Remember What It Was Like to Travel Pre-Smartphone?

What I remember:





The reality:

 

imagine like 10 generations ago where they had to travel on a horse caravan and followed a star. they don't get lost cus whenever they get tired, they just settle there with their fams.

 

....and you bred your own workforce and had 10+ siblings so it wasn't the end of the world if one of them died from dysentery. And if momma died from dysentery, daddy would just find a new, younger momma and keep on breedin' until daddy died from dysentery.

 

related

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Navigation_(The_West_Wing)

 

Before they were stars, Tobey Maguire edition

 

It's definitely easier now but ...I can do without with the instagram and tiktok clowns.
Has turned every destination into a photoshoot circus. Just go see and eat something. then go home. No one cares about your Vlog.

 

Yep, definitely remember having to pull over on the highway and fold out the map. I was the navigator because my older brother and sister were worthless with directions.

 

I just used a compass. If I was driving to a destination North, I just took the road that kept going North. I would eventually make it.

 

I am hearing y'all, but let me provide a counter-example where maybe cell phone travel is a lot worse and dealing with humans would have helped.

Was recently in a European capital with the Mrs., on a vaca, when the airline cancelled our connecting flight amid scores of other cancelled flights (weather-related). We waited in a long line for rebooking, but this airline official came out and said they were ending this service and that we should all just download the airline's app and we would get rebooking information that way. There was no reason to wait in line or call the airline or go to the ticket desk or anything else.

I thought "whew, I already downloaded their stupid app and have been getting notices like for the cancelled flight. No worries." But the airport's wifi wasn't up to the challenge of literally thousands of worried travelers hitting reload all the time. Just wouldn't work. And something about my iPhone, newly in a new continent, wouldn't properly use the internet without a wifi connection yet. But the main thing is: the airline never sent an update. We were basically stranded in this capital and found our own way to the next destination. The airline later claimed they rebooked us and that we "missed the flight," but the stupid app, to this day, never had that information. I'm still fighting with these euro assholes about this b/c they're going to refund the part of the fare for the connection and also cover our extra transportation costs... all b/c smartphone travel can really suck when it's all you have.

You haven't lived until you've tried to find a stinky bus terminal with hundreds of other airline weather refugees or briefly considered paying 900 euro for a one-way rental car to your final destination. Give me a drizzle-dampened, beat-up Rick Steve's travel guide 100 times over before what we tried. LOL.

 

Convenience > Money

which is really just:

Partner’s low anxiety level > Money

 

What? Are you saying take the criminally expensive rental car option? We took the bus, just like Jonathan Richman said too, and we met some cool people. Also added many hours to our trip and arrived at 3 a.m., but, you know, felt young and all that. And also, the Mrs and I had different seats and I got to hang out with a hot Danish chick who then kind of fell asleep on my shoulder, so... not shabby for an old American.

 

Nah, not saying the bus wasn’t a bad option unless your wife didn’t like it. But you spent the money to act rather than fret at the airport. Thumbs up.

 

20yrs ago I used to travel all over North Texas shooting highlights during the volleyball/football/basketball and baseball playoffs for the old High School Xtra tv show on Fox sports. I'd have to print out directions from maps online and take them with me. One day I went out to the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater to Shotwell Stadium in Abilene up to Wichita Falls where I shot highlights of a game and picked up more highlights from the local station and then back to DFW to edit the highlights for the midnight Live show. Another time I went out to Tyler during basketball playoffs, up to Commerce and then to SMU (with LaMarcus Aldrige playing for Seagoville). Those kinds of runs would be much easier today with WAZE. Got lost once near Evermen and a cop pulled me over for an illegal U-turn. He ended up giving me directions instead of a ticket after he saw my camera and I told him what I was doing.

 

The problem with this is unless you were on the ocean. I was thinking about this in New Zealand that the Polynesians using not much more than stone age technlogy sailed thousands of miles of ocean and settled everyhwere from Easter Island to New Zealand. How many of them never made it to land and just sailed past the horizon never to be heard from again.

 

It is your fault for inventing the cell phone.

 

I admit smart phone travel has really changed the way I travel especially since my network works in most countries. When I've been to places like the PRC where my network doesn't work it does feel odd and have had to use paper maps or even took pictures of my maps and consulted them on my phone. Last month when I was in Yellowstone I found that T-Mobile couldn't get a good connection in the park so I had to resort to using the simple map that came with the newspaper they give you when you entered the park. It did feel odd not being able to just check Google Earth but didn't get lost.

One thing that has really changed is the instantenous communication and being able to just call or text people back in the US even from New Zealand. The downside of course is that people back in the US can call and text me and I've had to field work calls while overseas.

Another thing is having a camera and being able to share pics right away. I was telling a college student who was working with us about the old days of making architectural site visits. For me my whole professional career we've had digital cameras but we couldn't share them right away and had limited memory. Now we can be at a construction site and take hundreds of pics and videos on our phone and send email them back to the office or to a consultant right away. The samething while traveling if I happen to see something funny or interesting that I think a friend might like I can just take a pic, text or post on social media it for my friend right away.