Road Trips & Special Events, especially since retirement June 2013

This url https://stewart.sdsu.edu/0mystuff/2013onRdTrips.html 09July2024; RdTrip refs, evolving digital tools Kris has been using;

Other personal history resources Timeline2 1990-2013; my collections 2019 Road Trips 2015 Road Trips 2014 Road Trips
PastBook from FB posts & OneNote Trip Logs Winter 2004-05 Rock Creek Lodge

I have Google Photo Albums going back to 1997, so this must be start of my total digital photo world. I have found, or scanned, digital copies of key events such as

1986 Glen Stewart surprise 35th Birthday album at Bluebird Cafe, Solana Beach, thanks to Gordon Sproul for delivering Glen.
Glen surprised by GunnarG FordM DennisD SteveL NoBozos was theme!
Summer 1995 Kris attends meetings in Washington D.C. and was able to visit the Iwo Jima Memorial, 07July1995

In 2013, Y swimming buddy Barbara Haviluk asked her husband Bill to email their "trip log" from 15 March - 10 April 2005 trip to New Zealand. Since Glen and I planned trip to NZed Jan 2014, this led me to start using Microsoft's OneNote to keep trip logs. Works nicely, easy to use OneNote on my phone & my notebook computer. Keep detailed text mostly while we are on the trip. Doesn't use up too much of the cellular data limit. Also use Google maps while on adventure, which is handy since the "timeline" keeps track of where we actually go. Pictures taken with cell phone have a time/data property maintained, if the cell phone is kept consistent with local time. Becomes a bother when you change multiple time zones or cross the International Date Line - see the Gmap above centered with the Pacific Ocean and the dotted line starting between Alaska & Russia in the N, then kinda the mid Pacific to the S.

Keep a screen capture of othe G Map at beginning of OneNote trip log, but don't upload lots of pictures while still on the road since it's much easier to sync the document when it is small. When return home & using my desktop computer, then add in pictures - easily done using their Time Stamp. Except NZed [14Jan-13Feb 2014] and Australia [29May-30June2018] cause we crossed the International Dateline. Another consideration is going to foreign countries, e.g. Britain with KPBS Producers Club, cause phone may not work. I purchase a cheap phone in the airport when we arrived and this provides cellular access for Google Maps and Microsoft OneNote. The tricky part is pictures. Either have a phone with a good enough camera, or bring a separate camera - i.e. films at first and later a digital camera using SDcard.

Another balancing act is due to the amount of wifi you have. I've been retired since June 2013 and quotas / costs is quite dynamic. At first, I could augment my ATT wifi with Verizon Mobile Hotspot. When you look at coverage maps, 2021 Alaska

David Pham, at the Encinitas Verizon store on El Camino was always kind to me. My phone service was thru ATT and it's "different" to sell a Verizon Data Plan to a non-phone customer. If David wasn't on duty, I'd have to do lots more explaining my needs to the salesperson. 150 GB was my request and salesperson was talking 5GB at first. DavidP would waive the ?initiation fee? and let me contact him via email david.pham2@verizonwireless.com Useful to show up with my previous device and receipt since these sorts of long road trips only happen infrequently. Had a variety of Hotspot gadgets - Orbic Mobile Hotspot $80, 150 GB data $100 Aug2022 - be sure to power off gadget when not using. Easy way to control your use of data! Also have had Ellipsis JetPack 3 month data 20May2021 for Alaska trip, $186 on VISA. They have to issue a phone number for each new gadget and maybe also new data plan.

For folks who rely on using their cell-phone as a mobile hot-spot, you'll be disappointed when you go camping in our National Parks, e.g. NPS, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone

Most recent access is StarLink. Several different plans available for Sattelite access to Internet, we Mobility. This has a nonsignificant startup cost, $2500, but the monthly service plan is attractive due to its "Pause Service", $150/mo. [unlimited mobile data inland (also available for boats), <10mph (16kph) in-motion]

Starlink is not free, but very handy and you only pay by the month, or partial month, that you don't "pause" the service. Remember to power off the inverter in our campus van Vivian, tends to suck power even with the solar panels on the roof and additional lithium batteries Glen has added.

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