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

Going to PA for 2 weeks. Plan to use the Nuvi the entire time. Just got a new Aqua Box and it seems to be working good. No water test yet.

Went to my son's new place today
never been there befor but with
nuvi was a breeze

I KNOW I'm gonna get it for saying this buuuuuuuut, I haven't used my Nuvi 660 at all lately! What with the cost of fuel as it is i don't have a lot of liquid cash to flush on driving around. I'm pretty sure a LOT of folks are having the same problem right now.

Kindergarten Promotion..

Just went from DC to Mass and my 550 worked great. My wife missed one split on 95 and it got us back on is 2 turns with no U-turn. I love this thing...

Since I recently started playing golf again I've used it to find several golf courses. Some of those are pretty far off the beaten path.

Like some others have mentioned, with the increasing gas prices I've started using my GPS somewhat less. I have used it a few times to find a quicker route so I can save a little gas.

I traveled to Toronto last week. I love it when my 660 alerts me of a Tim Horton or other restraunt, or lets me know that I'm approaching a red light camera. Tomorrow I'm off to Akron Ohio. I wouldn't think of leaving without my gps. Several of my friends laughed when I told them I use a gps for our senior softball tournament and other trips. Now many of them are gps users.

gusb

I just got my gps for Father's Day and haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I am totally pumped. I run service calls all day and will not miss reading a map book at 45 mph.

ps- this site is wicked cool! I dig the POIs.

-peace

Welcome! You're right, this is a great site. I think you'll learn lots of good tips and tricks from the members here.

Welcome to the site, your kids are so cute.

Miss POI

My last trip was to Hamilton, noticed a red light camera that was not loaded to my poi so updated the POI now will see if it is included.

loving it so far

Most recent trip was from Palm Desert, CA (very hot), to Scottsdale,AZ, (even hotter)!
Only problem I had with my Garmin 650 was that when I took the 101 Loop off of I-10 East it wanted me to turn around for the first five off-ramps. After that it was back on track.
JeffSh

Just got back from a trip to southern utah great weather but the poor 660 go lost a couple of times. Took me to the wrong town for a KOA and wrong end of another towm for walmart. It sure kowns its way around back roads and famers fields.

Took my Nuvi 650 and my wife on drive to Brooklyn cruise terminal from northern Vt. My wife is in love with our Nuvi. No maps, no fighting and no panic. I just wish we could all go for another road trip. One wrong move near terminal was easily corrected otherwise I would still be in Brooklyn.

My wife took me on my B-day to St. Paul. If you go there for the weekend, stop and take the Gangster Tour...you will learn a lot in several hours about this city. Great weather, food and I hope to go back soon.

followed my c330 ona route that I've never taken before, to my Dad's. Took 2 hours off my total drive time.

I had it all figured out that we would use the GPS to find our way to all the new homes that were on display for our Parade of Homes. It did not hit me that most of these new homes are in new subdivisions. EEP! Pull out the home supplied maps and watch the GPS place my icon car into the woods!

I was able to use the GPS later to find a nice place to eat lunch and contemplate my dependency on the GPS,

Well folks,

I dragged out my Nuvi the other day to find some BofA Atm's in a location I was unfamiliar with, and YES I got that POI file RIGHT HERE! Now I admit it wasn't the most exciting trip in the world but it did serve a purpose. (It got me lunch money) (LOL)

As a delivery driver, I use my GPS most every day. It saves a fortune in time and gas, which could easily be wasted taking less efficient routes, or hunting around for that house on every block that seems to be missing its address numbers.

Given that my job involves finding addresses and driving to them, I can't imagine how my co-workers manage with dead tree maps.

Didn't use it on any long trip but was VERY helpful in finding a friends house that is out in no mans land.
Didn't think there were houses there never mind a whole neighborhood !!

I just returned form a trip to Akron Ohio (> 300mi one way). My nivi 660 performed flawlessly. I connected the audio output to my car speakers through the aux input and the sound was great.
I went to play in a senior softball tournament. Last year I put my garmin 330 on display for my team mates and many of them laughed at me.... can't you read a map or follow maquest directions? This year most of them own gps units and were asking me for advice and help! what a difference a year makes.

gusb

...was getting from Alpharetta to Lawrenceville, suburbs of Atlanta. I used my Garmin and a co-worker used his TomTom and left 15 minutes before I did. I arrived only 5 minutes after he did. His route was definitely longer and not quite as direct.

Washington, DC to Boston, Ma and the GPA (Nuvi 660) was invaluable. I am addicted to the bluetooth speaker phone!!!!

I purchased my nuvi 760 on June 5th for a trip to California. I went from Henderson NV - Oceanside, Ca. Nuvi came in handy when I had to find a WalMart to buy a cell phone because mines was eaten by the ocean. Also helped in finding food places for my son who is very picky.

Went from Oceanside to Carlsbad, Ca to Legoland found it with ease. From Legoland we had to go from Carlsbad to Anaheim leaving Carlsbad about 5:45 p.m.. Took about a hour with the traffic, but we arrived at the hotel with no problem.

Nuvi came in handy when going to Santa Monica Pier & H&H (Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center). No driving around looking for the parking garage and it kept me off hollywood blvd stuck in traffic.

The best thing it didn't take me 10 hours to come home from California like it did last time ( I got a little lost).

I absolutely love my nuvi 760, I'm already planning my next trip - maybe scottsdale or San Diego Seaworld for the weekend.

Took the wife and baby from NYC to Mystic Seaport, CT. It was a nice day trip and we even got to stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Thanks to "grubby" (my wife fondly nicknamed my Nuvi 770 "grubby") we found a nice place to eat that night and even found a nice ice cream palor for dessert.

Just got back from the Dominican Rep. last night.
The nuvi760 battery died over the Atlantic on the way down , but the vista Hcx worked great on the way back, I had 7 meter accuracy at the window, got the entire track back to Toronto, now I have to download it to see all the info that was recorded...

My recent trips have been work related. The nüvi rocked though. I had to travel to a couple of towns several hours away and it was great to not have to worry about how to get there. My wife went with me on one of the trips and she likes to try different routes in order to see new places so we ignored the route I had planned and let the nüvi figure it out for us. Naturally Jack complained bitterly for a bit but he finally gave in and routed us along the roads we decided to check out.

I was quite surprised to find that the traffic alerts kicked in and assisted me greatly. Where I live there isn't any traffic coverage so I figured the feature would be useless to me. However, on our way from Chico to Santa Rosa the nüvi suddenly started warning of "Severe traffic ahead". We didn't see anything up ahead but decided "what the heck" and took the unit's advice. Boy were we glad we did when, as we traveled along the old highway we were routed onto, we suddenly saw a looooooooooooooooong line of traffic backed up due to an accident on the median of the main highway. The nüvi routed us past that and then took us right back onto the main highway. We were quite impressed.

Two days later I had to make a much shorter trip to Sacramento. I know how to get there and really didn't need the nüvi for directions but I had it on and was listening to a book on the SD card. Once again I suddenly heard, "Extreme traffic ahead" and got directions to exit the freeway and go by a different route. D'Oh! I had totally forgotten about the current "Fix I-5" project. Fortunately for me, the nüvi was more alert than I was and routed me perfectly to my destination.

I think I just may go ahead and pay the $60 for a one year subscription even though it won't do any good in my home area. As much as I'll be traveling for my newly upgraded position it would only take a very few instances of the traffic alert working to make it worthwhile for me.

Thrax, i was interested in which traffic service you are using, as I also have the Nuvi 660?
My Nuvi 660 has taken me from RI to Maryland, DC.

Now this weekend I'll be traveling from RI to Syracuse, Toronto ,Ottowa and back to RI.
Will be a great trip, especially using the GPS it definitely helps keep the marital bliss.

I drive a tour bus and recently drove a group of young folks traveling to Canyon Mountain Co for church camp - used my Nuvi 350 (as I always do) and with my downloaded POI's had a great trip - except for the weather.

Took new Garmin 750 down from MI to SC to visit niece's graduation. Two brother-in-Laws and Mother-in-law ended up buying one.

I do wish you could pull up a list of POI along your route. i.e. Gas stations. Hotels, attractions. Rather than having to leave your route. I know you can watch the direction of the arrow but the route would be nice.

I had to take my daughter to Atlanta yesterday, to get a flight to Costa Rica. I had been to the Atlanta airport by air numerous times, but never had to drive to it. I got on Google earth and found the South Terminal hourly parking deck; got geo coordinates; plugged them into Streets and Trips and got a route. I then ran the Streets and Trips file through GPS Babel and created a POI file. Loaded that on my Nuvi and it took me right to the entrance of the hourly parking deck. I did the same thing a few weeks ago when I had to visit the UAB Hospital in Birmingham. The hospital is spread over 6 blocks and the parking deck is north of the hospital. I looked it up on Google earth and did the same trick and the Nuvi POI took me right to the entrance to the deck. Pretty cool.

I just took a long weekend in Minneapolis visiting family. My GPS was essential in downtown (I got an awesome rate at the Hyatt Regency through Priceline) where I'm always lost! It was also great on my free day to myself. I spent some time driving to a couple parks (Como and Minnehaha) and various other places around the metro. I set it to "shortest distance" and selected freeways in the avoidances. I got to see a lot of great areas in the cities that I never get to see just driving through on the interstates!

I just returned to Atlanta from Ponte Vedra Florida . When taking the I -295 Bypass off of I -10 to I - 95 south, things get nuts. The I-295 Bypass is a spagetti intersection of overpassed and loops. However, the Garmin starts tell me to take xxx exit next, then xxx exit next, then xxx exit next. You can not take any of this exits. They do not exit on the map or even on Google maps.. ?????
Don't know when it is getting all these street names for the exits??

Last trip with the GPS was Laconia, NH - bike week.

Got caught in some heavy rain, but it was all good.

Crowd ranged from babies to eighties. Good crowd, no trouble (at least during the daytime hours). Lot's of beautiful bikes and creative paint jobs.

Seems like a good time was had by all.

I packed my C-330 and took it on a 3 week trip to Hawaii. It worked perfect, and surprised me when a message popped up very two days. The message "are you still in Hawaii June 20, 2008" Yes or No. The date was current each time. I just pushed YES and it would operate normally.

I'm just using the FM traffic service that came with a free 3 month trial with the 760.

Thanks for all who compiled the POI's for Portland, OR. They came in handy for my recent weekend. Voodoo Doughnuts is not to be missed. Registered 456mph as maximum speed on the Southwest Airlines flight. I noticed the in-flight magazine mentioned GPS devices in the same section as CD players and cell phones. Doesn't seem to be a problem for them. My Nuvi 200W was priceless for getting me to (and back from) the organic beerfest that I visited. Once again, thanks to the community.

Wind blow blow

I decided to go paperless on a trip to Yosemite National Park. It was done ala cold turkey, man. I didn't trust Dorothy (alias: Nüvi) a couple of times, opting, I guess, to use the 'dark side' (aka my own intuition) and was laughed at.

I have learned to trust the GPSr now. It navigated around the park flawlessly, as well as visits to Lake Tahoe, Reno and Carson City (thanks for the POIs, folks!)

One of the best uses is for the GPSr to calculate mileage for side trips to help you decide if you have the time to do it. It's much quicker than doing the math off of a paper map by counting the little red mileage totals along your route (remember those?)

P.S. It takes creative use of single via points... I wish the Nüvi 200W had more vias to place along the route.

You can do that. After Nüvi has set a route to your destination tap 'Where to?' then the 'Near...' button at the bottom of the screen. Select 'My Current Route' and tap 'OK' Now back at the 'where to?' menu tap 'Extras' and select your POI list, which will now be organized by proximity to your route rather than your current location.

I took the whole family on a road trip to the great suburbs to do some fun strawberry picking. I gotta swear, the local BC strawberries are the best in the world!

This is a new place we went to, and usually I'm pouring over paper maps and Google maps the night before, looking at the route I need to take. Well, let me tell you that I didn't do a thing the previous night! That's because I had already entered and saved the route into my nuvi 760 two weeks before. The nuvi performed flawlessly and directed me to the strawberry farm without a hitch.

We were starving on our way back and used my nuvi POI to get us to the nearest food on our route home. Due to popular demand, Wendy's was the place to go. Again, the nuvi was flawless, taking us on an unfamiliar detour on our way home. In the old days, I'd be looking for restaurant signs on the highway or checking the (paper) road map, etc. None of that anymore. It was very liberating, not to mention cutting minutes from our trip home.

Last week my wife and I went on a 2nd honeymoon to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We spent a week at the Watercolor Inn, near Seaside. It's about equidistant between Destin & Panama City.

If anyone is contemplating traveling to that area, I would STRONGLY recommend this resort! Wonderful staff, beautiful facility, amazing looking grounds, great food. Just about the most relaxing and wonderful week we've had.

This was the first trip since getting the nuvi 760. It worked very well and was everything we needed it to be.

I returned last week from a trip from Portland, OR to Cincinnati, OH, spending a week between Cincinnati and Fort Wayne, IN before heading home via St Louis, Mo and Kansas City, MO. I went east on I-80 and returned via US 50 to Cameron Park, CA. I then went via Reno, NV on the way back to Portland. The trip was 6,140 miles and very enjoyable.

There was a lot of smoke in the Nevada desert and in California from the California fires. The drive along US 50 is a great drive with the least amount of east/west truck traffic. I missed the drive through the Glenwood Canyon on I70, but will do that again on another trip.

I didn't think I would get through Utah due to the number of times I stopped to take pictures. It's a beautiful drive through that state.

The flooding in the mid-west was interesting to someone who sees little flooding at home, but very sad for those whose lives were affected.

Many thanks to the Garmin 760 for the excellent guidance and help in locating rest stops, restaurants, fuel stops and places to stay.

Bill

Mine was to Cherokee, NC... up through the Smokey Mtns, into Kentucky... through West Virginia... and home. Nice ride on the Harleys with my Dad!

Of course, around town for me means anywhere in the Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Pittsboro area. I'm amazed at how often I use my GPS right here where I live. For example, I know exactly where the dance is at Pleasant Green between Durham and Hillsborough, and I know exactly where my friend Jim lives outside of Pittsboro. But I had never driven from Pleasant Green to Jim's house. The GPS saved the day (night, actually) showing me the most direct way to get there, not the way I would have "known".

Used it to get to and from the park and hotel. Was nice to have even though there are plenty of signs. Nice to know how much further to you see the signs.
GPS faired better than the cell phone which got LAUNCHED from a roller coaster never to be seen again (thank goodness for insurance).

2 weeks and off to myrtle beach with my wife and son and oh ya my garmin c 330

The weekly trip...

I also went to hershy Park.. Loved the new roller coaster. I was staying in Lancaster, that is why I made that POI for it, My next trip will be in Willamburg VA. I am going to do the same, Create a poi... Anyone intrested in that? Maybe this time I can get some help! I sur4e could use some great places to eat and see. I will create a nother link if anyone is helpful or even intrested in this project!