September 27, 2014 – The Way-Slow Way

Mega Metric Thoughts

Since our devices have many functions we use them a lot in our room. So they need recharging. So we need to recharge them while we are using them. Outlets are not always in convenient places. The cables we brought are a bit short. Problem. I should have thought of this before we left and got longer ones.

Enter the metric system. USB to micro USB cables are a worldwide standard but their length is not. The replacement cable we got is about a foot longer than the one we brought. Problem solved. We got two.

I never thought before how the measurement system might affect things like typical cable lengths.

Another metric system thought. We have kilometers, kilograms and kilobytes and megabytes but you never hear about megameters or megagrams. They would be useful. The Camino is about 1.6 megameters. And almost all of us weight less than a tenth of a megagram, sounds pretty light to me.

And astronomers could use giga, peta, etc and get rid of these awkward units like A.U. and the easily misunderstood light year.

Gadgets

Charlie. We each have a smart phone which is our camera, e-reader, audio player, Internet access, texting device and guide books. Oh yeah, they also make phone calls. We got a Spanish SIM card with unlimited texts, 100 minutes and 1.6 (in Europe 1,6) GB. I have a 5.5″ LG G3 and Wynette has a 4.7 Nexus 4. Wynette also has an actual iPod.

Talk about a single point of failure. My G3 started rebooting by itself a few times in one day, apparently a common problem with them. Luckily it seems to have healed itself for now since I am far away from t-mobile repairs.

Apart from that we are happy with the devices. They are light. I like the 5.5″ screen in the 5.0″ body thanks to thin bezels.

Little things can cause problems. We charge the devices with a Spain-to-US adapter, a USB charger and a USB to micro USB cable. One charger setup was very slow. By swapping parts I narrowed it down to a weak cable. In Logrono we got a new cable and now all is speedy.

The Triumph of Style Over Function

Charlie. This was in the sitting room of our hotel in Ventosa. It is bad enough when you have to move useless pillows to sit on a couch. How would you ever sit in one of these chairs?

Orange Juice in Grape Country

Wynette. We walked about 7 miles today. We set out knowing there would be no town or bar to stop for a rest, coffee, or bathroom. So, I was happy to see the food cart this friendly man had set up about half way. He had a fresh orange juice machine and we each ordered a glass. He started a loud generator to provide electricity to power the machine. The juice was delicious. He kept telling us to drink up because he wanted to refill our glasses, no extra charge. We sat at one of his little tables and enjoyed a short rest. As we left I asked if I could take his picture. He happily smiled for me.

Well, Well

Charlie. We stayed at a great hotel in Ventosa. It opened in 2012 after being completely rebuilt from the ground up. But because it was an historic building they had to reproduce it exactly. Seems funny in a way. It isn’t old but it has to look like a building that was old but no longer exists.

We don’t know if this feature was because of this requirement but this well was unlike anything I’ve seen before.