Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:59:59 -0500
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: POI Mega File for S&T Users Driving Westfalias Addemdum
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimeVwPxFJDEdrZ50=99VvE8fFZMhhSV0afK88fR@mail.gmail.com>
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Don, I sympathize with your difficulties reading a map while driving. Reading a GPS while driving will in all likelihood be just as or more dangerous.
I draft my route (from a map, usually DeLorme's) prior to departure, from a safe, static situation. Of course, on occasion, I find that the specific turns I need to make are problematic when I actually reach the area on the ground. But I seldom find myself trying to choose at the time. If I do, safe pullouts are essential, and I will go miles on a known or unknown route before I will try to read a map or a GPS (actually I don't use the latter -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it) on the fly.
Good luck with all this, and stay safe.
mcneely
---- Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 5:07 PM, neil n <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > That looks like a great set of files Loren. Thanks!
> >
> > For any other (mounted in vehicle) GPS newbs .....
> >
> >
>
> A related question for Streets and Trips users:
>
> Microsoft offers a windows package that includes GPS hardware with that
> program, right? I think I saw something like that being sold at the big box
> store where I was browsing through electronic gizmos recently.
>
> Can anyone tell me how the Streets and Trips with GPS actually works for
> them, in real life, in a Vanagon? I recall a poster (or two) mentioning
> having their laptops mounted, visible and programmable from the driver's
> position, and that they were using the S&T program on the highway.
>
> I got 'side-tracked' (wrong turns) a couple of times on my last
> trip...driving alone and trying to navigate -new to me- roads using paper
> maps. I also had some dicey moments, holding the wheel with my knees,
> trying to keep the van on the tiny back highways in the wind late on a
> stormy moonless night, while reading my DeLorme map in the dark van, using
> my headlamp or the interior lighting. Not the safest way to be whizzing
> down the highway, but finding a safe 'pull-out' before every 'intersection'
> to stop and read a map, that is not possible, usually.
>
> If one could leave their laptop in 'sleep-mode' within reach and just flip
> up the screen to see which way to turn, while underway, that would certainly
> be a lot safer than fumbling around with paper maps in the dark, or stopping
> half way off the highway to read a paper map. Or, as was the case for me,
> making a turn and then finding a place to do a U-Turn to go back to the
> proper road after a wrong turn.
>
> Does that option exist? Is that Streets and Trips with GPS a worthwhile
> way to go?
>
>
> Don Hanson
> 84 5sp inline worker-wagen
--
David McNeely
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