Progress

Paul and I bought our Winnebago Adventurer motorhome in 2003. It replaced our 1998 Adventurer as our permanent home after starting Barge and Breakfast in 2000. We lived in the motorhome whenever we weren’t in France, leading a totally vagabond lifestyle.

When Paul was hooking up the motorhome the other day, he remarked he’d found an old phone connection cord in one of the storage bays. It reminded me how much out motorhoming has changed from 1998 to the present. That phone cord used to provide dial-up internet, besides being our phone line. 

I still travel with an atlas and a “Trailer Life” camping guide, but they’re mostly as back up. When I want to find a good campground, I select a state and town, and study the reviews on RV Park Reviews at http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/Montana/West_Yellowstone.html

When one park looks pretty good, I get some more opinions at Trip Advisor, then look at the park’s website. We liked Grizzly Bear RV at http://www.grizzlyrv.com

When we need to gas up (which, unfortunately is almost daily in the motorhome) Paul checks out stations along the way on Gas Buddy http://gasbuddy.com for the best prices.  A 38 foot motorhome towing a Jeep needs maneuvering room, so he then often looks the gas station using an aerial map with Google Maps. He often does the same thing with campgrounds, to see the unvarnished images.

No more dial up for the internet. Instead, we can use the park’s wi-fi once we’re there. Or our Verizon phone will give us radar and weather, all as we move along the road, let alone use it to call ahead for a campground reservation.

I used to cram video tapes in the cabinets, loads of paperbacks were filed in every nook and cranny, and our photos were printed out in albums. Now we watch our movies on a tiny Western Digital box, our photos are on discs and I read on my Kindle Fire. Yesterday, an email arrived, notifying me the e-book I’d placed on hold at the library in Wisconsin was now available for download. Moments later, I began reading it.

Now that’s progress for you.