It's Labor Day weekend and instead of sticking around the house, I flew to Indiana to judge a goat show. Left on Friday, returning Sunday (today). On this particular trip, I decided to embrace the technology the rest of the world has been using for quite some time.
I opened the Garmin I received for Christmas '09 and took it with me. I have found that -- oddly enough -- not very many goat shows are held in cities, so I often find myself driving from an airport to some rural location on dark roads. I mean dark roads -- with no 7-11s in sight, nowhere but a farmhouse to stop and ask directions. I hate Mapquest. After it sent me yet again to the wrong place -- this time to a closed fishing camp somewhere in Michigan -- I asked for a Garmin for Christmas.
I have a reputation in the family for being a bad driver. It's true that I am unable to drive without twitching, talking on the cell (or worse, texting!), drinking, changing the radio station, looking under the seat for something I dropped, etc, thus making it appear that I am not paying attention to the road. Way back when when I had my driver's permit and was driving with my dad one day, he counted something like 100 times that I moved, scratched, shifted in my seat, or played with my hair in a 30-minute drive. (that's only three movements per minute. sheesh)
So even though I can parallel park my three-horse trailer and routinely back the same trailer a block-and-a-half down the street to turn it around; because of my twitchiness, my family thinks I'm a horrid driver. Then, why did they think it was a good idea to give me something else to fart around with in the car?
Okay. So I took the Garmin to Indiana. But I also took a map, and then stopped and asked directions on my to the show Friday night. But this morning, I was feeling pretty confident with my chatty little friend on the dashboard; and even when the freeway signs told me that the airport exit was 4 miles away, I believed Garmin and followed its directions to nowhere.
What happened, Garmin? When they moved the Indianapolis International Airport TWO YEARS AGO, did they forget to tell you?
(ps and then, to fully embrace more technology, I bought a netbook at Walmart. I'm typing as I flying. How cool is that?)
(pps because I discovered a 17" laptop is not very easy to travel with)
(ppps don't tell Allan)
Dear Denise,
ReplyDeleteI think Indiana is nowhere to begin with, so maybe Garmin wasn't *so* wrong. On the other hand, goats don't depend on technology (well except for typing blogs) and we do okay. I think I may need a Netbook though.
FYI: Most garmins, tom-toms, magellans, and motonavs require updating via the ol' internet. Your garmin is 2 years old? And the Indy airport moved 2 years ago? Hmmm, curiously coincidental.
ReplyDeleteFYI, BL, how do you figure my Garmin is 2 yrs old? I got it LAST Xmas! I know you weren't a math major, but....
ReplyDeletejust because you got it at Christmas doesnt mean its only that old. Some of them are manufactured a long time before they actually reach the retail shelves and then finally purchased. That said I dont think it would have been THAT long so someone should have updated the Garmin software/maps before then. Crazy for sure. mine is in desperate need of updating but I just havent put the time into figuring the update maps function
ReplyDelete