A Penny For Your Lost Items Thoughts

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on

“A Penny For Your Thoughts” About What I Don’t Carry Anymore – December 2025

I received an email early this Saturday morning from TomTom – you remember the GPS company. It was just a simple note telling me that their new app is ready. It made me pause in a way I didn’t expect.

I’ve been writing Traveler’s Toolbox blogs for years now, focused on the things I carry with me – gadgets, adapters, cables, and small bits of tech that make life on the road easier. The stuff that lives permanently in my bag. What I rarely talk about are the things I used to carry and no longer do. That email reminded me how quietly those tools disappear.

It took me straight back to the days when I carried a dedicated TomTom GPS for car trips. Not an app. Not something baked invisibly into the dashboard or my phone. A physical device, suction-cupped to the windshield, wires draped just messily enough to annoy me. I even bought celebrity voices for it, including one from Monty Python’s John Cleese. He’d announce things like, “You’ve arrived at your destination, but I’m not helping you with your bags,” and other quips that somehow made complex trips more tolerable.

Before GPS, getting lost genuinely worried me. My AAA membership was essential, largely because of those “TripTiks” – remember the spiral-bound, fold-out maps they’d prepare for you upon request, with your route highlighted in neon marker. I treated them like precious documents. When GPS arrived and I realized I might never truly be lost again, it felt like freedom. But at some point that comforting voice stopped being John Cleese, stopped being a separate device altogether, and became just another invisible feature on my phone. One day I was navigating customer sites with it, the next I wasn’t thinking about it at all.

I sometimes think I should find that old TomTom, frame it, and hang it on the wall in a shadow box next to a TripTik and a badly folded highway map of the U.S. – a small museum to the anxiety of travel past.

Preparedness used to show up in other ways too. Coins, for example. Early in my career – more decades ago than I care to admit – I spent an entire day on a job site desperately thirsty. The only relief was a vending machine that accepted coins and coins only. I had none with me. That experience trained me well. For years afterward, I never left the house without a few dollars in quarters rattling in my pocket.

I don’t remember when that habit ended. It just quietly did. Modern vending machines take bills. Or credit cards. Or phones. Inflation has made coins feel almost ceremonial. With the recent announcement about the end of the U.S. penny, I find myself staring at the penny jar in my house wondering whether those copper discs are future collectibles or just unnecessary dead weight. Either way, it feels safe to say the era of coins is ending, if it hasn’t already.

And yet, irony has a way of lingering. I read this morning that Italy’s Trevi Fountain is going to start charging tourists who want to see it. Maybe I should set up a little business nearby, selling those unneeded coins (three at a time of course) to tourists who suddenly need them again. Retiring in Italy doesn’t sound so bad.

I’ll need directions, of course.

Good thing I know where to find a GPS.

After decades of candid travel commentary – from loyalty program “magic tricks” to hotel check-in roulette – I’ve decided to turn some of that honesty into apparel. These aren’t novelty shirts; they’re the exact truths every road warrior wishes they could say out loud. Whether you’re quietly muttering “My loyalty points devalued while you read this shirt” or admitting “If delays build character then I’m the whole movie’s cast” you’ll find plenty of familiar sentiments… and more. Everything is produced by a reputable outfit, with black tees that work under a sport jacket plus hoodies and wicking travel gear for life on the road. The site also has my honest and snarky takes on technology trade shows. Take a look at Tinyurl.com/TechAndTravelWear. Even if you’re not buying they’re fun to read and commiserate – and if you do buy something, maybe I’ll break even. If you want a style you don’t see, just email me and I’ll add it.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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