Creating my blog post is quite easy with the Windows Live Writer. I don’t need an internet connection to create a post. Start the Windows Live Writer and write. Of the day photos of  taken with my Canon Ixus 750 can be embedded directly in the post through the incorporated flash-card reader of my laptop. But obviously you still need an internet connection to post online and this is why America is great. Most of the RV and camping grounds offer free Wi-Fi. Even the motels advertise with free Wi-Fi. The most important thing by choosing your RV space on the camping grounds is that it isn’t too far away from the Wi-Fi receiver. But if you don’t want to stay at a RV camping ground, just drive next to it and you can send you post online.

Another reason why I need an internet connection is called Facebook. I use Facebook to store my photos online and let everybody know that there are new photos and where I’m right now. The people than comment my photos and ask me things like “Why aren’t there sunny photos?” “Because it’s raining since we leave Seattle but we are going southern to avoid this English weather”. This sort of connectivity and interaction is great and I really love it. Thanks to the Facebook2Writer Plugin I can access my photos I uploaded and use them in my posts. But Facebook doesn’t only show my new photos, it shows every post of this blog directly after I publish it to everybody in my network. The pluging I’m using is called Wordbook and is for WordPress only.

A plugin which I really love for the Windows Live Writer is the Polaroid plugin. It’s really simple to use. Choose the photo on your hard disc and the pluging creates a Polaroid version. If you want you can even add a caption text and tilt it. Unfortunately there is only the Polaroid skin and no link to the source file. A Postcard skin wouldn’t be bad “Greetings from California”.

If you don’t want to carry your laptop with you on your trip you can use an USB stick or an USB device like an iPod to install the Windows Live Writer portable. (Sorry there is no windows mobile version of the Windows Live Writer) It doesn’t weight much and you can use the Windows Live writer with all your pluging at every internet point around the world. Some weeks ago there was the release of version 2 but I still don’t have the time to test itbut maybe you can. Please notice that this is not an official Microsoft product. Complains have to be addressed to the author of the version.

Stephan Sacramento, CA, USA