The big news story this weekend (at least in the sports nerd community) concerns ESPN reporter Erin Andrews.
Andrews is an attractive young woman who blogs and does sideline reports from live sporting events. If you’ve watched college football, you’ve probably seen her. Her striking good looks have helped to create quite a rabid fan base.
Sadly, Andrews has been the victim of a crime — an anonymous pervert filmed a “peephole video” of the reporter in various stages of undress, and posted said video on the Internet. Apparently the video was filmed by planting a camera inside her hotel room.
The situation reminded me of our own “RV vs. Hotel” discussion. There are many advantages of RV travel vis-a-vis hotel stays. Add privacy to the list. It’s all too easy for privacy violations to occur in hotel rooms. You are constantly surrounded by strangers, some of whom (hotel employees) may have a legitimate claim to entering your private space without permission.
By contrast, in an RV you govern your own space. There’s no maid service or room service — or potential anonymous perverts — walking around with access keys to your room.
What happened to Erin Andrews is sad. Let’s hope the perpetrators are found and punished.
And if I were Erin Andrews, I’d be investigating RV options immediately.
Sean!
This is one of those rare occasions when I actually know what you’re talking about, (and of course had to pipe up) as I had just recently read something about this rather sad event. One more reason to own an RV. I’ve always been more an advocate of the “I know who used my washroom and bed last” argument, but whatever works.
It’s unfortunate that our paths did not in fact cross when my wife and I were home in June. You may recall that we were going to be “vacationing” at our canadian residence for a couple weeks. I think you were still back in Maine at the time. These things happen. It went by all too fast.
Hope you enjoyed your brief trek through Canada. I realise we are in fact “different” than you folks south of the 49th, but we do share more similarities than differences. Our low key style can sometimes be an asset, instead of a disadvantage. (I can certainly cite examples if you’d like…Lester B. Pearson and the Nobel prize comes uppermost to mind…and I have no idea why that occured to me…)
Anyway, enjoy your travels. The weather on that side of the pond has been a tad iffy to say the least. We more or less know what to expect here in the Netherlands, and it seems that our summer is pretty much winding up.
Best to you and the boss.
Bob.
Bob!
It’s great to hear from you. You should “pipe up” more often!
With regard to the Erin Andrews situation, I was reminded (briefly) of the American football sportscaster John Madden. Granted, Madden probably never had to worry much about anonymous perverts trying to catch a glimpse of him in the nude. (How’s THAT for a mental image? ;-)) But he always traveled from sporting event to sporting event by RV (Prevost bus conversion, I think) because he hated to fly. So hey, if it worked for Madden, it could work for Andrews.
I’m sorry we missed you in Canada. Yes, we lingered in Maine for a while. We were enjoying the weather, the food, the hiking…even the rain seemed appropriate. Sometimes when we find a place we really like, we stop for a while.
While I certainly find Canadians to possess many delightful cultural differences, I also agree that similarities abound, especially in Anglo Canada. I found the transition from Quebec to Ontario particularly striking. Quebec felt like Europe, while Ontario felt like home.
With any luck I’ll have a fresh video online later this week, one spotlighting that place where Canadian and American lovebirds meet. Niagara Falls!
Cheers,
Sean
Little hard to fold a Airstream up into a travel case and get it on the airplane with her… wouldn’t you say??
I am sure you probably didn’t get the rest of the story about Madden dream… but, he has professional drivers wheel the motor home around while he sleeps… and of course its in his contract as to who pays big bux for it…
Erin on the other hand probably doesn’t have the same “ACCOUNTING” and such that she can nor probably wants to. (Madden is on the road while she is home taking care of business…. I mean look, Madden looks like a worn out shoe… Erin on the other hand is refreshed and not beat to death)
but, Sean…. you are viewing this from your RV standpoint. A lot of people don’t like living in boxes … the major reasion they buy homes with lots of room .. or stay in Hotels with REAL hardware… So you can’t say everyone should… that my friend is being narrow minded and biased.. to make the comment.
Of course today if its not the perv’s watching ya on some camera its the government… you have lost your privacy… and if you think you have security and privacy in your AS… I have a little toy over at work that was used on one movie… it uses a laser… and you can hear almost better with it hitting the window than being inside the room… yep the government came up with that little gem… soooooo…. about the only thing I can say is that if they hit your trailer with a flare such as what was shown in the movie “Blue Thunder” They will be able to see what your doing INSIDE your trailer… even if your under the covers 😉
Get on the internet with your computer… and their too you can be scan’ed… while your watching something.. they can watch and read your hard drive… hackers have proven this many times… (so them so called private pictures and emails you have on it… well…. 🙂 )
Of course you have to be kinda perverted and somewhat sick… to want to see such a good looking gal …naked… nothing left to the imagination??…
Then again I see the good guys are putting trojan horses on the fake naked videos so that when the perver’s try to go to see it… they get their computers fixed at the same time. ET phone home… Nice…
GMAs, I have a friend who worked with the US military in Germany and later on missions in Sierra Leone. I once asked him about what military technology he had seen coming down the pike. He said the most impressive (and worrisome?) stuff related to intelligence gathering. “We never use this technology in the States,” he said, “but it really does make you concerned about your own privacy.” So yeah, I’m sure the day is coming when privacy is hanging by a slender thread. If anything, people will need to take privacy shielding steps… I bet there will be some blocking/firewall technology that could help just a bit.
With regard to Erin Andrews, if she went the RV route there would of course be issues too. But I have to think that peeping toms would have a more difficult time bothering her if they had no clue as to her whereabouts, and no access to her living quarters. What I’m hearing about the Erin Andrews situation is that it must’ve been an inside job — maybe someone at ESPN who knew her schedule was the guilty culprit. Hopefully they will catch and punish the perv.