The Intelligence of a GPS System

I must say that I have always had a knack for directions, so why I decided I needed a GPS system is beyond me. I am not sure where my general knack for directions come from - hereditary (my father is generally good with directions as well) or from my past experience as a delivery driver (some things about driving directions are universal no matter where you find yourself, but many people take those items for granted and don't pay enough attention to the small details). Regardless, I purchased a Garmin nuvi 205w GPS a couple of weeks ago and I must say I have not been entirely thrilled. Maybe the hype over the GPS systems led me to expect more than what is realistic.

First, the GPS comes with preloaded Points of Interest (POIs) such as parks, movie theatres, restaurants, fuel stations, etc. For what ever reason, it seems that the POI that I am interested in is never in GPS's database. I have been told that only 5-25% of all POIs are loaded into the database. Lucky me, I should always seem to pick the POI that no one else thought was important enough to add to the database.

Second, the GPS allows you to download files to add to its "extensive" list of POIs. It even comes with its own software to install the file on the Garmin. GREAT! As many of you know, I love visitng lighthouses, so to add all of the lighthouses in the United States to the POI database would be wonderful. With that in mind, I found a lighthouse POI listing (free) and downloaded it to my new Garmin. To my dismay, the list did not work. So much for a freebie. I later found out that the file was in the .gpx format and my particular Garmin model only reads .gpi files. BUMMER! Then, I found another GPS POI site that allows you to convert .gpx files to the .gpi format. This site was again free. GREAT! I imported the .gpx file, converted it to .gpi and I was now ready to install the file. Unbeknownst to me, the POI Loader software (from Garmin) only loads .gpx files.

Now this may sound like a stupid question, but if the Garmin only reads .gpi files, why would their software only allow for the download of a .gpx file, which the Garmin can't read? Lucky for me, the free site that allowed me to convert the file also had the capabilities of download the .gpi file directly to the Garmin without using Garmin's worthless POI Loader software. Now I was truly ready to go.

I had played around with the GPS since I bought it, but this past week, Lori had a conference in Williamsburg, VA and "Little Man" and I tagged along. That allowed me to really use the Garmin for the first time in an area that I wasn't quite as familiar with.

Well, after returning from Williamsburg, I can say that the results were rather disappointing, particularly when using the POI database. You see, the Garmin tells you how far a POI is in terms of a direct line, not an actual route. This is quite frustrating when you are in the middle of nowhere and need to say, find a gas station. The Garmin reports that the filling station is 6.3 miles away. GREAT! Until you realize that after following the GPS system's directions to a T, you have traveled 20+ miles because the actual road does not run as the bird flies. I have to wonder if the gas station listed at 6.7 miles was actually closer. Lucky for us, we had enough gas to get where we needed to go.

End of story? Not quite. The best got saved for last.

So we decided to go check out a couple of the lighthouses from the POI list I downloaded. The first one we went to see was the Ferry Point Wharf Light outside of Portsmouth, VA. On the way Lori asked me if I thought the GPS would take all the fun out of trying to find lighthouses on our own (We've been know to wander around aimlessly looking for hidden treasures). The Garmin's directions were impeccable. The took us right to within 1000 feet of the lighthouse. The problem was we were on a gravel road in the middle of a cotton field and to get to the lighthouse we would have had to drive through the cotton field and trees that stood between the river bank and where we were. We did not get to see the lighthouse and our trip cost about 2 hours worth of time. At least "Little Man" got a good nap. The second lighthouse, the next day, was Two Marshes Lighthouse outside of Gloucester, VA. After 6. some odd miles turned into 24, we found ourselves at the end of someone's personal property with several NO TRESPASSING! signs posted. The lighthouse was again, just beyond our view and we did not get to see it either. Disappointed, we headed home. I chose to take a shorter route, though probably slower, and for the first 15 miles, the Garmin kept trying to get me to make a U-turn. After it realized that I wasn't making a U-turn, it seemed to get really confused and told me to make turns were turns weren't possible. Next time, I think we will go back to using our built in devices and see if we are more accurate.