GPS navigation system: Cobra Nav December 19, 2004, 11:26:05 am Yahoo Message Number: 48040I now go fearlessly into places I would never have dared venture before, confident that I will never again be lost, because the StreetPilot will talk me through any and all streets and highways. We don't have the type of GPS that "talks" to us (we have a small, hand-held unit), preferring to use paper maps instead. However, I do have one comment about relying on, and trusting, that your GPS is always going to give you correct directions. If someone who LIVES in an area gives you directions on how to get some particular place, and your GPS gives you different directions, just ignore what your GPS is telling you and follow the directions of the PERSON who gave you the directions!Linda & Earl 2004 23.5' Red TK From Quartzsite, AZ
Re: GPS navigation Reply #1 – December 19, 2004, 02:50:58 pm Yahoo Message Number: 48049"If someone who LIVES in an area gives you directions on how to get some particular place, and your GPS gives you different directions, just ignore what your GPS is telling you and follow the directions of the PERSON who gave you the directions!" That sounds like common sense. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that, at least for me. To begin with, my brain is incapable of retaining verbal directions. There must be a special section of the brain devoted to such things, and mine is apparently atrophied. Ask me when the safety pin was invented (1849) or Warren G. Harding's middle name (Gamaliel) and I have no problems...but tell me to go two blocks east and turn left on Center Street, then bear right at the third light and take the next left onto Smithville Road, and I will have forgotten it all before you've even inished the sentence. Well, I learned to get around this memory problem by using an Olympus pocket digital voice recorder to transcribe the spoken directions. But that brings me to the second problem: while I never hesitate to ask locals for directions, I haven't had much luck in getting accurate ones. Quite often they leave out crucial information, or simply make mistakes. Having been on the other end of this myself a few times, I know how difficult it is to give perfect directions. And less than perfect directions are often worse than useless. The bottom line is that I trust "Mabel," my StreetPilot 2610, a lot more than I trust helpful locals. You may have had better luck--and of course you probably don't need a voice recorder to supplement a defective memory!--but at least in my experience so far, I've always done better relying on Mabel. There's no doubt an error or two somewhere in her map database, but I have yet to come across one.Andy Baird
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: GPS navigation Reply #2 – December 19, 2004, 03:15:04 pm Yahoo Message Number: 48050At 08:47 PM 12/19/2004 +0000, you wrote:QuoteTo begin with, my brain is incapable of retaining verbal directions. There must be a special section of the brain devoted to such things, and mine is apparently atrophied. Although this ability doesn't reside in a particular part of the brain, there is, indeed, an auditory processing system that in some folks just plain doesn't work well. My son is this way...he can learn anything by touching/feeling, or by doing, or by observing. Give him verbal instructions, and he is lost! His doctor actually told us years ago that a list of more than three items at a time would overwhelm his processing, and that is so true. Other people have the opposite problem: visual cues just are not processed easily or sometimes correctly. I'm not quite that bad, but I refuse to get directions verbally if at all possible. I live and die by my Thomas Bros. map books (for local and state areas), and since I have a good visual memory, once I've looked up the route, studied it for a bit, and maybe written out the directions in longhand, I've pretty well got it memorized.Sonsie
Re: GPS navigation Reply #3 – December 19, 2004, 05:17:01 pm Yahoo Message Number: 48055Quote "Ask me when the safety pin was invented (1849) or Warren G. Harding's middle name (Gamaliel) and I have no problems..."QuoteAndy Baird Okay Andy, time for a pop quiz! Tell us in what U.S. city the Crescent Wrench was invented? Clue --- it is also the birthplace of Lucille Ball.Steve S. Lazy Bones
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: GPS navigation Reply #4 – December 19, 2004, 06:20:20 pm Yahoo Message Number: 48057Andy - Another question - Is the Crescent Wrench a metric wrench or a standard wrench?Jed
Re: GPS navigation Reply #5 – December 19, 2004, 06:51:46 pm Yahoo Message Number: 48059Okay Andy, time for a pop quiz! Tell us in what U.S. city the Crescent Wrench was invented? Clue --- it is also the birthplace of Lucille Ball.Steve S. Lazy Bones Ooh! Ooh! Ask me!!! Ask me!! My hand's raised!!! Actually one of the airline routes in the northeast passes over Jamestown, NY (where a navigations aid (VOR) is located) and as we transited I would tell my TWA passengers that we were passing over the hometown of Lucille Ball. Never had a clue about a crescent wrench though.NH Paul
Re: Crescent wrench Reply #6 – December 20, 2004, 05:25:24 am Yahoo Message Number: 48070"Is the Crescent Wrench a metric wrench or a standard [English] wrench?" I'll tell you if you'll tell me whether my pliers are metric or English. ;-) Steve, thanks for bringing this up--I didn't know the Crescent wrench was invented in Jamestown until I looked it up with Google.Andy Baird
Re: Crescent wrench (Slightly Off Topic) Reply #7 – December 20, 2004, 07:22:26 am Yahoo Message Number: 48071"Is the Crescent Wrench a metric wrench or a standard [English] wrench?"I'll tell you if you'll tell me whether my pliers are metric or English. ;-)"This post reminded me of a comment made by my wife, a registered nurse, who many times has shown that she is Filipina equivalent of Gracie Allen.After a night shift in which she was called upon to transfer a 300+ lb. patient, she described herself as barely able to move him "one millimeter of an inch".Another favorite: After hearing the expression "hotter than hotcakes" a month earlier, she described the brisk market for new home sales in our development: "Honey, these homes are selling hotter than pancakes!"Jim from Sacramento 1986 FL
Re: Crescent wrench (ever so slightly Off Topic) Reply #8 – December 20, 2004, 07:53:57 am Yahoo Message Number: 48072"...she described the brisk market for new home sales in our development: 'Honey, these homes are selling hotter than pancakes!' " On the other hand, only a few years ago the real estate market was what my father used to call "flatter than half a pancake." ;-)Andy Baird
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: Crescent wrench Reply #9 – December 21, 2004, 03:42:28 am Yahoo Message Number: 48123Yes there really are such things as metric Crescent Wrenches and left handed drill bits but where the confusion starts is in selecting a left or right handed standard pliers!Andy Baird andybaird@...> wrote: "Is the Crescent Wrench a metric wrench or a standard [English] wrench?" I'll tell you if you'll tell me whether my pliers are metric or English. ;-) Steve, thanks for bringing this up--I didn't know the Crescent wrench was invented in Jamestown until I looked it up with Google.Andy Baird [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: GPS navigation system: Cobra Nav Reply #10 – December 21, 2004, 06:24:03 am Yahoo Message Number: 48124(snip) . . . I now go fearlessly into places I would never have dared venture before, confident that I will never again be lost, because the StreetPilot will talk me through ...Linda and Earl - Me too!! We're here in at my in-laws home in sunny Bronxville, NY (20-30 miles north of Grand Central Station!) with the first snow of the season. It looks like Christmas here!! Well, I digress. What did I pack along with all my best Christmas duds? Well, the GPS, of course! The rental car will be here shortly, and just in case it doesn't come with a GPS, this kid's READY. Do I care if I take the wrong turn? Nope. She'll just blamelessly and calmly talk me right back to where I need to be. I've never been more content taking wrong turns. I just don't care, anymore.Her main suit of course, is her wonderfully soothing, clear voice, telling me in plenty of time exactly what's coming up next. Then in very bold, easy-to-read print on the right hand side of the screen, I can see my ETA, time to the turn - everything. I love it. It's my next favorite toy to the XM radio.PS - Pete just read my e-mail and told me he was hurt that he thought I was his favorite toy. Silly fellow - of course he is. He plays wherever we go and I never get a dropped signal.Sarah Bronxville/NYC Garmin 2620[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: GPS navigation system: Cobra Nav Reply #11 – December 21, 2004, 11:22:00 am Yahoo Message Number: 48139(snip) . . . I now go fearlessly into places I would never have dared venture before, confident that I will never again be lost, because the StreetPilot will talk me through ...Linda and Earl - Me too!! Sarah, I think that was Andy that made the comment about his StreetPilot. We don't use a GPS to find our way around. I don't know about *all* GPS road maps, but, apparently some of them are incorrect when it comes to finding your way around in Quartzsite. In fact, I went to MapQuest the other day to look at the little area where we live -- the map wasn't even close to reality! The street on which we live was shown as running in an entirely different direction than what it actually does.Linda & Earl 2004 23.5' Red TK From Quartzsite, AZ
Re: [Life With A Lazy Daze RV] Re: GPS navigation system: Cobra Nav Reply #12 – December 23, 2004, 08:11:35 am Yahoo Message Number: 48236. . . but, apparently some of them are incorrect when it comes to finding your way around in Quartzsite. In fact, I went to MapQuest the other day to look at the little area where we live --I know what you mean. I looked at how MapQuest (or SOB) would map people to our home, and it would take them WAY out of the way. However, Miss Moneypenny hasn't failed me. And since I've been driving around NY, I'm really glad I have her. It's so complicated here. Beautiful, but complicated.Happy trails - Sarah[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: GPS navigation systems Reply #13 – December 23, 2004, 09:41:01 am Yahoo Message Number: 48239"apparently some of them are incorrect when it comes to finding your way around in Quartzsite." You can access the City Navigator North America v.6 database--the same one used in the Garmin StreetPilot 2610/2620 products--at:http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/citynav.jsp> Might be interesting to look up your Quartzsite neighborhood there, and see whether they have a more accurate rendition than Mapquest! For anybody thinking about buying a StreetPilot 2610 or 2620 and wondering about the completeness of its map database, this is a good way to "try before you buy." Just bear in mind that while the database is the same, the Garmin website's display is different from the StreetPilot's. (The StreetPilot is much more readable!) If you want to see what the StreetPilot 2610/2620 displays look like--and learn everything else about them--you can download the 2620 owner's manual (1.9MB PDF file; requires Adobe Reader):http://www.garmin.com/manuals/439_OwnersManual.pdf>Andy Baird
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