You have me thinking that you were not fishing or hunting before smart phones were invented with that question, no offense meant.
No offense taken!
I grew up fishing in both types of environments, so I have experience in the 'analog' age and now the 'digital' age.
I started fishing in the mid 80s during the time where all we had to go as far as directions went was the beat up coffee stained Rand McNally under the car seat in conjunction with the hastily written map on the back of a cocktail napkin given to you by your friend the night before. As we took off, we hoped that Rand MCNally was right, and the route we had plotted didn't contain any road closures. We plotted our path, hoping that it was the quickest one (never was), but we could never really tell and so we took off.
This day in age? Things have changed a bit.
The Rand McNally under passengers seat has now been replaced by Google Maps on my phone. Of course, a printout of the route, step by step directions, and possible detours just in case are always inside the glove compartment (courtesy of Google Maps and my printer the night before, sorry Mr. Rand.) This, of course, is just in case a lightning bolt strikes my phone, the dog tosses my phone out the window, or a paranormal presence drains the power to my battery. But,
when it is powered (which is most the time), my phone makes me feel that the days in 1985 are a lot different than the times we live in now. Let me explain....
1. Let's say yesterday on September 13, 2016, the river was flowing great. But hey, since I have the ability to do so now, I'll go ahead and check on a river's live flow today on the 14th, at this very moment in time. (1985? Good luck) Oh, is it now blown out because they released the flood gates at the dam and it'd be worthless to travel 3 hours? Well, damn. We can now research another location completely, perhaps make a few calls, and change our destination all on the fly all without having to pull over and dig up the Rand McNally and have someone in your backseat argue that his friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who got a telegram that said that Ferris caught a 31" last night in that same spot.
2. Once we get on the road, everyone has that person in your crew who doesn't like McDonald's coffee and insists on being a coffee snob and needing Starbucks lest they turn into a meanie throughout the trip? Plot a Starbucks on the way to your location, and you don't have to hear about how the music sucks and how the AC is too cold from your friend throughout the trip.
3. After getting them Starbucks, you find that your friend is allergic to almond milk and has left his $600 Epipen at home. Now you can find an emergency room on the way to your fishing location, drop him off, and continue on your way. Just make sure you take a selfie and upload it to Instagram as proof that you dropped him off.
4. Hey, you can now call your
other friend (not a coffee snob) to see if he wants to go instead. If it's still 3 am, you can now text him instead of actually 'ringing' him so his wife doesn't wake up to a ringing rotary telephone in the middle of the night.
5. While you're driving, you can now buy your anaphylactic friend who you just dropped off at the local hospital a "Get Well Card" from Amazon, and get it delivered to him the same day. He will thank you later, hopefully in some hand tied flies.
6. An 18-wheeler just spilled its load of potatoes and the freeway is now blocked completely. No worries, Google Maps just learned of the accident almost immediately, and now is rerouting us around the problem, while calculating a new ETA. Analyzing traffic patterns live as we are driving is also a nice feature.
7. Because of the reroute, your buddies are now yelling at you to step on the gas, but Google Maps, in conjunction with my Waze App, is letting me know there is a speed trap up ahead. I don't speed up, and sure enough, there is a speed trap ahead. I avoid getting a ticket.
8. On the way to the river, your friend in the backseat gets a hot tip via social media on a new fly that is getting all the bigguns. But, nobody knows how to tie it or what it looks like. (Newbs, I know.)
Do you:
a. Get to the local fly shop and hope they are open and hope they haven't sold out on the particular pattern.
b. Stop the car, call your friend who you just dropped off at the hospital who is the expert fly tier of the group, and ask him to explain how to tie the specific pattern as he's strapped to a gurney half medicated?
c. Or do you, via voice instructions because we should always have two hands on the wheel, say, "Hey Google, how do you tie a InsertFlyNameHere?" and find video instructions on YouTube with specific instructions on how to tie it. Yes, I know. Too easy.
9. You finally get to the new spot that you found out hours ago, but your cell connection goes dead.
The friend who's been asleep for the entire 3 hour ride in the backseat comments on how useless your phone is going to be without any cellular reception. But, sensing that you were headed to a new location where cellular data could be spotty, your phone automatically downloaded the offline maps of the new area. The newly downloaded maps kick in during the 'offline' period and your friend in the backseat goes back to sleep, muttering something about how he had to carry blocks of ice up and downhill when he was a kid.
10. You navigate the off-road mountain trails via the built in compass in conjunction with satellite version of the maps, instead of the road version that you have been using, and then pull up the topo version to scout terrain. (The paper printout and the regular compass are still inside the glove compartment, btw.). The satellite version offers satellite imagery, usually from that year, which shows you things you can't see on a traditional, or even topographical map (both of which you have available immediately at your disposal). You reach the parking point and people wonder whether to go upstream or downstream. You pull out your map, find a game trail via the satellite map that leads to some upstream holes and runs that you can clearly see on your maps which your buddies, in their traditional maps can't. Your buddies go downstream, not knowing if there is even a trail, and go in completely blind as to the topography of the river and the immediate aree...even though they have traditional maps and compasses. You catch fish till the cows come home.
11. On the way home, you order delivery from a restaurant that you Yelp'ed, text your better half that you're 43 minutes away from home in medium to heavy traffic (so you don't have to lie and say 'you're only 15 minutes away, i swear!') and you've sent the pics of your catches to your buddy who's recuperating at the hospital after drinking almond milk from Starbucks.
The moral of the story?
With Rand McNally, your friend would be dead, you'd still be stuck behind a rolled over potato truck, on your way to a river that's blown out, after receiving a speeding ticket, only to go home skunked because you fished the wrong spot that had no accessible trail, then come home to a pissed off better half, and no food.
;-)
(Obviously, this was all in jest.)
