I'm assembling gear for a road trip.

At first it's just a summer long weekend away, and there's the possibility of a longer trip in the fall. My hope is that what works for one will also work for the other, so I may be over-thinking things a bit, but hopefully toward a good purpose. And it's an enjoyable exercise.

Power management is one of my basic concerns. I want to be able to make it through a couple of days without needing to worry about power consumption, and I want power management to be easy. That's a problem I still need to solve for my cameras, but at least I have the rest of my electronics sorted out and tested.

I have a fondness for knowing where I am, so the grey pager-like blob is the new GPS receiver that I've bought to support my increasingly outdoor activities. It can keep a continuous track log for twenty or thirty hours, and links to iThings with bluetooth so that they don't need to constantly run their own GPS. It even gives location data to my non-GPS iPad as well, so I'll have the luxury of using it for in-car navigation, further sparing the battery in my phone. And after the trip is done I'll be able to use the blobby GPS's track logs to tag my photos with their locations and recreate maps of each section of our travels.

Keeping those things topped up will be my new phone-shaped external USB battery pack. If needed I can even daisy-chain the battery between a USB charger and another device for sequential charging, and do it all without needing to take valuable and important electronics out of my bag. The camera bag that I'm using has two slim end pockets, so the phone fits in one, the battery fits in the other, and the iPad slots in the pocket along the back. No more scattering of pocket trinkets all over my nightstand, and no more risk of leaving anything more irreplaceable than a USB wall charger behind in a motel room.

Add in a few little extras, like earphones, cables, and a small flashlight or two, and that's my entire non-camera electronics kit these days. If only I had as clear an idea of what I want to carry for cameras.