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

I USE MY GPS EVERY DAY TO FIND MULTY STOPS COULD NOT DO WITHOUT ONE ONLY HAVE FOUND VERY FEW PLACES THAT ARE NOT IN THE MAP SYSTEM AND VERY FEW THAT ARE NOT ACURATE.

in Manchester, CT

i love my windmill

Minong, WI then we used it for POI's in Superior, WI.

Hurrah!

Well my year is starting out with a visit to China for two weeks - I wont have my Garmin, and I am not sure how Google maps will work on the BB because Google is blocked in China.

Update:

Well I am here. It appears that portions of Google are. Google maps does not appear to update.

Daughter calls on cell phone and says car does not move any more. I ask her where she is and I get a hmmmmm.. I ask her to get the address of any building near her. Fire up the GPS and Dad to the rescue. Technology is wonderful.

Just staying active this week.

RT

to spend New Years with family

I had a chance to travel from Iowa to Los Angeles and back over the yearend with my new Garmin 1450 which I purchased on Black Friday.
We had a family gathering for Christmas in Phoenix and then a gathering with our grand children in LA.
Before leaving I loaded the GPS with truck stops, rest areas, historical markers, NPR stations, Highest points in each state, offbeat tourist attractions, Best things I ever ate, Celebrity Graves and Crime scenes, Choice hotels, Diners Drivins & Dives, Frontier Forts on the Plains, Meat and Potatoes, Prisons, Truck stops , etc.
Since I have taken this trip several times and did not need the GPS I put up the POI file to tell me about the road I took. I learned several new historical information items from the markers we passed without stopping which saved time. I passed several other sites not on my Garmin and had promised I would stop and record them on my return but the time did not permit me to do it. I shall try to do it on our next trip.
Before leaving LA I checked the weather reports and saw that there was severe weather in the midwest. The Garmin had chosen the Midwestern route but I told it to go south to Tucummcari New Mexico.
This was just as good as the northern route for I-80 and I 40 East were both closed due to snow. I checked my Garmin and then took a highway south towards Phoenix and the the first possibility to I-17 North and then to Flagstaff. We spent the night there and learned that I-80 was still closed so we made the right choice.
The next morning we left and the road was from 35 mph to 80 mph depending on the ice. Once we were below 4000 feet altitude the road was good and back to the speed limit.
I then put the Garmin to all POI's and watched all the points along the road home.
We arrived home later then expected but at least we arrived.

Went to Pennsylvania and watched miracle of Christmas. Really Touched.

Just a short Internet trip to keep the windmill alive.

I want my windmill back!

went to vegas again

Made the trek to Costco and back today. Lots of folks out stocking up in anticipation of a the threat of a major snow event ~Tuesday. Nuvi performed well - no major traffic disruptions despite the number of people out.

nyc for new years, thanks garmin!

Went to Baltimore a week ago to drop off daughter for a cruise. Came in very handy to get me there.

Went to Pitt from DC for the Winter Classic !!!!

The GPS is on whenever we're in the car or truck ... "Don't leave home without it".

RT

via Niantic, CT, then back again to Niantic. Snow, no snow, more snow.

To much snow and ice to go anywhere.

My last trip was a drive to Hagerstown via Harper's Ferry and Sharpsburg (site of Antietam Battefield).

-Dave

Took a trip the Grand Canyon and it worked just fine. No problems.

got me safely home again....

Riding around taking pictures in the snow and ice.

but i wish i did. i went w/ some friends from downtown d.c. to philly for pat's king of steaks AND to NY for borgata and white castle.

we used her gps on her droid. it was cool cept her charger was whack. a separate gps.. ala my 765t would have made things a lil bit less stressful.

just finished a week in texas 8 stop in Houston my Garmin 465t needs updating because one stretch on I45 it just lost its way for a few guess they redone the road there. other than that had a good week in Texas

Planning a trip to Toronto,to find a doll shop for my wife.

Took a short trip south on I-95 yesterday and back home in the evening. Steady traffic on the southbound leg around 1230. No issues on I-95, but the I895 tunnel was closed and backed up for some reason - I'm guessing an accident - and those folks probably were stuck for quite a while.

The return trip around 7pm was smooth with lighter than usual traffic, most likely due to the Ravens - Steelers game.

The Nuvi performed fine - no issues and a positive traffic experience overall.

No trips today ,got over a foot of snow and -18C

Didn't venture out too far this weekend - primarily running various errands - but I did get to test the accuracy of several new custom POIs I loaded onto my GPSr.

beautiful day for a drive!

Just used it to head to the beach for the weekend.

after a great New Years with family in Phoenix. Interesting to see the ETA update after crossing the new bridge instead of going over the dam.

One week has past in China and I have one more to go before I leave back home to the States on 1/22. Though I did visit the Terracotta warrior exhibit in Xi'an - a must do for anyone destine for China.

I was at one of the many electronics malls they have here and the Garmin gpsr are expensive here. Not many models to select from - (1200/1300) and some other brands I am not familiar with.

Windmill post...

and the offbeat attractions were great.

I've found myself using my Droid for GPS instead of my Garmin since I always have it with me. Do you think smartphones will take the place of GPSRs?

Rented a car this time. Saved money over cabs.

I believe, if Battery life is not an issue no more, the Smart phones will definitely takeover, for so Many reasons.

I used Mine on iPhone Several times as well.

I believe, if Battery life is not an issue no more, the Smart phones will definitely takeover, for so Many reasons.

I think it depends primarily on what one uses GPS for--there are some folks who are going to continue to use specialised GPS devices such as car GPSr's or hiking GPSr's (in fact, there are actually some specialised "geocaching GPSr" devices coming out such as the Geomate.jr).

For folks who primarily use GPS in their car, they may well want to stick with a dedicated "car GPS".

However, smartphones and smartphone GPS programs are getting better and better (CoPilot Live for Android and Google Maps have been solid for me so far, and the GPS receiver on my T-Mobile G2 regularly gets within 2-4 meter fixes of where I'm at) and smartphones DO have the distinct advantage of being multi-use devices--not just multi-use in that they can be a GPS receiver/phone/palmtop computer, but multi-use in that one can put different specialised GPSr programs on them (GPS tools specialised for road-mapping, hiking, geocaching, and so on).

I'll admit that--much like "geek cook" Alton Brown--I tend to be leery of "single-use" devices, and pretty much have been a fan of multi-use and multi-purpose tools since the days of Swiss army knives and Leatherman pocket tools. The newer Android phones (especially those with slide-out keyboards--my personal preference) are the closest I've seen yet to the ultimate "multi-purpose pocket communications and walkabout tool", especially with the GPS tools and programs with GPS capability (such as programs that can literally hail a taxicab based on your GPS location).

That said--I am not a fundamentalist about this, and I'll admit it's my own preference; there are folks who prefer dedicated devices that each do things very well, and I do think there will be a market for GPSr's for that market.

As for car GPSr's, I do think those are going to either be diminishing in sales as smartphones with integral GPS catch on, or (just as likely IMHO) more car manufacturers will include a built-in GPS with vehicles.

For other GPSrs (such as surveying and hiking GPSrs and GPSr devices used for boat navigation, etc.--I've even seen GPSr/"fish finder" sonar combinations at sporting goods stores) I don't see smartphones cutting into the market--some of these devices are specialised enough and/or ruggedised enough that you're not going to see much replacing those.

One development I'm interested to see how it does--we might see "standalone GPSr" growth in small devices dedicated for geocaching.

Now, for the ones we're concerned about--GPSr devices that can take custom POIs--I do think smartphones will cut into it, but won't displace it entirely, especially if there's a growth in "built in" car GPSrs. Plus, some folks will always prefer keeping their computer, phone, and GPS devices separate.

I actually LIKE the idea there IS that choice available--not just choice in smartphone platforms and GPS tools, but choice in whether to use a smartphone with integral GPS, a dedicated car GPSr, or whatever. Choice is good, and monoculture is never a good thing.

Its wierd but since I got the GPS, traveling a lot less.

My last trip using a gps was in South Lake Tahoe.

To the tip of Long Island.

Is it because you now know hot to get where you are going?

Was to a doctors office in downtown Chicago. GPS immediately got confused in the tall buildings and had me driving across Lake Michigan!! LOL!!

NYC

Snowboarding at Heavenly and Sierra.. yahoooo

Home sweet home.