconds, and nothing changes, even if you hold down the power button, and try and turn the keyboard completely off. It does not show up under unpaired devices on any Bluetooth device that I have found in the last two weeks.

    Any suggestions that you have would be AWESOME!

    Thanks for what you do, and your love for Apple devices!

    Happy vacationing and traveling,

    Eric

  6. The only way I could get my keyboard to reset was to leave the batteries out for about 24 hours.

    Only then did it offer me the option to pair by entering the passcode.

    All other options had failed.

    I think the cause was that it powered down completely before I could replace the batteries.

    At least it works again now :^)

  7. Hi Dave, wanted to thank you for the tip on ‘resetting’ Mac keyboards. It worked first time for me. I’d had a big problem with iCloud – kept asking me for my password for my iCloud email account and although that password worked on my other devices – MacBook Pro, iPhone 6 and IPad 3, not on my iMac. It eventually cleared after several re-boots, removal of some caches and a ‘safe’ reboot. Apple couldn’t explain it, but soon after, keyboard stopped working and wouldn’t reconnect. Checked and then changed batteries – all good – so resorted to a web search and found your article. Et voila! Thank you.

  8. Hi Dave,
    Agree with the above. Thankyou very very much for your generosity; Apple could learn a thing about customer service from you!
    We are also motorhomers and just come back from a month in Spain ( Navarre and Aragon) birdwatching and putting up with crap wifi so your advice on this matter is also helpful to us.
    Keep safe and enjoy yourselves out on the road.

  9. I have an Apple BT Keyboard that was paired to my Dell 7537 Inspiron Laptop.

    This week, I updated some drivers & BIOS using the Dell site and the Apple BT Keyboard quit working. I tried several internet fixes and none of them worked. Every time I tried to pair, the green light would come on but it would never fast-blink indicating is was ready to pair.

    After applying the steps in your article, the Apple BT Keyboard starting working and I’m back in business. Thanks very much!

    Chip A Barker

  10. Thanks Dave,

    Your advice on BT fixed my intermittent keyboard connection. Resetting, power cycling the BT with shift-option and menu functions, and forgetting then re-installiong all BT devices fixed it.

    Aaron

  11. Hello Dave!

    Also many thanks for Your advice to fixed my Apple keyboard connection.

    One small question:
    – are You traveling by motorhome in “hot” countries, like Spain, France, Italy? If Yes, in which time of the year? What You say about the roads quality and prices?

    Primary I am interesting in cuisine/cooking traditions and habits small places.

    Thank You for any detailed advice!

  12. want to connect, but your email address is not to be seen. suffering an apple and living in Algarve in winter to save the planet….return to France this weekend to go back to ‘a home’.
    No, I am suffering six apples and want to burn them all in a documented performance, but maybe you can suggest how to get a wireless keyboard to connect – it connects to the wrong apple easily, incredibly easy to make it connect to an apple that I doesn’t want….wasted just four days fiddling with this sort of crap. prefer to burn it all and concentrate on real things.
    Disgusted with apple for making keyboards with no switch on them. For making manhy things which have the AIM of making the USER think he is at fault. ie user interface is always the fault so we think WE are to blame.

    1. All Apple wireless keyboards have a switch, the newest keyboards have a slide switch on the rear edge, and the older keyboards have it built into the left/right edge of the keyboard (opposite the battery compartment).

      If your keyboard is still connected to another device, you MUST unpair it (bluetooth settings on the device, then remove they entry for the keyboard), or at the very least be well out of range of the old device (and even then, multiple pairings can lead to difficulties).

  13. Thanks Dave for the top tip resetting my apple keyboard, I was near ready to throw the thing away. Best wishes and happy travels
    Simon
    Bruton

  14. It looks as though you put up the post on solving Bluetooth keyboard pairing problems in late December 2018. I wonder how many people have benefited from following your tips since then. It is now almost two years later – 16 November 2020. It is a whole different world, thanks to Covid-19. Wherever you are in the world – whether it is in your campervan with Melanie or back in the UK, I hope you’re well and enjoying life.
    I’m extremely grateful for the tip on how to get a recalcitrant Bluetooth keyboard to pair up with a Macbook Air (2020 version). I went through all the obvious checks before I resorted to phoning Apple Support and then we went through all the obvious checks again – together. And couldn’t solve it. I’d almost reconciled myself to having to recycle all that nice aluminium and plastic and buy a new keyboard … and then I found your troubleshooting post on the web. I followed the steps you set out – and just as you said it would, the keyboard appeared in the Blootueth devices pane. What was missing had been found.
    Thank you and happy travels.
    Bob Evans
    Melbourne (Australia)

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for the kind message. The article is actually older than that, sometime in 2013. I update the article periodically as it helps to keep its relevance in search results. The page has had over half a million page views since then!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *