Because this is an adventure blog and I don't want to overwhelm you, I'm going to do a set of posts about our latest adventure. We drove from here in CT to Niagara Falls Canada for our two year anniversary and had a lot of great adventures there.
This post is going to be about tools that we used to make this trip possible.
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First, I guess the most important one is my Mini Cooper, Dante. Pepper White and beautiful, Dante has been far and wide with me and us and is always ready for an adventure. Mini Coopers are tiny little cars, but they have great gas mileage and have a surprisingly large amount of space in the back with the seats put down. I've driven on adventures to South Carolina with this car and two other people and even that was pretty okay. Two people is best, though, for a mini cooper road trip adventure.
Second, we bought a new Acer Aspire netbook (with part of my tax return - woot). Last long trip we went on we used a regular sized laptop and it was a bit of a pain in the ass. The computer wasn't the most up to date to begin with, and it was big and bulky in the front seat. The netbook is a great size for road tripping and is actually a lot faster than the other adventure laptop.
Another great feature is the webcam. Unfortunately, though, I haven't figured out how to record video with said webcam on the netbook. I'm not sure there is a direct way, I may have to download a program or something for it. Anyone had any experience with this?
One small problem with the netbook is the shiny, glossy screen - which can cause some annoying glares depending on where the sun is. We haven't had too many issues with this yet, but I'll keep you updated on future trips.
Third we got a new GPS system for the netbook. Last major road trip we used Microsoft Streets and Trips... and while the program did its job there were definite quirks that got on our nerves. Also, the actual GPS piece was a bit flimsy and eventually broke towards the end of the trip. The new system is the Earthmate LT-40 and looks a lot more sturdy. Also, it gives you an estimated time of arrival that changes per your speed and stopping times - which is AWESOME and makes me super happy. It also seems a lot easier to plan a trip and change that route on a whim. Again, this was a short trip to try it out but I'll keep you posted on any longer journeys if it still holds up.
We also bought a power inverter for the car so that we could keep the netbook plugged in, which was extremely helpful and also worked great. I can't remember the brand right now, though.
Those were our main four tools for this trip and I'm glad to say that they all performed amazingly. Next up I'll talk about some of our adventures in Canada, stay tuned.
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