As families grow older the time comes when family emergency or circumstances requires one to hit the road and travel unfamiliar roads. Immediately after returning from a hunting trip I was on the road to help close an ill relatives apartment and haul furniture. My draft notice came faster from my mother-in-law and more authority then the one from Uncle Sam.
Before the trip I asked my father-in-law if he would use one of my portable radios. He came back with a strong yes. The plan was for him to follow me in his pickup while I drove the U-Haul truck. He is familiar with radios as a former CB’er and pilot. The women who were to head home ahead of us were covered by my wife’s cellphone.
On the trip South to do our duty I handed my Garmin Mappping76CX to my father-in-law. He was able to track our progress. When lunchtime approached we decided we wanted to hit Denny’s for breakfast. I explained to him how to find the “food” icon, hit enter, select menu, Select Category, Select American, hit enter, scroll down to Denny’s, hit enter, select Go To, and select Follow Road. The unit then calculated the route and we were soon eating breakfast. I would have never been able to teach him to use this function in the living room. But he was able to relate to it while traveling down the road.
My 80+-year-old In-laws had planned this trip and made arrangements for the U-Haul. The plan was for us to travel across the City the next morning and pick up the truck. That night in a motel I asked my wife if she had the address for U-Haul because I just looked it up in the phone book and there were two addresses. She came up with a number and using the phone book I was able to find the full address. I then enter the address into my 76CX with the auto routing software. It computed a route to the address.
The next morning I asked my in-laws if they knew where U-Haul was. All they had was an address and no map. With the address confirmed I was able to route my father-in-law eight miles to U-Haul. He was impressed. I must admit that I wished the warning tones on turns would come a little earlier on City streets. On freeways and highways the timing is adequate.
Before we started North my father-in-law made two request of me. One we stop at Rest Areas, and two we stop for lunch. To items that were on my priority list after morning coffee.
After being on the road for almost two hours I check the Exit option on my 76CX(Find>Exit). This listed exits along our route. A Rest Area exit showed at 18 miles to our North. Just what we needed. Because of the heavy truck traffic it is hard to see all the traffic information signs. And it seems to me wall-to-wall, lane-to-lane truck traffic on this trip. But with the guidance of the gps we did not bypass the Rest Area.
When it came time for lunch I selected the fast food category. It would be nice to filter out Food & Drink places more then half mile from a pre-programmed travel route. Some areas have three or four fast food joints. When making down the road I want to jump off and eat. I do not want to make a tour of the town.
As a closing note my Son now has a Tom-Tom gps system in his car. He likes it. But it would be a pain to take it out deer hunting.
