Traveling in Parallel Universes

Riding across Interstate 10 (then I-64, then US 98, etc, aided by a GPS), I embrace the old and the new. And the experience is frustrating me today.

I'm surfing through "The New," a very crowded Cyberspace to find fun and necessary things to do while we scoot along "The Old," real
highways, to Seattle, WA, from Hobe Sound, FL.

Google Maps says it's a 60-hour journey (well, the way we plan it it's 60 hours ... we're zig-zagging to avoid mountain passes and snow.)

So we need a worthwhile break from the road now and then. That's why
I've been online ALL DAY (on my Mac, thanks to a Spring aircard) while Allen drives the Navion.

Usually I love poking around online. But today, I'm frustrated by a confluence of too much information with useless information slowing me down, clogging up the Internet.

Many, MANY websites I access lack necessary information (like addresses) or provide little useable information, then ask me to "click here" for the stuff I really need. Often, I click and land in the Land of Oblivion.

When I do access a usable site, the sterile, custodial information lacks the human touch. It's compiled by a computer from information on
a form. No emotion. No sense of good or bad. Lots about restaurants,
hotels, and other businesses. Not so much about great little museums, must-see theater, town walks worth your leather.

Oh, this information is OUT THERE. Usually on blogs or newspaper
websites low on Google's hit list. But I have to crawl through so much sludge and slime to find it that it's exhausting and frustrating. At least today it is.

SO I've decided to stop, for the day, and trade my surfboard for a travel book from AAA. Although it, too, lacks human emotion, at least I won't spill into a great abyss with one misplaced click.