Date:         Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:14:29 +0000
Reply-To:     Trvlr2001@COMCAST.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "John C..." <Trvlr2001@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: How To Have Fun With a GPS LVC

Hi Loren,
Yup! Dern Computers ! Do's What I Tell's Em to...
Not What I wants !!!
JC...

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>

> There has been a lot of discussion about GPS units in our Vanagons over the
> years so I hope this is on topic.
> Thought I'd relate a frustrating experience with a GPS unit I have been
> playing with in Starwagen. Last week, taking a slow meandering route home
> over several days after the WetWesties Unsuperbowl event at Nehalem Bay
> State Park on the Oregon coast, Phil Zimmerman and I were essentially stuck
> with traveling I-5, the main North-South freeway/Interstate through
> Washington and Oregon. Phil suggested we might look up a shop/store/guy we
> both had an indirect tie to. Phil didn't know exactly where the shop was
> but did remember that it was on a short road with a unique name near the
> town of Chehalis in Washington. So, we grab the GPS, do an address search,
> and sure enough, there is the little road. So I push the button that sets a
> route to that location and bingo, we are on the way. Ah ha, take this next
> exit (into another small town). Turn here. Turn again. Turn again and we
> seem to be going in circles. And we are about 30 plus miles from where Phil
> remembered the place being. And the GPS still trying to turn us around. So
> we pull over and park. Break out my laptop with Streets and Trips. Find
> the address immediately, about 35 miles up the freeway and it's going to be
> easy to find, right off a major road I was already familiar with. So back
> onto the freeway and head in that direction. But the GPS was still trying
> to turn us around!!! Then I had a thought and went to the menu on the GPS
> and checked one of the settings, Road Preferences. It turns out there is a
> preference setting for Interstates. "Permitted", "Avoid", or "Forbidden".
> At some time in the past I'd set it to "Avoid" and that is exactly what the
> GPS was trying to do, keep us OFF I-5, the Interstate Freeway!! And once I
> reset it to "Permitted" it took us right there (even though at that point we
> didn't need it). But, for a while, we had a lot of good laughs as the 'damn
> dumb' GPS (pretty smart after all). Another example of be careful what you
> wish for (Blue Highways), your GPS just might give you what you said you
> wanted but didn't want right now.