Garmin etc

[corco]

I think GPS units take away a lot of the fun of trips-whereas people used to have to pull out the atlas and plan a route when taking a long trip, thus forcing them to think about where they were going and maybe allowing them to find some other places to stop along the way, now all somebody has to do is plug in a starting point and an ending point in a GPS and go on their way.

Well put. GPSes have just made roadtrips even more "destination-oriented" than they already were, which really does take all the fun out of it

[Scott5114]

I don't have a GPS, but I do love playing with the routing function on Google Maps. Usually I will add waypoints to force it to route a certain way to see if other routes shave time or distance off the calculated routing.

[jwolfer]

^^^^

Google maps on my Droid really has that stubborn feature of wanting to keep you on it's route.

What I  mainly use is the traffic feature which helps on the way to/from work.

And, yes, it's good for finding specific addresses.

My boss has an RV with GPS we take for Continuing Education seminars.  I like when you go off the route it tells you for about a mile to make a U-turn before it recalculates the route.  Fun to see where it routes you.

The first trip we went on they didnt believe me on some of the routing.  Now they know my amazing talents. 

[jwolfer]

My friend just got a Garmin for Xmas.  It would be a waste of money for me ( and I suspect most of us on here wouldn't need one) Is there a reason for anyone of us to have one other than the novelty and being able to outsmart the routing.  I remember doing that with mapquest.  I have found that many nav systems will keep you on interstates at all costs... routing you on circuitous routes just to keep you on interstates

I initially thought that, but the ETA aspect of a GPS is fairly useful, plus it is fun to beat the time, as it is conservative with its time estimates. It is also good to see old alignments (you can sometimes see the road veering off and coming back and saying to yourself "yup, old alignment").

i have tried to compare Jax to Atlanta ETA using 10/75 and US1 to us82 to I-75. It was nearly impossible to get the GPS I was using to get off the interstate.  doing the trip with Wacross as a stop it would bring you into Waycross and then back to I 10

[wriddle082]

I have been extremely resistant to owning a GPS over the years.  I've always been one to just look at a fold-out map, RMcN Atlas, DeLorme Atlas, and most recently use mapping apps on my smartphones.  But this year, my wife gave me a Garmin Nuvi 255W for Christmas.  Let me tell you, it's already been a bit of a lifesaver.

On 12/26, I had to drive a 26' Penske rental truck full of most of our belongings from the Nashville area to the Columbia, SC area where we are moving to.  The truck wasn't too difficult for me to drive, just had to use my mirrors a lot and give myself extra time to accelerate and slow down, but the steering wheel was a little out of alignment, so when the truck was going straight, the wheel was cocked about 40 degrees left of center.  This obstructed my direct view of the speedometer and the fuel gauge.  So I mounted the GPS low on the windshield and used it as a speedometer, and it was probably just as accurate if not more so than the actual truck gauge.

Oh, I will NEVER drive I-40 through the mountains of TN/NC without checking the weather forecasts first!  You guessed it, I got caught up in a snowstorm the evening of 12/26 while driving that truck.  It officially became the most adventurous, nerve-racking road trip of my life.  It was strange, Cocke County, TN road conditions were starting to get bad, and  Haywood County, NC had extremely poor road conditions, but once I crossed into Buncombe County, NC, the road was completely clear!

[Scott5114]

And if Haywood County is the one I'm thinking of (first county in NC on I-40) it's not exactly the sort of place you want to run into bad conditions!

[realjd]

I have been extremely resistant to owning a GPS over the years.  I've always been one to just look at a fold-out map, RMcN Atlas, DeLorme Atlas, and most recently use mapping apps on my smartphones.  But this year, my wife gave me a Garmin Nuvi 255W for Christmas.  Let me tell you, it's already been a bit of a lifesaver.

On 12/26, I had to drive a 26' Penske rental truck full of most of our belongings from the Nashville area to the Columbia, SC area where we are moving to.  The truck wasn't too difficult for me to drive, just had to use my mirrors a lot and give myself extra time to accelerate and slow down, but the steering wheel was a little out of alignment, so when the truck was going straight, the wheel was cocked about 40 degrees left of center.  This obstructed my direct view of the speedometer and the fuel gauge.  So I mounted the GPS low on the windshield and used it as a speedometer, and it was probably just as accurate if not more so than the actual truck gauge.

Oh, I will NEVER drive I-40 through the mountains of TN/NC without checking the weather forecasts first!  You guessed it, I got caught up in a snowstorm the evening of 12/26 while driving that truck.  It officially became the most adventurous, nerve-racking road trip of my life.  It was strange, Cocke County, TN road conditions were starting to get bad, and  Haywood County, NC had extremely poor road conditions, but once I crossed into Buncombe County, NC, the road was completely clear!

I drove that stretch of I-40 on the TN/NC border on 12/28. The road was in great condition through TN but as soon as I crossed into NC, the left lane was STILL covered with snow/ice! The right lane was clear, although a number of cars apparently couldn't tell normal pavement from ice and slowed down to 20-25 mph on curves even though the right lane was completely dry.