Besides the usual packing, I've also been preparing some gadgets for the trip. The farthest I've driven thus far is ~460 miles from San Jose to San Diego; this trip is over 6 times farther than my previous "best". Here are some gadgets that should make things go little smoother and the trip more bearable:
Cell phone:
An obvious must-have even when you're not on a road trip. How many people doesn't carry a cell phone nowadays?
Garmin Nuvi 200W GPS Navigator (available at Amazon):
Handy when driving in unfamiliar areas. A quality GPS with good logic/software is important, though. You don't want it to give you funky directions -- one GPS I no longer own used to give the following direction when you're not supposed to take an exit on the freeway "bear right, then bear left". On every single exit. That got old pretty fast.
Midland LXT340 two-way radio (available at Amazon):
Walkie-talkies are great with multiple cars. Contact with the other car is (almost) instantaneous without wasting cell phone minutes, waiting for the phone to connect or worrying about reception. Supposedly these things have a 16+ mile range but I'm not that optimistic. Besides, you probably don't want to be more than a mile or two apart at the most when caravaning, so range is not that much of an issue.
Cameras - Nikon D70 & Canon PowerShot SD870 (available at Amazon):
To share with my two loyal readers where we are / where we've been on the trip!
iPod Nano (available at Amazon):
8 days is a long time to spend in a car. Besides music, iPods are great for podcasts. I saved a month's worth of material just for this occasion.
Valentine One Radar Detector (www.valentine1.com):
I'm not planning on blasting across the Great Plains in triple-digit speed, but it's good to have that peace of mind. Just in case. Yes.
Macbook Pro Laptop (available at Amazon):
For blogging, keeping my 2 readers up to date during the trip and keeping up with the happenings in the world. They have internet access in Wyoming... right?
1 comment:
they have the internet outside of california? what will they think of next?
add to that list: a system of smoke signals for when the walkie talkies run out of batteries.
maybe also a gps logger for your cameras, in case you get too lazy to write down where you're at when shooting :P
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