Great North American RV Rally a Big Success!

If you weren't able to get to Oregon for the big RV Rally last month, you missed a real "happening."

We thoroughly enjoyed the seminars, seeing the new rigs, the beautiful weather, the entertainment (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy), and the array of new products; but, most of all, we enjoyed seeing folks out living their road trip dreams - or trying to figure out how to do that.

We were fortunate enough to be in the My Trip Journal / Good Sam Club Personal Websites booth and meet many of you and talk about travel websites.  I always say they are like a blog on steroids.  They combine not only your journals/blogs, but also your photo gallery, a complete email/guest registration system, and it is all wrapped around a map-driven, visual representation of your trips.

Our seminar was overflowing the room and many people said it was one of the best seminars at the show!  Everyone wants to know the Secrets of Taking an Extended Road Trip!

We'll be adding to our journal next month on our east coast media tour.  Check us out on our personal travel website.

Happy Summer.

Phil  and  Carol  White

Can You Hear the Clapping for Rene and Jim?

Hi Carol,

I've been thinking about emailing you for a few days now, thanks for publishing a newsletter. I just wanted to let you know that Jim and I did it: sold the home, sold the business, and now we are finally on the road! We hope to stretch our budget to allow us to travel for at least a year, but who knows, it could go longer if our internet business plans pan out and we make money while roaming (see sites listed below).

The whole point of our trip is to travel across the US before we're too old, get our web business of the ground, and research places we may want to live in next.

 Our rig is equipped with a rooftop satellite internet system and solar power, so we'll be in contact no matter where we are between Alaska and southern Mexico! Our travel blog, tells all about it.

Thanks so much for the inspiration, Carol, it really was your book that got us going on the path. I hope we get to meet someday soon! I look forward to hearing more from you.

Best wishes,

Rene Agredano & Jim Nelson

Will Your Phone Become your PC?

As technology moves ever forward, it is becoming more and more difficult to tell what each technology really is;  but, I suppose the bigger question is – does it really matter as long as we can do more and more, smaller and smarter, with less and less?

JFor me recent 60th (gasp!) Birthday, Phil bought me a new Apple iPhone - I am drooling.  Now, I must tell you, I've never owned an Apple product before, so I'm not an Apple "cult" member; nor am I a "gadget freak" that has to have the latest and greatest - in fact I swore off these kinds of toys when I retired; but, I have to tell you, this will revolutionize hand-held devices -- and I don't own any Apple stock.  Hmmm, maybe I should...

This reminded me that I recently wrote an article about PDAs for Cyber-Sam and thought you might enjoy some excerpts from that article.

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The most common functions found on these incredibly small devices include a fully-featured phone, email, text messaging, calendaring, memos and to-do lists, and limited internet-surfing.  Newer versions are now coming equipped with added features and services including cameras, MP3 players, video capability, wi-fi, and GPS – all in the palm of your hand.

The biggest decision a purchaser has to make is what features do I really need and want.  Many of the multi-media features aren’t of the same quality as the stand alone products – at least not yet.  For instance, the cameras currently have no flash, provide low-resolution photos and very limited storage. So will that meet your needs, or do you need a “real” camera?  The other consideration is that some of the features have a monthly service charge to use them such as email delivery and web-browsing.  If you need and want those features, be aware that there are additional charges involved and the quality will be less than on your PC.

There are three types of charges that you need to consider:  1) the PDA hardware, 2) the phone service, and 3) data services (web browsing, email, voice mail, GPS services, etc.).  There are all types of service plans available, but be aware that if the unit itself is low-cost or free; you’ll be paying for it somewhere else as these are very expensive units to build.

The key to making the units cost effective for you is to realistically evaluate how you will use your PDA and what other costs it may be able to off-set.  The obvious one that can be replaced is your current cellular phone.  But from there, the cost-benefit analysis becomes a little murkier.  Will it replace your GPS unit?  Maybe.  How about your laptop?  Probably not, but it may allow you to not take your laptop with you on shorter jaunts.   Will up-to-the-minute email save you time/money or allow you to make money-earning decisions more quickly?  Possibly.

Some brands and operating systems can be synchronized with your home or office PC, and if the unit is equipped with Windows Mobile® you can read and “lightly” edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents right on the PDA.

Other things to watch for include:

·         Screen size and resolution

·         Battery life – this is critical!

·         Ability to view attachments

·         Ease of changing settings (e.g. font size)

·         Keyboard usability

What’s the coolest thing about having one?  Besides making you the coolest dude in the campground, it is being able to do so much with one small device.  It is high-functionality in the extreme.

What’s the worst thing about having one?  They’re addicting and checking your “Blackberry” every few minutes definitely makes you less than the life of the party.

Oh, and the other thing?  As soon as you buy yours, something even cooler and cheaper comes out. 

Where have your dreams taken you?

Please send us your travel pictures taken on your road trip dream.  We want to share stories of trips that were inspired by reading Live Your Road Trip Dream – Travel for a year for the cost of staying home.

Until next time.. Keep Dreaming...