Chapter 65: Modern Memory

I had set my phone to voice record when I slipped out to take a leak after supper last night, I didn’t normally carry the phone as they were pretty much useless in this day and time. Before I left home I had ended up deciding that some pictures and notes while on this expedition might prove useful in the future, so I carried my phone along only powering it up when I deemed it was necessary. This was one of those situations, I was about to farm some information from Thomas and I didn’t want to try to remember all of the details, particularly when I was imbibing.

When I returned from this trip I would transfer the data and have Sonya transpose it all to text for us. Just considering that brought on a smile, Sonya and the rest of us were going to have to learn to use a quill and ink in very short order. I was pretty sure that our internet order for office supplies up at the ranch would be returned due to lack of signature so our supply was finite. With that semi-humorous thought I added writing supplies to our list, I was still keeping a list on my phone since modern memory processing wasn’t conducive to remembering things the way these people did.

We had gotten too used to computers carrying that load for us and even remembering a few addresses and phone numbers was unusual in the modern world, people no longer trained their memory. I thought back to Trish’s son’s and how they had trouble just remembering their mother’s phone number at age eight, in my youth at that age I could spout off at least ten phone numbers. You just had to do it and so your mind learned, but handheld computers took that need away the same way most people couldn’t tell time by simply glancing at the sky in the modern world. Basic skills simply lost through lack of use. It was understandable because why learn to do that when you can just glance at your handheld computer to get all of that in the modern world. I’m not sure it was truly an improvement.

These are the sort of thoughts you have when you have solitude and were riding along, I was simply following a game trail Thomas had told me about headed north towards the Platte river. I kept my eyes up and moving but half of my brain was pondering, I was paying attention but I wasn’t focused. I had a lot to consider and contemplate, things had been happening at breakneck speed and this offered me the opportunity to process much that I had been avoiding.

The weather remained accommodating and I made pretty good speed, the prairie was flat and easy to travel on so I was pretty sure I had made at least thirty miles that second day. As the sun started its downward movement I started casting about for a camping spot. Eastern Nebraska was full of brooks and streams making finding a spot fairly easy. I guess if you have to choose where to travel back in time at this wasn’t a bad area but I was quite positive that winter would rectify that opinion.

I made camp near a small brook that had a few trees and sufficient shelter if the winds kicked up. Tonight I set up my little camping lean to, waking up that morning covered in dew reminded me of some realities. The lean-to was basically a simple pre-packaged tarp solution that they charged way too much for, I’d started buying them a ways back however because they packaged up so small and light that they took up little space in your pack. I wouldn’t use one in the cold but during the summer they were my preferred shelter.