As my friends would gladly tell you, I am not exactly a techno whiz. I am a bit old-school, although not quite a dinosaur. Recently, as I was driving back to Skokie, Ill. from Indianapolis, I realized how much technology has made such driving trips so much easier.

When I drove to Indy 15 years ago for the Indianapolis Marathon, I had to consult my road atlas and photocopy a few maps (Illinois, Indiana and the enlarged Indianapolis city map). Next, I called directory assistance to get phone numbers of hotels in Indy (you were allowed two numbers per call). I did this a few times, called the hotels, got a handful of rates, and painstakingly checked the addresses on the Indy city map. A return call to the chosen hotel for reservations would take another 10 minutes.

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The day of the journey, I would get an early start, packing my car with maps, luggage, cassettes (pre-CDs) and a large fountain Coke. I would have to manually change the cassettes every 20 minutes or so (but they would all probably be Billy Joel).

Indy is an easy trip. Once I leave Chicago, it is basically a 150-mile drive on I-65. Some trips weren’t so easy, requiring many expressway exits and entrances. Recognizing all of them on a solo drive could be maddening. Even with the ease of the drive to Indy, there were still enough challenges, especially with construction detours. Once there, finding the hotel could be a challenge, as could finding any other specific location desired.

This year, I went on my PC and price/location-checked all of the Indy-area hotels. Once selected, I mapped the location on MapQuest. I made the reservations online in about a minute. I also checked the addresses of other places I needed to go while there. On the day of the trek, I loaded my car with one map, my bag and my large fountain Coke, of course. My musical choices were already preloaded in a CD player which would play continuous music (Billy Joel of course) without any effort on my part. If I had problems en route, my GPS would solve them, along with any confusion I might have once there. Besides, I also had a cell phone, which is so much more convenient than a pay phone.

None of this is exactly breaking news–quite the opposite, actually. I think so much of the technology is taken for granted that we forget how hard even the simplest of trips used to be.

-John Wroblewski, distribution specialist