So let’s see… blogging…. Started off as a joke, “oh you should keep a blog during your cross country trip”, which a few people seconded on the spot, and then it really took on steam when Paul said “just go to blogger.com and sign up with your Google account”. Well sure enough, the geniuses at Google have figured out yet another way to make something easy. You put in your name, choose your address, and you’re off… easy enough… so here we go….
But before we delve into the trip, we need to take a quick detour and talk about technology. The Lewis to my Clark (what are their first names?) on this journey mentioned he had a paper he had to write he could graduate from grad school (really? Graduate from grad school? That looks weird.) in May. Simple enough, I had an old laptop he could use and write away as the moment struck him on the trip (Or, when he forced himself to do it, whichever came first.). I even had a Verizon Aircard we could use to connect to the internet and keep up with e-mail on the way. $40 at Radio Shack also got me an adapter that lets us plug the laptop into the cigarette lighter and we were no longer restricted to 2 hours of battery use at a time.
As we were packing the car yesterday, I hand him the laptop with the card. I don’t even think we got to Framingham before he proclaimed “let me see if Pete’s on G Chat”. That was 20 minutes into the trip. 2 ½ hours later we’re in Albany and he had caught up with friends he hasn’t spoken to in years, all because he could.
I mentioned the blogging idea and it was a hit. My blog became our blog, and it was great to have an excited co-contributor. As we neared the famous Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo corridor of exciting upstate New York (if you haven’t been there, it’s a must on any vacation list), the first blog posting began to take shape. Then more friends were contacted on G Chat, restaurants were researched, and directions were found.
So bottom line…. Road trip blog = 5 pages. Graduate school mini-novel / paper = 1 hand written page thrown together at the Denver airport before flying to Boston. Whenever you need to procrastinate, technology is there.
But it’s not just for procrastination. It hit me as I was responding to my 10th txt message yesterday afternoon (it’s really 50/50 odds as to what’s going to kill us first… my txting while driving or Lewis careening around 18 wheelers at 95 mph in the rain at night)… What did people do before all this technology? How were they able to circum-navigate our giant country? How did they stay in touch with friends?
As I was cleaning my condo in preparation for the movers to pack all my stuff, I came across some old cards from college. Cards from friends and family, addressed to a variety of addresses I’ve had over the years. One of my favorite re-discoveries was faxes I had received from my aunt & uncle years ago. It reminded me there was actually a brief period between postal mail and e-mail that fax was a valid form of communication. Type a letter in Word and fax it over the ocean. Simple enough. E-mail quickly took over and you just don’t have physical things to look back at after that.
But back to the here and now…. How did people drive across the country before, and this is only a partial list, iPods, cell phones, BlackBerries, laptops that connected to the internet and GPS navigation? And more importantly, how was Lewis able to reconnect with friends without being able to use GChat on the Mass Turnpike? Thinking of driving with accordion maps unfolded makes me wonder if those people wondered how anyone got by without printed maps. And the people before them if their Chevy Nova would make it up the Rockies. I guess you can keep going back until even the times of trains or horse and buggy. I’m curious if 20 years from now someone will wonder how people drove from Atlantic to Pacific having to stop for gas every 350 miles. Or without accessing every song in their library back home. Or whatever other invention I can’t even fathom right now. These are the things I think about driving across the lovely New York State Thruway. It’s a boring drive, see it on your next vacation.
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Let me tell you what it was like 35 years ago when we crossed from Montreal via Vanvouver to LA. First it was in a Pontiac Trans Am with no air conditioning.... it was COLD in Montreal and who needed air conditioning... it was an option and in Canada we laughed at the idea of needing to cool the air... any colder and we'd be ice sculptures with no progeny... so we set off after AAA gave us our trip-tik package... talk about a few trees of paper... we covered most of the provinces and many states... a box was not even enough to store our maps and books for sights and hotels... but one thing about crossing Canada that many years ago, was the understanding of space as we drove through the prairies without a house, without a tree, just miles upon miles of wheat and some flowers here and there... we sure have a HUGE country... the scenery mesmerized... I repeated the trip even by train and felt the sheer beauty and size all over again...
As for not having contact with family and friends since there were no cell phones and calling home from hotels and pay phones did mean "pay"-ing much much money, so you talked fast and saved stories for the reunion following the trip. And pictures were not digital, could not even be printed in short periods but you held on to rolls and rolls of film and hoped and prayed that you did not lose any rolls along the way... developing the films was another expense that broke the bank. And then you realized that part of the money went to the same field shot from the speeding car at every few yards... what were you thinking, anyway???
As for the lack of air conditioning... we did not feel the full effect of that faux pas until we crossed the desert in Nevada... try that if you want to know how perspiration makes you stick to the car seat. Heat from the outside does not cool down even if the windows are open and you increase your speed to over 100 mph... back then there were not many cars on those highways through the desert...
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