We got LiK a "minimal" phone for her occasional road trips to visit relative in Texas - a 350 mile trip each way. Except for her having forgotten to take it on at least three recent trips, it's reassuring that she could have it when she's on the road.

It later came in handy when one of the relatives "promised" to join us at the WVA festival, since they could call to find us. (There are no street addresses in the campground.) Of course, they got cold feet and never showed up, but we were assured they could have found us if they'd come.

Hers is one of those "add a card" phones, which sounded cheaper than a regular subscription phone, but when we tried to add her first replenishment time card the phone informed us we had to call it in from a different phone, and couldn't register the new time from the phone it was being added to. (I don't understand this, so don't ask. That's just the message she got.)

After a trip to town and an extended (3 hour) search for a phone we could use, she finally found one; but to avoid future hassles of this sort we got me a similar "add a card" phone, but from a different service.

(We later found that, after visiting their web site and registering her phone there, she can add time from her own phone so we don't need the second phone for her to add time to hers.)

We have used the two phones some, especially while I'm at WVA waiting in line before she comes down. She can call me with good reliablility. From Winfield, 80 percent of calls originating from my phone fail to connect, although incoming calls are reliable.

Around home, we've used them often since she has a habit of "disappearing" in large shopping centers. I can simply call her cell phone and it rings to alert her to look for me. The only problem is that it invariably rings at home in the kitchen where she's left it on the charger.

My own was worth having the one time, at Winfield, when she dropped into a diabetic coma and I had to call 911 to have her hauled to the hospital. THAT WORKED PERFECTLY, and I was VERY GLAD to have the phone in the campground. (Since they hauled her off without telling me where they were going, it was also helpful that the 911 number also worked to have the cop shop tell me where the @$#!# hospital was.)

John