On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 5:07 PM, neil n <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> That looks like a great set of files Loren. Thanks!
>
> For any other (mounted in vehicle) GPS newbs .....
>
>

  A related question for Streets and Trips users:

  Microsoft offers a windows package that includes GPS hardware with that
program, right?  I think I saw something like that being sold at the big box
store where I was browsing through electronic gizmos recently.

  Can anyone tell me how the Streets and Trips with GPS actually works for
them, in real life, in a Vanagon?  I recall a poster (or two) mentioning
having their laptops mounted, visible and programmable from the driver's
position, and that they were using the S&T program on the highway.

  I got 'side-tracked' (wrong turns) a couple of times on my last
trip...driving alone and trying to navigate -new to me- roads using paper
maps.  I also had some dicey moments, holding the wheel with my knees,
trying to keep the van on the tiny back highways in the wind late on a
stormy moonless night, while reading my DeLorme map in the dark van, using
my headlamp or the interior lighting.  Not the safest way to be whizzing
down the highway, but finding a safe 'pull-out' before every 'intersection'
to stop and read a map, that is not possible, usually.

  If one could leave their laptop in 'sleep-mode' within reach and just flip
up the screen to see which way to turn, while underway, that would certainly
be a lot safer than fumbling around with paper maps in the dark, or stopping
half way off the highway to read a paper map.  Or, as was the case for me,
making a turn and then finding a place to do a U-Turn to go back to the
proper road  after a wrong turn.

  Does that option exist?  Is that Streets and Trips with GPS a worthwhile
way to go?

Don Hanson
84 5sp inline worker-wagen