Vehicle GPS vs Man Card

[BigDaddy]

Love my Verizon GPS and it took me cross-country this summer. Only bummer is it will take you through some sketchy areas if you're not careful... took me through Texas.




(apologies to Brice)

[stuckathuntermtn]

Never really understood needs a GPS for a cross country trip.
Do people have problems getting on a highway and staying on it?
I suppose if you showed up in some random, overcrowded shithole, you wouldn't want to get lost.

[mmmm...pow!]

No opinion on GPS, as I've never used one. But referring to a phone or any other object - water, car, phone, whatever - as "smart' makes you sound like a dumbass.

[CookieMonster]

Is there something inherently masculine about paper maps? I'm usually the manliest guy in most places I find myself, and I have not one, but two, GPS units, and a big truck with huge tires.

Sent from my Paranoid Android using TGR forums.

[BigDaddy]

Never really understood needs a GPS for a cross country trip.

Agreed... sounds kind of stupid, but in reality, very handy. Good for lots of stops, city navigating, and great to know how far from destination when you have kids in car. Also great for finding places... had to get a new comp charger when left in hotel in OK, so found radio shack in SL, np. We bounced all over the place and it was so great to just hop in the car, turn it on, and drive.

[brice618]

took me through Texas.


(apologies to Brice)

Depends on the part, but I'd hardly count Amarillo as a full experience!

[BigDaddy]

Depends on the part, but I'd hardly count Amarillo as a full experience!

Yeah... I know. Totally tongue in cheek. I've heard lots of good things, but Amarillo with its 72 oz steaks isn't one of them.

[G]

I absolutely love having a GPS, and I use it even driving in familiar places.

I love the feature that tells me exactly how many minutes I am from my destination. If I'm running late, I can call ahead and say "hey, I'll be there at xxx time" I hate sitting on my ass in the car, and watching the timer count down to my destination makes me feel a little less antsy when driving.

Some units can receive traffic info, and will automatically get you around accidents or traffic jams. Saves time and stress, and no manly paper map will ever be able to do that.

It's also cool that it knows the speed limits. If I'm speeding because I missed a sign, It'll tell that I'm over the limit.

Negotiating city streets in an urban area? Forget about it; use the GPS and you'll be there much faster. When I got the GPS, my transit time in places like SF and LA were cut in half. It's hard to see one way streets, dead ends and other whatnot while driving and holding a map.

You can program them to alert you if you're approaching a speed camera.

My unit has a pretty sexy voice, but of course there's a mute button for when you don't need it.

It's also handy because I've loaded a set of POI's that will locate nearest open WiFi. If I need to find a place to use my laptop, it'll get me there quick and easy.

Mine has gas stations pre-loaded. Comforting info to have when driving across the desert.

Even driving freeways, it's handy to know time/distance to your exit. That makes it less likely to blow your exit, and prevents you from being in the wrong lane when there's a messy interchange coming up.

It's also cool to see the ETA time count down when I drive really, really fast. Not quite as fun as playing mario cart, but still an exciting game.

[keipow]

Taking or giving man cards potentially disqualifies one from being a person with whatever card.

[boarddad]

I got my wife a Garmin years ago and we had never used it until our recent road trip to CO. I have to say I really liked having waypoints (I.e. Xx miles to the next turn) to mentally break up the long drive into shorter segments. Having the arrival time constantly on-screen was also nice and was real motivation to keep going, knowing that even a rest stop would add 20 minutes to the trip. I also found myself looking for an auto parts store in a town I wasn't familiar with - the Garmin got me there in minutes rather than having to pull over and look it up and find directions. The Garmin also gave me a very nice bypass from I-5 to I-99 that I would not have known about.

Once back on familiar roads I will agree it was pretty annoying and I turned the thing off. I have to say it's now a "must have" for road trips though.

[assman]

I spend a lot of time on the road. Here is my take...

I don't use a GPS. I have had rentals with them installed and never used them. If you are droning along with the GPS calling the shots, you are not paying attention and learning your surroundings.

Plus, they are top weighted toward interstates. I have a co-worker who is GPS addicted. I have traveled with him and the GPS is directing him onto an interstate and I know it's much easier and shorter using back streets but he doesn't have an f'n clue.

[Chugachjed]

I'm usually the manliest guy in most places I find myself

Not that tough in Seattle bro.

[stuckathuntermtn]

And folding maps is retarded. I don't have a PhD in Astrophysics, so I can never quite get it right.

[grrrr]

You think folding a map is hard? Wait until you get your man card.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I agree that using the term man card disqualifies one self as a man. I also think that anyone that gets lost or is late is a retard. Who leaves the house without knowing where they are going? I have tons of maps but they never leave the house, even for backcountry travel. A GPS is great for finding a specific unmarked spot like geo caching, but anywhere with street names and numbers or geographic features they are totally unnecessary. What happened to the adventure of the road trip and discovery of cool landmarks and places to eat? I think a GPS takes the adventure out of life and detaches one from their surroundings.

[stuckathuntermtn]

You think folding a map is hard? Wait until you get your man card.

hahahahaha. Wait, do I have to figure out how to fold that thing? Is it like one of those novelty checks?

[brice618]

Back when I was guiding I ran into a lot of lost-as-fuck people. Be it the 2 vans full of climbers I found on the northern shore of the great salt lake 30 miles from the nearest pavement and wondering where City of Rocks was, or the myriad of backpackers doping around a long ways from trails the one common denominator was a GPS. I'm not saying they are bad tools (they work great for finding the nearest cafeteria style diner), just that they are only as smart as their user. Give a guy a map and he'll be able to do something with it but something about a GPS makes people do shit like drive off a perfectly good highway into the desert and trust something that has NO FUCKING BRAIN.

And really whats with all you man-card haters? Do you not understand that its a long standing way of men to give shit to other men? It's a lot like this forum really.

[mnflyfish]

For a truck? Not if it provides a decent topo for those weekends where you don't touch pavement!

[Bobcat Sig]

Back when I was guiding I ran into a lot of lost-as-fuck people. Be it the 2 vans full of climbers I found on the northern shore of the great salt lake 30 miles from the nearest pavement and wondering where City of Rocks was, or the myriad of backpackers doping around a long ways from trails the one common denominator was a GPS. I'm not saying they are bad tools (they work great for finding the nearest cafeteria style diner), just that they are only as smart as their user. Give a guy a map and he'll be able to do something with it but something about a GPS makes people do shit like drive off a perfectly good highway into the desert and trust something that has NO FUCKING BRAIN.

Sounds more like user error than the GPS. But yah ...

[crashtestdummy]

Be it the 2 vans full of climbers I found on the northern shore of the great salt lake 30 miles from the nearest pavement and wondering where City of Rocks was, or the myriad of backpackers doping around a long ways from trails the one common denominator was a GPS.

I got lost going to the City of The Rocks 42 years ago, and it wasn't the fault of the GPS. There are a lot of people that can't find their way out of a paper sack, with or without GPS.

As far as using a map, all of my GPS units display maps, some are much better than others.

I use Waze on my iPhone. It's sort of a social network GPS program. If you come to an Interstate parking lot, you click a button in the program, and everyone one behind using Waze will know to avoid it. And then you can figure out a route around all of those uptight clowns that are frantically fondling their ManCards.

[brice618]

http://g.co/maps/gzege

A is where they were (ish), B is where they wanted to be.

You gotta have your head buried pretty far up garmin's ass TO TURN SOUTH TO GO NORTH.

[crashtestdummy]

http://g.co/maps/gzege

A is where they were (ish), B is where they wanted to be.

You gotta have your head buried pretty far up garmin's ass TO TURN SOUTH TO GO NORTH.

OK, you've convinced me GPS units are the AntiChrist. I will never use mine again unless I want directions to Hell.

If you are going to go through Malta to get to City of the Rocks, you should just stay on I-84 to the Malta turn, it's faster and better road.

It's also funny that you are deriding GPS by using Google Maps to show the problem.

[PaSucks]

We used a borrowed GPS on our last vacation and it was nice, but we ended up pulling out the atlas a bunch looking for stuff to do. Thats how we ended up at Mt Vernon and colonial Williamsburg. I used a GPS going to Whiteface a few years ago and it took me on some pretty sketchy roads in the middle of nowhere. They have their uses but are far from perfect.

[BCMtnHound]

Like all my ancestors I welcome tech that leaves more time for the important stuff, like better hunting, skiing, a stop at a lake with the lady for a quicki, etc. But I also assume the responsibility to learn the tech to know its limitations and make it work for me (rather then the reverse), and if it fails I better know the next level down - like map, compass and the like.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Like all my ancestors I welcome tech that leaves more time for the important stuff, like better hunting, skiing, a stop at a lake with the lady for a quicki, etc. But I also assume the responsibility to learn the tech to know its limitations and make it work for me (rather then the reverse), and if it fails I better know the next level down - like map, compass and the like.

This post is great on so many levels.
/thread