We have only had our cell phones since 2002 or 2003 and I purchased my first computer back in about ’88. The cell phones we have now  is far more useful and powerful than that first computer and the computers we own now make that old  computer seem almost useless.

I’m old enough to remember phones without dials at all, much less rotary dial phones. You picked up the phone, an operator came on line

, you told them the number you wanted and they connected you. In my small town where everyone, including the operators, knew everyone else, you didn’t even need to know the numbers. Names were enough. I also remember being on a party line and knowing that people were listening in on my conversation with my girlfriend. You were careful about what you revealed.

The point of this ramble is to suggest how different the world is now. In our gypsy lifestyle Merre and I rely on our phones and our computers to do our banking, pay our bills, research our routes and destination and  find things when we get there. perhaps more importantly, we stay in touch with family and friends.

For the past several days we have been camped in a Oregon State Park with no wi-fi and no cell service, even with Verizon.  We used our phones when we left the park and  we went into Yachats  (ya-hats) to the Bread and Roses coffee shop  one day for our wi-fi. It was blissfully peaceful in the park.

Last night and today we are in the Mill Casino RV park in Coos Bay, a great park with good wi-fi. It sits on the bay and as I write this seabirds mostly gulls  provide   the music that  I hear. Across the bay wooded hills rise in the mist. In this time when everything seems to move at breakneck speed, we must continue to seek out and stay connected to the beauty of life that surrounds us every day. Some pictures of the beauty in which we walk.