FINDING MY WAY

After seeing and hearing what a great asset a car GPS system is by the man who drove the car I was in on our trip to Golden State Park and me actually see this little system work and the lady in the car I was in on last weekend’s birding trip, who told me how much she loved hers and how she used it while traveling, I made a project of looking into the various brands and checking them out.

After many hours and days on the Internet, I decided on the Garmin 1450T. It was a little more expensive ($200) than another model ($169) which you had to pay $20 for updated maps from time to time and the other service that tells you there is an accident or traffic jam up ahead which also had a fee, was also for free. I believe these two features alone will pay for themselves in no time.

Radio Shack had a special on it, so I traveled there to actually see the large five inch screen and be able to hold it in my hand. The salesman wanted me to see a lesser model which would have saved me about $40, but then again, a smaller screen, no free map uploads and on and on. This GPS also gives you routes to walk, has an altimeter and coordinents on it. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The salesman told me I could just go out to my car and plug it in. You just first have to enter your address which would be my next stop. “Go Home” it’s called. So, I’d say within ten to 15 minutes I was on my way home with my new girlfriend telling me which way to go, which lane to get into, what exit to take and recalculating automatically, as I made another stop before reaching my destination; home. Although I knew my way home from Folsom, it was fun and a little company along the way.

There is a dashboard holder for the screen, but I didn’t want to bother with that at the time I was setting up this device in Radio Shack’s parking lot because I really didn’t know if I wanted it on my dashboard or on the window. Now that I’ve used it a bit, I decided I really like it right where all of my other meters on the car are. It fits snugly right in where the speedometer is without blocking any important information or controls for the car.

When it told me to get on the freeway so many tenths of a mile up the road, I didn’t pay attention and got on to the wrong way of the freeway going west instead of east and the lady’s voice on the GPS kept telling me to get off the freeway which I couldn’t understand why. She was right. I had gotten on the wrong freeway entrance and I was going in the wrong direction.

So far this little gem has paid for itself and definitely for future upcoming trips. It is so nice now not to get lost on these curvey, hilly roads here. Less frustration, less gas used and knowing I’ll never get lost again. Looking on maps on the Internet as well as paper maps takes so long and still it’s hard to get to a destination not really knowing if you’re going in the right direction. With this little gem, you always know where you are.

As I was reading reviews of this particular GPS, one of the reviewers said he used it for geo caching. That was also one of the determining factors I chose this particular unit. I haven’t tried to go on to the geo caching web site to actually see how I would go about it, but I’m pretty sure, this little piece of equipment would get me there.

So now I feel so much more confident about traveling in this area and not dreading having to find a place on the Internet or a regular paper map and still feeling frustrated through the whole process even though I eventually got there in one piece.