Trip preparation

In order to write this blog we have had to set ourselves up with a few essential items of technology in order to keep you updated!

• Laptop   - Lenovo Thinkpad W510 (editing pictures and blogs)
• Sat nav - Garmin Nuvi 1370T (comes with US maps)
• Android phone - HTC Legend (for on the go updating and tracking using Instamapper)

The main reason we chose a separate sat nav was because the speaker in the Android phone just isn't adequate for hearing the directions. Also the phone uses a data connection to download the maps which would rack up the roaming charges.

On the phone we downloaded a map from the Android Market called Instamapper GPS Tracking. This allows us to ping our location back to the map you can see below the blog. To keep the roaming costs down we have gone for a 60 second update. Hopefully you should be able to see the path on the map while we are on the move. (NB The path doesn't show up very well on some map colours, e.g. motorways, so to make it eaiser to see we have set a default map type of "hybrid"). As anybody with a smartphone will realise this is going to eat the battery so we have also got a charger for the phone.

Enjoy the trip!

Dom and Zara xx