Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Make sure you and the GPS agree

We left Monterey this morning and drove up to Nice, CA which is on the shores of Clear Lake. On the way I missed a turn. This was my problem and not the GPS's. I needed to stop for a break so I left the freeway and stopped at a service station.

Trying to get back on the freeway took a little bit of work. I finally found a way to the other side of the freeway and got on. Unknown to me, the GPS somehow ended up getting the wrong destination programmed into it. It thought the destination was in the middle of I-80 south of Vallejo, CA. As we drove for a couple of minutes, it occurred to me that if we kept going we probably would end up in San Francisco. And that's when the GPS told me we were at its destination. Unfortunately by that time, we had passed by the last exit before the Carquinez Bridge. I reprogrammed the correct destination into the GPS and saw that the only way to our destination was to turn around and go back over the bridge -- this after already crossing the Benicia Bridge and paying toll earlier. So after paying another $4, we were headed in the right direction.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, though still kicking myself for wasting a good $4. I'm still not sure how the GPS managed to get itself set to the middle of a freeway for the final destination... Technology: Can't live with them, and can't live without them -- well, maybe we can, but it would sure be inconvenient.

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