Updated on June 6, 1999
Many RVers we
meet do not have computers, and they are getting along fine. Some have even
wondered aloud why we have one; they are really surprised when they find
out we have three. We may be special cases, but we have found the computer
to be a great aid and a point of interest for us as we travel around the
country.
Alice and I each have a laptop computer, and we have a PC tower for use as a print and file server. We make use of them all. We are not bragging, I guess we are just computer junkies.
Here are some of the things we do with our computers in the rig (and truck):
- Operate the mapping program and GPS to guide us in our travels
- Scan the Yellow Pages CDROM to locate businesses of interest
- Plan and track our itinerary
- Keep track of expenses
- Compute income taxes (Ugh)
- Maintain records of truck and trailer maintenance
- Keep track of our retirement accounts
- Communicate with our kids and friends via email
- Write letters when email won't work
- Surf the World Wide Web when items of interest come up
- Contact Thousand Trails, Escapees, and other RV organizations
- Make camping reservations at Thousand Trails
- Buy special books and CDs over the Web
- Scan our new CDROM Trailer Life Campground Guide
- Store digital photographs of our travels
- Scan in all our old photographs so we can discard the hardcopy
- Scan in interesting articles so we can throw the magazines away
- Write fiction and magazine articles
- Write accounts of our travels for the World Wide Web
- Paint using a graphics tablet
- Play games like solitare and pinball
- Do astrology calculations
- Do crosswords
- Maintain a cookbook of our favorite recipes
- Display recipes when we are cooking
- Plan menus and calculate calories
- Maintain an inventory of food on the shelves
- Collect data on geneology
- Read medical reference, dictionary, encyclopedia, etc. from CDROMs
- Watch and show slide shows of our favorite photos
- Do consulting from time to time with my old company
I am sure we will find other uses in the future, and you probably have uses for computers I have not even thought about.
