According to my Delta SkyMiles account, that’s how many miles I’ve flown in the past 30 days. (That’s almost twice the distance around the earth.) Oh, and I flew yesterday on Frontier, and I drove from Michigan to Seattle, so you can add a few thousand more miles onto that total. That’s a lot of traveling in one month. And it’s about to start again! I’m home for a few days and on Tuesday I fly to Cape Town for the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (where I’m volunteering with the broadcast team).
Here then is my list of “must have” gadgets based on my travel usage over the past month (in random order and not an exhaustive list):
- netbook computer – I have the Toshiba NB205. The battery lasts forever; the integrated webcam makes Skype calls home very enjoyable; it weighs next to nothing; and it’s perfect for email and writing. (I used to think I’d actually edit video on the plane ride home – ha!)
- iPod – Driving on the sorry excuse for roads in Southern Sudan in a Land Cruiser with no shocks, whilst the speakers self destructed due to the local techno-pop music/crap blaring at 11 on the volume knob had me thanking God (and Steve Jobs) for my iPod. My collection of Eva Cassidy, Hillsong, James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma got me through this last trip with my sanity still intact.
- fountain pen by Lamy – Many of you know I enjoy writing with Montblanc fountain pens, but I just can’t bring myself to traveling with one of them in my pocket. In Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport I purchased a Lamy fountain pen for 16 Euros – I love it. It has a very pleasurable writing feel but I wouldn’t go into a depression if it turned up missing. If you write a lot (as I do) find something to make it pleasurable.
- unlocked, dual-sim, quad-band cell phone – Now I have a US phone number that I can answer just about anywhere for only pennies per minute. Plus, I can add a sim card for a local number. Sweet! I talked to my wife from the hinterlands of Southern Sudan when my associate couldn’t get through to the office on our iridium sat phone (but I’m not sure how hard he was really trying!).
- neosporin and cipro – not really gadgets, but lifesavers. Get a cut in the Third Word, clean it and then grab the neosporin and fill up the cut with its healing goodness. Trust me, out there, you don’t want an infection. And cipro? It fixes the digestive tract – if you know what I mean.
- canon 7d – full 1080p high def video… sorry I’ve talked enough about that in other posts!
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