I know that technology has an impact on everything we do and having just had a vacation I experienced the impact of technology during our trip as well. One significant way technology changed our travel plans was with the handheld GPS device we used to navigate among our many destinations. On nearly every other vacation involving a road trip, we nearly always employed the now antiquated road atlas and paper map techniques of finding our way around unfamiliar places. This time things were considerably different. We didn’t even take the road atlas along! (gasp) And although we brought several local road maps for specific destinations, we did not unfold them even once. Unheard of. We had the benefit of a tech savvy teenager in tow which greatly facilitated our successful reliance on technology. Left to our own devices I fear we may still be wandering up and down the roads of the southwest staring at the screen of the iPhone, puzzling about where we needed to turn or not turn! The good news is we gained a bit of skill and experience using the maps feature and now have a small measure of confidence using the GPS! Growth is inevitable in life isn’t it?
Another area where I noticed technology impacting my travel experience for the better was in the various restroom facilities I encountered as we moved from place to place. Some people claim that they are unable or unwilling to use public restrooms because of the gross out factor of unknown numbers of those who have gone before. These folks prefer to bring their bodily functions into submission or walk around in torment for days, neither of which I can do. I am at the other end of the spectrum here, generally looking for every opportunity to make use of the ladies room wherever we may happen to be. I do make exceptions and have been known to change my mind upon discovering a particularly unpleasant situation, but for the most part, I am good to go.
Considering this, I have grown most appreciative of the advancements in “hands-off” technology in the restroom category. I believe ninety percent of all bathrooms I used wile away on our trip had self-flushing commodes which I think are a completely genius innovation in technology. Ranking a close second were the automatic faucets, soap dispensers and paper towel dispensers. I believe that around fifty percent of all the facilities contained these advanced features and I grew quite accustom to finding them available. In fact on several awkward occasions I found myself standing in front of the sink, waving my hand in front of the appliances, waiting for the water and soap to appear, only to be embarrassed to discover that these were manual devices and would not respond to my hands waving! Oopsie!
I looked into this a little deeper and discovered that the electric “eye” application which triggers all of these automatic functions designed to limit your exposure to germs was developed all the way back in the nineteen seventies. Who knew? I feel like the proliferation of this technology has only become pervasive in the last few years. Regardless, this small gift of technology added a measure of comfort to my ever so frequent bathroom visits and I appreciated it if no one else does.
So my hat is off to the technologically innovative people out there who are not content to settle for the status quo, but instead push the envelope and make life better for tourists everywhere!
