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Date:         Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:33:39 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Maps vs GPS
In-Reply-To:  <f700b5ac0910100054n35f94cb1ja1aaddc4e8da7735@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

The GPS system has a few things going for it that most maps don't. For one, you can use it to find things by Lat/Lon. coordinates. Some out of the way places are referenced like that in guidebooks or online, so you can simply enter the latitude and longitude numbers and find out how far away it is and which direction, etc etc. Most maps don't supply the lat./long. You can also use a GPS realtime as a speedo/odo when your Vanagon one acts up or quits. The little Garmin I have for my bicycle can sense and record movements of ~1 foot. It's about the size of a cell phone and I've been using it in the Vanagon as my main time/speed/distance instrument lately. I just recently got a replacement cluster for the van. For true "Adventure travel" GPS is a real advantage over maps. Many places I go, many of the "roads" are not on any of maps that I've ever found. Or there are no 'formal' roads and Google Earth didn't bother to sat/photo the area in enough detail to be useful finding your way. But you can enter the Geo coordinates and take the most likely path in the direction indicated on your GPS and eventually find your way...or easily retrace the path using the recorded Track feature. We took an interesting trip to the desert and spent a couple of weeks exploring using a GPS to find all the interesting hot springs. Google the Soak Net..It give a state by state listing of hot springs, their GPS coordinates, the water temp and flow, etc. We had our dirtbikes along, so we found some very nice isolated springs and some primitive camping spots that weren't on any of the maps. I still use the maps too, and I've yet to get a real on-board navigation system for my Van...Never needed that, really...I could have probably used one a few times... Don Hanson

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 12:54 AM, Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@gmail.com>wrote:

> With a proper map you can see the whole route at once, which can help > you keep it in mind. With a GPS unit's minuscule screen all you can > see is a wee bit, unless you are using it to navigate to the local > corner store. > > I looked into a Garmin GPSMAP60 but the price of the software soon > adds up to far more then the unit itself, a real have. So I'm staying > away from GPS in droves. >


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