GPS Back Talk

Rick and I decided to take a drive yesterday.  We never know where we are going to end up, so we are happy that we have our trusted Garmin GPS to guide us home.  However, it is not always easy to communicate with it.   

Our Garmin is voice activated (it has a female voice so I call it a her) and that makes programming her a breeze.  She will verbally respond to our requests sometimes even when we don’t ask her anything.  More than once as we were driving and talking, she would suddenly blurt out, “Say a command.”  We can only figure we said something to trigger her response, but we are never able to duplicate the trigger word. 

Most of the time the GPS works just fine, but sometimes she understands Rick’s Texas accent better than she does the New Yorker in me.   Other times she doesn’t understand either of us and comes up with a suggestion that appears to be completely out of the blue.

So here we were on a drive that took us from South Carolina to North Carolina heading to Tennessee then north to Virginia and then back home.  We thought it would be fun to drive in four states in one day.  It was about a 6 ½ hour drive which would get us home at about 7 p.m. 

We wanted to stop for lunch at a non-chain restaurant, something local, so in Boone, North Carolina I engaged the GPS.  This is how the exchange went. 

Pat:   Voice command.

GPS: Say a command.

Pat:   Find by category.

GPS: Say the name of a popular category.

Pat:   Food

GPS: (no response)

Pat:   Food

GPS: (no response)

Rick: FOOD!!

GPS: Searching for Food and Drink 

At this point we browse through the listed restaurants that are approximately within 2 miles of our location.  We selected Tucker’s Café.  It sounded local so we thought we would give it a try.  As we got to the end location per the GPS, you guessed it, there was no Tucker’s Café in sight.  Frustrated, we decided to stop at a restaurant we passed a few blocks back called Come Back Soon, a burger and fries joint.  Not exactly what I was hoping for, but the food was good. 

After lunch, we got back in the car to head to our next destination.  We were going to pass through the northeast corner of Tennessee and then drive north to Virginia.  I looked on the map and saw a town that was near the border of Tennessee and Virginia so I decided to program the GPS to get us to this town and then I would reprogram it to someplace in Virginia.  Here was my conversation with the GPS. 

Pat:   Voice Command.

GPS: Say a command.

Pat:   Find City.

GPS: What city in South Carolina? (This was the state we were in for our last GPS trip)

Pat:   Change state.

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee.

GPS: Did you say Rhode Island?

Pat:   No.  Back.  (Back is the command to go back to the previous screen)

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee (I said it more slowly this time, but just at that time Rick chimed in)

Rick: Tennessee.

Pat:   Rick, let me say it.

GPS: Did you say Maine?

Pat:   Grrr!!  No.  Back.

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee!!

GPS: What city in Tennessee?

Pat:   (Finally!)  Mountain City.

GPS: Did you say Johnson City?

Pat:   Back!!

GPS: What city in Tennessee?

Pat:   Mountain City.

GPS: Did you say Mountain City?

Pat:   Yes.

GPS: Searching for Mountain City.  Begin navigation.

Pat:   Navigate. 

I had my trusty map book in front of me so I knew we were going to turn on to Route 91 going north to Virginia.  This was the easiest way, but the GPS had a different idea and kept telling us to turn on to little roads that weren’t on my map so I couldn’t tell where she was taking us.  We decided to ignore her requests to turn around in an attempt to get us back on track until she finally reprogrammed herself and had us turn north on Route 91. 

By the time we got home I was exhausted from being in the car and from talking to my GPS (there were several more of these conversations), but I wouldn’t change a thing.  I remember years and years ago before we ever thought of having a GPS when I had to plot our trips and figure mileage by looking at the map (I didn’t get my nickname Navigator for nothing) and searching for gas stations and restaurants.  This is much easier, even if she doesn’t get it right all the time. 

Our GPS does take some abuse for not getting it right (mostly from Rick—he tells her to shut up quite a bit), but we can laugh at her and the way she pronounces names of streets and locations and how she doesn’t always understand what we are saying and makes crazy suggestions preceeded by, “Did you say ___?”  Sometimes it can get downright hysterical and it gives us a good laugh.  But we still love her, uh, it and are so glad for the technology!!

Stop Route!!

~ P