Two gadgets that won’t make you drive through the night

"You don't think we'll have problems finding a hotel this late at night, do you?"

Those are the words I uttered to my wife while driving down I-75 at 11 pm on the first night of our spring break vacation.

The first few hotels we stopped at confirmed my fears. "Sorry, we don't have any rooms available."

But being a techie, I couldn't give up. Or maybe it was just that I didn't want to return home to face the noobies and tell them that even with my full arsenal of technology, I had to drive through the night because I couldn't find a hotel room on the road.

That's when my technical savvy kicked into high gear. Armed with my GPS navigation unit and my cell phone, I pulled up a list of nearby hotels. One by one I selected each hotel which displayed the hotel's address and phone number as well as its location on the map relative to where we were on the road. All that was left to do was to call each hotel from my cell phone to ask them about their availability.

Great strategy but not great results

Still no rooms available. So I decided to alter my strategy by refining my search to hotels that were located a couple miles off the interstate, thinking people on the road next to me also looking for hotels wouldn't know about these hidden gems. The strategy worked like a charm.

But by this time I had run into a new problem. Although the hotels had availability they were too close to downtown Atlanta which also meant they were a little pricey. Back to the GPS.

I decided to look at hotels that were south of Atlanta but once again, close to the Interstate. Three calls later I had a hit. Perfect location. Perfect price. And a perfect night's sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.