motionx

I'm back in Albuquerque at my office, just five blocks away from where Route 66 runs through the center of town. I made the journey along the Mother Road up to Chicago with a memorable side trip over to Carbondale, Ill.

I've been inside a dome home, craned my neck up at a fiberglass giant, walked into the belly of a whale, raided a Dungeons & Dragons castle, and got tangled in the history of barbed wire at the Devil's Rope Museum.

Miles traveled: 3,221

MB of 3G data used: 346MB

Photos taken: 296

A good collection of gadgets is the icing on any road trip. Some of mine performed adequately and some performed admirably. Some managed to do both. Here are my Geek's Guide to Route 66 awards.

Best (and most frustrating) gadget: 32GB iPad 2 Verizon 3G I barely made a dent in the ambitious 3GB data plan that I bought for $35 before heading out. Running the GPS and constantly surfing for Route 66 information didn't add up to much. I was impressed with Verizon's coverage. I never found a place where it didn't work. The iPad's small size and versatile apps made it an ideal road companion.

But not all is roses in the world of iPad. The video camera coupled with iMovie is a great combination. The still-camera capabilities, however, fall short of acceptable. The image quality just isn't there (the iPad 2 provides a middling .7-megapixel resolution for still images. That's almost as retro as Route 66).… Read more