Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Lost in Croatia!
Old 01-15-2013, 01:57 PM   #1
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Free To Canoe's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cooksburg,PA
Posts: 1,873
Lost in Croatia!

Link contains a funny (at least to me) story of where you can end up if you follow your GPS. Reminded me of DW getting lost going to the shopping center one mile a way and ending up at the city airport, 20 miles away before she called. She threatened me with the banana slicer if I disparaged her on the internet but I could not help myself.

Woman drives 900 miles out of her way after GPS error | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News
__________________
Free to canoe
Free To Canoe is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 01-15-2013, 02:22 PM   #2
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Seattle
Posts: 479
Quote:
Originally Posted by Free To Canoe View Post
Link contains a funny (at least to me) story of where you can end up if you follow your GPS. Reminded me of DW getting lost going to the shopping center one mile a way and ending up at the city airport, 20 miles away before she called. She threatened me with the banana slicer if I disparaged her on the internet but I could not help myself.

Woman drives 900 miles out of her way after GPS error | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News
I think I'm more worries about the wife hitting you with a banana slicer than the lady getting lost in Croatia!!

Truth were known, I had to look up if there was such a kitchen tool. Yes there is...looks scary actually. Guess it could also slice up hotdogs, etc.

Amazon.com: Chef'n Bananza Banana Slicer: Kitchen & Dining
supernova72 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 02:59 PM   #3
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,401
Unfortunately, the consequences of blindly following your GPS can be much more serious (fatal in fact)....

B.C. woman blames GPS for getting couple lost - World - CBC News

DH's body was found 18 months later:

Body of missing B.C. man Albert Chretien found in Nevada - British Columbia - CBC News

You still have to use common sense.
Meadbh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 03:29 PM   #4
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Kerrville,Tx
Posts: 3,361
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadbh View Post
Unfortunately, the consequences of blindly following your GPS can be much more serious (fatal in fact)....

B.C. woman blames GPS for getting couple lost - World - CBC News

DH's body was found 18 months later:

Body of missing B.C. man Albert Chretien found in Nevada - British Columbia - CBC News

You still have to use common sense.
Amen to that, one should have at least an idea of about how long it will take to get there (would have stopped the problem with this woman, the idea of it taking 2 days to go 50 miles means someone was not thinking clearly). Also like in the Nevada case, one should check the level of the roads suggested by the GPS (all be it I tried the end points given on Yahoo and Google and they did not send me via the dirt road thru nowhere) I found that these tend to favor interstate over 4 or 2 land paved major us highways, in some cases going 100 miles out of the way. I suspect the issue was asking for the shortest route, using all roads. which in the East might be ok, but in northern Nevada was fatal.
meierlde is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 04:37 PM   #5
Moderator
braumeister's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Flyover country
Posts: 25,155
GPS errors can be a hoot! Yes, there are plenty of oblivious folks who should know better, but if you take the gadgets for what they are, you can be amused.

My favorite example happened about ten years ago. I was driving from Ohio to Oregon, and stopped in a small town in Idaho for lunch. After a good meal and a good stretch of my legs, I got back in the car and started back toward the interstate.

The road I had come in on was blocked by a fire engine, so I had to maneuver a bit. My TomTom GPS did its "recalculating" routine a couple of times, then said, in that clearly knowledgeable voice, "Turn right and continue 842 miles, then keep right."

If I had believed it, that would have taken me 842 miles back east, when the machine was actually programmed with a westerly route.

I just laughed and rebooted the GPS, which cleared out its tiny brain, but I had to wonder whether someone might have actually followed its instructions. Now I know, and I'm very glad I don't know any of those people.

I also switched to Garmin GPS units, which seem a bit better.
braumeister is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 05:40 PM   #6
Moderator Emeritus
Ronstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 16,543
We have less snafus now that we navigate to latitude/longitude instead of addresses.

But it's fun when the GPS screws up and we can figure our journey on our own. Makes us feel like pioneers.
Ronstar is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 06:59 PM   #7
Administrator
Gumby's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 22,923
A paper map is a wonderful thing.
__________________
Living an analog life in the Digital Age.
Gumby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 07:03 PM   #8
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
REWahoo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,000
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gumby View Post
A paper map is a wonderful thing.
+1

When it comes to GPS navigation, "trust but verify" is an excellent policy.
__________________
Numbers is hard
REWahoo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 07:26 PM   #9
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Free To Canoe's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cooksburg,PA
Posts: 1,873
Quote:
Originally Posted by supernova72 View Post
I think I'm more worries about the wife hitting you with a banana slicer than the lady getting lost in Croatia!!

Truth were known, I had to look up if there was such a kitchen tool. Yes there is...looks scary actually. Guess it could also slice up hotdogs, etc.

Amazon.com: Chef'n Bananza Banana Slicer: Kitchen & Dining
Actually, this was the threatening weapon. Some pretty amusing comments on this wonder device.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047E0EII/ref=dra_a_cs_ss_hn_it_P1400_1000/?
__________________
Free to canoe
Free To Canoe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 07:37 PM   #10
Moderator Emeritus
W2R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,468
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gumby View Post
A paper map is a wonderful thing.
+1. When we go on road trips, we get lost the old fashioned way. He drives, and I navigate.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.

Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
W2R is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 08:18 PM   #11
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Sarah in SC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 13,566
I'm also a map fan-and don't forget how helpful a compass can be in finding your way out of a town.
__________________
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.”
Gerard Arthur Way

Sarah in SC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2013, 10:47 PM   #12
Moderator Emeritus
Ronstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 16,543
I'm a big map fan as well - mainly old maps like these:

http://www.bigmapblog.com/
Ronstar is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 10:05 AM   #13
Moderator
Walt34's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,290
Quote:
Originally Posted by W2R View Post
+1. When we go on road trips, we get lost the old fashioned way. He drives, and I navigate.
That's the way we do it too. It would be a stretch to say that GPS has saved our marriage, but it sure makes road trips a lot less stressful.

Last time we didn't yell at each other even once.
__________________
When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
Walt34 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 10:33 AM   #14
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 331
I am lucky that I have a great sense of direction... I have used my phone's GPS from time to time (google maps) but if it started going off very much I would realize it very quickly.

My sister, OTOH, is hopeless. Several years ago she had gone skiing in WV with a couple of obviously equally map challenged GF's and was trying to go back to Raleigh, NORTH CAROLINA. She typed in Raleigh and blindly followed the GPS. They said they did question when she went thru Nashville, TN but thought that maybe they were confusing Nashville with Knoxville, and kept on driving. When they saw Memphis just ahead they finally stopped and asked at a gas station where they were.....

If you don't know just how far out of the way they were, go look at a map!! and remember, that NC is my sisters HOME STATE and she "should" have known better!
JustMeUC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2013, 10:53 AM   #15
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
calmloki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Independence
Posts: 7,271
Some years ago we went from Ajo Az through the Organ Pipe National Monument and over to Yuma. Using paper map that had colored lines indicating highway, 2 lane, gravel... It lied through it's paper lips. We were going through the Tohono O'odham reservation and passed horse herds in the road, ending up in a farm on a dirt road that crossed a stream - went through it - then went through a space in a double wall tall fence topped with barbed wire..... We missed the sign that read "Should'a bought a squirrel".

The other side of the fence had signage reading "Peligroso!!" and something in Spanish about no water for 25 miles. Wheeled that rental car around and went back the way we came and followed the sun to Yuma.
calmloki is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:37 PM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.