A GPS Guide for the Traveler - Chapter Two: UR the Center of Your Universe

I ask you - how often do you feel like you are the center of the universe? If you are like me, not too often. Most of the time I just frankly feel grateful that I am still part of the universe!

So if you need an ego boost, may I suggest you engage your GPS system. Why? Because no matter who you are or where you are, in the eyes of your GPS System you are the center of the universe.

Crazy idea, but important to remember.

The GPS technology is here for you. It is here to guide, to maximize efficient use of your time, to enhance and to make your life easier. I have found that when I remember this fact and use my GPS system everything becomes easier and correct in my universe... Ok, getting to place to place and on time becomes easier..

So remember you are like Rome and all roads lead from you to what you need or your desired destination the world with this thought in mind use of the GPS will start to make more sense and to fall quickly into place.

Sometimes you are so sure you know exactly where you are and where you are going that you are completely blind-sided when you end up lost...

Most of the time I have a pretty good sense of direction and rarely do I get concerned about getting lost. In fact, I often find it extremely interesting. So when I found myself going on business to New York, I was thrilled…

September 23,

“After checking into the hotel, I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. Sitting in the room waiting for my friend to arrive is becoming more and more painful until I can stand it no longer.. I decide to take a ‘little’ walk around the block. I leave the hotel to find myself across the street from the PARK— Central Park!My enthusiasm takes over and I just start walking— thrilled by everything, soon I forget where I am.

I turn the corner, leave the park and walk towards the interior of the city. Fortunately I come outof my over exuberant fugue to realize that I am lost in a towering forest of buildings. All foreign and none recognizable.

Furthermore I have forgotten the name of my hotel, left my friend’s phone number and all my business contact information in the room. Starting to feel nervous, I realize that I am as potentially lost as I have ever been. I freeze— I stand completely still on the sidewalk as the sea of humanity floats by. I wonder what I should do. Having experience in Douglas Fir and Cedar Tree wilderness I figure I can back track my way out of this Urban Wilderness… if I pay attention.

Fortunately for me I haven’t zigged or zagged too many times and in about a half an hour I find myself back on the street which parallels the park… a landmark. Yahoo!

After another 3o minutes I pass the hotel without noticing, then a minor readjustment in direction, and in ten minutes I am safely inside my room.”

So what does this have to do with GPS traveling? Not too much, except that I learned two things. Number One - Room keys don’t always have hotel names on them and Number Two - Always pick up a match book from the hotel’s lobby because they do!

Really what this event illustrated to me is how a person can get seriously and dangerously lost when traveling… even on foot. This new awareness posed a problem for me. Especially since I like getting lost...well, pseudo lost. I just find it fun to see what the world has to offer when I don’t know where I am.

When I was in Washington D.C. visiting my sister last spring I discovered how to use a GPS in order to have all the fun of being lost without any of the downside. It has to do with realizing you are the center of the universe... all you have to do is realize it before you get lost!

The Washington DC area for me is one of the most confusing place I have traveled in the United States. The surrounding states are small, the counties interchangeable and the road names change more often than career criminals. I hardly could go outside my sister’s door without stepping foot in two states and four counties!

When my sister would take me sight seeing, I would spend the whole time thumbing through a gazillion maps and guides. By the time I had found out where we were on one state map or retrieved the correct county guide book, we would be in some other state or county. I just couldn’t grasp the road system at all, I was always completely turned around and unfortunately was not seeing anything out the window as I was constantly searching for the appropriate resource.

A week into the trip, my husband joined us. He and my sister as I have said before are “Geek Freaks”—they both thoroughly love technology. So the two of them decided to try out our GPS for our day trips.

One of the coolest things they did was to set in the morning before we left “Way Home" point.

This "Way Home" point was where we wanted to return to at night. It is very easy to do... if you remember to do it. If you do this before you leave, then as we did, you can pick a direction and drive anywhere at whimsy - Not paying attention to routes, streets, counties, states —only the the magic of getting lost. Then when ready to go home you can pull up the the coordinates for the “Way Home” - and the GPS will plot your destination. No Fuss. No Worries. No Sweat. The GPS can also tell you how long it will take, if there is traffic and an alternative route to take if possible.

Setting the “Way Home” point is like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs to find their way home… but is more reliable, as there are no birds eating your markers, and is easier than Dorothy clicking her heals three times as all you have to do is set the coordinates once.

The most challenging thing to do is to REMEMBER to do it! We have found it especially useful to start this process before we leave on our journey. We find that putting in the first night’s destination is extremely helpful, especially when flying into an unfamiliar airport. Sometimes getting out of an airport onto the correct road can be the biggest challenge of the whole trip.

First off, adjust your mind set to think of home as not where you live or as your journey’s final destination but as your nightly haven. Where you want to rest your head, rejuvenate yourself and replenish your enthusiasm for the next day’s adventure. This approach gives you the flexibility throughout your day to experience everything without concern or worry about where you are or how to find your nightly destination.

We find that by naming our nightly destination as home, we are given a sense of familiarity and comfort knowing that home is just a click away.

How to Set the "Way Home" Points

Way One:

You want to return to where you currently are: this is so very easy. You don’t need to know anything. You don’t even need matches or the name of the hotel or the street, state or country. All of the GPS products we have used in our travels have a nifty /easy way of hitting a button that puts in a command which basically records the universal coordinates of where you are at the moment. Often we do this in the hotel room (if there is reception) or lobby before we step inside the car. Then you name these coordinates “Home” and are set to go with confidence.

Way Two:

This way is slightly more difficult but still very manageable. In this scenario you want to return home at night, but home is a different location. Since you are not physically at that location you just need an additional piece of information— an address or in some cases just a city location and name of the place.

Somewhere on the GPS product is a place where it says “enter address”.  On ours the sequence is  Country, City, Address.  Follow the cues and the GPS product should at that point pull up the actual coordinates. Now all that is necessary is to label these coordinates “Home Day One” or the Name of the Hotel/Relative you will be staying with that night.

Once you have learn this action step you have begun to create your own travel route planner. In all of our GPS systems you can add as many points as you want. We have plotted months worth of the nightly accommodations on our GPS before we have left home. When we do this we have no concern on how to get from one destination to another; how long it will take or the types of roads we will encounter. We like to do this because it allows us to fully explore the route in between destinations without concern of getting lost or into trouble.