GPS Awesomeness.

So I have written a bit about our GPS. It is one of the car navigation ones. Got another more suited to land navigation but that doesn’t have much to do with anything. Mainly that one just sits around as I am a map, protractor and compass sort of guy. Anyway I don’t have enough good things to say about the Garmin Nuvi275T.

Today we  decided to go check out a couple of nearby downtown/ shopping areas and get some dinner afterwords. When we were leaving home we just entered the address of the restaurant and it took us there. Then we went exploring for awhile. Parked the car and walked around for awhile just checking things out. Then we wanted to go to another place we have been before to look at designer purses (Wifeys birthday is coming up). We knew how to get to both places but not so much from one to the other. It took us right there and then after much looking and handling and examining we decided it was dinner time. Going back to the restaurant was too easy.

On the way home we were talking and missed a turn. No worries because Sarina has got us covered. [We chose the voice of a British woman and named her Sarina] She took us off the highway at a place where it was easy to turn around and go back. This is useful for a variety of reasons. First if you are reading a map or have mapquest directions and miss a turn then you are jumping around trying to get back to that route. The navigation system just adjusts the route to get you there as easily as possible.

Navigation systems aren’t for everybody. If you are one of those folks who has lived in a 30 mile circle of work, home, a relatives house, a pizza place and a local watering hole for 10 years you don’t need one. However for folks who regularly drive long distances or just enjoy going to new places I think a navigation system is really money well spent. Ours is so simple that anybody could use it and it takes us exactly to where we want to go.

Of course you do want to use COMMON SENSE. Don’t take a route just because the GPS/ navigation system says to take it, especially in the mountains during the winter. I don’t know exactly what route that fellow took through the Cascades to get from Central Oregon down to the Willamette Valley. In any case I assume it was not one of the major ones. Not blindly relying on any one instrument is good advice that verges on common sense. .

Anyway navigation systems have came down in price a ton in the last couple years. They are now reasonably priced and they are very useful. Many of you would be well served by one.