I felt like I was in a time warp....
 

I felt like I was in a time warp yesterday. I was at a gas station at an interchange on I-75 just north of Ocala FL. The snowbirds are beginning their winter migration to the Sunshine State. There was a steady stream of RV's headed south. As I was standing next to the pumps, a couple of retirement age pull up and stopped. The women gets out of the car and she has a piece of paper, a pen and a map in her hands. You remember what maps look like, right? It was all folded over and marked up. She actually asked me for directions. What? No GPS, No smart phone app? No MapQuest printout?

I didn't get thier names but I think they may have been Fred and Wilma Rubble from the stone age.

But think.. if they had all that modern stuff, you would never have met them!

Was it a jump to the left and then a step to your right?

LOL! Still no GPS here....But then my travel patterns are usually on familiar roadways...just haven't seen the need to buy one.

I couldn't survive with a map, without GPS. No way, no how. I don't know how we used to get by. Oh that's right, we were always lost and asking for directions, LOL.

nope....that's ocala for you......the armpit of florida.......

I don't have GPS and drove up to Rennsport without a map. Well, I had one but never used it. I actually shut it off when I am driving my wife's van. None in any of my cars or trucks. I am not that old, younger then most here I an thinking. We use to remember where we were going by driving the road ways. Now, no one know how to get around any more without the big screen tv on the dash.

I must live in a time warp. I don't have a GPS. If I don't know where something is located, I look at a map and travel by direction. If it's something like a complicated residential location, I take the map with me. My wife has a GPS on her smart phone, and I have to admit it works pretty well. There's a little voice that tells how far away a feature is and what to do when you get there. Two times recently when her GPS gave erroneous directions and another time when it just didn't seem to have the data, I was the one who got us there. She likes to listen to it, but I tell her to turn the volume down. I don't like to depend too much on electronic gadgets.

I have a gps. Never use it. Occassionally I will look at the map on my phone, but I prefer a paper map.


Guess its my scout training. I prefer a map

You are just old fart before you get old. Repeat after me, Get off my lawn. You will thinking that before you know it.

I am far from an old fart. Just prefer maps

If the military ever sees the need to shut down the civilian navigation satellites, there's going to be a bunch of lost people in this land.

Let's see, the sun rises in the west, and the North star is the biggest one in Orion's belt....what's a compass, anyway? :rolleyes:

leeeeeeet's doooo the tiiimmeee warrrp agaaaa...

hmm... probably some things it's better to not know about me....:D

It's the app on the iPhone between the clock and the camera. ;)

I like "old school" navigation too, FWIW. It's doubly scary how dependent new pilots are getting on GPS and moving map displays. I shut the thing off in a guy's airplane during a BFR a few years ago and told him, "ok take me to XXX" and he looked at me like I was crazy. "That isn't realistic! It's never going to fail like that! It's got redundancy!"

Fail.

No GPS here either. I actually like the old maps and I like to ask directions.

I am funny that way (too).

I am a bit of a gadget nut but haven't tried a GPS I'd trust to navigate for me.

If I am going to a new destination, I will usually have a look at on-line maps and maybe even consider the directions, but when traveling, I rely on a good map and a not-so-bad sense of direction.

Plus I have learned to ask before I am hopelessly lost. ;)

Biggest kick for me was last summer while visiting Yorkshire, walking along a tiny country by-way when a car stops and the young lad ask for directions to the nearest petrol station. I was able to give directions and off he went.

You know you're fuch-ed up when you have to ask directions from a tourist!

Les

I just moved into an outside sales role at work and my territory covers an area of Chicagoland that I am not very familiar with. As a result, I broke down and bought a gps as I can't really afford to waste time moving between appointments.

As much as I dislike using the thing, it is extremely convenient. It takes all the thought out. You can just go. I'm trying very hard to continue relying on mapping trips via google maps on my phone when not traveling for work as I do not like the idea of becoming fully dependent on gps.

Sounding like a true Ohio transplant.

No GPS nor smartphone for me--just a good old Rand McNalley Road Atlas, and a flip-phone with actual buttons.

Can't believe how mnay people don't know how to read a map.

oh, and GET OFF MY LAWN

I have a GPS that I use for long road trips only. I only fire it up for my long trips.

Just last weekend my co-worked drove to Sacramento California. One of the instructions is continue on I-40 for 1,213 miles then trun right onto I-15.

They are great for getting through a big city on the interstate because it will let you know what lane to be in for the interchanges. It also reroutes me if there is traffic ahead.

Funny - just had the compass rebuilt on the boat. Was asked by my son - why? Cause it's good to have a back up to get you home that doesn't rely on electricity... and I like the way they look.

I have a panel mount GPS in one of my airplanes, and having airport data available on it is really useful. That said, I can get by without it and always know roughly where I am on my paper sectional chart.

I do not have a GPS for my car, but since getting a smartphone last year, I have used the GPS feature a couple times while on trips. I still plan my routes beforehand and have never felt the need to "rely" on a GPS in a car for the primary route to my destination. I do think they are neat for spur of the moment sidetrips to nearby attractions while vacationing.

Really what is sadder, that you don't have and use a GPS, or the fact that you apparently can't read a map? I vote for number 2

I miss the "old days" when people would print directions from yahoo maps or mapquest stop you on the street with the printed page because they were wrong. :)

I was in SLC a few months ago, following my Garmin's directions for a motorcycle shop. Of course, it let me through a residential area to a dead end, which was across a busy street from the shop. Turning around in the dead-end to backtrack, there was a house with a bunch of guys out front, working on a car. They saw me and busted up laughing. I'm sure they see it 5 times a day. Pretty sure they thought I was a dumbass.

Our Son just finished his Orienteering MB in Scouts. That badge took over a year to complete. He could only use maps, the sky and a compass to do tasks. At the beginning he asked me if he could use my GPS and I told him that would be right and his response was "Dad, long ago they didn't have maps, then they did, now there is something else."

I understand his logic train but I am not on board with it. Not yet anyway.

When I travel I like having a map, it gives me the bigger picture of what is around. Also, in other countries that I haven't been to before, I don't KNOW if the GPS or iPhone will work. Data in foreign countries can be insanely expensive.

I like paper maps, glove box is full of 'em. They are especially good for getting the "bigger picture" and planning routes.
My iphone has saved my butt many times though when I went off the map or on tiny city roads. In the country it doesn't always work anyway.

Uhm Fred and Wilma were the Flintstones,, Barney and Betty were there Rubbles..

I couldn't live without my GPS !

I print out Mapquest maps if I don't know where I'm going.


And I end up driving around in circles a lot.....

i love maps.

i had a GPS for a short while (mere weeks). someone went into my car and lifted it. now i only have a GPS suction cup thing. ironically, they had to wade thru my car full of maps to even find it. hope they got a papercut. mofos!

My 10 year old and I just went on a spur-of-the-moment top-doors-off Jeep trip a few weekends ago. All off hwy, just driving in the general direction of our destination. I made sure he had the MI county map book handy the whole time and could tell me roughly where we were.

I love maps. Even with GPS in the helo, on NVGs at night I mapped it. I loved the challenge and satisfaction of looking at terrain and knowing exactly where I was on my topo.

That said, in cities, GPS rules. I couldn't live without it in terms of finding hotels, office buildings, etc. DC and Boston are a terror even with great maps.

The paper is always near, however:)

I love maps as well. Heck we make them for a living and we have a lot of stupid expensive mapping software. I still like having a gps for traveling in an unfamiliar city. I just wish there was a "keep me out of the ghettos" feature like the no left turns or avoid toll roads feature.

I love maps, too. I look at maps almost every day just for fun. I have no interest in GPS for navigation.

GPS does have avoid toll road features, but it might send you thru the ghetto to get around.

Now I'm wondering. I've successfully navigated heavily wooded, mountainous areas using topo maps many times. I could always tell where I was by looking at the map and keeping track of topographic features along the way. I wonder if that could be done with a GPS where there are no roads in the area for 10 or 20 miles around.

One book (if it's still in print) that may help your son:

Be expert with Map & Compass
"The orienteering handbook''
by Bjorn Kjellstrom

To go deeper:
Army field manual "FM-21-26"
Map reading and land navigation

With an advanced GPS yes. They can load elevation data.

+10,000

Every time I use the GPS it seems to route me through the hood. :mad:

Prefer my paper map.