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Not a trip with a guaranteed life-expectancy involved there, especially if you have car troubles. A lowly GPS device does not know to stay away from dangerous areas. It is designed only to get from one point to another in an expeditious manner using the roadways programmed into its memory.

Indeed. My GPS always wants to send me through downtown Baltimore, which is as bad as Oakland.

I always print a Google map of the place I am going and use that along with the GPS. The GPS and I always get into disagreements about the route.

“I always print a Google map of the place I am going and use that along with the GPS. The GPS and I always get into disagreements about the route.”

That’s what I do.

Before GPS we drove from Seattle to Las Vegas. We drove a lot of secondary roads (three kids - 6 yrs and two 3 year-olds). The best part of the trip was the 200 miles on a dirt road! It was fun for the kids as we would stop and explore. In hindsight probably not the best idea - but a good car, plenty of food and water, and day time and I knew where we were the entire time. We stopped at some abandoned fort (even had a monument on it) in the middle of a sage-covered flat with cows all around. And two small volcanoes at other spots.

“I always print a Google map of the place I am going and use that along with the GPS. The GPS and I always get into disagreements about the route.”

Being an Army Brat, a Boy Scout and also a Vet, I learned very early what maps were all about. Before scouts, I learned to read maps while we were traveling from one base to another. That made mapping in scouts incredibly easy. I also learned how to use the sun and stars combined with the mapping skills. The Military applications only went to strengthen them.

GPS came along and I have never owned one of those little things you see on peoples dashboards. Being very computer literate, I have the Streets and Trips program on a small notebook that I keep in my truck that uses the USB GPS antenna for mostly location purposes in the program. As I can zoom in and out with ease, I can get to street level and also the big picture view. I still keep my lensatic compass in my computer case.

So, the best of both worlds. If I am looking for something in densely populated areas, I will use the Navigator in my cell phone for the voice directions so I can keep my eyes on the road.