Lost in Croatia!

[Free To Canoe]

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

 

[supernova72]

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

 

[Meadbh]

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.

 

[meierlde]

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.

 

[braumeister]

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.

 

[Ronstar]

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.

 

[Gumby]

A paper map is a wonderful thing.

 

[REWahoo]

A paper map is a wonderful thing.

+1

When it comes to GPS navigation, "trust but verify" is an excellent policy.

 

[Free To Canoe]

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/?

 

[W2R]

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.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I'm also a map fan-and don't forget how helpful a compass can be in finding your way out of a town.

 

[Ronstar]

I'm a big map fan as well - mainly old maps like these:

http://www.bigmapblog.com/

 

[Walt34]

+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.

 

[JustMeUC]

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!

 

[calmloki]

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.