My wife and I are notorious for going on car trips with paper maps and then fighting when we get lost. The Waterloo region has done this to us on a few occasions – Are we alone in thinking that the Tri-cities area are Ontario’s Bermuda Triangle?
For our vacation to Myrtle Beach, we decided to borrow my mom’s GPS device to see how it stacked up.
I was resistant at first, thinking that paper maps, plus a TripTik from CAA, plus a few printed Google maps of specific points in our journey would be sufficient.
But I’ve gotta tell ya… By the time we arrived in Myrtle Beach, I was converted! We made a couple of wrong turns on the way down, both of which were quickly corrected with the help of the GPS. And, in situations where we were unsure which way to go, the GPS was right there, telling us where to go. It was fantastic.
My only debate now is which model to get. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and the top item on my wish list is to have the “Peter Dow angry voice” direction voice added to the device, so that rather than having a pleasant British or Australian woman guiding us on our travels, I can hear my dad yalling and cursing at me to turn left or right, damnit! 🙂 That would be priceless!
So, if you’re still a GPS luddite, I can’t stress enough the value that a GPS device will add to any trip, whether short or long.
So thanks Garmin for helping my wife and I have a stress-free and relationship friendly vacation.
Talk soon!
Todd
Todd H Dow 
2 replies on “How a GPS device saved my marriage”
Although I know others disagree with me on this, I prefer using my iPhone for a GPS. It works well for me and I have havingultiple devices.
As far as stand alone units are concerned, the Garmin units are by far my favourite, followed by Tom Tom.
I don’t own a GPS device and do rely on my iPhone as Ed suggested while at home; but when traveling I always rent a device from the car rental companies. Between the expensive roaming charges and missing everything around me for sticking my face into the iPhone to figure out where I am, the GPS device is roaming free and gives me turn by turn directions that make my trip more enjoyable.
As for which, when you rent you can’t be too selective so I have used a few of them and the reality is that they are all about the same. Again, if your goal is to enjoy the trip then just pick one with a soothing voice 🙂