"jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote in message
news:vsSdnQezyKWsYmDfRVn-rw@speakeasy.net...
> what value do you get from navigation? personally, i already know where i
> live, where my work is, where the local stores are, etc. why on earth do
> i need to spend $1k+ for a navigation option that i'll use less than 3
> days a year and can be "simulated" by a $10 rand mcnally? i don't get it.
>
I think it is mainly for people who travel a lot. I'm more like you - the
times we go to unfamiliar places I Mapquest the markets, restaurants,
laundromats, etc and navigate while my wife drives. In earlier times we did
find ourselves spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to the
hotel we could see on the other side of the canal in a strange town at night
when we couldn't find a place to buy a map - things like that.

At work we bought a Lowrance iFinder GPS and matching MapCreate software. We
often have to go to wild places in all sorts of weather, and saving one
misadventure in our Sno-cat at night will easily pay for it. Anyway, the
software has selectable details that can be loaded into the GPS. We rely a
lot on the topo stuff and the back roads. It even has every two-track dirt
road on the rez - without a GPS the only sane thing to do out there at night
is to pull over and wait for daylight. We can also selectively load
restaurants, hotels, etc, into the GPS. Not bad for about $300 US total, but
like a map it is not something a driver alone can use without pulling over.

Mike