Common sense and GPS?

[MossRoad]

I tend to look at a map of my planned trip on the computer and see if I can memorize the route before I leave the house. I also look at a detailed area of my destination so I have some idea of what I'm getting into. Then I see if the GPS will take me on the same route. It's kind of a hobby.

A kind of interesting thing happened to me on my last trip, however. We went to Oklahoma a few months ago, to see one of our kids in Stillwater. This is probably only the third time I've taken a trip West much past St. Louis by car. All other trips have been east. Kid lives on the SW side of Stillwater. It took me a couple days to get comfortably oriented in my brain. I knew where I was, but really had to picture the map in my head and the location of the house in relation to the rest of the town. It was kinda interesting to be in a place and space I was not familiar with. It always seemed like I was leaving in the wrong direction. Even the sun was at a different angle. By 3rd day I was fine and quite comfortable.

I wonder if it was a sign of aging, or just being out of my element? I never felt uncomfortable, just unsure until I pulled up the mental picture of where I started from and where I was going. It didn't help that the rental car didn't have a compass. I guess I never realized how much I relied on the compass while driving until it was unavailable.

 

[kenmbz]

Moss- my father could get lost anywhere, but even as a kid (from about 5 years old) i could always get us back to the main road, camp site etc.
Some people seem to have built in location awareness, some don't, but I do find for myself that age has dulled the ability a bit.

And for those with iPhones, get google maps. the apple maps don;t give you enough warning before a turn, almost got my wife into accidents more than once.
I also find apple maps don;t work well when i go into a city like New York.

 

[JethroB]

Moss- my father could get lost anywhere, but even as a kid (from about 5 years old) i could always get us back to the main road, camp site etc.
Some people seem to have built in location awareness, some don't, but I do find for myself that age has dulled the ability a bit.

I find that a clear sunny day really helps me keep orientated. I suppose that following the sun is in our DNA somewhere. Nighttime, all bets are off.

 

[Jstpssng]

I find that a clear sunny day really helps me keep orientated. I suppose that following the sun is in our DNA somewhere. Nighttime, all bets are off.

I'm virtually lost without the sun... kind of like today. I was on a property line 1/2 mile from the truck and needed to go southeast to get to it... took a compass bearing and off I went. I bounced off that line three times before finally realizing I needed to use my compass, whereas on a clear day would have just put the sun on my right shoulder and gone to the road.

 

[BackRoad]

Moss, I've bought a few bricks at that school in Stillwater. Son graduated from there 17 years ago.

Blame the disorientation on the crazy town.

Hope you had time for Hideaway Pizza or Eskimo Joe's while you were there!

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, I've bought a few bricks at that school in Stillwater. Son graduated from there 17 years ago.

Blame the disorientation on the crazy town.

Hope you had time for Hideaway Pizza or Eskimo Joe's while you were there!

Had both! :thumbsup: (carry out, of course).

Future son-in-law is in Vet school there. Daughter was gonna take a gap year before grad school and do some internships/field research jobs, but they all got cancelled, so she's spending time there planning wedding and training a puppy.

Wish we could have seen more things while we were there. Most things were closed or reduced capacity. We took a few drives to Tulsa, OKC, and a bunch of small towns. Did a good day hike at Carl Blackwell's south side. Saw my first wild armadillo! Then another, and another, and.... probably 20-30 of them. :laughing:

That's the first toll-road where I've gotten off and they gave me a refund. :confused2:

:laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I should mentioned they were closed due to an ice storm that came through the night before we got there, not COVID related. The ice storm was pretty wide-spread. OKC had a lot more damage than Stillwater, but it was a good couple hundred mile swath of downed tree branches. We were there a week and saw little progress in the cleanup. Some places were out of power the entire time we were there.

 

[BravoXray]

Got to have a little common sense when you drive one of these rigs...
David from jax

You have to have a LOT of common sense to drive one of those rigs. I owned three Petes for years, and when a driver hired on, which was pretty rare, I knew within a day or so whether he was going to make the cut or not.

A GPS is like any other tool, you have to know it's limitations. I supplied Rand-McNally GPSs in my trucks. They were pretty good, but not perfect for trucker use.

 

[Tractorable]

A few years ago a trucker followed his GPS down the Schafer Trail in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. It’s a Jeep trail with a 1000ft drop off that switch backs down the cliff. He couldn’t make it and had to disconnect the trailer. He had his back wheels dangling off the cliff trying to turn around.

 

[oosik]

If I'm going into an unknown area I will check it out on Google Earth Pro or the like. Once I know where I'm going, etc, etc - Print out a hard copy of the route. It might take two or three pages. The Garmin unit built into the BMW cycle or the Taco Wagon will be used to warn me of upcoming turns. I hate having to backtrack - especially in new, unknown areas.

There is no way I can follow the route on the GPS and keep a vehicle, shiny side up, and on the road. All at the same time. I enable "voice commands" on the GPS. It will start issuing commands about two miles before a turn. "Turn left onto Smith Rd - two miles". "Turn left onto Smith Rd - one and a half miles". ETC ...........

Pretty handy. All I have to do - look for Smith Rd, upcoming on the left.

I use "back tracks" on the hand held Garmin if I going to be walking far afield. Only really needed it once - but it saved a whole lot of "beating the brush".