If you find yourself spending time studying your paper map to map out your long distance driving route and not familiar with where you’re going then you can probably relate to the unpleasant trip I encountered. I was planning on relaxing and catching up on a good book to read while my husband drove to our family vacation destination until I was handed a paper map to assist with navigation. My directions turned out to have some wrong turns that took us much further out of the way and of course we were all mad, tired and frustrated! It reminded me of the movie where the kids would say “ARE We There Yet”? After such an unpleasant, long 600 mile trip I refused to navigate again. I was desperately seeking the GPS that would save my marriage!
Life with GPS (Global positioning System) is so much better now since I can relax and leave the navigation to Karen who tells us turn-by-turn directions. Who is Karen? Karen is the “GPS voice” that communicates our directions the voice has become a part of the family so we named her appropriately. Karen assist us with directions for traveling to school sports and when we rent a car there is no need to pay for a GPS rental since our personal GPS is portable to another vehicle (plug-in and navigate) so we take Karen (our Garmin Nuvi GPS device ) with us wherever we travel on the road.
Top 7 Navigation Benefits I rely on Most:
- Night driving – the 4 inch screen lights up to show a graphical map image that moves as you travel and highlights street names that are coming up as well as announce each turn before you get to it.
- Touch screen to locate restaurants, movies, shopping nearby my exact location
- Telephone integration (hook your cell phone) which allows “push button” to call in restaurant reservations and “hands-free” talk while driving
- White-arrow back-light shows you when you should be turning and in what direction (we’ve missed less turns because of this novice-proof feature)
- Enter your destination address and press Go! (save your trip for easy recall)
- Displays up-to-the-minute time of arrival (Now I know what time I will bet there)
- Very Good navigation accuracy except for when a new street is unknown…new streets will not show up
Drawbacks to GPS:
- Maps become outdated so eventually you’ll need to purchase an upgrade for new streets map
Provide your comments …on how you solved your long-distance trip delimma? Are you still using a paper map or which GPS did you choose?
