First trip with GPS

[Redman]

Actaully its my son that just got a GPS unit.

We were riding together from here in Grand Haven to Traverse City. We were going to take the scenic/curvey route which would be about 150 miles along Lake Michigan then about 50 miles inland. Was a nice mostly sunny day with temps in upper 70s & low 80s, just great!

Here is pic at first stop at Pentwater municiple marina. Here is my son and daughter-in-law transfering coordinates from their PDA to the GPS -- or something or other. They were also doing a blah blah with thier DSLR and blahh blah blahh thier XYZ and ABC. They tried to explain to me what they were doing but I was busy refolding my map.




Have taken this trip before, but pretty much stay on M-22 witch goes fairley close to Lake Michigan with lots of curves. With the GPS we could go down some local roads with confidence they went in about the right direction and then find our way back to the more main road.

We stopped for a little bit at a small park along Lake Michigan.


So we are going along, Justin following the GPS route, turn onto a local paved road then it becomes this gravel road, that turns into a dirt road.....



That then becomes not much more than a two track.

Hey, Bud, whats this all about, eh?

So he does a bunch more punching and pokeing on the GPS unit.


So while he is doing that, I get out and unfold my map again.
He says he got the "shortest route" selected and blah blah coordindates and blah blah way points and blah blah and suspects maybe that is what is causing this routing. And he also says he had "avoid highways" selected.

Hey, Bud, look at this, on my map here, this section of M-22 that looks like what we should have teaken, this section is also called "Northwood Highway".
Dont know if the GPS routed us along this dirt road because it was maybe 2/10th of a mile shorter or if it was trying to avoid the 'highway', but we had a good laugh.
Then Between the GPS and the map we found our way back to a decent road north again.

Made it to over the river and thru the woods to Grandmothers house in a 6 hour adventure. Grandma didnt seem bothered that we were a couple hours later than she would have expected, and had a nice lasagna dinner for us.
.

[marvinsc]

Alls Well that Ends Well, Sounds like Quite an adventure!:-D

[Billy_Oliver880]

Sometimes technology isn't all that. Now I just got to remember to bring maps I might not get lost as much. :shock:

[runewolf]

Yeah, my GPS is fine around our towns and main highways, but once I get off on some of the secondary roads it gets a little confused. Especially if there are two roads parallel to each other, you dump off on one only to find that you should be on the other one 3 miles down the road. But hey, as high as my GS750 sits, I've taken it down some of these dirt tracks over fallen trees and back when my GPS put me on the fastest route lol. Being able to negotiate down a rutted dirt track until you can get to turn around on a big heavy bike really helps with your confidence that these bikes will do pretty much any damn thing you ask them to do.

[Redman]

Here, I snagged some of my son's pics of the trip from his website.

Afore departing.


South of Manistee at park along Lk Mich..





M-22 south od Crystal Lake. Overlooking Lake Michgan.
Almost 180 degree view of Lake Michigan to the horizon. Is about 200 feet bluff.

[Jethro]

The best function of my GPS is if I break a speedo cable, I still have a speedometer. Oh, and recording top speed is pretty cool too :twisted: