"Turn right"
Posted on 01/16/2013 8:16:31 AM PST by posterchild
I <3 my Tom-Tom. One thing it does is alert me to exit ramps when I am daydreaming, and gives an indication of time and mileage to go.
There was one time, when the wife and I were going to a B&B in Stockbridge, MA, that it took us about two miles on an unpaved single lane dirt road through the woods (without warning us that our route had unpaved roads, as it usually does), when there was a perfectly good paved road available. My wife was driving “her” car and she was not amused.
“Put too much faith in technology and you may wind up in Croatia. “
A neat trick, considering she started in Philadelphia.
I love GPS gadgets. I’ve got about seven of them. My only concern is how the GPS lady seems to get frustrated, tense, and finally angry every time I pull off the highway for gas and she starts in with the angry, “Recalculating!”
She sounds like an ex-wife or two.
But one time while driving through the Rockies taking the ‘scenic route’ the GPS lady almost got even. Suddenly she firmly said, “In 300 feet, turn right!”
I seriously considered obeying until it registered in my brain that there was a sheer drop of about 800 feet on the right side!
Also similar to an ex or two.
HA!
I’ve been on that road!
I know the area pretty well but put ‘shortest route’ onto the Magellan just to see if there was one....boy there are a bunch of dirt roads around there :)
My last eventful ride onto uncharted roads was in New Milford CT last month(you wouldn’t think so there)- loads of dirt and gravel roads, barely a lane wide - up and down steep hills...I ended up turning around in a paved driveway of a million dollar house and back tracked.Oops.
I had completely forgotten that they had voices. I turned my GPS’s voice off when I got it. I have a wife and daughters telling me where to go and what to do.
But forget road signs !
Unless driving some kinda vehicle with saddle tanks, the second petrol stop shoulda been at least a partial clue !
Why didn’t she stop and ask for directions?
Oh, wait, only men are supposed to do that.
We have a Garmin Nuvi. The darn thing seems to have a random route generator. It will generate a different route to the same location each time you fire it up.
For instance, there is a nice, simple, fast way to get from I75 in Georgia to Tallahassee, FL (and we do this a lot) - the Georgia Florida Pkwy - GA 300. But she (our Nuvi is named “Jill” after the voice she uses) will go any route BUT GA 300. These roads are typically over two lane 55 mph roads. The traffic is light, but what there is does not want to go 55mph. It either goes much faster or much slower.
I find this sort of thing entertaining when I am by myself or with just my wife and we have no schedule putting demands on us. I am never lost if my wife is with me because I am exactly where I want to be. But with kids, and/or if you are planning to go to work and school the next day..
Mostly I find GPS to be useful for “terminal phase” of a trip. You get close to where you are going, then use her for the final directions.
But I think I am going to print the directions to and from Tallahassee, laminate them, and stash them in the car.
I had it set for “fastest route”, but it still selected that accursed back road. We actually took back roads (like route 8)all the way from home, into the area, not the Pike. We were, after all, sightseeing. Once we got into Lee on Route 7, I switched over to Tom-Tom to close the deal and he promptly sent me through the woods. GRR. I think it was Bean Hill Road. Anyway, the B&B was on Prospect Hill Road, which nicely paved and the B&B was only about a mile from downtown.
Some people are too dumb to drive.
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