Vic Roberts and Stan Dobrowski at sea as usual, attempting to
navigate with their Palmtops on Saratoga Lake.
"I am sitting on the pitcher's mound...,"
"Salu from the top of Champagna da Diavolezza...,"
As I was lurking in the Fireside section of CompuServe's HPHandheld Forum, I noticed a wide variety of personal adventures that were being documented by the Palmtoppers. Sometimes they kept journals of their travels on the Palmtop and uploaded them to CompuServe when they got home. Other times they'd use wireless transmissions or local telephone lines for on-the-spot reports from exotic places around the world (or a few blocks from home). One day I suggested to the Fireside section that it would be fun to collect some of the more unusual accounts and honor them in some form, perhaps in a poem. And so, the MUPs (Most Unusual Places) File was born.
From all over the globe have come accounts of the wonders and the woes of travel. One traveler was at the top of an Aztec pyramid. Another was at the top of a pitcher's mound in his daughters school playground. Alone or with families, friends and strangers; laments, laughs and lyrical flights of fancy were all captured on, and downloaded from the faithful Palmtop.
I present below some of these selections for your arm-chair travel entertainment.
Linda Worthington, the author of this article, contemplates the perfection of nature and the HP Palmtop on top of a mighty comfortable looking rock in the middle of the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland, U.S.A.
Beneath the sea
I am writing this to you from about halfway between England and France under the Channel. We are on le Shuttle,' the train that lets you drive your car onto the train and then drive off at the other end. Very slick...the entire trip under the Channel takes about 15 minutes...
Ron Vieceli
E-mail: 73310.3663@compuserve.com
Offering to the sun
A spectacular coffee break! Today was supposed to be another normal day at my office in Mexico City. We decided to take a half-a-day off and rushed to Teotihuacan' an Aztec city about 50 miles north from Mexico City. I am writing this e-mail from the top of the Sun Pyramid,' the highest pyramid in the world with 365 steps. Cheers!
Francisco Bricio
E-mail: 74174.1442(@compuserve.com
Mountain-top coffee break
Salu Linda, ...from the top of Champagna da Diavolezza, above the Col Bernina in the Grissons (South-Eastern Switzerland). I am sitting in the mountain top restaurant, relaxing my tired legs and sipping a cup of coffee. Around me are hundreds of tourists, speaking German, Swiss, Italian, Austrian, British English, French, and Spanish. They are all enjoying the skiing and snowboarding fun high up in the mountains (almost 3000m 10'000ft)....
Alexandre Gutfeldt
E-mail: 100527.2461@compuserve.com
In a 747 over Moscow
Hi Guys! Well, I'm right over Moscow, on a 747-400 on my way back to Paris. Who said long trip flights were dull? I downloaded my e-mail before boarding the plane and I'm reading it now. Many planes have screens that show the flight plan and the current location of the plane on a world map. Thanks to Buddy = and WorldTime I displayed an almost identical screen on my HP Palmtop. My friend sitting next to me was astonished ...OK! Breakfast is coming. See you...
Karim Kabbabe
E-mail: 100013.505@compuserve.com
Gilded concert hall
Linda, this message is from the intermission at a George Winston concert. It's taking place in a lovingly restored 1920's movie theater, complete with balcony, lots of moldings, gilt and velvet tapestries...
Ron Vieceli
E-mail: 73310.3663@compuserve.com
The Palmtop as hospital bedside comfort
Linda, here is my MUP candidate: I am in the Emergency Room of Kaiser Hospital in Woodland Hills,
California, trying to forget my pain by reading/writing messages and replies...I am passing a kidney stone...
Avi Meshar
E-mail: 75561.633@compuserve.com
[With constant support from many Forum friends and with unfailing courage and humor, Avi passed "Roxanne" in due time, to great cheers from all.]
Bus ride to Budapest
I am reading and replying to HPHand messages while riding on a bus from Fonyod, Hungary to Budapest, after their biggest snow storm in 10 years.
Vic Roberts
E-mail: 70413.1423@compuserve.com
Pitcher's mound pride
I am sitting on the pitcher's mound in the middle of the school yard at my daughter's school. My son Eric (age 4-1/2) and daughter Jeanette (age 7 next month) are riding their bikes all around me. We are so proud of Jeanette because as of this week, she does not need the training wheels any more...
Stan Dobrowski
E-mail: 76711.2302@compuserve.com
Island wilderness beach and the baggie
I'm on the beach at Cumberland Island, Georgia, typing this message to all through a freezer baggie.
I keep my Palmtop in one to protect it from the sand. The great thing about our camping site is that it is one-quarter mile from the beach. The dunes are covered with bushes and grasses so it is a wonderful wilderness.
Rob Mitchell
E-mail: 72764,3061@compuserve.com
30,000 feet up in a KC-135 tanker
I have used my HP 200LX while flying on a Kansas Air National Guard KC-135 Tanker cruising at about 30,000 feet.
Dave Fisher
E-mail: 102711.3602@compuserve.com
Joseph McSwain (shown here out of the bathtub) doesn't let soaking in a hot bathtub get in the way of his Palmtopping pleasure.
Skiing on glaciers
I and my HP have just returned from the Canadian Rockies. The snow is hard to enjoy! It has not snowed in over two weeks and what is here is wind-packed or sun-crusted making it hard to ski. But on the other hand the sun is out and it is splendid that way. Had drinks at Chateau Lake Louise today, Monday, after a rough and tumble day of attempting to ski. My friends sitting here with me think I'm crazy using a Palmtop
I explained the MUP and they grudgingly acquiesced...Aha, the dataphone works the acoustic coupler will not be employed.
Skied up to the Plain of Six Glaciers today by skiing across Lake Louise. Clear and nice when we started but visibility quickly disappeared in cloud. Today we did downhill/telemarking at Sunshine just outside of Banff. A long gondola ride up over sparse snow led to immense snow fields generally above treeline. Visibility was a problem, but you can't have it all. So while the rest of you were saying goodbye to daffodils and snow, we re-entered a world dominated by perpetual Winter.
A wonderful, white world of whipped cream beauty. I will miss it, but my own bed in my own room (instead of a bunk bed in a room with six guys and damp gear strewn about) will be welcome tonight!
Fred Kaufman
E-mail: 75162.2616@compuserve.com
Fantasy land
I'm sitting in the Mercedes Benz dealer's showroom waiting to pick up my car! I'm ensconced in the butttersoft leather of a $75,000 Mercedes Benz passenger seat!
This is indeed the car -- mine pales in comparison! I can smell the leather, it makes me heady and ready to swoon. I calmly stroke the burlwood gearshift knob resisting the desire to switch to the driver's seat and take off from the dealer's showroom floor through the plate glass window!
Drew Guttadore
73201.3016@compuserve.com
Skating beneath the Comet in Belgium
Hi Linda and All: I am writing this, still gasping for some air after a wonderful in-line skate (roller blade) ride under the bright stars and the comet Hyakutake-2's fuzzy head and eerie tail. It just was magnificent! It was freezing lightly, the sky was crisp and clear, with only the sound of my skates on the deserted country-side roads. I looked up and saw Orion and its nebula, Venus very bright, Arcturus (where I saw the comet for the first time early last week), and the moon in its glorious first quarter. And of course the comet, very visible with the naked eye, its tail faint but long...A perfect night that I wanted to share with you and others here.
Frank Louwers (in Belgium)
E-mail: 72361.2161@compuserve.com
A small sampling
I have also received several messages from Joseph McSwain (e-mail: 74032.1616@compuserve .com), who often writes on his Palmtop while soaking in the bath tub. This is possibly the most hedonistic, dangerous, and unusual use of a Palmtop in our files.
Palmtops have been used on polar expeditions, by a number of private and commercial pilots, by a farmer on the back of his tractor plowing his fields, by a Marine colonel in the middle of the Kuwait desert during a readiness exercise following Desert Storm, by a physician who volunteers to fly into impoverished South American villages to provide medical service, by a participant in the 14K Prudhoe Bay Alaska Mid-Winter Fun Run, and more.
Keep the Palmtop in your pocket and keep using it wherever you are. And send in your experiences to my attention. (CompuServe users GO HPHAND, enter the Fireside section and send a message to Linda Worthington [74452,105]. You can also e-mail your experiences to 74452,105@ compuserve.com).