Chasing a Photograph

Once my second daughter needed help and sent tickets for Bill and me to fly to Calgary and babysit her three boys ages 10, 3, and 1. It was our chance to complete the four breathtaking parks that together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the more popular two, Banff and Jasper, the better-known parks on the Alberta side, years before. Kootenay and Yoho National Parks on the British Columbia side of the Canadian Rockies are only 3 ½ hours away from their home.

They are all connected to Calgary through a section of the Trans-Canada Highway, one of the longest national highways in the world at 5,000 miles through ten provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We visited Kootenay and Yoho on separate weekends.  On the third weekend, we revisited Banff and Lake Louise, just 1 ½ hours away. We reserved the newly opened Glacier Skywalk on the Columbia Icefields between Banff and Jasper for the last weekend.

Having negotiated this highway many times, I expected each drive to be uneventful. On the first drive, however, I caught a glimpse of a scene that would haunt me through all eight drives to and from Calgary. There was this lone red car, rising on the road, driving straight into an enormous white mountain.  Sigh. I could not get to my Nikon fast enough; the strap was curled around my foot.

I resolved to be more alert, constantly looking for another chance. Bill welcomed the change; I was no longer the disinterested passenger. A little while later, another chance came but it wasn’t as magical. The car was black, and the road was flat. The following Saturday, we were back on the same road and got another chance! The mountain was more majestic, but the car was white, disappearing into the mist.

Frustrated, I wished we could just stage the scene! My husband reminded me that there were plenty of other beauties all around. I was thrilled to see an enormous yellow truck blazoned against the gray mountains. White fluffy clouds cavorted with the snowy peaks for a mystical effect. A colorfully painted train ruffled against the Rockies’ skirts. Curvy pedestrian bridges punctuated the highway humdrum. There was the ubiquitous RV, in all shapes and sizes. Occasionally, a red-roofed log cabin enlivened the greens. The Canadian Rockies are such a special place. But I felt empty-handed when I got home.

On the last weekend, a snowstorm was forecasted. But we still went and stayed at Canmore, the town before Banff, for the night, hoping the weather would clear. It didn’t. I hated the cold, but it was our last weekend. The way to the Glacier Skywalk through the Icefields yielded zero results. When we reached the highest elevation, more than 6,000 feet, endless rows of frosty evergreens gave me a wonderful Christmas…in June! Was that going to be my saving grace?

But on our final drive home, the gods granted my wish. Although the car was not red and low-lying clouds covered the mountain, the road had a slight rise that recreated the magic I saw the first time. On the rest of the road back home, we tried to outdo each other with the titles I could use when I entered the photo in Viewpoint's Photo Show: Into the Mist, Into the Clouds, Into the Unknown. I was sure my photo would get a lot of nods because it evokes all sorts of feelings: why we drive beyond the mountains, beyond the ordinary, beyond the obvious.

It doesn’t matter how many times I go back to the same place. It doesn’t matter if I drive the same old road. Something else will catch my fancy. I am free to listen to whatever my heart whispers. Even if it’s just chasing a photograph.

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Telling Stories Better than Words Can Ever Weave

Telling Stories Better than Words Can Ever Weave

Little did I know that my third try at marriage would bring out 

my passion for telling stories through travel, words, and yes, even pictures.

Telling Our Stories

After we married, Bill bought an RV, and we went full-time RVing for a total of eight years.  He had the foresight to buy not just a huge GPS but also a Nikon DSLR. On this my third try, I was given the tools with which to give life to previously unspoken passions. He became my travel buddy; he painstakingly edited my blog posts; and he gifted me the cameras with which to take pictures. As someone said: "Once you learn to care, you can record images in your mind and film. There is no difference."

Winning Photo Contests

After completing five years of RVing when we turned 65 and 70, our bodies told us to find more convenient ways of traveling. We turned to snowbirding in Phoenix, Arizona during winter, traveling the world and visiting our children the rest of the year.   

Resort living became our lifestyle between trips. Four pools, six hot tubs, two saunas, ten tennis and ten pickleball courts, two golf courses, a shuffleboard court, a softball field, a billiards hall, many hobby and crafts rooms, a dance studio, a computer lab, many meeting rooms, three clubhouses, three ballrooms, a Pub & Grill. etc. made sure of that. In the fourth year, we sold our RV and bought a home for a base. Part of the draw was some 50 clubs. One of them, the Viewpoint Photography Club, became my favorite.

In my very first year of joining the annual Viewpoint Photo Show, I won Best of Show, People’s Choice, and Judges’ Choice in the Bronze Division with my photo of the Blue Doors of Tunisia. Beginner’s luck! I was immediately bumped into the Silver Division and the competition became stiffer. Still, in the following years, I kept on winning more. Seeing that my passion had grown, my husband upgraded my tools and gifted me with a Sony mirrorless digital camera to replace the bulky Nikon DSLR of 8 years.

Making Stories Deeper

Beginning in 2019, we took comfort travel up another notch and made Mexico our second home through our El Cid Vacations Club timeshare. From January 1 to March 31, when it turns "cold" in the desert, we stay at one of their resorts either in Mazatlan or Cancun. We stay in our Arizona base during spring and fall. In the hot summer months, we use our two other timeshares and visit our children in their homes, all cooler places.   

But I had to give up my membership in the Photography Club which operated during the winter season when all the snowbirds were in Viewpoint. I turned to photography basics to tell better stories, not to win contests. I resorted to natural lighting, good composition, and evocative shots. As I polished my writing into travel essays, my photos also began to tell deeper stories, the inner journeys.  

When Even Photographs Will Be Inadequate

Now we have reached that phase when we travel less. We are traveling more from our armchairs. Just in time, Bill has shifted me to the best camera phone on the market, the S21 Ultra. He said it’s time to capture life, especially family life, with more convenience.  

And I won’t mind if these Ansell Adams words come true: "When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." I thank Bill for my retirement life of travel, writing, and pictures. 

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Adventures with Family in the Mile-High City

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PAINTING OUR TRAVELS: MELBOURNE'S BRIGHTEST BLOOMS

The extended lockdowns have made me reach for things to do, especially because we have had to cancel our trips. In fact, I had so much time on my hands that I was able to publish a book about travels that run deep within us: Cruising Past Seventy. It's Not Only about Outer Journeys. It's Also about Inner Ones. But other hobbies have also taken center stage: cooking and photography. I have thus started three new series on this blog. I kicked off the first in my last post with this: Veggies from Other Lands: Air Fryer Vegetable Tempura.

This week, I begin the second series: “Travel Tales through Pictures.” It was way back in 2019 when I already wrote about photography in Remarkable Photos: Reliving the Story More than Words can Ever Weave. But there is another kind of picture besides photos. And it opens another way of telling my stories. Last Christmas, somebody in the family got a Paint by Numbers kit. My interest was piqued; I decided to try, too. But, I opted for the custom version where you can choose one of your favorite photos and the service provider runs it through their software to produce a pattern just for you.

Other people choose photos of their pets, their grandkids, or themselves as a couple. And you guessed it right. I chose to favorite travel photos, those that had excellently captured the intrinsic beauty of the places we had visited. I came up with ten, some of which have even won awards in the Photo Shows I joined. Surely, painting the scenes is another way to remember our travels. Yes, I can say it with paintings, not just photos! 

To produce my first one, I chose the simplest of the ten photos. It was taken in Melbourne, Australia where I spent a few months babysitting my youngest grandson (he was not yet two at the time) while his parents began their new life with new jobs and a new home after migrating from the Philippines. During weekends, my husband and I toured the nooks and corners of the city, all the surrounding towns in Victoria, the many vineyards, the outstanding beaches, and the different parks and gardens. 

Being an avowed xanthophile  (a person who loves the color yellow), I was hugely ecstatic when I was greeted with huge trees crowned with tons of yellow flowers everywhere I went. Before I had come to Australia, I didn't know that the country's national tree is what they call the golden wattle. It was my tremendous luck that during the few months I was there, they were brightly blooming! 

I have a ton of pictures of those trees but I didn't use any of those. Australia has plenty of botanic gardens and we were able to visit the large and diverse one called The Royal Botanic Gardens. That's where I found a large bush bearing flowers I have never seen before. The flowers had immaculate white petals punctuated by large yellow stripes. After some research, I found out that the flower is aptly known as Superbells lemon slice! Ordinary yellow and white combos such as you what you might find in daisies and plumeria don't catch my attention as these ones did.

I sent the custom paint by number provider my photo and then they sent me the above-framed canvass etched with the pattern. They also sent me two paintbrushes and 34 tiny plastic tubs of ready-to-use acrylic paints. There was no instruction sheet provided so I googled the usual steps to take and asked the family members who had done it for some tips. 

This was my work when I had used about 1/3 of the colors. By this time, I learned that going top to down and left to right made so much sense. It made sure that the side of your right hand does not smudge any new area just painted. Acrylic is easier to use because it dries much faster than either oil or watercolor. By going this way, by the time you go back to the top left with the next color, the areas you had painted with the lighter color are already dry.

This is the piece with about 2/3 of the colors painted in. By this time, I had learned that going from lighter to darker colors made cleaning the brushes for the next color much easier. It didn’t have to be extra clean since the lighter color would not materially affect the next one. I also learned how the varying shades of each color determined the effects. There was a science to the numbers! And I could work at my own pace, making and correcting mistakes. It was particularly instructive.

And the final photo now hangs in my reading corner. It was a good enough first effort to copy the original travel photo. The exercise made me comfortable with the canvass, the brushes, and paint as a medium. But a painting tells a story more than words can ever tell; more than photos can. Whether it be a calming beach or a majestic mountain, the painting may not be as realistic as a photograph but it reveals more of the traveler and how he worked with his own hands to put all the colors together.

I may not be good enough yet, in fact, I may never become good at all, but the process allowed me to relive the ecstasy I felt when the color yellow greeted me everywhere I went around Melbourne that year. Perhaps later I would gradually leave the science of Paint by Numbers as I move from one travel photo to another. First speaking, then writing, followed by photography, and finally, painting. My journey from words to pictures does not really take the place of my outer journeys; it wonderfully complements them.

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Through Our Hugely Important Eyes

"Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes,” Tarjei Vesaas, The Boat in the Evening

Except in little posts like this with a few images. As travelers and bloggers, we know how hugely important our eyes are. They give us both the details and the grandeur of each landmark we visit. Then they help us put the thrills and excitement into a few words and images. So I had always hoped that I would enjoy the benefits of good eyesight until the day I die. Last year, however, I turned 70. And soon after, age-related problems started to catch up with me.

Last July, while I was on a five-week road trip. during mass in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I noticed that, when I closed my left eye, the priest seemed so far away. It was scary. When I tried to read the words of the gospel songs projected on the screen, the letters were all distorted. That was scarier. I called my eye doctor in Phoenix, Arizona and told the clinic that, if I had to, even if I still had two weeks left on my road trip, I would go back. The nurse practitioner said that the doctor was not available until two weeks anyway. But she warned that if I see flashes of light, I should go to an emergency room right away. That was scariest.

When we got back to Phoenix, the doctor immediately referred me to a retinal specialist. His diagnosis: a full-thickness (Stage III) macular hole in my right eye. (The macula is the part of the retina responsible for detailed central vision). He ordered a vitrectomy and membrane peel. It is a delicate surgery that involves the suctioning of the vitreous fluid from the eye, repairing the hole with tiny instrumentation, and placing a gas bubble to allow the hole to close and heal and the fluid to refill the eye. There was only one catch. The four-month recovery period includes the first to second week must be done face-down. This is key to keeping the hole closed but anyone who knows me would say that is an impossible task for this Queen of Impatience. But that was the hand I was dealt. 

Vitrectomy Support Equipment

It is good that a company now rents out a Vitrectomy Support Equipment for $189 a week. It is a chair that allows face-down positioning to be bearable, even somewhat comfortable, seated or when taken apart, lying down. However, the surgery, which should have been done immediately the week after the retinal specialist saw me,  would have prevented me from flying (or even driving anywhere with an elevation greater than 4.000 feet, for three to four months because the atmospheric pressure may reopen the hole. Because I had to be in San Francisco Aug. 30-Sept.2, the surgery was

face-down recovery

to Sept. 4, the day after I come back,

The special chair arrived the day before we left so that I could have more time to set it up and get accustomed to it. My husband had it ready for me in no time. It even came with a system of reflecting mirrors so that I can watch TV face-down. That accessory let me enjoy the US Open from Round 1 to the Finals which my favorite Nadal won.

On the morning of Sept. 4, I was wheeled into the pre-operating room. My BP shot up to 160/85. It was a good thing that, when the anesthesia was delivered to my IV port, I fell into the twilight zone immediately. When I woke up, my husband was at my side, getting all the post-operation instructions and absolutely ready to take me home. We were ecstatic to find out that my face-down recovery was needed for only five days instead of ten.

Then the unimaginable happened. I survived the first day of face-down recovery on my chair and slept on my left side with my nose down. It required lots of discipline. But on the second to the fifth days, things became increasingly unbearable. My back started to hurt more and more. I could not sleep without the help of Xanax which my family doctor allowed me to take, together with Tylenol for the pain. 

Vitrectomy support equipment

My Facebook posts gathered hundreds of prayer warriors but it was my husband who was my angel. He gave me my round-the-clock medications and eye-drops. He kept me supplied with Redbox movies, his signature grilled cheese sandwiches,  fresh yellow flowers, and Ben & Jerry’s chocolate therapy ice cream (I finished five pints). Another angel-friend prepared additional dishes for me even if her house was very far from ours.

In short, I was well taken care of. But the boredom nearly killed me because I could not read well. After six weeks, when no further improvement in vision was expected, my optometrist took measurements for new glasses. I had read that patients usually improve to 20/40 but sometimes end up with 20/50 (20/20 is best). My bad luck is that I got stuck at 20/60. The hole repair unluckily left more scarring than expected. I now read with 12-14 font text against the brightest display.  And the distortion could not be eliminated.

But I am happy I did not lose my right eye's central vision. Statistics show that if you develop ailments in one, the other eye would follow, too. Our diet is now focused on eye health. I had eliminated eggs after my husband's cardiovascular problems, but I brought them back because they are great for our eyes. He also suffers from macular degeneration. And I have doubled our intake of fruits and vegetables, reducing meats at the same time. They are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants needed by the macula. Also important are foods like walnuts, wild-caught fish, and other foods that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. 

Our eyes are hugely important, especially for travel-bloggers like us. I had intended to release my second book before the end of this year but now I think I will only be able to do it next year, a full five years from the time I published my first. This compilation of not only obvious but also inner journeys is being completed while I am under this difficult adjustment period. It's hard to put into paper my thoughts. It's even harder to process the raw images from my camera. But the difficulty also makes me more highly introspective. So I promise to make it extra special with these new eyes.

As Marcel Proust once said: "The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes."

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Visiting Family and Making More Discoveries

Living in this big beautiful country allows us to settle where there are opportunities. Bill’s children live in Idaho, Colorado, and Alaska. My eldest daughter lives in California and a sister used to make Alaska her home. Actually, another daughter lives in Canada and the youngest lives in Australia. After all, it is also a big beautiful world! Having family all over allows us to visit many places and make more discoveries.

Denver, Colorado

Recently, we went to the high school graduation of Bill’s granddaughter Cassie in Denver, Colorado. It was an inspiring ceremony, there were joyous photo-ops, and lots of celebratory meals afterward. This granddaughter loves to visit different places, ever expanding her view of the world. We had cold May days with showers, however, so we went to the Butterfly Pavilion instead of the Wild Animal Sanctuary.

Rosie, the tarantula

my first ever butterfly photos

After registering, I found out I had the opportunity to hold a tarantula on my palm! Her name is Rosie and we learned how gentle these arachnids really are. Then we were led to the Pavilion. I was at first not sure if I would enjoy the trip. I thought butterflies, fleeting from one flower to the next, would be very difficult to photograph. Judge for yourselves how much fun I actually had. I was engrossed following them on their flights. Soon I became selective about the backgrounds, the flower, the leaf, or the ground, where they chose to settle, to provide great contrasts in colors.

This was a short trip since we had to go to the next family obligation. But, the surprise of surprises, the night before we left, it snowed…in late May! So we woke up to beautiful winter scenes right at the home of Bill’s daughter. The scenes at the backyard and in front were so wintry wonderful. And all throughout our trip down Colorado and even part of New Mexico, I could not put my camera down and even braved opening the windows to chilly air so I could capture the winter scenes better.

winter scene in May

Show Low, Arizona

When we reached Show Low, Arizona (to where my sister had transferred from Anchorage, Alaska), we found out that it also snowed there the day before. The town’s elevation is close to 6,500 feet…even higher than Denver at 5.280 feet. We were there for the housewarming of her home, now only three hours from our Phoenix home. It has natural wood siding, high vaulted wood beam ceiling, and huge windows all around with a large deck looking out to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

the forest from the deck

When all the cooking and entertaining was done, we set out for a pretty little hike around the Woodland Water Reservoir of the towns of Show Low,-Pinetop, and Lakeside. With an area of 18 acres and a depth of 20 feet, it was not even a mile of a trail but it was an easy and comfortable hike as the temperature had climbed up to the low 60s. There was even a covered bridge, there were people doing trout fishing with friends and family and children were frolicking in the playgrounds.

Woodland Water Reservois

We stopped at the Saturday Farmer's Market on the way home. And there we all went our individual ways to taste the food that was offered: Schreiner’s (Phoenix’s favorite and ours) sausages, spicy lasagna, and hearty crunchy tacos. But what I was surprised about was that there was a kiosk selling CBD oil-infused soaps (very expensive though). I was surprised because I thought marijuana use is illegal in Arizona. Upon further research, I found out that medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2018. Bill brought home bottles of green chile pepper jam, blackberry jam, and Asian sweet-hot dipping sauce. They are all yummy!

at Show Low's Saturday Market

The next day, we were already going back to Phoenix when my sister mentioned that Show Low has a Trump Store! Of course, we wanted to go…Trump is quite a character. It was the former headquarters of the Trump campaign in Navajo County. The enthusiastic owners converted it into the “only Trump Store in the country.” I bought this Adorable Deplorable tank top for a party and Bill bought a Trump Inaugural Mug for a friend. Also on display are four personal letters from the WH.

The Trump Store

Having the family all over the country (and the world) gives us lots of perks. Since we visit them, not just once but many times, we explore deep in the areas where they live. Each time we make new and exciting discoveries.

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Remarkable Photos: Reliving the Story More than Just Words Can Ever Weave

Somebody said, "Once you learn to care, you can record images in your mind and film. There is no difference." When I married Bill on a private cruise ship in Seattle in 2008, I was thrust into a never-ending honeymoon. After the ceremony, we cruised North America in an RV full-time. On this third try at marriage, I learned how to be a wife and an American. I was also encouraged to maintain a blog about our adventures. Since Bill also had the foresight to add a Nikon DSLR to our bag of essential tools, photos began to populate my posts (plus Facebook and Twitter).

The Wheel at Brighton, England

In 2015, after completing forty-nine continental US states, nine Canadian provinces, and six Mexican states, I published a book with some fifty photos about our love story: Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream. Later, we ended up snowbirding in Phoenix’s Viewpoint Golf Resort during the winters. But the honeymoon continued in faraway lands outside of North America. As a matter of fact, our itchy feet have already reached 30 countries.

The Close at Salisbury, England

Fish Soup at Enderun Colleges in Manila, Philippines

In the middle of all this, however, the inevitable happened. Our bodies gave us unmistakable hints. We needed to slow down and take more rests between trips. We sold our RV and bought a home base at Viewpoint’s resort living community with more than enough amenities to fill the time. Part of the draw was some 50 clubs. One of them, the Viewpoint Photography Club, became my favorite.

The club showed me how one picture could be “worth more than a thousand words.”. I was lucky the senior members took pains to teach me how to capture remarkable photos. I look at my earlier attempts and regret how I was not able to capture those scenes as well. Sadly, they are lost forever. Today, I have become increasingly proud. My photos can now relive our adventures more than just my words can ever weave.

Pelican at the Healdsburg Sanctuary in Melbourne, Australia

For example, I have this photo of blue doors that could very well have not seen the light of day. In 2015, I was advised not to proceed to Tunisia because a massacre of tourists had just been orchestrated by the terrorists in Tunis, the capital. But my friend and I had already bought nonrefundable tickets. So we did not listen to anybody’s advice. We still went.

My granddaughter Krishna at the Buckingham Palace, England

my friend the Kangaroo at the Grampians National Park, Australia

Luckily, another friend happens to be the wife of the former Italian ambassador to Tunisia. She told us to book at a little hotel, a former residence of a Tunisian leader, and to use a driver they know for going around. It was really a bed and breakfast tucked away in the suburb of Dar Said, considered safe by those who know. Would you believe that a few weeks after we left, another massacre was perpetrated by the terrorists? It was a miracle that we happened to be there during the few days of peace, at that little spot of quiet, in a strife-ridden country. My photo of the blue doors that led to our room won Best of Show in the first Photo Show I ever entered.

a hibiscus in Cozumel, Mexico

Today, we are “Cruising Past 70” in a slower, more relaxed pace, staying six months in our home base during spring and fall when the desert is beautiful. We go to Mexico, our vacation home during winter. And we take a road trip to visit our children in Colorado, Calgary, Idaho, and California, sometimes to Alaska and Australia, too. This gives me more time to learn more about photography. As I polish my travel essays, I hope my photos will also tell deeper stories.

In the steady march of time, as the photography guru Ansell Adams once said: "When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." That may be near impossible, according to Bill, but these words of wisdom will keep me grounded during our last phase when we will simply be cruising from a rocking chair. There my words, photos, and memories will keep me traveling in the landscapes of my mind.

PHOTOS ARE FIRST PLACE WINNERS at Viewpoint Photo Shows (2016-18)

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4 NEW WAYS OF UTILIZING TECHNOLOGY ON THE GO

I wrote about this subject at the end of 2012. Since then, new technologies have arrived, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of People (IoP). Technology is defined as the sum total of state-of-the-art means to solve practical problems. My previous article focused on RVing but, since we have sold our RV in March of 2017 and settled in a home at the Viewpoint Golf Resort, I  shift here to technology applications in general travel.

Wikipedia defines the Internet of Things (IoT) as the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, etc. which enable them to connect and exchange data with other objects within the Internet.  Now at 9 billion, experts estimate that there will be about 30 billion objects by 2020. Whoa! But why is this no surprise really? IoT is exploding because it enables many useful things: smart people, smart grids, virtual power plants, smart homes, intelligent transportation and even smart cities.

the pacemaker fitted into Bill's upper left chest area

Last Year, Bill collapsed in New Zealand (see this). Upon his return to Phoenix, his cardiologist placed an online heart monitor, an IoT object, on him before we went on our road trip to Pittsburg, Kansas. Because of the monitor, he was able to see how Bill's heart was behaving as we made our way to his 55th HS Reunion. He immediately ordered him to stay put in Pittsburg until a pacemaker could be fitted at a hospital there (click here).  Another good example was the gadget installed in our new car by our insurance provider. For three months, the driving monitor documented monitored how Bill drove. Because they discovered he has good driving habits, his premium was reduced!

Skyroam

For a time we still used our GPS because it had a wider screen than phones despite the fact that I had the Google Pixel XL.  But new cars now have the hugest of screens to which you can cast your phone GPS app.  The phone, good apps, and Internet on the Go guide us wherever we are so they have become indispensable. They tell us where we can find the food we crave for at the moment, the cheapest gas, or the off-the-beaten-path attraction, our correspondent bank’s nearest ATM, or even where the nearest law enforcement station is (although I hope we don’t have to need this). Internet on the go is so important. However, the technology that makes it work anywhere around the world is still quite expensive,  I think. Skyroam charges $9 per day or $99 per month) It's a good thing offline maps have become available and are, in fact, very useful.

my Sony a6000 mirrorless camera

I loved my Nikon DSLR. Photos I took with it won many awards. But it is so bulky I have always asked Bill to carry it for me. So guess what he did? For my 2017 birthday, he gifted me with the Sony A6000 Mirrorless Camera, the newest thing in photography. It is the size of a point and shoot but has the power of a DSLR! Editing photos is a hugely rewarding task so the proliferation of post-processing software has helped me a lot. But now, with the ease of taking photos, it is the storage problem that has become center stage. Google Photos helps me organize and keep all my phone photos in the cloud for free and Facebook’s Moments gives me cloud back-up for all my camera photos in addition to external hard drives.

social media

Finally, the Internet of People (IoP) follows the IoT explosion. When things get smarter, humans and things will cooperate in new ways.  Features of apps we currently use already enable us to communicate faster and better all at the same time even with the family in different parts of the globe. We no longer easily share just pictures but videos as well. Social media allows us to act singly or in groups, in whatever format we prefer, and to however large a circle we may want to reach. It is projected that messaging apps will render emails useless; some universities don’t give out any more new emails. Blockchains have enabled many things, including a Bitcoin economy. Who knows what else is coming for human transactions?

PINNABLE

After almost ten years on the road, we have many devices we no longer can do without while traveling. The laptop I use is more powerful than any I have used and yet is the lightest and smallest.  Bill and I are not early adopters but we certainly utilize technology as much as possible. In this lifestyle, technology has become our slave. But, actually, my slave is Bill because oftentimes, I do not know how to operate many of those gadgets...in the beginning!