Keeping the Windmill Alive - Where was your last trip with your GPS?

I drove from my home in Kansas City to my daughters home in St. Charles, MO. Altho it's basically a straight shot I used my Nuvi 200 just to check it out. It's estimated time of arrival was dead on. I was really impressed how accurate it was.

I want on a short trip locally, but had my 360 route me. I had to laugh when it told me to turn right then left just becuase the street I was on changed names at the county line.

I live in the SF Bay Area which means Santa Cruz is a day trip for me. I have to admit I didn't use my GPS much however it was used....I'll explain. I wanted to go on a photo shoot (a new interest of mine) and thought the downtown area would be a good place to start. I used my Nuvi 360 to get me to City Hall, which it readily did. Santa Cruz City Hall is interesting on it’s own, it was designed to look like a California Mission complete with lovely gardens.

Next was to take a walk downtown to look around, for those of you familiar with Santa Cruz it has a reputation as being a throw back to the 1960's hippies and all. Well it did not disappoint, not only were there a smattering of hippies there were lots of student types (UCSC is located in town) which always adds character. In addition because Santa Cruz is commutable to Silicon Valley it had a pretty good representation of the upwardly mobile. So all in all downtown is a good place to people watch and just generally have fun.

On the way back I used the GPS to get me home. I set it to avoid freeways, the goal being a drive through the Santa Cruz Mountains which are beautiful all on their own. It did just that, I followed Highway 9 ( a rural back road) from Santa Cruz winding it's way through the redwoods and autumn forests to Saratoga. The drive was beautiful and fun, if you like back road driving this is a must.

just got back from trip to phoenix, before going i registered my nuvi so as to get traffic updates ,well guess what garmin updated my unit to the 4.2 without me even asking it to, now the voice directions are not in sinc with the screen directions,it either tells me to turn to late or to soon, got me lost in phoenix trying to get to the airport, i had been warned by someone else not to upgrade to the 4, version as there is problems with that version, and so had no intention of doing so, but as i said garmin did it as i was registering it, how do i get it back to the earler version, i think i am going to take it back to costco as i have only had it less than a month

Made my 760 much better and faster.

Rehobeth Beach

Nuvi360

I'll be going to Phoenix tomorrow,and I'll be looking for the speed cameras

I use it around town montly on week end. Some time for geocaching.

Last Sunday, the wife had a photo shoot up in the mountains at a place known as Aspen Grove. Here are some random pictures: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=aspen%20grove%20utah...
We drove about 50 miles south to the mouth of Provo Canyon where we met up with the photographer. Then a 20 minute drive up the canyon to the spot he wanted.

It must be hunting season because we could hear shots ring out in the distance along with the occasional deer/elk call. We saw several deer in the woods, and thankfully, those were the only large animals we encountered...we found several trees that had been scratched up, probably by bears, so I was constantly on the lookout.

Once the shoot was over, we drove the rest of the way up the canyon and eventually emerged out of American Fork Canyon.

Very nice drive. Fall colors are at their peak still in some areas, so any Utah members here need to get up to the mountains NOW! And if you're not from Utah, come on over anyway...I can point you in all the right directions.

My wife and I just returned from a 3-1/2 week, 4500 mile trip to New England. We spent two weeks on Cape Cod, drove on a foliage loop in New Hampshire, and visited Philadelphia and Baltimore on the way home. The ease with which we traveled to and from each location with the Nuvi was unlike any previous trip. No hassle with folded paper maps - no anxious moments for the driver, waiting for the passenger/navigator to provide accurate directions - simply no problems. This was our first significant trip with the Nuvi and I'll never take another without it. The accuracy was remarkable, the convenience of finding gas/food/POIs enroute to any location was terrific, and the comfort level while driving, knowing that you were going to get speedy and accurate directions was serene.

Go Garmin - and thanks!

Our TomTom dropped us off after 90 minutes of driving 1/4 mile from our destination of Warren Dunes State Park. Fortunately, we were able to find our way the last 1/4 mile this past summer.

And just a couple of weeks ago, the TomTom again thought we had reached our destination -- although we were still 1/2-3/4 mile away. Fortunately, there were signs pointing the rest of the way to Oriole Springs Orchard.

I chalked it up to incomplete/inaccurate maps. Freaky though.

Ahhhhhhhhh, lucky page number 13!! (LOL) Hey, I used my Nuvi 660 this past weekend to go to the GRAND OPENING of the BASS PRO SHOP store in Manteca California. Not only did the nuvi get me there in one piece but it also found a back door way into the shopping center lot thus avoiding me all the hordes of traffic at the main gate. Oh and the store is WAY COOL!! Not as nice as the one in Springfield MO. but a close runner up for sure.

I used my 680 to go the 2008 35th Annual Harvest Ball held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, CA

Black tie affairs are usually not my thing but I was supporting my wife. Her company is a long time City of Hope supporter and this is the third time in a row!

My 680 was showing the usual mish mash of streets and freeways to get there. I used common sense and did freeway all the way. I like it for the traffic information from MSN, it's about 70% accurate for Los Angeles, it helps a lot.

I took my Nuvi 650 to Rome, Italy. I used it in the pedestrian mode and it was great at directing me around the narrow streetsx and getting me to the places that I wanted to go. I never had to worry that I would get lost as I always knew my way back to my hotel.

Went to New Orleans for the weekend

My Son used my Nuvi 350 to travel from Fishers, IN to visit a friend attending the Lutheran Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN. He was pleased with the ease of use and functionality of the GPS. Unfortunately, now he wants one of his own! Guess there's one Christmas gift taken care of.

Did a business trip from Ft. Worth to San Antonio and instead of taking I35 we had my 750 take us the back country roads. Just as fast, maybe faster as it avoids Austin, and much more fun and scenic. Stopped for lunch at the Bluebonnet cafe in Marble Falls, Tx and had great food. The homemade pie is to die for.

Before I travel to somewhere as general as a state park, I get on Google Earth, find an entrance to the park and plug its lat/long into a custom POI. With that data to work with, my GPSr is NEVER off. It ALWAYS takes me to EXACTLY where I want to go. Talk about cool...

Went back to Bass Pro this past weekend to do some Christmas shopping and on the way back, my Nuvi 660 found me a quicker way out of Manteca that was different than my last trip down and back. Mind you I parked nearly in the same spot and took the same exit out of the parking lot and yet, it took me a different way back. Oh and one of the off ramps was closed so I had to use the detour feature which worked like a champ! I just LOVE not getting lost!!!

We used our for the first time on a trip from Northwest Georgia to middle North Carolina. It worked great through the Blue Ridge Parkway. Beautiful country!

I visited Phoenix Az last week. As usual, my nuvi was a great asset in my travels. Finding my hotel and selected sites was a breeze with its help. It's a pleasure traveling with such great directions. It's always with me when I'm on the road.

gusb

Took my 250W to Europe - planes, trains, automobiles, and walking. Ireland, UK, low countries, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France with a quick stop in Hong Kong on the way. I had the full Europe map set.
Did not bother much with planes as most flights were very long and the seating was not suitable.
Trains were interesting and the Nuvi was a great help just in knowing where you were, how far to go.
Automobiles included buses, taxis and hire cars. On tours it helped identify places the tour leader did not (could not be expected to) know.
Allowed us to "get lost" in the country roads because you always knew the way home. Saw many places we would never have seen because we deliberately went well off the main roads.
Walking around those spaghetti towns in Italy (like Venice, Florence, Sienna and Voltera) it was invaluable. Unlike almost every map it appeared to know every lane in Venice. In some towns satellites were hard to get down in the narrow lanes but you could still use the maps offline.
Even used it like an assistant - find a location and tell (show) a taxi driver - take me to this place!
Used the Nuvi location feature to save (as a photograph) the exact coordinates where we took photos. Now I can look up Google Earth and exactly identify where any photo set came from.
The Nuvi was an absolutely invaluable travel aid.

ive been stuck in maryland, lost my windmill... shat.

Alexandria,Virginia Beach,Norfolk.Passed some troopers, but didn't pull me over for the gps it was in a bean bag center of the dash...phew!Returned by way of bridge tunnel thru Delaware, picked up some crabs along the way (The Eating Kind).

Nuvi360

I went to Chicago last month to run the marathon. I say sort of, because 5 minutes after plugging in my Nuvi 760, something happened between the GTM 20 and the unit itself. First I saw smoke, then the unit failed utterly. Fortunately, I did have someone I could call to give me directions to my destination.

Anyway, things worked out okay. I set a PR (personal record) of 4:43 for the marathon, had a good time and the GPS was replaced under warranty.

my boss's bday party in Daly City, CA

I recently traveled from Tempe, AZ to Escondido, CA and from Escondido to Santa Monica, CA and back without as much as a hiccup from my NUVI.

My son-in-law on the other hand, used a Tom Tom in a rental car after having recently replaced the firmware and had many headaches. Each time he approached a freeway ramp, the GPSr instructed him to "stay left." One can only imagine with the number of freeway ramps in and around the San Diego/Escondido area how annoying this became.

My wife and I travel down to Arizona and Nevada every fall, and this was the first year we had our Nuvi 660. Although we took the I-15 most of the way, the files downloaded from the POI Factory came in really handy with finding restaurants, rest areas and retail outlets. It was also really helpful in finding alternate routes in Vegas and Phoenix when we wanted to avoid the spaghetti bowls on the freeways.

If you are anywhere near Laughlin NV, make sure to take a run out to Oatman AZ. Its a fun little old west town, with gun fights on main street, wild burros wandering the roads (be careful, they are nosey and slow), and a lot of funky shops. A nice place to spend the afternoon and a few bucks on souvenirs.

DAY 1
Denver to Colorado Springs
Colorado Spring to Denver via County Roads

DAY 2
Denver West on I-70 over the Overland Pass to Silvermonte
Silvermonte to Kremling to Walden to Laramie, WY

DAY 3 & 4
In and around Laramie, WY

DAY 5
Laramie to Jackson, WY

DAY 6 & 7
Tour of Jackson area including Teton NP and Yellowstone NP
Yellowstone to Cody to Shoshoni to Casper to Cheyenne

DAY 8
Cheyenne to Denver

The following PIO files were downloaded, installed, used and extremely helpful:

• Redlight-Cameras.csv
• Offbeat Tourist Attractions for_WY.csv
• Grand Teton.gpx
• Yellstone.csv

Due to a death in the family, I will be using my GPS in and around the Seattle area.

I am so sorry to hear of your loss, Please be extra careful out there during such a stressfull time.

May God Bless you and your Family!
Bob

I am heading to DC..I may have to re-up my MSN now...arrgghh

Tell you the truth I have let my subscription lapse and have not really missed it?

Please drive carefully, and know that our thoughts are with you.

Miss POI

The last, longer trip was to Mt Tremblant to get some skiing in. If anyone is familiar with the trip to Mt. Tremblant from Toronto, you'll no doubt know that the usual trip is through Montreal and then making a left north to Mt. Tremblant. Well, my Nuvi, knowing better, detailed a route via Ottawa and through the hills direct to Mt. Tremblant. I was suspicious but the reduction in distance was too tempting. I decided to take the new route. Well, all was going well until the Nuvi's screen went black and decided not to return for the rest of the evening. So 11pm, -20C, no maps, no Nuvi and lots of "what were you thinking when you decided to come this way" from my wife. My Blackberry's rudimentary GPS system helped us out although the data charges just about cost more than the weekend in Tremblant.

What happened to the Nuvi? Who knows... Garmin suggested a general reset which solved the problem.

I ran the marathon last weekend in Santa Clarita and used the Garmin to navigate to a friend's house where I had never visited before. What was strange was that it could not find his address on the Nuvi 760 when I started with city name of Santa Clarita, which he had given me. I went to maps.google.com and found it there, as well as got turn-by-turn directions. That website showed the address as Santa Clarita, CA. I then viewed the map on the Nuvi and followed along on the turn-by-turn directions until I got the cursor close to his house. Then I picked a random address, saved it, and then viewed it. Lo and behold, instead of Santa Clarita, the area was called CANYON COUNTRY, CA. Once I started the search in the Nuvi with that City, Nuvi found his address.

This area is pretty newly developed, so perhaps the databases are still getting shaken out.

Ft. Dix, Trentom, & Philly (yup picked up a cheese steak).

Nuvi360

I've recently purchase a Garmin Street Pilot c580 and am so busy setting it up for future travel, I've mostly neglected to use it locally, except the other day we took the Garmin w/us for a local errand, and it directed us to a small shortcut we never even knew about. Really liked that!

I used my Magellan Maestro 4040 to get to the BMW plant in Duncan, SC for the annual Euro Auto Festival. Been there before but it never hurts to be accurate. If you are ever looking for something to do in Septemebr consider attending. It is a great gathering of European cars with several prsitine vintage ones on display. You also get a chance to abuse some of BMW's finest autos for a fee. All proceeds go to the American Red Cross. For more info visit http://www.euroautofestival.com/.

This past Saturday we went to a winery in Leesburg, VA, but stopped by a nice and typical restaurant downtown first.

I used the Trip function of my Magellan 1412 for the first time, adding both destinations plus the return to home to this trip. I didn't use the "optimize route" feature because I didn't want the GPS to change the order: restaurant then winery.

Both restaurant and winery were found on the standard POI that came with the unit.

No problems on the route, easy directions. I didn't try the "avoid toll road" because it'd add too much time in traffic lights.

I still think this is a nice GPS for the price I paid.

Take care,

...any Floridians want to tell me about where to go to get the most bang for the hour in touring the Everglades, and the Keys? I have just a day or so for each. Plus, thoughts on what to do at Merritt Island?

GC

Lost the mill while traveling Europe so only fair I report a few short ones? How about Brisbane to Gympie?
Rain bucketed down for a while (at night) so on a country road the NUVI was another help staying on the road - good to know where the corner is going even if you are going very slow.

For your trip to the Florida keys, you need to go to visit Key West. It is a long drive down, but is worth the trip. While you are in the Merritt Island area, be sure and visit the Kennedy Space Center and take the tour.
If you have any specific likes,let me know.

For your Florida visit, take in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, is also worth a stop. Take the trolley tour and try to take the tour of the Old Fort and Flagler College. Only 2 tours of Flagler College per day !

I agree with you on the Kennedy Space Center, It one heck of a tour, our space program past and present at it's best.

Key west Can be bypassed as far as I am concerned, way to far to travel from Miami and not really enough to see to make the trip worth wild unless you like to drink and party all day or have your picture taken with a sign stating your as far south as you can go in the Continental United States. If you really want to experience the Keys I recommend not going past Key Marathon you get the whole picture and the long bridges then returning back to Miami. Since your going to take a day trip from Miami rather than going to Key West, I recommend instead heading west to the other coast through the Everglades to Naples/Ft. Myers driving on Aligator Alley or US41. and spend a day or two there on the Gulf of Mexico Beaches, in Ft. Myers you can take a tour of Thomas Edison's winter Home and Laboratory.

I concur, this is one of Florida's hidden jewels, just don't drink from Juan Ponce de León's The Fountain Of Youth, I did and my hair started to go gray the next week.
Make sure to stop in St. Augustine early in the day and make it a stop for the night you won't be sorry!

Haven't done much recently but short trips to/from work and the grocery store, but will be heading down I-95 shortly for a day trip. I'm counting on some accurate traffic warnings to avoid the probably delays around the Baltimore tunnels and construction areas!

...I've seen the Kennedy space center twice (once being when Apollo 8 was lifting off, the first to go to the moon. What a roar that made!) Seen St. Augustine as well, which was fun. But the Keys and Everglades are the focus of this trip, so thanks for those thoughts.

GC

I use my GPS even for short local trips. The red light cameras and speed cameras in the Phoenix area are in constant flux. I use my NUVI to keep me alerted to any changes in the area and to remind me of where the long time cameras are located. I also like to know how fast I am going without looking at or in addition to the speedometer on my dashboard.

So my last trip was around town here yesterday and my next trip will be around home again some time later today.

To BobDee and Miss Poi,
Just an update, Thank you both for your kind words. It was a difficult time for all of us, but we pulled together as a family and we will press on. When all is said and done, family is all that matters.

Just an FYI: My GPS was a MOST valuable tool during this time. Shuttling family from the hotel, to the airport, funeral home, and dinners, I was all over the place, it was/is an indispensable tool during this time. It did not let us or me down. I think I also convinced my cousin(s) to look into getting one for them.

Our last trip was to The Smokey Mountains and the East Coast. Our Garmin was great, and we used it to find food, hotels, and even to get the numbers for hotels up the road a few hours to call and make reservations. It has changed our life.

I use ours regularly to track my arrival times to work (nice to see when you have extra time to stop for gas). I also use it when driving to family about 2 hours away to track our arrival times.