Our trip, thank God, was largely uneventful. The irritations were few, hubby withstood my myriad observations about his driving (even though I was the one who hit the chunk of tire on the freeway, ripping off two hubcaps and a side panel in the process), our Winnebago View is AWESOME and perfect for us, technology was grand, and Sirius radio allowed us to listen to the humiliation of the LA Lakers as the Mavericks kicked their…anyway…you get the picture. And in my defense about hitting the tire chunk, I did hear him yelling “Whatever you do, don’t hit that tire!” but I couldn’t swerve as far as I needed to avoid the thing. Something about a car being in the other lane.
Here’s what didn’t work, also known as “Why We’re returning our GPS.” Our gal, Jill, who does all the talking on our Garmin Nuvi 1300 GPS with free Mac downloads, is an idiot. I don’t think she’s ever traveled and if she has, she certainly hasn’t been to Las Vegas, Nevada. Instead of routing us around Las Vegas heading for I-15, Jill told us repeatedly to go through downtown Las Vegas and only when we got on to I-15 did she confess we were right. Uh huh…
Hubby thinks it may be because our particular GPS system uses free downloaded maps so we don’t have to pay a fee like some GPS units. I just read five million reviews of the unit, and many people say this GPS frequently gets things wrong around big cities . However, reviews all indicate lots of GPS’ gets things wrong, no matter how top of the line they are. Are our expectations of GPS capabilities too high? I’d appreciate your thoughts and experiences on this topic, if you have a minute.
We’re heading to Best Buy tomorrow, to tell them Jill wanted us to drive places where we would spend money on her friend’s hotels and restaurants, we don’t like her, and we want to trade her in. Oh, and for the record, Las Vegas wasn’t Jill’s only ginormous gaffe. She tried to drag us through downtowns three different times, instead of routing us around those cities. And yes, we had the GPS set for shortest, fastest route. Lucky for us, we knew better than Jill, had a real map, and avoided a couple of major messes.
Jill, darling…I’m sure your mama loves you, but we don’t.
Happy tales to you and yours, and let me know your sorrowful or great GPS stories.
Patti
PS: I have lots to tell you about other things, including how I made the best paella in the universe in our motor home. And I’ve been to Spain four times. I know paella.