Yeah, Technology!

The last time I was in Paris was 1973, the next time is in 10 days. What a difference 36 years make!

Readers of this blog know that in 1973 I almost became trapped forever in a gasless VW bug in central France because I couldn't access any money. On that trip I also mailed letters home and received mail only when I had a semi-permanent address at the school I attended. My family certainly had no idea what was happening with me for weeks at a time....and if I ran out of traveler's checks I was totally out of money. If I lost my airplane ticket I was dead.

I spent a chunk of today finalizing plans for our up-coming trip. This involves checking web sites for information on sites, actually looking at the house we will be staying at on Google maps, arranging for cell phone coverage, telling credit card and ATM banks where we'll be, e-mailing contact information to family, and counting the euros I've bought from Jill. I need to remember to book-mark my web mail address and blog address on Ken's lap top so they'll be available to me. We won't be out of contact any more than we are in Northbrook and can access almost any amount of money 24/7. How bizarre is that!

On a far less exciting, but equally technological subject, we took the mini-van into our totally honest car mechanic today and got a totally honest answer.....Darn! The mini-van is not safe for Kevin to drive to California. It's actually not safe to drive in Northbrook. It's actually unrepairable! Looks like we'll be trying to buy a safe car between now and next week.

Ken heard this information about an hour ago. In that short hour, using Vehix.com, he has found a couple of relatively new mini-vans in nearby suburbs at cheap prices because Chrysler dealers have just heard they will be shut down and have to get rid of inventory. Ken knows the mileage, age, accident history, previous owners, mechanical problems, and probably how often the previous owner had the car washed! In an hour! Verifiable!

Was it more fun to be stuck in central France without any way to get cash? Was it more fun to spend weeks trudging from dealer to dealer to look at cars? Was it more fun to haggle over prices for weeks?

I don't think so!