Gearing up for your first long trip? A GPS unit can be worth its weight in gold! GPS stands for “global positioning system,” and with one in your car, one in your bag or walking around town with one, you’ll always know where in the world you are.
A GPS uses the coordinates from Air Force satellites to triangulate its location; after the GPS receiver figures out how far it is each from each satellite, it can figure out your location within about ten to twenty-four meters. With this powerful tool at your disposal, you’ll never have to worry about bad directions and highway detours again!
There are plenty of jokes about people not wanting to ask for directions or people who give poor directions, but getting assaulted while asking for directions is no laughing matter. Far too often, motorists are assaulted when asking for directions or while they are distracted.
When you ask for directions from a stranger, you are showing that person that you don’t know where you are, that you are unfamiliar with the area and that you are possibly disoriented. When we get lost, we are confused and frustrated, and there is a good chance that our internal warning systems are not working; we may end up asking for directions from people who make that internal warning bell go off.
Even if you don’t ask for directions, fumbling with a map can be a dead giveaway. How many times have you gotten out of your car to spread the map out for better visibility? When you are distracted with your map, you are extremely vulnerable. Having a paper map out and fumbling with it makes you a target for would-be thieves or dangerous individuals.
There are also places where you just don’t want to get lost. Several cities have bad neighborhoods that are easy to stumble into but harder to get out of, especially if you are driving in the dark. A GPS unit can make sure you get to where you are going without having to spend a stressful few hours trying to get out of a dangerous part of town.
Even if you don’t do a lot of city driving, there are still areas where you want to avoid getting lost. If you’ve ever driven cross-country, you know that some states, like Texas and Oklahoma, go on forever without a lot in the way of landmarks. You can lose hours of time and hundreds of miles before you figure out that you are lost and running out of gas on a desolate part of the highway is highly problematic. If you have young children in the car, this situation can become quite dangerous; children especially become dehydrated easily.
If you are driving in an area that you are not familiar with, a GPS unit can be instrumental in getting you where you need to go. Don’t forget that because the highway commissions are constantly building new highways and closing others for construction or repairs that the maps you buy at gas stations are not always reliable. When you are driving in an unfamiliar area, there is a chance that you will be forced off the highway and into a confusing residential area. When this happens, a GPS unit can help you get back on track, and in fact, might have been able to find you a route that you wouldn’t have had to leave in the first place.
Much as cell phones have become part of our world, GPS units are quickly becoming an essential part of travel. They are small, convenient, and they can make your driving experience a great deal safer. You can purchase one for a teenager who’s not so sure about the driving geography of her own town, or you can purchase one for yourself if you’re going to be driving in an area that you are not familiar with. For both individual travel and family vacations, a GPS can give you a great deal of peace of mind.
No matter how old you are, or where you are planning on driving, a GPS unit can make sure you get there safely. When you purchase a GPS unit for your car, you’re ensuring that you never have to worry about getting lost or feel the anxiety of getting lost again!
