Al Lustie's Tips and Tricks

When you travel these days you probably take more than a change of clothing.  Let me suggest some things to take that may stimulate your mind so you take what you need.

First -- a flashlight.  With fresh batteries, so that you can find your way around in a strange room at night.  Yeah, a flashlight may be old fashioned, but it is technology.  So is a pencil and a pen, for that matter.

Moving on, take a power strip with four or more outlets and at least a three foot cord.  With the outlet strip take the required number of chargers for your devices.  My wife and I each travel with an iPad (2 total) and an iPhone (2 total).  With the outlet strip we can charge them at night, and use them when not sleeping.  I take an iPod with audio books checked out from the public library, but we can charge that in the car as we drive and listen.

We happen to not have found a laptop necessary as we have Evernote on the iPads and a keyboard/case to use for heavy duty typing.  Ours is a Zagg, but other good ones are available.  The case makes it a bit heavier, but protects it.  We can access and write email, the web, the Starbucks app (must find the nearby coffee outlets) and make notes about whatever we see, hear or think.

If you are driving, a plugin for the car that can charge an phone or table or iPod as you go is very handy.  Let me tell you what we discovered a couple of weeks ago.

The adapter was plugged in, but the phone was not charging.  I got the Prius manual out and discovered (not easily) that there are two ways of turning the car one.  Our usual is to put a foot on the brake, press the "ON" button and we are ready to go.

But. . . no charging.

Keeping the foot off the brake pedal while hitting the "ON" button sets up a different set of circuits.  Only then do we put the foot on the brake pedal and press the "ON" button again.  Now it will drive and charge the car.

What works for you?  Leave a comment and let us know.