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A case in point. Sweetwater, Texas. It is a no-brainer to guess that there are motels in Sweetwater, a half hour further west than Abilene. Sure enough, there are 5 or 6 of them at the interstate exit. All of them are about $60-80 a night. Will your GPS tell you the prices of them? Will it also tell you about the very nice $30 motel, up in town, that has a pool, and is very well run? At the interstate exit there are plenty of chain restaurants, and about a half mile down the road, a couple of the best barbecue places in Texas. Will your GPS tell you how good those are?
Or can you only find out about the nice cheap motel and the great barbecue by guessing that a city of 20,000 with an interstate exit will have plenty of motels and restaurants, and getting off and making local inquiry will yield an overnight stay that will be more pleasant and rewarding by an order of magnitude?
Like, how hard can it be to drive across the country on the interstate highways without GPS?
Why are people so harsh on modern conveniences and improvements? Cars have had compasses for decades. Automatic headlights, climate control, and other features are not exactly brand new. It's 2010 why would anyone want crank windows?!
jtur used an example from my own experience. I once went from Houston to New Orleans for a long "museum" weekend with a buddy. This guy's idea of finding a restaurant or gas was to randomly get off the interstate at some remote spot and buy greasy fried chicken in a gas station with the highest gas prices around.
On routes that I drive a lot, northern CO to the Texas Hill Country, I know where and approximately what time of day I'll be along the route. Best gas prices, nicest reasonable motels, non-chain restaurants etc. On "new" routes I consult for which towns have cheap gas prices, cheap motels and then go to chowhound dot com and check for non-chain restaurants.
I'm a paper map guy too. If my next phone has the fancy stuff (hope not) I may get that app because sometimes I'm looking for a good coffee in a strange place.
The first GPS I've ever personally had is the OnStar plan in my Malibu. I've used some of the other ones from time to time though. I have to say that I find it about 50% useful. I tend to drive the best way I know to get me near my destination and then will use the GPS to narrow in on exactly where I need to go. For instance, from my house it always insists on using the interstate versus a more local route that takes half the time.
There are a couple things I like about the OnStar setup. The first is that the route information is always updated and they know where the constuction zones are and what the traffic is like. This lets them route you the quickest way, you just have to ask for quickest current route. The next feature that I nejoy is being able to go on Google or Mapquest and plan out an entire route stops included and then upload it to the car versus printing out pages of directions.
The final thing that I found real useful is being able to talk to a real person. I can hit a button and ask for the nearest "X" and they can send me there. One time this came in real handy was searching for motel rooms after a wedding at the beach. It was a busy weekend and they were able to find me a vacant room based on a max price I gave them. They even suggested a cheaper option that was further away, but had a higher rating.
Right now the service doesn't cost me anything, but it will be about $30 a month if I keep it, versus $18 a month for the basic OnStar safety features. I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost as we don't use it a lot, but it has come in handy.
I don't own a personal cell phone and I just got this computer not quite two years ago if that tells you anything? Sure technology is great but the young kids rely far too much on it. There was life before all these gadgets and there is life after they are gone. The same goes for the parts store and how they approach it. They mess around for 30 minutes looking on the internet trying to see if a place has a part when they could have made a phone call or ran down the road a few miles and found out just as quick or in most cases faster. But I'm old fashioned and out of touch. At least I know I won't get into a wreck while yacking on my cell or texting!
Yeah, you might run down to one parts store, in 30 mins (if that's the time I should stick with), I could check a few thousand online, and without a doubt get it for a better price. If I only check one store it doesn't take 30 mins, it takes 5, if that.
And there seems to be a belief amongst some of those who tag themselves as "old fashioned" that just because an individual embraces and use technology for what it's for and in an efficient manner, they'll be completely clueless without it, in my experience, that's rarely the case. (Yeah maybe if you're talking about 15-20 year olds, aka kids, but not once they start getting into their 20s)
Yeah, you might run down to one parts store, in 30 mins (if that's the time I should stick with), I could check a few thousand online, and without a doubt get it for a better price. If I only check one store it doesn't take 30 mins, it takes 5, if that.
And there seems to be a belief amongst some of those who tag themselves as "old fashioned" that just because an individual embraces and use technology for what it's for and in an efficient manner, they'll be completely clueless without it, in my experience, that's rarely the case. (Yeah maybe if you're talking about 15-20 year olds, aka kids, but not once they start getting into their 20s)
Very good point. Technology combined with knowledge/experience is the key. Either one can replace the other to a point, but individually they are never as efficient as the two together.
My daily driver has a factory navigation system, which i use rarely. I almost always know where i'm going or how to get there, especially around LA. I know faster routes than the GPS, since it always wants to send me on the road most traveled. I'm not a gigantic automotive GPS fan.
Now .... i do have 2 portable navigation units. I take one with me when traveling/ranting a car, since i likely will not know the area. I always carry AAA maps with me in unfamiliar cites, but the GPS really works well to get to an unknown address.
I also use a "hiking" type GPS on my motorcycle. I always have it on, basically tracking where i've ridden. I never use it for turn-by-turn directions, but its saved my butt several times from getting extremely lost. Its also nice to track altitude and miles driven.
So basically: yes, i use GPS when absolutely necessary - but I still prefer paper maps. I love pulling out a map and highlighting a route for a drive/ride.
Yeah, you might run down to one parts store, in 30 mins (if that's the time I should stick with), I could check a few thousand online, and without a doubt get it for a better price. If I only check one store it doesn't take 30 mins, it takes 5, if that.
And there seems to be a belief amongst some of those who tag themselves as "old fashioned" that just because an individual embraces and use technology for what it's for and in an efficient manner, they'll be completely clueless without it, in my experience, that's rarely the case. (Yeah maybe if you're talking about 15-20 year olds, aka kids, but not once they start getting into their 20s)
I'm talking 15-20 year old kids. You have a brain too so you don't qualify. A 16 year old I know stood there for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to work a rotary phone. Well, you put your finger in the hole with the number you want to dial and rotate it. Proceed to the next number and do the same. When you are done and want to hang up, just put it back on the hook! Damn, I'm starting to get freaking old! LOL
I usually only use my GPS going off road on my ATV or 4x4. I also take it on foot when hunting. I have specialty maps downloaded for just these purposes. For street travel I use it as an electronic travel atlas, when needed. I don't like and never use turn by turn direction functions.
I'm talking 15-20 year old kids. You have a brain too so you don't qualify. A 16 year old I know stood there for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to work a rotary phone. Well, you put your finger in the hole with the number you want to dial and rotate it. Proceed to the next number and do the same. When you are done and want to hang up, just put it back on the hook! Damn, I'm starting to get freaking old! LOL
...and the first time you saw a rotary phone you probably picked it up and said "operator please connect to me Mrs. Jones" and then were really puzzled by that strange buzzing noise coming from the line instead of hearing your neighbors talking.
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Sure technology is great but the young kids rely far too much on it. There was life before all these gadgets and there is life after they are gone. The same goes for the parts store and how they approach it. They mess around for 30 minutes looking on the internet trying to see if a place has a part when they could have made a phone call or ran down the road a few miles and found out just as quick or in most cases faster. But I'm old fashioned and out of touch. At least I know I won't get into a wreck while yacking on my cell or texting!
