As gas prices skyrocket, the traditional scenic fall drive in Colorado becomes a precious commodity. These items can help ensure you get the most from your road trip.
Pinhole pictures
Use a work of art to create a work of art. These precision pinhole cameras are made by a Lakewood photographer, who promises that the old-fashioned boxes made of fine woods such as walnut burl, purpleheart, rosewood and lacewood, produce frame-worthy prints.
$250 to $300; PHOTONBOX.COM
Cameras for kids
Your child, your pricey digital camera and the great outdoors? Not always an unbreakable combination. But now there’s the Kidz Cam Digital Camera Kit. Your budding John Fielder can snap pix, download them to your computer with special photo-editing software and create games, puzzles and stories with the pictures.
$23.99; COMPUSA
Slide-by
scenery
You want to be cruising through the mountains, but you’re not leaving your desk anytime soon. So create your own scenic drive slide show with this 6-inch-square, high-definition, LCD picture frame that displays all the photos on your digital camera’s memory card. Just plug the card into the frame and the slide show begins, or download pictures from your PC. It even shows JPEG videos.
$300; BROOKSTONE
Keep your joe hot
You know you’re in the wilderness when there’s no Starbucks in sight. But you can still sip a steaming cappuccino from a travel mug that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter. Beverages stay hot an hour after you unplug, so you can have your tea and your tundra too.
$20; JCPENNEY
Weather report
You never know what the weather will be like in Colorado in October, but this compass/altimeter/barometer can help you avoid sudden squalls. An alarm sounds when air pressure changes as storm fronts move in. There’s even an algorithm chart that shows when deer and other large animals will be nearby.
$149.95; THECOMPASSSTORE.COM
Shoes drive us wild
Maybe it’s just a Sunday drive through the suburbs, but who says you can’t accessorize like a NASCAR star? These Spyder SV driving shoes are modeled after race-car drivers’ footwear and even have a reinforced right toe to ensure proper heel to toe down-shifting. But who cares when they look so cool?
$75; PILOTI.COM
