Sigh. We've lived in northeast Ohio for 2 years now and I still don't feel like I'm a confident navigator of the area. I'm directionally-challenged and would be an entertaining competitor on The Amazing Race. :)My generous and thoughtful in-laws bought us a GPS navigator as an anniversary gift but yesterday it failed me. We've named our GPS system Franco; just because that name seemed to fit the smooth GPS voice. Yesterday Franco deserted me!
Here's the story. Chloe and I woke up with the sun so we could drop Matt off at school by 7:30 a.m. We then took the car and Franco on an exploring adventure! Franco successfully navigated us to a McDonald's, and after a quick breakfast, I programmed him to take us to a state park where we were scheduled to meet up with a friend for a playdate. So far, so good. I plugged him into the car lighter and waited for him to boot up. And I waited and waited and waited. When I tried to turn him off to restart him, Franco gave me a mean old nasty fatal error message and refused to do anything! Grrrrr.
The worst part was now I had very little clue how to get to the park! I knew which direction I was supposed to go in, so I headed that way and prayed God would lead us. After some wrong turns, God brought us to the park 5 minutes early! Whew, that was a close one.
Getting home from the park was not quite so smooth.
Do any of you own a GPS navigation system? If so, what brand would you recommend? I'm taking Franco back this weekend (he's a MIO navigator) and hope to replace him with something of equal value.
On a related issue, how long has it taken you to really get to know the area you live in?
7 comments:
WOW - not nice of Franco to do that to you!! I have lived here in Northern Kentucky for 4 1/2 years, and there are still areas I'm trying to figure out. When I go to work over the river in Cincinnati, I get lost pretty easily, but I'm getting there! Hope you can find a better GPS system!!
No navigation system here, and I have a very poor sense of direction as well. . .I feel your pain!!
I hate driving - mostly for that reason! I would love to have a gps system but don't so I have no help for you just empathy!
I have lived in our area just over 2 years. I hardly ever go the same way home from the mall. Sorry, my husband would love a GPS, hope you can find a better "helper." We have used one and found them to be helpful, ususally! We had fun with the one we used in England!
We have a GPS but it was used mostly for geocaching (sp.?). My husband has an incredible sense of direction - I do not:). Needless to say, with one car, we go most places together and he drives. I'm sure that it will take me a lot longer to learn this area but it's coming slowly. I hope that you can find a replacement for Franco:).
We have a Garmin, and we love it! (Other than when there is new construction on a road it doesn't always get the new location of it right.) It has been awesome for Steve's job. I think his boss was sick of him printing so many pages from mapquest each day for his garage leads.
Alicia, John and I bought a portable GPS shortly after John got his Realtor's license. Frankly, we got it because John is more than a little challenged when it comes to directions. This amuses me because he's lived in this area all his life, but still I find myself navigating while he drives. At first, I was mistrustful of the little box. I like to KNOW where I am and map out the route, so I didn't want to be reliant on an electronic device. We've named ours Gabrielle, or Gabby,and she has a British accent--she can speak American English as well as a few other languages, but her British pronunciation is the best.
It took getting a flat tire on the PA turnpike on our way to a very important appointment, for Gabby to fully win my heart. She helped us find the nearest towing company and phone # as well as locate a repair shop in the direction we were headed, so we could quickly be on our way. Now I don't go anywhere without her. Gabby is a Garmon (A brand John highly recommends as the best out there.) She was a bit pricey, but at the time John had a Circuit City discount, so we got a bit of a deal on her.
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