Goodbye, Stuff

I mentioned a couple of days ago there are some real advantages to travel these days, given new technologies that replace old stuff with smaller, more flexible and better stuff. Of course, these qualitative assessments are my opinions, and you may disagree. But here's a list of some stuff that I used to travel with that I have replaced with electronic or other updated stuff.

Film: I used to buy a dozen or so rolls of film for a trip of a week or two, and hope that the 432 pictures would be enough. Plus, I had to argue with the security guys at the airport about x-raying the film, and remember to never leave the film in the car during warm weather. This trip I'll travel with 8 or 10 SD cards for my digital camera(s) which will hold a couple of thousand images in the space of a single box of film I don't have to worry about overheating in the car, don't have to worry about x-rays in the airport. And my main camera - a Nikon D7000 - actually allows me to write the images to two cards at the sames time, giving me a good backup.

Books, April 2012

Books - my iPad has completely replaced all physical books, especially when traveling. I don't have to fill half a suitcase with books. I don't have to carry two books on the plane in case I finish the first one. I don't even have to buy the books in advance, as long as I'll have Internet access in some form wherever I'll be - I can buy a Kindle book pretty much anywhere in the world in about a minute.

Maps and directions - all on my iPad. Google Maps ( or comparable services) give me immediate access to road maps and directions. I've also downloaded maps to many of the Parks we'll be in and stored them on the iPad.

Itineraries, confirmations, hotel addresses, etc. - all on the iPad. No need to carry a big envelop with all that paper.

And none of this speaks to the almost-always-on nature of the Internet today. We have email, the Web, chat and texting, and things like this blog which will keep us in touch with all of you wherever we go. So while I will share the details of our plans with a few people, we will always be at the same place: the end of a phone call or receiving an email.