Curse of email, social media, etc. & loved ones

[badger]

I'm in touch with my boyfriend via phone, skype, text few times a day. We always let each other know our plans, so we know pretty much all the time where the other is. There are the odd times that a network or whatever is down and texts don't go through, but it's usually cleared up by calling each other.

[Cataboo]

There are the spot gps systems for things like that:
http://www.amazon.com/SPOT-Satellite...1607217&sr=1-1


YOu'd be able to track your dearie whereever he was in the world without worrying.

Because of some family members with medical issues, I get panicky if they aren't around when I'm trying to call them, and I try to make sure that I'm always available by cell phone. That really doesn't work that well sometimes because I do like to go to fairly remote places on kayak or whatever vacations.

I tend to tell family members in advance when I am probably going out of cell signal - to expect it and to not worry about me if they don't hear from me for several days. My mother still worries about me, and then alerts all my siblings and whenever I get back into "civilization", I have a bunch of cell phone messages like "Mom thinks you're in the woods being gang raped, call her when you get a chance"

I've found my kindle's really good for traveling in foreign countries. I don't tend to keep my cell phone on when out of the country because of the bills, but my kindle can connect to the 3g or cellular networks and I can access facebook and my email from there. So I can usually connect, post to facebook or shoot off an email "I'm okay, tell Mom". The kindle does have a great battery life (better than my cell phone), so that works well for when I go several days without electricity to recharge.

I also tend to keep my kindle loaded with nautical or topological maps of where I am, guide books, etc. - so it's a lightweight thing I can carry as a backup to my gps or whatever else. And I can read it.