On seasons, GPS units, and virtual life

We are spending the night in Gulfport MS, where the seasons are significantly advanced even from northern Georgia.  Most of the trees have leaves here, and those that do not soon will judging by the buds.

Adapting to our new lifestyle is an ongoing process.  Some things are really easy, like pulling into a Walmart parking lot, pushing out the slides, powering up the network, and being instantly at home and online without plugging into anything.  Other things that one might think little about are harder than expected, like gassing up when the truck and trailer are 52 ft. long.  Many gas stations simply cannot be driven through, and as much as I like the idea of using the path less traveled, the interstates are appealing if only because they have gas stations designed for big trucks and therefore easy for us to use.

Our GPS we have a love/hate relationship with.  Yesterday she (it has a female voice) found us a route one hour shorter than Google suggested.  On the other hand, a few days earlier she led us into a dead-end rural driveway, giving me some much needed practice in backing up.  Perhaps she just saw an opportunity for that and went with it.

More troublesome, she will not navigate to an address if it isn’t in her database, and the database is not so complete.  You might think she’d know that 5260 ABC drive is in the 5200 block, but no, unless she specifically knows about 5260 there is no way to get her to navigate there.

And then there are the U turns she asks for every few days.  Not so good with a 52 ft. rig.

Usually Google Maps saves the day, and our Garmin’s tenure may be drawing to a close.  But then she did save us an hour’s drive and the corresponding amount of gas.

Hmmm.

All of this brings to mind something I’ve been thinking about, which is the way that pervasive connectivity is changing the process of traveling as we are.  Handheld devices with GPSs and connectivity mean that everything from food to gas to places to stay can quickly and easily be found, with customer reviews, wherever we are.   It feels as though the center of our journey is online, with the real world being an extension of the virtual one instead of the other way around.

It will only become more so I think.