I'm off to Portland

It's almost time for me to leave for Portland and hit Michael Sylvester's bike fitting studio. I'm up late tonight getting ready to go. I was told to bring my pedals, seat, handlebars with me to aid in the fitting, but I think I'm only going to bring my seat and pedals. Who wants to fuss with taking off the handlebars? Besides, I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars, no handlebars...(that's a song, I digress...)

In the process of getting ready to go, I've been trying to make sure I won't get lost in Portland. I used Google Transit to help me figure out how to get to the places I need to go. Except for to the airport and to the fitting studio, I'm content to wing it. So here I am, exceptional technology in hand, but no way to put it well, in hand. Enter Danielb who helped me figure out how to solve my problem.

I use the iPod Touch, or as I like to call it, the JenniPod™. (Thanks Wil for the ™ lesson). I've always been frustrated that without the wifi connection, the JenniPod™ is really just a movie/music player. Tonight, I learned about the app Air Sharing. Basically, it allows the iPod Touch and the iPhone to use digital paper.

I made some text documents I needed, then saved several versions of the Google Transit instructions as pdf files, which I am now able to carry on my JenniPod™. Awesome! The app cost $7, the most I've ever paid for one, but I can already see it will be invaluable to me, and so far it seems to function very well.

Of course I could have simply printed out all the maps I needed and put them in my pocket, but how very pedestrian that would be.

I never thought I'd be such a gadget geek but goodness it's fun. I also loaded some movies on the JenniPod™ for the flight and for delays. It's the immediate cure for impatience.