Travel Technology

It's been nearly three years now since I've spent a significant amount of time behind the wheel of a car. Even if I have to leave the city I'm normally on a train or catching a ride to the airport. It's only when I'm out of town that I sometimes need to rent a car. I'd say that I've maybe driven a car fifteen or twenty times, give or take, since 2005. But some things have changed at work and I find myself needing to get to places that are relatively local, but aren't served by public transportation, so I've taken to renting cars.

In the last few weeks I've noticed that some of the technologies that weren't mainstream three years ago are completely accessible at this point, so I've started buying all sorts of travel accessories even though I don't have a car. For some reason, I feel like I need this stuff even though I'll probably never spend more than 5 or 6 hours a week in a car.

It started with the GPS. I realized that if I was in a car, there was a 100% chance that I was lost. By virtue of the fact that I was driving, I was either in another state or driving somewhere that I couldn't get to by train. I was constantly reading directions or looking at a map. So I bought a cheap GPS, which changes everything about traveling to places unknown. I'm still printing out directions 'just in case', but there really is a sense of relief, especially driving at night when you have no idea where you are.

Next I realized that I could listen to my iPod in the car, rather than taking a handful of CDs with me. People have probably been doing this for years now, but the last time I owned a car, I hadn't even contemplated buying an iPod. So I bought one of those iTrip type devices that allow you to broadcast audio at an unused frequency. Problem: there are no unused frequencies in New York. Other problem: if you're traveling long distances the stations come in and out so you end up tuning your iPod every twenty minutes or so. I'm assuming this is unsafe. My solution, however, was even more unsafe - just listen to the iPod with the earbuds in. Yeah, I know, but I figured that at night at least nobody could witness my careless ways.

Anyway, this week when I rented a car I noticed that there was an auxiliary port for plugging in an MP3 player. This was news to me. So on my way home from the last trip I punched 'Best Buy' into the trusty GPS, drove two miles off the highway and grabbed an audio cable. Now I can drive around in my rental car, juggling my GPS and my iPod, content that I probably won't get lost or bored.

Anything else I'm missing? What should my next travel purchase be?