Seriously though, on our drive through the plains states this July, we found our iPhones indispensable, and we rarely used them to make phone calls. We used them continuously while driving for a multitude of other needs, well ‘nice-to-haves’, but they certainly made traveling more efficient.
We got into the car in Topeka and first things first, plugged in both iPhones to the power adapter (real-time GPS drains the battery quickly). Then we entered our destination— in this case a coffee house in Nebraska City. I think I even heard my iPhone mutter, ‘Really, I can find you coffee closer than a 2 ½ hours drive’ Next, audio of choice—in the morning, the iPod, so also plug in the line-in cable. And we set out on our drive north.
Of course, although I use the camera on the iPhone, I still kept my camera close at hand and as I love maps, I kept the AAA state map open on my lap. AAA maps are far superior to any state maps. Honestly I don’t know why all states don’t start with the AAA map for readability and then add their state ads to the reverse side of the map.
As we started thinking about lunch, we’d use google maps on the iPhone to search for a good sandwich spot. Turns out that ‘sandwich’ isn’t a very good search term to find the type of places we were looking for—a place with homemade bread, or hummus and cucumber or a specialty pita pocket with goat cheese. To find those types of places the keywords ‘café’ and ‘bakery’ proved optimal for us. Even though we were in the heart of cattle country we found fabulous vegetarian sandwiches every day for lunch—like the great veggie sandwich at Amanda’s Bakery and Café in Emporia, Kansas—all by using the iPhone.
Mid-day we might take a break for some geocaching. Again, we’d turn to our iPhone and the geocaching app to locate a nearby cache and set us on our way. Then late in the day, being Red Sox fans, it was time for the ballgame. This was the only disappointment in using the iPhone, primarily because AT&T’s data service is outstandingly poor through the northern plain states. We used the audio on MLB when AT&T was able to keep it streaming to our iPhones (rarely). When AT&T failed (most of the time), I provided my own audio version following the play-by-play. I will certainly never be considered for a spot in the WRKO booth for Red Sox games.
Of course somewhere along the way we’d snap a few ridiculous photos with our iPhones and turn them into postcards to send to our kids at camp using Hazel Mail—an easy and fun way to keep them updated on our whereabouts. We felt a special connection to our iPhone as we were uploading one postcard and were directed to ‘wait patiently.’ Sometimes, we had to be really patient. We uploaded a post card in Hot Springs where AT&T’s data service was very slow. We waited while we sat enjoying sandwiches at the Poet’s Loft. We waited while we strolled down the street. And then we continued to wait for the postcard to upload while we put our wallets and phones in lock boxes before our thermal bath. The last words on the iPhone screen as my husband placed it in the lock box were, “continue waiting patiently.” Then the metal lock box was shut, the box was slid into a metal slot in the middle of a bank of lock boxes, inside an office, inside a stone bathhouse in the middle of Hot Springs, Arkansas which rests in a valley surrounded by hills. I wonder how long the phone tried in vain to reach a signal before muttering to itself, ‘where in the world am I?’
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