Lesson 3: A Day on The Road!
You will find life on the road quite different than the brick and mortar life. During the time that you are parked, say working for the summer season, life is almost normal. When you are on the road traveling things can be quite different as you will see.
Tools For The Road!
Here are some things that you find different even while in one location for such a short time: You get to meet a lot of new people and depending on where you are parked you could have new neighbors every day. Where is the Wal-Mart? Where is the best grocery store? Gas station? Hospital? Dentist? Hair care? Vet? Propane sales, remember you have to go get it now? Also, unless you are among the well-off, you are constantly looking for work for the next season. All of these things can be an adventure or a challenge depending upon your attitude.
While you are actually traveling from one place to another, it is far different. Your best friends and most used tools will be road maps, a book called The Next Exit, and a GPS.
The Next Exit is almost as valuable as a road map. I highly recommend getting one of these. It has information about each interstate highway's exits and rest stops. It will tell you how far, by mile marker, it is to the next rest stop or exit. You actually get to use "them there" things now. You will know what restaurants, gas stations, stores, hospitals may be available at any given exit along your route. It even tells you how far off of the interstate and in which direction the facility is. It provides information about what facilities are at the next rest stop, so you don't pass the one with the bathroom and go another 50 miles down the road to the one that has nothing except a picnic table.
The next item on my must-have list is a GPS (global positioning system). This is a device that uses signals received from satellites to determine your exact position on Earth. This information is superimposed on a map so that when you look at the screen it resembles a paper map but you can see yourself actually moving along the road. By programming what they call waypoints into the GPS in advance you can tell exactly where you are in relation to where you want to go. It is for all intents and purposes an electronic road map. You can get GPSs that are hand held or mount on your car's dash, or as a program that allows your computer to be used as a GPS. I have a hand held with a 2" screen and a program for my computer. Both have their advantages but for the road the bigger screen of the computer makes it the most user friendly.
