The technologies of RVing to-day.

I am sure we are not as technically fluent in to-day's world as some but it amazes me how technology and electronic communications will be assisting us in our RV travels for the next three months.

Firstly there will be weather forecasting and web cams. We are four days away from leaving and I can view the web cams on Interstate Highway 5 at Grant's pass - the pass between Oregon and California where we encountered a snow storm when we went to Disneyland with the family in the 1970s. At that time we had to drive out to the coast road to avoid the pass but our friends the Stott's who were travelling with us and were ahead of us were stuck in a snowdrift for several hours.

We will be able to connect to the internet to read news and Emails several times a day if needed because coffee shops along the route usually have Wi-Fi. This will not be the case when we are in remote "dry camping" sites in the desert in Arizona and New Mexico.  However we have to empty the holding tanks after a few days so that will mean going somewhere where we can connect.

When at a "dry camping" site we have a gas powered Honda generator (that I also use on the boat) that will provide us with 110V so that we can watch DVD's in the wilderness. (Another episode of Downton Abbey?!)

Other technologies on board include a TomTom GPS navigator. We found this invaluable last summer for finding addresses. One remarkable experience was finding our way through New Jersey to the RV site from where we could see the Statue of Liberty and from where we were a ten minute ferry ride to Manhattan Island.

Instead of carrying CD's to listen to while travelling we have many of them on an IPod which we can play through the RVs radio.  Talking books are great when underway. One particular one "The Anglo Files : a field guide to the British" by Sarah Lyall we particularly enjoyed and plan to listen to it again. Sarah Lyall was a journalist who used to write for a New York newspaper and married an Englishman and then moved to England. She very humorously describes many English habits, behaviors and customs that she had to adapt to. 

We will be taking less books because I have some on an IPad. Penny however still prefers hard backs.

I also now have a lap-top Mac Book Pro that I acquired as a family hand me down and will enjoy using that for writing and for internet access.

A year ago Penny was given her own IPad2 by the family when they moved to Ottawa. She has had this in the kitchen and she talks to the Grandchildren in Ottawa several times a week via Apple's Facetime (which is Apple's version of Skype).  Whether we can do this from the RV remains to be seen. Sometimes we have found that Wi-Fi connections in RV sites are slow and do not permit easy video communications.

Of course the RV itself has all sorts of technical things that need attention - a fridge and deep freeze that run on 110V and Propane, hot water heater that runs on 110V and propane, a Propane heater, Propane stove and oven, a microwave that only runs on 110V etc. 

You have to enjoy maintaining this sort of stuff if you are going RVing (or boating!). For me I call it "Occupational Therapy".