Follow directions ... if you can.

[Kevin]

Last fall driving out to Contender's I drove up from Birmingham, AL and turned off to the East as a shortcut up to Cherokee, NC.

Thank goodness for Google Maps. It took me through the back country roads of AL, Georgia and up into NC. I stopped throughout the day to double check and it was the fastest route.

With a paper map, I would not have gone that way at all. I could have, but it would have taken me an hour to plan the route, compared to other routes etc.

 

[Dave P.]

I've been reminiscing lately of when I first went into the chimney sweeping business and one of the things I surely don't miss is spending 5 minutes or more on the phone getting directions to a customers house and then having to follow those directions and often getting lost.

I've decided about 1/2 of my customers don't actually know where they live. I never ask for directions anymore, Google maps have taken all the fun out of that.
It used to be " Are you on the north or south side of the road?"....silence...." We live on the left hand side"
I lot of my pickup and deliveries are done after dark making addresses sometimes challenging so I use satellite view..... Ok, it's the 4th driveway past the intersection
type of thing. Usually the extra minute on the computer is time well spent before heading out.

 

[Jeepnik]

I don't use my vehicle gps for directions. I use it for traffic. Over the last twenty years of working I drove all over California, Arizona and Nevada. It sure helped in any crowded metropolitan areas.

 

[Johnnu2]

MANY years ago, I was gcutting my front lawn (with a push mower in those days)...a lady stopped and asked me where "Miller St." was. I apologized and told her that I didn't know. Later that day, I asked my wife and she said it was the street at the corner (which was 25yds from our lawn). Hell, I only had been living there about 6 years at the time; you really can't blame me, can you (?)
J.

 

[NC FNS]

MANY years ago, I was gcutting my front lawn (with a push mower in those days)...a lady stopped and asked me where "Miller St." was. I apologized and told her that I didn't know. Later that day, I asked my wife and she said it was the street at the corner (which was 25yds from our lawn). Hell, I only had been living there about 6 years at the time; you really can't blame me, can you (?)
J.

We used to live on a busy street near a seasonal track. Folks would stop and ask, "Do you know how to get to the track?" I'd say, "First question is free. Yes…."

 

[BearBiologist]

I use a very old Garmin GPS and it gives me all I ever need..... I shut the voice off....

J.

My 2019 4Runner has navigation. First time I used it, we couldn't program it correctly or turn off the voice! I was ready to shoot it! Kept telling us to go (blank) tenths of a mile and turn around (going North when we wanted to go South!). Used the wife's phone to get there. Learned how to use it and wouldn't be w/o it! BUT, I recommend learning to read a (topo) map and a compass. Be sure your GPS maps are up to date. Bought a Garmin for my wife's RAV w/o Navigation.

Triangulation isn't hard; just remember 180 deg in a triangle!

 

[Hankus]

These days I use Apple Maps with the Wireless CarPlay in my Jeep or truck. Back in the day I navigated back and forth across the country using my trusty Rand McNally road atlas and local maps from AAA. Oh yeah, and USGS maps, a protractor and compass in the Army.

 

[Sam Summey]

In my family's travels in the days before GPS, my solution was to sit down every night with the road map and make up a tabulation of routes, direction (NSEW), distance, destination (way point) of each day's travel. Using this methodology, my family and I traveled from NC to all over the West and Southwest. We never got lost, we traveled roads less traveled many times especially in Wyoming. We even once forded the "Crazy Woman Creek".

 

[Arizonagunsmith]

View attachment 38886

Bonneville?

 

[Joe Reilly]

Was it the original Mapquest that used about a full page of instruction to get basically to the street?

 

[Joe Reilly]

View attachment 38886

I don't see the "you are here" arrow.

 

[eveled]

Triple A used to do trip maps. They'd send you a book to follow along your route, and also each map for the areas you passed through. I used to make up trips just to get the maps. I used to enjoy looking at them

The things we used to do to pass the time. No internet, and only 6 TV stations, no VCRs.

 

[Hvymax]

I have used Waze extensively; it even works in South Korea, which Google Maps doesn't. That said, Waze will sometimes send you down a goat track if that's the shortest route to your destination. I use Google Maps exclusively now. It's certainly not perfect, but it's better than some of the alternatives. There's an app called Here We Go that allows you to download maps to use when offline, which is a huge plus. The people who wrote the program must have all been former Marine Drill Sergeants, though: 'Turn left, NOW!!!'

Marine Waze has made my life so much easier on the water.

 

[BearBiologist]

Traveling I use :
(a) GPS
(b) Map Quest print outs
(c) Atlas of the state I'm traveling

All in that order. I also have restaurants, motels, etc. located on GPS and printed out (including receipts, reservations, etc.) in a divided folder.