When I talk about wanting to live in the 1800's, people are always surprised. A tech guy, an expert wanting to live in a time when the Pony Express was high tech? It's true I tell you. As much as I love technology, I also see how much time it can eat up as well. On our old fashioned road trip vacation, I took my laptop (used it twice for a total of about fifteen minutes), my GPS (used it once), my beloved Treo (used once, although I checked for signal multiple times), my MP3 player (never used it), and our portable DVD player (I watched one movie on it, but my son used it in the car while we drove).
I intended to use the computer more and submit Shotguns for our site, but wi-fi was extremely hard to find in the places we stayed and visited. And when I did find it, it was either for a fee or required me to hike to the hot spot…I didn't need it that bad. In fact, I actually enjoyed being "unplugged" for nearly 11 days and didn't miss Google, voice mail, SMS, email or any of it. I crave information and love the Internet for information gathering, but I also thoroughly enjoy exploring new places, meeting new people, and driving new roads (Northern Nevada is UGLY). I think that if I had the means, I would have no problem separating from technology and seeing the world in my Eurovan with my family. But since I don't have the means, I will continue to gather information on the web, SMS my friends, check email periodically, and continue to marvel at what technology continues to roll out every day.
Oh, one piece of technology that I did take and use extensively was my digital camera (Canon S2IS)…I took more than 900 photos of Oregon and Northern California…none of desolate northern Nevada.
