Keeping in touch means sharing experiences, and on the open road, truckers witness rare and interesting sights. Here are some ideas to share your travel highlights with friends and family back at home.

1. Instant pictures may seem like a photography dinosaur, but their ease of point, shoot, and mail keeps Polaroid on the list. Write an address in the white border, add a stamp and the postal service will deliver it just like a post card. To include a message, take along some shipping labels. Slap one on an instant pic's backside and there's writing space for a personal note. Use the opportunity to connect by telling the recipient what it was about the sight that made you think of them. A niece who loves animals would enjoy your snapshot of a momma cat, fat from travelers' handouts, nursing her kittens outside a rest stop. A brother who paints might appreciate you thinking of him as the inky shadow of evening clouds moves across a glowing sky of a desert sunset.

2. Looking for something more high tech? Jot an e-mail and attach a digital photo. To save time and energy, try Hewlett Packard's Photosmart digital cameras. The "Instant Share" feature allows you to select a destination at the time you take the photo. Later, when you hook the camera up to a computer, your shot of the sun coming up over the Mississippi River travels automatically to Aunt Mildred's e-mail address-just like you told it to hours earlier at sunrise.

3. Today's camera phones are another option. Photographs can be sent to other camera phone users, to e-mail addresses or uploaded to Web sites where your friends can come and browse.

4. If you're up for continual sharing, try opening your driving life like a book. Forty-two-year-old Texan John Lawrence uses wireless technology and a camcorder to transmit his life over the Internet. Friends, family, and anyone else interested in Lawrence and the trucker's life can watch the world go by from his Freightliner 18-wheeler. He records his thoughts and what he sees by using the varied webcam community www.anywebcam.com, which has more than 750,000 users.