Off the 3G

This is the time of year when all the big trips are planned – with this year being no exception. This year’s project is to travel back to the Canadian Prairies for a Rally with the motorcycle club my husband and I belong to. And of course I will be making the trip on my bike. Russell Manitoba is the destination in the heart of summer. We will be there for 4 days of networking, riding, fun and sun – oh and probably grasshoppers and mozzy’s knowing Manitoba. I am looking forward to the trip. Nothing is more soothing and distracting from other things than getting on the bike and taking off for whatever amount of time in search of a horizon I have not seen yet. It is peaceful. It is soul fulfilling. And in the aspect of packing – it is frustrating. If you ever want to test yourself on how attached you are to your belongings, all you have to do is try and pack all the things you “can not live without” in a small piece of luggage that is 2ft x 1.5ft x 1ft as well as two saddle bags. The thing that frustrates me the most with this exercise is that when I am traveling I don’t have the room to pack a ‘high fangled’ camera. I usually end of using my Iphone or a compact point-and-shoot type camera. The point and shoot has very little draw backs – other than the conversion of the gorgeous scenery into something that is ‘so-so’. But using the Iphone for most of the photos causes its own brand of interesting situations. The first and foremost is that most of the Canadian Prairie provinces do not have a 3G network outside of the bigger centres. That means my Iphone is constantly searching for networks and draining it’s battery after only an hour and a half. Thus, on my initial foray into the wilderness of the prairies, my plan to GPS mark all my shots and solely use my Iphone for some of the idiot shots, tanked – royally. That trip across from the British Columbia Coast to Winnpeg in 2010 was fantastic. Funfilled. A definite learning experience. But mostly – it made me hunger for more.