If you are going to travel solo, I suggest you run, don’t walk, to the nearest store to get a smart phone if you don’t already have one. This one small device is all you need to:
- Communicate with family & friends your whereabouts & your plans via phone, text, email
- Use as a GPS
- Find the nearest WalMart, Starbucks or Subway
- Call for help
- Locate the next rest stop
- Take photos & videos of your adventures and send them to family & friends to make them jealous via text or email
- Post your adventures to Facebook, your blog, etc.
- Locate the nearest gas station
- Determine the weather where you are & where you’re headed
- Surf the Internet to research highlights along your route, identify snakes/spiders/poison plants (just kidding or maybe not)
- Find the correct time
- Call for road service
- Set an alarm to wake you up (why???)
- Check your calendar for appointments
- Map out your route
- Listen to music
- Play games
- Follow the news (why??)
- Follow other bloggers
- Take notes
- Calculate stuff
- Use as a flashlight
- Google, Facebook, Twitter
- Orient yourself when you’re on a trail using the built-in compass
If you think this handy, dandy little device is too expensive or too frivolous, you’re wrong! When traveling/camping alone I use my phone as my GPS to locate state & national parks, to make camping reservations, to check the weather and road conditions, to stay connected to my family so they know where I am and where I’m going and so I know that everyone is OK at home, as a phone of course, to listen to music, to make notes for future blogs, as a camera (takes better photos than my cameras), to check my bank balance & even pay bills if necessary, and when I wake up in the middle of the night I play Solitaire. If you activate the locator on your phone you can be found if you get lost as long as you have your phone with you.
I also have applications on my phone for siren/alarms (hope I never need it), my bank, exercise journal, motivational radio, flashlight, Cracker Barrel (sometimes I boondock in their parking lot – did you know you can do that?), dutch oven meals, travel deals, national parks, games and much more. Everything I need fits right in my hand.
So do some comparison shopping (I love my iPhone) and then find a 10 year old to show you how to use it.
Wander Woman 