Travel, Cell Phones, Internet, & Web 2.0 - #4

After our last class, we had a long-awaited trip planned to the Austin, Texas area. Steve was attending a workshop at UT-Austin for AP World History teachers. I was getting an eagerly anticipated chance to catch up with family, do research for our group project and finish my web page.



We drove in three-digit heat to Texas and had a lovely visit with my uncle in Dallas. The next day we had lunch with one cousin and went to see another cousin when we got news that there had been a death in the family. While we were making arrangements to come home, I found a great article (in next post) about businesses utilizing Web 2.0 in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Thanks to the beauties of Wifi available in local area establishments, we were able to book plane tickets, begin funeral arrangements, make hotel reservations and secure rental cars all while on the road back to Illinois.



I was grateful the entire trip home for the connectivity offered by cell phones, laptops and Internet availability in hotels. Without these necessities of modern life, we would not have known that Steve’s dad died, been able to contact the nursing home, the funeral home, other family members and so on. Yes, cell phones can be an annoyance, but in this instance, I will be eternally grateful for the convenience provided by having phones available in our entire family. We were able to cancel attendance at the conference, cancel hotel reservations and make all the necessary arrangements en route. We made plane reservations from Panera Bread in the middle of Oklahoma. We had the outlines of a memorial service accomplished by e-mailing each other in various locations. Even the priest conducting the service sent and received information by e-mail.



I have read in several blogs about the necessity of stepping away from the computer when we do our work that way all day, but here is a flip side of that and just how helpful these tools can be. We are still dealing with moving belongings and settling the estate, but e-mail and cell phones make it much easier to accomplish these tasks even from a long distance away.