Saturday we save for the EBC (Everglades Bicycle Club) group rides. (And the 16-18 EBC ride group. Some old friends. Some new ones. Fun group. More on them in future posts.)
It sounds like a relaxing schedule. And it would be if not for smartphones that beep, buzz, and beg for attention. And pop-up notes and chimes on tablets and computer screens that enumerate the emails and messages that are piling up.
It seemed worse this week. You see, when we got to Apalachicola (our last trip) we discovered that our phones (and everyone's who was not on Verizon) had little or no coverage. Our phones just had a red "X" on the little connection symbol. At first it was annoying. How were we supposed to live without working smartphones? I was used to dealing with messages as they came in. (Sort of.) Our link to the outside world was our hotel room's Wi-Fi connection.
But after a few days, our annoyance evaporated. We had accidentally traveled back to the 90s, back to the time before smartphones and instant connection to everyone. It was bliss.
We want all our gadgets. But I want what we found in Apalachicola.
So we're learning to love airplane mode.
