GPS....So how do you like yours?

**hunter63** · 06-09-2015, 02:48 PM

DW got me a GPS for the truck....second one....first one was good at telling me where I have been......
This one is a Garmin.

Sunday, had a family function 70 miles away, that I have been to that location many times.
So punched in the address...gotta say much easier to do on this newer one.

I just drove my normal back road route...avoiding the interstate ....much construction, and will be for years from Chicago to Milwaukee.

So any time I would make a wrong turn......I didn't really say...."Hey you screwed up, go back to....."

I would see the screen saying "recalculating" and figure a new route from where I was actually driving....

Seems I should hear it saying under it's breath...."Alrighty then....now WTF are you doing?....Hummm....Ok try this."

So was actually a good practice run......and found my self arguing with my truck......

Y'all use yours?

**kyratshooter** · 06-09-2015, 04:04 PM

I have been driving to reenactments in places I did not know well for better than 40 years and the GPS is the best money I ever spent on travel gear. I have actually driven for hours and not found a campsite and had to return home because no one in the general area knew what a Rendezvous was, or where it was.

GPS may not be perfect but it will generally get you within sight of your destination.

I sometimes take long drives on the back roads and turn off my mind during the trip. Just watch the cows and horses, goats and pigs or follow a funny looking cloud and suddenly realize I don't know WTF I am. I just press HOME and follow the pleasant voice of what I imagine to be a very attractive, but sometimes irritated, young lady all the way back home.

if you want to get that girl really ticked off just get off the interstate and run through the drive through for a burger. She goes ballistic when I leave the highway. And when I drive across a field it gets frantic. "You are off the road, return to the road immediately!"

I consider GPS real good dementia insurance, since as long as I can punch the address I want to go to, or HOME, into the gps and follow the instructions to get where I am going or get home no one will know I'm bat $H!t crazy and they will let me run lose a little longer!

**hunter63** · 06-09-2015, 04:17 PM

LOL...Didn't punch in "Home'.....should have to see if it returned me the way I came...or was gonna send me down the I-road again.

Mine has is good for listing road names....Like "Wilson Road", but light on the Hwy 67.......signs are Hwy 67....never did see the "Wilson Rd" sign.
I'll try it again......but in the back of my mind is that thought, that "she" gotta be a she with that snarky-ness voice....Saying 'Well Dumas, you gonna follow my instructions, or go all "off road again"......(being said, with hand on hip and a "tude")

**Rick** · 06-09-2015, 06:36 PM

GPS is an amazing piece of gear. I have hand held and vehicle factory equipped. Great stuff if you turn the voice off.

**natertot** · 06-09-2015, 07:21 PM

They are okay. I sold mine off because it never got used since my phone has one on it that works pretty good. The one on my phone is based on google maps which I like because I can navigate by satellite and street views so I can see actual landmarks to help navigate by. The Garmin Nuvi did not have those features at all.

**nell67** · 06-09-2015, 07:39 PM

I have never owned a GPS, other than the one on my cell phone, which usually does pretty well, however yesterday we took a little trip to Owensboro Ky. And along the way the voice kept getting lost..."GPS signal lost" LOL however never leave home without a backup, right? I had googled the trip directions before we left and had a hard copy.

**crashdive123** · 06-09-2015, 09:36 PM

Having a GPS in my vehicle is a must. It saves an incredible amount of time for me - running calls over 4 counties. Mine is a Garmin Nuvi (lifetime maps and traffic) but don't recall the model number. I really like that this one does not announce "recalculating" but just does it.

Just got my wife a new one (newer Garmin Nuvi) and I like it better than mine. A few nice features that mine doesn't have and a more pleasant voice that pronounces words a bit better.

**hunter63** · 06-09-2015, 09:51 PM

You know, the first time I used it was finding my way across the bridge for Lacrosse, WI to Minnesota, and would try to get me to turn back and take the recommended route.
With road construction at the time......I couldn't use that route.

This time it didn't really argue with me, or actually say "recalculating"..in percentage on the screen......and just a gave me a new route.

**Sarge47** · 06-09-2015, 10:25 PM

Just bought a Garmin Nuvi 55 and haven't had the chance to use it yet. However when I do I'll chime in more....

**wilderness medic** · 06-09-2015, 10:46 PM

Use the iPhone for all my nav on the road. Works pretty well. Haven't needed anything else in a few years.

Use Garmins in our fire apparatus. They are so so. Have to be careful, sometimes addresses are listed way off. Sometimes (this actually happened to me) if will tell you to go down a one way street the wrong way.

Sometimes she isn't nice and yells. Sometimes I yell back.

**hunter63** · 06-09-2015, 10:58 PM

Yeah was pretty humorous.....DW was laughing at me for arguing with the machine........
"No, that's not the way I go, what the matter with you?.......I going THIS way....."....
LOL

**edr730** · 06-09-2015, 11:04 PM

If the batteries are low they can't get anything right. The back roads are often without satelite signal or you are given the long way. If you are going to a place without an address such as a hunting camp you can only get as close as the nearest cross road. I don't know the age experience or location or the voice and I find myself insulting it's heritage for that reason. It just makes me feel supperior. But, for all it's shortcomings, I find it's knowledge in the one thing it does well very valuable. I am much more successful with it than without it.

**kyratshooter** · 06-10-2015, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by edr730

If the batteries are low they can't get anything right. The back roads are often without satelite signal or you are given the long way. If you are going to a place without an address such as a hunting camp you can only get as close as the nearest cross road. I don't know the age experience or location or the voice and I find myself insulting it's heritage for that reason. It just makes me feel supperior. But, for all it's shortcomings, I find it's knowledge in the one thing it does well very valuable. I am much more successful with it than without it.

You do realize that the satellites cover the entire globe and are a military network. Your GPS may not pick them up but they are there.

I live out in the sticks and I get 12 satellite hits in my front yard.

And being a military system they also work with grid coordinates down to the 10 square meter accuracy range.

So if they will guide our troops across hundreds of miles of open uncharted desert and ocean they WILL find your deer camp. All you have to do is punch in latitude and longitude.

As for not working without juice??? Nothing works without juice!!!

**Faiaoga** · 06-10-2015, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by hunter63

Yeah was pretty humorous.....DW was laughing at me for arguing with the machine........
"No, that's not the way I go, what the matter with you?.......I going THIS way....."....
LOL

When the TV show Knight Rider came out, people thought it weird to see David Hasselhoff talking to his car. Now we have otherwise sane adults screaming at a disembodied female voice from an electronic device.

I think we need to give out some Darwin Awards.

**Rick** · 06-10-2015, 06:50 AM

Umm. If GPS is on your phone it's still GPS. Just sayin'.

**Duece** · 06-10-2015, 12:39 PM

Ive got a handheld magellan explorist,works pretty good,also use the one on my iphone lots....great for tracking down those out of the way yard sales lol
D

**Sarge47** · 06-10-2015, 03:38 PM

Low battery? Don't you keep it plugged into your auto cigarette lighter? that way it stays charged.....

**hunter63** · 06-10-2015, 04:24 PM

They have a battery?.....Oh, Oh.

**edr730** · 06-10-2015, 08:11 PM

The battery issue with the garmin is a heads up issue. You don't want to depend on it if you are out in the woods or you plug it in after not using it for quite a while. Beware the low battery before it tells you it is low. I know, I've done it. It will take you on a wild goose chase and all the while appearing as if it knows what it's doing.
I'm not sure what's happening at times when I get in a county with less thaj 20 people per square mile, but at times I get "lost satellite reception". I already know this is impossible, but I still lose reception and I need to figure out what is happening.
I know GPS is different than phone issues, but I often listen to people from "out in the sticks" that say that their phone works everywhere......then....hey what's wrong with my phone??? No signal?? No internet? No goggle map??