Story Index:

Eclipse!!
08/29/2017

Summer Weekend in the Colorado Rockies
07/19/2016

Kim's Day In The Sun
02/28/2015

Tracing Roots
01/15/2015

Whitney Completes Her Master's Degree
01/10/2015

Day Trip to Moorea
11/01/2012

Stopover in Tahiti
10/30/2012

Exploring New Zealand's Northland
10/27/2012

Waiheke Island
10/24/2012

2012 Triathlon World Championships
10/23/2012

Travails with Tom-Tom
10/21/2012

Off to New Zealand!
10/18/2012

Cycling on the Oregon Coast
07/24/2012

Partial Solar Eclipse, May 20
05/23/2012

"Tour of California" Bike Race comes through town!
05/15/2012

Wildflower Triathlon a family affair
05/07/2012

Truth in Packaging?
04/01/2012

Nik Graduates from Cal Poly
12/10/2011

Cal Poly's Open House Weekend
04/17/2011

The 2010 US Census is here
03/16/2010

Cultural Musings...
09/18/2009

2009 Triathlon World Championships
09/12/2009

Sightseeing around the Gold Coast
09/09/2009

South Bank: Brisbane's Fine Arts center
09/05/2009

Brisbane, Australia
09/04/2009

Catching up . . .
08/31/2009

Summa Cum Laude, Baby!
06/15/2008

Kim completes her first Half-Ironman
06/10/2008

Kim Visits Home for Wildflower Triathlon
05/16/2008

The Last Supper
02/16/2008

Farewell, Dad
01/15/2008

Whitney Plays Final Soccer Game
12/10/2007

Watch the Women's World Cup!
09/12/2007

Kim Blazes Chicago Triathlon
08/27/2007

Nik Bicycles Pacific Coast
08/15/2007

Whitney Begins Final Season
08/13/2007

More Triathlons for Kim
06/15/2006

Corvallis gets snow!
03/09/2006

Pac-10 Conference Player of the Week
01/15/2006

Whitney's new cat
09/26/2005

Kim in Chicago Triathlon
08/31/2005

Rare family get-together
08/23/2005

Empty Nest
08/11/2005

Whitney Signs National Letter-of-Intent
02/08/2004

ODP cancels European tour
04/11/2003

Whitney renamed to Regional Team
08/07/2002

Kim graduates from Willamette
06/17/2002

Whitney Stars in High School Soccer
03/07/2002

Nik graduates from UTI
01/07/2002

2001 - A Year for Remembrance
12/30/2001

Whitney selected to the 2001 State ODP pool for U-15 Girls
03/22/2001

Kim returns from Europe
02/02/2001

2000: A Year for Traveling
12/15/2000

Kim Travels Europe
11/24/2000

Whitney selected to the US Far Western Regional ODP Pool!
07/14/2000

Congratulations to Nik, Ygnacio Valley High Graduating Class of 2000!
06/30/2000
Travails with Tom-Tom

We had the foresight to rent a GPS device with the car--the car didn't come with in-dash navigation, but for an extra fee the rental agency provided a Tom-Tom GPS. You'd think that would have prevented the kind of navigation problems we had getting around Auckland city streets.

Voice directions were often unhelpful. "In 300 meters, take the exit, then, take the exit." That's not very helpful when a motorway offramp forks in two and we've no clue which side to take. What's wrong with--oh, I don't know--maybe a STREET NAME or an EXIT NUMBER??

Occasionally the Tom-Tom lady did give us a street name. "In 100 meters, turn right." Uh... remember those mishmash intersections? Would that be a gradual right on Vincent Street, or a sharp right on Mayoral? No advice? Nothing? Okay, we're in moving traffic so we've gotta choose... I'll turn here on Mayoral. "Continue on Vincent Street for 200 meters." Argh!

Once she even directed us into a cul-de-sac on our way back to the airport. I'd turn around and head out of the cul-de-sac and Tom-Tom repeatedly would recalculate and direct us back into the cul-de-sac.

Occasionally while cruising down a long, quiet country road, she'd suddenly blurt out, "Turn right!" Huh? Where?? There are no other roads out here!

I wish I could have just used Tom-Tom's graphic display to see where I was going, but it was set on maximum zoom. I zoomed it out so I could see roads more than, say, 20 meters away... but after 30 seconds or so Tom-Tom would sneakily start zooming back in.

Tom-Tom definitely wasn't up to the standards we've come to expect from our Garmin GPS back home!


Posted by Dan 10/21/2012, revised 10/27/2012 by Dan
FreeStyle Journal 19.03.21
©2003-2011 by Dan Goodell

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